BOTSWANA SAFARIS

A shimmering green and blue wetland, the Okavango Delta, is considered by many to be Africa’s most incredible wildlife and wilderness sanctuary. It is the result of a subtle shift in tectonics, that rerouted major waterways and created the only delta in the world that does not flow into the sea. Instead draining into the desert many hundreds of miles from the Mozambique coast.

Every year, beginning in May, the floodwaters flow almost 1,000 miles from the Angolan Highlands into Botswana, bringing new life to the region. The arrival of the floodwaters adds to the natural rains that fall in Botswana from December to March. Inundating the lower lying ground and creating seasonal waterways interspersed with palm topped islands.

Flying over the delta is a surreal experience. Flat as far as the eye can see, the shimmering blue of the waterlogged plains is broken by raised tree covered islands banded by thick green reeds. Overall the effect is artistic swirls and circles.

But Botswana is more than just the Okavango Delta and Kalahari. There are also many other varied habitats ranging from marshes and riverine forests to dry woodlands and grassland of the Linyanti and Selinda. As well as the well known Chobe National Park, which stretches north-eastwards to the junction of Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Another must visit location is the Magkadigkadi and Nxai Pans, formed from dried up ‘super lakes’. Again caused by the shift in plate tectonics, these pans see the longest annual migration of wildlife outside Tanzania’s Great Migration. With thousands of zebra moving from the far north of the country.

An easy trip over the border is to Victoria Falls. The falls boasts the largest unbroken curtain of water in the world. The falls experience peak flow in April and May, when the noise and spray can be spectacular but quite overwhelming. It’s lowest flow is in November/December when you can walk across the top of the falls or bathe in the Devil’s Pool, just yards from the edge.