Africa

Lake Ngami

Lake Ngami is a relic of the superlake that once covered much of northern Botswana. South of the Okavango Delta, the lake is now completely dry – except when fed by water from the flooded delta. When David Livingstone first saw this lake in 1849, however, he described it as more than 100 mi/160 km long. When wet, the Ngami is filled by an incredible number of water birds, including flamingos, eagles, storks and pelicans – it is one of the best bird-watching spots in the world. Before making the trip, be sure the lake has water; otherwise, there’s little to see. 345 mi/560 km northwest of Gaborone.

Kubu Island

The magnificent view over the pan from the island was perfectly described by Mike Main in his book “Kalahari”: “All about you spreads the harsh glaring surface, but in the middle distance the pan is clothed in a somber symphony of muted greys and whites, toned up or down by the shadows of passing clouds, and merging at the horizon into a simple harmony of cobalt blue and grey”. This island was also portrayed on canvas by the artist and hunter Thomas Baines. There are no camping facilities on Kubu or the other islands of southwestern Sowa, but there are many idyllic spots overlooking the pan. Campers must bring their own firewood and must remove all their litter. A further 38km to the east is the seldom-visited Kukonje Island.

Rising no more than 20m above the Sowa Pan, this national monument with its fossil beaches, stunted baobab trees and mysterious stone walls, leaves an indelible impression upon all who visit its water-worn shores. This scrap of rock and its ghostly baobab trees is surrounded by the sea of salt. In cool weather, this bizarre sight can make visitors feel like castaways on an alien planet. The real name of the island, but less known, is Lekhubu (meaning ridge in Setswana). It is the most famous of all the rock islands in the Makgadikgadi. Most of the rock islands in this area are remnants of ancient sand dunes. Kubu Island is different in that it is one of the scatterings of granite islands.

Many of Kubu’s rocks are stained white with fossilized bird droppings. This ancient guano is called apatite and bears testimony to a large bird population that used to live on the island, feeding off the fish of the waters that surrounded their rocky knoll.

There is a trig-beacon on the island’s summit. The rocks on the northeastern side are all smoothed by wave action, while on the opposite leeward side are thousands of small, rounded pebbles, which used to protrude as a tiny wave-washed beach. As the level of this immense inland sea rose and fell, there were times when Kubu was deep beneath the waves, others when it lay exposed in a sea of sand and others when it hardly showed above the surface, surrounded by 100km of sea. The island is littered with artifacts from other ages: Stone-Age cutting tools, shards of pottery at least 2000 years old, and the remains of a low, circular wall.

Routes to Kubu Island

There are several routes to Kubu, all requiring four-wheel-drive, but most travel agents or tour operators can organize special trips to Kubu for those without.

The easiest route to Kubu is from Francistown. Take the Orapa road from Francistown and continue for 200km until you reach a dirt road, which intersects with the main road. There is a sign indicating Letlhakane to the left. At this crossroads take the track to the right, to the village of Mmatshumo. As you enter this village carefully measure 350m (450yd) and take the unmarked road that veers right.

This is the track to the pans, Thabatshukudu village and eventually the Nata/Maun road. If you are on the right track, it descends the escarpment a short distance outside Mmatshumo giving a breathtaking view of the pan. Approximately 26km out of Mmatshumo is an unmarked track to the right. Take this turn-off and Kubu is 18km further on.

The ruined stonewall on Kubu encloses what appears to have been an uninhabited area. Archaeologists consider it to have been a ritualistic initiation site.

The GPS co-ordinates of Kubu Island are 20°53’50” S latitude and 25°49’41” E longitude.

Tsodilo Hills

The Tsodilo Hills are a rare and spiritually rewarding treat in the south-western corner of Botswana. An atmoshpere of mystery and intrigue surrounds this unusual place, believed to be the site of first Creation by the San (Bushmen). They painted more than 3 500 rock paintings against the remarkable stone faces of the hills. Some of the paintings date back to from around 800 to 1300 AD.

The Tsodilo Hills are about 53km south-west of Shakawe and unlike the nearby Okavango Delta, the landscape is dry and desert-like.The hills consist of four chunks of rock, rising abruptly from the dry expanse of desert. The San referred to the bigger rock as the “male”, the smaller one was called the “female”, and the smallest one was the “child”. Legend had it that the fourth hill was the male hill’s first wife, whom he left for a younger wife, and who know lurks in the background. The name probably stems from the Mbukushu name “sorile” which means “sheer”.

