The Kalahari offers a completely different expression of Botswana. Instead of waterways and floodplains, the landscape opens into immense grasslands, scrub, fossil valleys, pans and seemingly endless horizons. Space, silence and the quality of the light are as important here as individual wildlife sightings.
Desert wildlife and open country
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is one of southern Africa’s largest and most remote protected areas. Following good summer rains, its northern grasslands can attract springbok, gemsbok, wildebeest and other herbivores, accompanied by lion, cheetah, jackal and brown hyena.
A changing landscape
The wider Kalahari Basin also contains extraordinary salt-pan country. Dry conditions can create stark, almost lunar scenery, while rain can rapidly transform pans and grasslands into productive wildlife habitat. Stargazing is exceptional and the sense of remoteness is difficult to reproduce elsewhere.
Why include the Kalahari?
For a multi-camp Botswana safari, the Kalahari provides valuable contrast. Combining desert country with the Okavango, Moremi or Chobe produces a journey through genuinely different ecosystems rather than a succession of similar safari experiences.
