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Moremi Wildlife Reserve
Moremi is the most diversified of all the Botswana parks in terms of wildlife and scenery and many people that is the most beautiful. Located on the northeastern part of the Okavango Delta, Moremi contains over 1160 miles (3000 sq Kms) of permanent swamps, islands, floodplains, forests and dry land. The parks boundaries have been recently extended to the west and the northwest, significantly enlarging its size.
In the riparian forest you may spot elephants, greater kudu, Southern giraffes, impala, buffalo along with such predators like lions, leopard, wild dog, ratel (honey badger), spotted hyena and cheetah. Elephant and Buffalos are the only large animals that migrate. After the rains have begun, they move northward to the area between Moremi and the Kwando-Linyanti River systems. Other wildlife may move to the periphery of, or just outside, the reserve.
Moremi is open year round; however, some area may be temporarily closed due to heavy rains or flood. Four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary. The South Gate is about 62 miles (100Km) north of Maun.
MAKGADIKGADI PANS GAME RESERVE
It is said that both “kalahari” and “makgadikgadi” stem from the same ancient San word for thirst-land. Both share waterless flat rolling grasslands and scrub, but the Makgadikgadi, which ironically has more water in the wet season, has a particularly desert-like ambience.
The area referred to as the Makgadikgadi Pans is composed of two huge salt pans, Ntwetwe and Sowa, and their associated grasslands. Only a tiny section of this vast area – said to be the biggest salt pans in the world – is actually designated National Park. You probably wouldn’t even know when you’re in the National Park and when not, since the area is not fenced. The actual surface of the pans is a flat layer of bleached sterile silt that develops a glue-like texture when water is added.
So why on earth should anyone want to visit the area? Well, generally they don’t. This is not a prime tourist destination as the Okavango, or Chobe or the Linyanti are. Makgadikgadi is regarded as an interesting addition to a tour, a nice contrast to other more lush wilderness areas. Very few tourist actually make the Pans their principal destination. And those tourists who do are usually specialists: birders, four-wheel drive enthusiasts or wilderness devotees.
However, there is a growing trend towards wilderness experiences, and more and more people are being drawn to the sometimes deeply spiritual feeling that deserts invoke. There is a special fascination in deserts. It’s got something to do with a sense of space and self. It has to do with vast horizons, the huge inverted bowl of the sky, the uninterrupted sweep of simple landscape beneath it – as featureless as a saucer. With you at the centre. It is both humbling and centring. You realise how puny you are, and at the same time that you are all there is. As American poet E.E. Cummings says ” – when skies are hanged and oceans drowned,/the single secret will still be man”.
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The Mokolodi Nature Reserve
Officially opened in 1994, the Mokolodi Nature Reserve is 14 kilometres south of Gaborone on the main road to Lobatse. Created by the Mokolodi Wildlife Foundation, a non-profit organisation aiming towards conservation and education, the 6 300 acre reserve is stocked with a various species of game indigenous to south-east Botswana. These include mountain reedbuck and antelope of various kinds, zebra, gemsbok, giraffe, brown hyena and warthog. Mokolodi is home to over a third of Botswana’s white rhino population and is engaged in a breeding programme. The second prong of the Foundation’s drive is catered to in the Education Centre. Accommodating up to 80 children at a time, environmental educators use the facilities and the “outdoor classroom” to instil in children for around Botswana a love of nature and an understanding of the importance of conservation. Self-drive and guided tours are available. For the more athletic and adventurous, guided walks are available with one of the rangers. The reserve is open daily from dawn to dusk and a small entrance fee is charged for individuals and for vehicles. Five thatched and fully equipped, self-catering chalets can be hired for longer stays
The Khutse Game Reserve
Khutse Game Reserve abuts the southern boundary of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Set in typical pan country of undulating savannah, most of the larger arid-adapted herbivores can be found, together with the common predators, lions, leopards and cheetahs. Duiker and steenbok are as common as the ostrich. Many smaller species abound, like Cape fox, bat-eared fox, ground squirrel, jackal, porcupine, yellow mongoose and suricate. There are more than 60 pans and game is usually seen in or near them, but it is seasonal and difficult to predict. Khutse has interesting birds associated with arid areas, such as kori bustard, three species of coursers, two of sandgrouse and several larks. Being closer to Gaborone than other parks or reserves, Khutse is a popular weekend destination for local visitors. There are four unserviced camping sites, and camping elsewhere in the reserve is not allowed. As usual in the Kalahari the visitor must be totally self contained, independent and responsible. There is only a single road into the reserve.