The site is held sacred by the locals and a powerful presence has been felt by all visitors to Tsodilo Hills. Among the more interesting paintings is the zebra on a small outcrop which is now used as the logo of Botswana’s National Museums and Monuments. Some paintings like those of whales and penguins suggest contact between the San and other peoples. Others of note show a crowd of sexually excited male figures. Several days are needed to properly explore the extensive and exceptional rock paintings.

The word Tsodilo is derived from teh Hambukushu word sorile, meanting ‘sheer’. Rising out of the flat Kalahari terrain like a volcanic island in a calm sea, Tsodilo Hills dominate their surroundings completely. The hills are rocky outcrops of mecaceous quartzite schist know as Inselbergs, formed a relatively recent 450 million years ago.

The hills are the subject of many myths and legends. To the !Kung San they are the bith place of man, the tomb of the gods and the home of the serpent monster. The Tsodilo group comprises four indivudual hills, the largest of which is known by the San as the Male hill. Approximately one kilometre beyond this is a conglomeration of smaller outcrops which are collectively known as the Female hill (approx. 250 metres high) and further away is the Child. The fourth and smallest hill is not named.

San paintings:
There are over 3500 individual rock paintings in more than 350 sites at Tsodilo Hills. The exact age of the paintings is not known for sure. The most recent may be only 100 years old, although when a geologist visited the hills in 1898, none of the inhabitants knew the origin of the paintings. Most of the rock paintings are to be found on the Female hill and many can be seen without too much climbing. Among the more interesting paintings is the zebra on a small outcrop which is now used as the logo of Botswana’s National Museums and Monuments. Some paintings like those of whales and penguins suggest contact between the San and other peoples. Others of note show a crowd of sexually excited male figures. Several days are needed to properly explore the extensive and exceptional rock paintings.

Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls constitutes one of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world. The Local people call it “Mosi-oa-Tunya”—the smoke that thunders and the Falls are remarkable. There is a magic about them manifested in the towering column of spray when the river is high, the thunder of the falling water, the terrifying abyss and tranquil lagoons upstream in which hippo and deadly crocodiles lurk.

The Victoria falls is 1 708 meters wide, making it the largest curtain of water in the world. It drops between 90m and 107m into the Zambezi Gorge and an average of 550,000 cubic metres of water plummet over the edge every minute.

Remarkably preserved in its natural state, Victoria falls inspires visitors as much today as it did David Livingstone in the 1860’s. The falls and the surrounding area have been declared National Parks and a World Heritage Site, thus preserving the area from excessive commercialisation. The Falls are spectacular throughout the year, but February onwards, after the rain season, has the heaviest flow and volume of spray.

A number of activities can be undertaken. The ‘Flight of Angels’ provides a fabulous vista of the falls, the upstream river and its many islands and for the more adventurous there is microlighting with stunning views of the Fall.

Rafting the wild rapids below the Falls is a very popular adventure. Visitors can also kayak, canoe, fish, go on guided walking safaris, ride on horseback and lunch on Livingstone’s Island.

THE TULI BLOCK

Extending along the northern banks of the Limpopo River for about 350 kilometres, the Tuli Block is about 10 to 20 kilometres deep, and all of it is privately owned commercial farming or ranch land. The area is hot and dry with very variable rainfall. As a result many landowners have decided to capitalise on the magnificent scenery and remnant game populations, and band together in a wildlife conservancy. From Martin’s Drift in the south to the Zimbabwean border at the confluence of the Limpopo with the Shashe River, the Tuli Block forms a vast privately owned wildlife area with variety of accommodation, ranging from small guest cottages and tented camps to luxury lodges.

