| One of the biggest draws of Botswana is the Okavango Delta. The Okavango river starts in Angola, but instead of flowing towards the sea it flows inland where it becomes a river delta in the Kalahari sands. Since the Okavango delta is the only reliable water source for most of the year in this part of Southern Africa, it attracts a huge amount of game and birds. We visited the Panhandle (the the part of the river just north of the delta itself). It's not as good for big game as the rest of the delta; the birding however is spectacular. Elusive birds as the Pell's Fishing Owl and Whitebacked Nightheron are relatively easy to spot here. We stayed at Drotsky's, a great bungalow/campsite with guides that know their birds. A visit to the delta is not complete without a trip into the delta with traditional mokoro-canoe and poler. We decided not organize this from Maun, the main hub for the delta, but from the Northern side in Seronga. Through the National polers trust we hired a poler and a mokoro to go into the delta for two days. Being poled through the reeds and pools with no sounds other than birds songs is a magic experience. Also sleeping on one the islands in the delta, while hippo's graze next to your tent is not something you will soon forget. Although we did see quite some wildlife in the part of the delta that is not part of the Moremi reserve, for wildlife enthousiasts this would be the place to go, with good chances of spotting wild dogs amongst many other typical savannah species. |
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| Botswana is not only great for wildlife viewing. There is also a lot of history and culture of which the Tsodilo hills are a good example. These rocky outcrops in the Kalahari desert have been sacred hills for many generations of San people (and they still are). All over the hills one can find rock paintings of hundreds of years old. Local San people will show the best paintings for a small charge. You're officially not allowed to go out there yourself as it's holy ground. |
| Physical activities: eg Walking / Rafting / swimming Nature: eg National Park / Reserve City / Cultural site |
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© Bart Everts
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| Chobe National Park is probably the best well stocked park of Botswana. Especially the elephants are plentiful. In fact this park has the highest number of elephants of any park in the world. It's both a blessing and an curse. It attracts a lot of tourists and thus money, but on the other hand, there are just too many and they damage the park as well as the surrounding villages. Apart from elephants, most other big mammal species are present. Specialties include Lechwe, Puku and Chobe Bushbuck. A must-do in this park is a boatride on the Chobe river. This will guarantee close sigthings of a plethora of animals taken a drink at the rivershore. Great for photography! Away from the river, the animals are less abundant, but chances of spotting predators increase. Due to fully booked campsites we could unfortunately not travel through Chobe to Moremi via Savuti, which is supposed to be brilliant. Instead we crossed the Caprivistrip to reach the Okavango Delta. |
