One of Africa’s last true wilderness areas, an ecologically sensitive World Heritage site and the home to a mind expanding number of animals and birds, some both threatened and endangered. The Okavango is one of the few intact ecosystems left and one of the few water sources in the Kalahari Desert. Read more.

As the third largest river in Southern Africa flows south into the sands of the Kalahari, it meets a semi-graben fault. It is the southern most extension of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, along who’s axis are strung a line of lakes and rivers, some fresh, some alkaline, all beautiful...The Okavango Delta is the last in that string of pearls!

To the geomorphologist it is an ‘alluvial fan’; a place where gradient decrease reduces the velocity of a river with subsequent sedimentary deposition. To the tribes who live on its fringes and the wild animals that dwell within it, the Okavango is a life force.

The flood which falls as rain in the Angolan highlands in the rainy season, (from November to February), pushes into the delta as a wave of water measuring some 11 billion cubic meters annually. As the gradient drops and the dense vegetation tempers the flow, the water is forced onto seasonal flood plains in the height of the dry season, fully six months after the local rains have stopped. This is the lifeblood of the Okavango.

A word that is synonymous with Elephants. Chobe is the pachyderm capital of the world. Nowhere else on earth can boast the sheer numbers and concentration of these majestic animals as they gather in the hundreds along the Chobe flood plain towards the end of the dry season. Read more.

It is the third largest conservation area in Botswana and measures 10,698 square kilometers. But there is more to Chobe than just elephants. The park is also home to all the large predators found in Southern Africa, including healthy populations of Painted Wolf or African Wild Dog, Lion, Leopard and Hyena.

Here too, can be witnessed the largest migration south of the Serengeti. In March the zebra migration moves north from its wet season feeding grounds to the south of the park toward their dry season range along the Linyanti river, returning again to the south as the rains break in November

The Kalahari is not a traditional desert of rolling sand dunes, rather it is an old desert, a place in which both flora and fauna have adapted over millennia to survive. Read more.

“The Great Thirst” as it is known by the Bushmen, is a dramatically hostile environment. Animals that do not leave at the end of the wet season do not need to drink, and the plants that cover the land in a surprisingly dense carpet after the rains, are well adapted to the harsh conditions. The people who call this home are among the most primitive and friendly in the world! The 52,800 sq. km park was originally set aside as a preserve in 1961 where the hunter- gathering tribes or the San Bushmen, could continue their traditional life-styles. The northern part of the C.K.G.R centers on Deception Valley, made famous by Mark and Delia Owens in a book called “Cry of the Kalahari”, in which they wrote about their experiences over seven years here

To visit here is a fascinating counterbalance to the water world of the Okavango.

Nxai and Makgadikgadi Pans are spectacular at any time of year, but after the rains and before the onset of winter, they truly blossom. The remnant of a vast ancient lake bed, the pans posses a stark beauty. Read more.

While there are animal and bird species here not found in the northern parks, such as Gemsbok, and flocks of flamingoes that come to the Makgadikgadi to breed in the wet season, the essence of a safari to this part of Botswana is to experience space and tranquility. A visit to Kubu island in the middle of the salt pans, where Bushman spirits are purported to take on the shapes of birds, is an experience that will remain with you forever…

The pans are also home to an extensive zebra migration. The sight of these equids galloping across vast open spaces dotted with the iconic Illala palm is to see an Africa from the Plistocene era.

Xai Xai, is a village of JU/’hoansi Bushman and Babanderu people in one of the last very remote areas of the Kalahari. It offers a unique and exclusive possibility to experience the life of huntergatherers in the beautiful setting of the Aha Hills. Read more.

The Xai Xai community has organized itself in the Cgaecgae Tlhabologo Trust. The members are active in crafts, art and tourism. The benefits accrue to this organization, whose members decide on how to use this money for their own chosen development. This organization is supported by, Botswana Government and the Netherlands Development Organization SNV.

After many years of negotiation the people in Xaixai have been given control over their traditional lands, which they manage in a sustainable way using their unique knowledge of flora and fauna. The area is over 3 million ha of unspoiled land with an enormous diversity of plains, hills, salt pans, river valleys, with desert species of wildlife, ancient but recently discovered caves and one of the oldest cultures of mankind.

To spend time in the company of people who have a very different concept of the commodity, to walk with them in the veld as they gather their daily food requirements, and perhaps hunt a porcupine or small antelope is to step into another dimension. To sit around the fire in the evening listening to their songs and perhaps witness a “trance dance” is to travel back in time to the dawn of mankind.

A visit to the very western most corner of Botswana’s Kalahari is not likely undertaken. In order to truly appreciate the culture, it is necessary to abandon a western mind set. Here things happen in time with the seasons.

“The smoke that thunders” is an apt description of this magnificent waterfall. It is also a wonderful place to wash off the sands of the Kalahari at the end of a safari, and we recommend a stay at the elegant Victoria Falls Hotel, especially if you have never set eyes on what Dr. Livingstone described as “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”. Read more.

It is only a short drive across the border from Northern Chobe to Victoria Falls, so we often finish our safaris here.

Besides walking through the rainforest along the edge of the falls, optional activities here include one of the finest one day white water rafting trips in the world. Victoria Falls open-air market is also a fun place to indulge in some curio shopping.