The landscape is rugged and striking. The riverine fringe along the Limpopo seems almost hemmed in by rocky outcrops, and if you are very lucky, it is possible to see crocodile and klipspringer with a turn of the head. There is a variety of habitats, from riverine woodland to dry ridges of Commiphora and baobab, from dense mopane scrub to savannah grasslands. It is an area of lion-coloured grass and elephant grey rocks, of dramatic floods of swirling green water, or a wide bleached river of sand. A place of bushman paintings and dinosaur fossils. A wilderness littered with the discarded stone tools of early man. (All artefacts, incidentally, are the property of the people of Botswana and custody lies with the National Museum). At night you may hear the leopard cough, or still your breathing to listen to the birdlike triple call of a zebra in the distance, or wonder if the grass being cropped in the darkness is a midnight meal for impala or hippo. Listening in the velvet dark you will hear the fluting notes of water dikkop, perhaps even the deep haunted sound of Pel’s fishing owl.
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THE OKAVANGO DELTA AND THE MOREMI WILDLIFE RESERVE

There are several names associated with incredible wildlife areas, such as the Serengeti, the Galapogos, the Great Barrier Reef. The Okavango Delta is one such. One of the largest inland deltas in the world, the Okavango is a birdwatcher’s delight, a fisherman’s challenge, a romantic’s Eden. Spilling down from the highlands of Angola, the third largest river in southern Africa winds its way south west into Botswana’s dry Ngamiland, where it hits a fault line and sprawls like an outstretched hand into the ancient, bleached sands of the Kalahari. Gradually the waters deposit their silt and thread their way through thick mats of papyrus and sedge, getting ever clearer, ever quieter, feeding huge riverine trees and lush water meadows which support a plethora of creatures.

It is thought that the Okavango River once flowed to the sea through the Limpopo valley via Lake Makgadikgadi. In recent geological times the upliftment of the northern Botswana plateau has turned the area into a vast flat basin which now easily gets rid of the Okavango’s annual flow by evaporation. Most of this water loss now takes place from the Okavango delta itself , although in good years Okavango water can still reach Lake Magadigadi via the Boteti River. Mankind is not a newcomer to the delta. There is evidence that stone age man was associated with the area 800 000 years ago or more. Stone tools from the early, middle and late stone ages have been found around the delta. It is probable that the San people (or “Bushman” groups) specialising in a riverine environment, unlike their desert adapted kin, provide some kind of continuity between stone age populations and iron age Bantu speaking people, who arrived in the area around the first century. Today existing “River Bushmen” are not readily distinguishable among many other groups of people who inhabit the delta.

Elusive sitatungas, hooves deeply splayed to cope with marshy ground, splash startled through a reed-bed and in the following stillness the contented grunting of hippo echoes across the rippling water. A crocodile lies immobile in the shifting sun-dapples of the shallows, as green and yellow as a tangle of reeds. A jacana lifts delicate spider-like feet through the scented water lilies and the icy tinkle of painted reed frog’s hush as your dug-out mokoro is poled silently trough tousle-headed papyrus stems. It is a wonderland of water and wildlife, among the most beautiful anywhere in Africa.
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The Linyanti

When the Okavango experiences exceptional flooding, the Selinda Spillway feeds water into the Linyanti River, linking the Chobe and the Okavango systems. In this time the flood plains around the Linyanti resemble those of the Okavango, with meandering waterways through papyrus beds and a maze of little islands. Wild date palms and tall riverine trees line the flow, which ultimately links up with the Chobe and then the Zambezi. Wildlife includes crocodile, hippo, and a host of fish species; wild dog, lion, elephant, lechwe, sable, impala and so on. There are over 300 species of birds in the area, including the white pelican, scarlet-chested sunbird and tinkling cisticola. Near the airstrip at Linyanti is the only known colony of carmine bee-eaters nesting on flat land.
Between the north-western point of the Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta are three private tourism concession areas run by safari operators. The Selinda Reserve one such, and has two luxury tented camps and a small private lodge in the Chobe National Park. Canoeing and walking trails can be tailor made to the visitor.

