Countries featured on this page include Botswana, Namibia and Mocambique

Botswana

Botswana’s principal safari attractions are its four magnificent game reserves and the Okavango Delta: The Chobe National Park in the north-east, Central Kalahari Game Reserve in the center of the country; Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park straddling the southern border with South Africa incorporating Namibia, and the Moremi Game Reserve on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta, the world’s largest inland delta.

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It is an exceptional place to see elephants in large numbers and the unique swamp lions that swim from island to island in search of prey. The Delta is well-equipped with ultra-luxurious lodges and simple camping sites.
Botswana is about the size of France with a population of only 2.1 million. Most of the country is flat and dry but in the north-west corner lies a jewel beyond compare – the Okavango Delta. Water from the mountains of Angola drains down onto the sands of the Kalahari Desert, creating a unique watery paradise like no other on earth. The channels and lagoons are lined with papyrus, whose roots filter out impurities, leaving crystal-clear water home to a multitude of waterfowl, fish, crocodiles, and hippos. The palm-fringed islands within the Delta and the dry areas surrounding it support a diverse collection of animals and birds.

Besides the pleasures of the wetlands, there is the Kalahari. Visit the dry saltpans known as Makgadikgadi to find remnants of Stone Age man and perhaps have an encounter with Bushmen, or marvel at the vast herds of elephant in the Chobe and Savuti areas of north-east Botswana.

Visitors carry away with them a kaleidoscope of extraordinary visions. The annual miracle of the floodwaters from Angola creeping over parched, thirsty lands as it increases the extent of the Delta; excited flocks of birds clustered at the edge of the incoming water, gorging on grass seeds brought to the surface as it rolls over the dry sand and on trapped fish flapping in the pools when it receded; papyrus bending towards its mirror-image in the still water adorned with water lilies and lotus flowers; the head and neck of a darter rising snakelike between the lilies while a tiny Malachite kingfisher flits like a living jewel from reed to reed.

In the hot, dry month of October this parched land has a beauty all its own, dust turning the sun to scarlet as it sets. Even the full moon appears red as it rises. Elephants move like specters among the mopane trees silhouetted black against the grey, floating dust. Away from the forests the open plains stretch golden yellow under a pale blue sky until the billowing clouds appear with the promise of desperately longed-for rain. Once the rain arrives the land becomes emerald-green, animals are fat and sleek, and the renewal of life is evident in the antelope herds. Migratory birds are prolific; thousands of herons nest in the fig bushes along the lagoons and Carmine bee-eaters dig their nests-holes in high riverbanks.

A memorable image for visitors is the image of Carmine bee-eaters perching on the backs of Kori bustards in the Savuti Channel, flying off to catch the insects disturbed as the large birds walk through the grass.

Visitors to the Okavango Delta are spiritually restored by its beauty and harmony. They have spent time either in small, intimate lodges or under canvas enjoying the multitude of delights of a Botswana safari and being lulled to sleep by the roar of lions, the whooping of hyenas, the grunting of hippos or the chirrup of a Scops owl. One small seismic shift and the Delta could disappear completely as did the Makagikadi. Perhaps it is this fragility that makes its beauty all-the-more haunting.

Chobe National Park, in the north-east, is the third largest national park in the country yet has the widest diversity of wildlife species. Luxury accommodation can be found in superb lodges on the riverside, while game-viewing is either from open four-by-four vehicles in the park or by boat from the Chobe River.

Away from northern Botswana is the huge, dusty Kalahari ‘thirstland’, covered in scrub and acacia trees stretching eastward to South Africa and westward into Namibia.

Namibia

Namibia ranks among the best tourist destinations in the world for value for money. It has a landscape as old as time; a spectacular desert of dusty brown, rocky, mountains streaked with hues of purple, pink and gold, surrounded by shifting sand dunes ranging from white to rusty red. It is as if the forests and the grasslands have been peeled away to expose the bare bones of Africa, making the great upheavals that took place when the earth was formed look as fresh and clear as if it had happened yesterday. The Namib Desert stretches the entire length of the coastal area from Angola to South Africa and inland for about one hundred and fifty kilometers. This is the most beautiful and interesting part of Namibia; the names themselves evoke a sense of excitement: Damaraland, Kaokoveld, Sossusvlei, the Omaruru, Khumib and Hoanib rivers and, of course, the Skeleton Coast.

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Once called the Kaokoveld Coast, it was renamed when so many shipwrecks and bones, animal, and human, were found strewn on the shore. The treacherous, icy sea thunders onto the beaches that are extensions of the desert and home to thousands of Cape fur seals. Each night the cold air above the Atlantic Ocean (kept this way by the Benguela Current from the Antarctic) meets the hot inland air, creating a fog that creeps over the land, sometimes as far as fifty kilometers inland, bringing life-giving moisture to the desert creatures,
 
The fact that such a variety of wildlife lives in this arid area extraordinary and makes the Namib unique, as no other desert of this size carries anything like the number of animals that survive here. There are desert-adapted elephants, which never destroy their source of food, oryx and springbok, Ostrich, Black-backed jackal, spotted hyena, lion, and giraffe. Certainly, they are nearly all found in very-small numbers outside Etosha National Park, but with only two perennial rivers in Namibia, situated at either end of the country, it is remarkable that they manage to find enough to eat and drink at all, especially considering how much water elephants need. Hidden in the nooks and crannies are a surprising number of little oases formed from freshwater springs, and some of the rivers retain water from rainstorms for quite a long time, but the elephants have learned to use less. The solitude and sense of peace one feels in this landscape is beyond compare. The breath-taking beauty of the colors and sculptured shapes of the sand dunes never cease to please and surprise. If you scoop a little sand from a pink-flushed dune and look at it through a magnifying glass (binoculars the wrong way work as well) you will think you are holding a cluster of diamonds and rubies rather than particles of garnet and quartz.
 
t is my theory that the extraordinary glowing quality of the light in Namibia is caused by the reflection from the myriad particles of sand, allowing even the novice photographer to produce spectacular pictures. The sharply outlined red dunes and rocky, mountains against cobalt-blue skies; the spectacular vistas punctuated occasionally by a pair of finely etched oryx on golden sand, also help.
 
It all looks untouched, with no sign of human interference, and the care that is taken to keep parts of the Namib Desert in pristine condition is admirable. There are large well-managed national parks and programs for reintroducing Black rhino, terribly depleted by poaching, into their old Kaokoveld habitat. Etosha, the best known of the parks, has permanent waterholes, ensuring a greater abundance of animals. A whole day spent at one of them will, without a doubt, give anyone exceptionally rewarding game-viewing.

Mocambique

Mozambique, with its 2000km Indian Ocean coastline, has seven national parks, two of which are largely marine, and six national reserves for land animals. Additionally, there are several other protected areas, three community wildlife utilisation areas, various wildlife utilisation areas and forest reserves. The best place for game viewing is Gorongosa National Park, which offers a wide spectrum of predators and prey. Facilities for visitors are modern and comfortable.

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