Botswana Luxury

Botswana is landlocked, bounded by South Africa, Namibia's Caprivi Strip, Zimbabwe and about two feet of Zambia! The precise demarcation of this unique four-way border junction in the north, centred on the Zambezi River, has never been satisfactorily determined in international law. But, whatever these arguments, a great deal of Botswana is "miles and miles of very little" as nearly all (82% or so) of Botswana is very arid with the over-riding feature of the country being the Kalahari Desert whose centre has become the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. To the north east of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve lie the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans whilst, in the northwest and below Namibia's Caprivi Strip, is the famous Okavango Delta which dovetails with the Moremi Game Reserve. To the north east of Moremi is the equally well-known Chobe National Park, which is often busy and easily accessible from Victoria Falls.

Botswana luxury, in terms of safaris, is possible year round. The rainy season is December - April. Being the southern hemisphere this is summer so it tends to be hot with afternoon storms. But these latter are not every day and the game viewing in certain areas can be good at this time of year although one must expect some rain during a safari. However there's an upside to this: unlike monsoons in Asia these African storms bring everything to life which is alluring and lovely. This is the time of year when the animals drop their young and the vegetation is lush and green - so different from the dry, arid, scorched earth that is the main feature of the June to October "winter". But it is in winter when most people visit Botswana because game viewing is normally at its best. These months are cool and dry and feature two very important seasonal occurrences: the seasonal flooding of the Okavango Delta and the ungulate migration across the Makgadikgadi Pans.

The Delta flooding starts with rains early in the year miles to the north. Here the Cubango River rises in the Angolan Mountains then, gaining momentum, flows through Namibia's Caprivi before finally entering northern Botswana as the Okavango. Seasonally each year, a vast quantity of water sweeps southeast downriver which, as it enters Botswana, is funnelled through parallel tectonic faults as a deep and fast-flowing - yet shallow-contoured - river before spilling into the delta shaped fan which covers a 15,000 square kilometre maze of lagoons, channels and islands; this is the marvellous Okavango Delta.

The joy of Botswana luxury safaris is that one can view game and enjoy the magnificent on foot, in vehicles, using the local flat-bottomed boats (mekoros) which usually take two guests and are "poled" by a guide and, finally, motorised boats.

As far as where to go is concerned apart from the famed Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park is named after its river on its northern boundary and is renowned for having some of the highest concentrations of elephants in Africa. The Linyanti, in the north-western corner of Chobe, is a fragment of almost 900 square kilometres of the secluded Linyanti Swamp whilst this area is further expanded by the Selinda Reserve in the west and Namibia's remote Mamili National Park on the northern bank of the Kwando River. Then, of course, there's the aforementioned Kalahari!

It is not only the quality of gameviewing and the guiding that makes Botswana an excellent destination for a luxury holiday. Created properly, it is no problem to build a safari that is truly luxurious in terms of accommodation whether using lodges, permanent tented camps or glorious mobile camps, depending on the activity that one is undertaking. Lodges are, of course, "solid" in terms of construction but permanent tented camps are, to our mind, even more lovely, with full en suite facilities and offer a more genuine "feel" of the bush whilst being similar in modus operandum to what one might be used to in east Africa or the better camps in Namibia. The mobiles can also be very luxurious with en-suite Meru tents - similar to east African "mobiles" - or, perhaps, being slightly more basic. There's therefore plenty of choice, not only in the Delta and surrounding regions, if one wants to mix some luxury pampering with something more adventurous (or focus entirely on one or the other) whilst, in the Kalahari, there are two excellent desert-based camps with very different styles and feel.