The Savuti

Regarded by many as the prime wildlife viewing area, Savuti is in the western section of the park, and is renowned for great concentrations of both elephants and lions. Wild dog, cheetah and leopard are also often sighted. Situated at the head of the Mababe Depression, once a great lake, and held in the arm of the Magwikhwe Sand Ridge, the Savuti Marsh is anything but wet. This is the culmination of the Savuti Channel, a spillway for overflow from the Linyanti and Chobe floodwaters and very occasionally the Okavango spills a little floodwater into the Channel. Flowing in Livingstone’s time, the channel was dry in 1880, and remained dry for about seventy years. It flooded again in 1957, and the giant skeletons of drowned trees still mark the extent of the deluge. The channel flowed perennially – except for 1966 – until 1981 when it stopped, probably due to tectonic action. Savuti Marsh has been dry for 18 years. Treeless, the grassy plain of the marsh stretches to the horizon – a magnet for game. The annual zebra migration from Mababe to the south is one of the more dramatic spectacles of this area. A variety of safari operators provide tours of Savuti, and these are often added to a tour of the Okavango. There is a public campsite and two tented camps which are perched on the banks of the Savuti Channel, the latter offer luxury tented accommodation.

Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari is spoken of as a desert, but very little of it is. The famous red-brown sands have been blown back and forth over the African landscape since Gondwana days. Most is now anchored by vegetation. In moister areas, like Angola and Zambia, the sand-cap is covered by lush miombo woodland. With a lower rainfall, Botswana’s Kalahari provides wide sun-drenched areas of sweeping grassland and dusty scrub which offers occasionally spectacular game viewing. Within Botswana, the Kalahari referred to is the central and south-western half of the country; the arid flat landscape home of the gemsbok and the Bushman.
A vital feature of the Kalahari is the pans. Ephemeral shallow natural ponds of rainwater the pans of the Kalahari play a critically important role in this arid environment. Usually areas of smooth saline clay which lines a shallow depression, often firm enough to take the weight of a vehicle, and upon which, generally, nothing will grow, pans can vary in size from a few hundred metres to several square kilometres in extent. Often a pan will act as a drainage basin for quite a considerable area. This water may remain for several months, providing an oasis for animal life.

Wildlife in semi-arid regions has long since adapted to survival without a permanent water supply. Antelope such as eland, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest, steenbok and duiker can manage without large quantities of water, as can giraffe, kudu and warthog. The same is true of creatures such as hyena, jackal, bat-eared fox and a host of smaller animals. So game is seldom seen drinking from pans, and besides, the water is often saline. It is not water that draws game to the pans; it is the salts in the clay and the greater variety of vegetation available. There is a greater diversity of plant species within a one kilometre radius of a pan than there is in any other similar region of the Kalahari, so they are a rich food resource.

The Kalahari, especially in the western regions of Botswana, is remote and harsh, but unspoilt. It is four-wheel drive country, devoid of infrastructures such as surfaced roads, piped water, and convenience stores. Even firewood needs to be on your list of essentials to carry with you. Summers are blisteringly hot, winters warm to cool with bitterly cold nights. This is not an area for easy-option tourism. It’s the double-rugged stuff beloved of seasoned campers, 4X4 experts and wilderness devotees.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Proclaimed in 1961 this is one of the few reserves in the world that was created for the preservation and protection of people rather than animals. Being almost 52 000 km’ in extent, this vast area has no standing water and, until relatively recently, no tracks. Now open to the public, the area was originally set aside as a region where the San or Bushman could continue their traditional way of life.

Today the reserve maintains two airstrips and 15 unserviced campsites, and permanent waterholes at Piper’s Pan and Sunday Pan ensure good game viewing almost throughout the year, but particularly in the dry winter months. The reserve contains large herds of blue wildebeest, red hartebeest, eland, gemsbok and springbok. Lion, cheetah, leopard, wild dog and both spotted and brown hyena are often seen.

Roads are little more than tracks and there are no facilities of any kind. Self-sufficiency in these regions includes carrying your own firewood. Only parties with the right equipment, vehicles, experience and attitude should contemplate a visit to the reserve. However, various mobile tour operators will include a safari into this area if you so wish.

It is believed that the San or Bushman are probably descendants of the original inhabitants of most of east, central and southern Africa. In the last thousand years or so they have been absorbed, moved aside or annihilated by almost every other race group with whom they came into contact. Fragmentary groups of Bushman and intermarried relatives survive only in Botswana, Namibia and Angola.
However, the dilemma of maintaining an ancient hunter-gatherers lifestyle is insoluble. While the older generation may well wish to preserve traditions, this not necessarily the choice of the youngsters who wish to be a part of modern life, with all it’s advantages and hardships. Essentially, every person is entitled to freedom of choice.