The Mabuasehube Game Reserve
About 1 800 square kilometres of unfenced harsh Kalahari grass and scrub, Mabuasehube backs onto the far larger and inaccessible Gemsbok National Park. Roads are often sandy and corrugated, and can only be negotiated by four-wheel drive. It is recommended that you report your route to the police station at Tshabong in the south or Ganzi in the north, and travel in a convoy of at least two vehicles. The park has no facilities, and visitors must be entirely self-sufficient. There are six major pans and many smaller ones within this stark but serene reserve. Some are said to be the most beautiful of all Botswana’s pans. The simple beauty of the stark landscape, the dramatic variation of colour-tones as the light changes and the often abundant game make the difficult trip worth it. There is a network of dust roads lacing through the reserve and centred on the pans, but bear in mind that the nearest food and fuel supplies are at Tshabong, 110 kilometres away. In an emergency, borehole water can be obtained from the game scout camp, but cannot be relied upon.
West of the totally undeveloped Gemsbok National Park the Nossob River marks the border of South Africa, and is the eastern boundary of South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. Only the bed of the river marks the boundary, and animals can pass unhindered from one park to the other. Together these two parks, sometimes referred to as an International Peace Park, form an area larger than the better known Kruger National Park, but being arid, inhospitable and for the most part inaccessible, it attracts a fraction of the visitors. No formal tracks are laid out on the Botswana side, and there is no official entry point into South Africa from the Botswana park. The South African portion has a formal road system and three camps with accommodation. The Gemsbok National Park is a recognised birding spot for raptors, some 50 being on record. This is the most arid of the Kalahari region and conditions are closer to real desert. Here you will see the iron oxide-tinted ” red” dunes.
The best time to visit is in late summer and towards the end of the rainy season, roughly March to May, however game can be seen at any time of the year. As the most arid corner of the Kalahari, summers are very hot (September to February) with temperatures going up to 45°C. Winter months from June to August are comfortable during the day, but the temperature can drop below zero at night
Chobe National Park
Chobe National Park is a 7,000-sq-mi/18,130-sq-km swamp-and-grasslands wilderness on the flood plains of the Chobe River. We rank it as one of the finest parks in Africa: Its programs offer enough structure to put a first-timer at ease, yet its backcountry areas will get even the most jaded traveler’s adrenaline pumping. Chobe Game Lodge reigns over the northwest area. Comfortable and tasteful – it’s where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were remarried – Chobe’s stucco buildings offer 50 luxury rooms (semiprivate swimming pools are attached to the suites). The lodge offers morning and evening game rides, but its specialty is guided excursions on the river. During the evening Sundowner Cruise, guests board a double-decker river boat to have cocktails and to watch herds of elephants coming down to the river’s edge for a bath and a drink (nonalcoholic). The experience is fascinating, bordering on decadent.
The lodge also offers a boat excursion that is sheer excitement, bordering on terror. Guests are taken in a small speedboat to a calm part of the river, then the engine is cut. It doesn’t take passengers long to realize that they’re in the midst of slithering, hunting crocodiles and herds of restless hippos.
Chilwero Lodge, a resort on a hill offering spectacular views at sunset, is also deluxe but less formal. The latest luxury accommodation is Chobe Marina Lodge, whose thatched building enjoys extensive river frontage overlooking the Caprivi Strip and the national park. These lodges and other, less-expensive ones, offer their own game drives and river cruises.
No matter where you stay at Chobe, you’ll see plenty of elephants, Cape buffalo, hippos, warthogs, various antelope and a wide variety of birds (watch for the beautiful peach-colored carmine bee-eaters along the Chobe River). Spotting hyenas and lions takes a bit more luck, but you’re almost guaranteed a sighting in the Savuti Marsh area, on the park’s wild west end. The marsh has the highest predator density in southern Africa, and there’s a good chance you’ll see lions, cheetahs and leopards, as well as wild dogs, jackals and hyenas. The relatively short grass provides excellent photo opportunities. Migrating zebras pass through the marsh in one direction October-November (depending upon the rains) and return March-April. Accommodations are in tents set up in one of four camp areas. Gubatsaa Hills, another site within Chobe, contains prehistoric rock paintings. 400 mi/645 km north of Gaborone.
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