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Botswana Tours Top Five
Safari National Parks and Game Reserves
Botswana tours are excellent
trips to undertake because the setting is as unique as you
will find anywhere in Africa, the game viewing is exceptional and the
accommodation is top notch.
By using travel journals submitted at the African Safari Journals website, my
personal experience of over twenty years, forums, magazines and the general
consensus in the travel industry this is the list of the five best national
parks and game reserves to go on a Botswana tours trip in...
The Okavango Delta must qualify as
the most unique and varied safari area in Africa.
The delta lies in the North of Botswana and it consists of narrow water channels
lined by papyrus, floodplains covered knee deep in water, hippo filled lagoons,
forest glades and savannah grassland.
You can go on outstanding Botswana tours here on foot, using a 4x4
vehicle, a mokoro (dug-out canoe) or a motorised boat.
Vast herds of buffalo, elephant, gazelle and zebra roam this rich ecosystem
which is fed by the Okavango river which has its source in the Angolan highlands
and floods the delta every year.
This treasure trove of available prey attracts the predators too and lion,
leopard, cheetah and wild dog thrive here. The dry season is the best for game
viewing because the animals are drawn to the permanent water sources.
The Moremi game reserve consists of
strictly controlled, privately managed concessions and it falls within the
Okavango Delta area and has no fences which leaves the animals free to roam
around as they please.
There are a number of upmarket Botswana tours safari lodges in Moremi such as the
Vumbura concession (Vumbura Plains Camp reviews and price comparisons at TripAdvisor) which contains both wetland and savannah areas for the best
of both worlds.
The Delta is at its most impressive in August when the water is at its deepest
and most of the young are born between November and March when the vegetation is
lush and dense so it might be a good idea to plan any Botswana safari to
coincide with these events.
View Okavango trip reviews »
One of the defining activities of any
Botswana tours in the Chobe National Park is to take a cruise on a river boat
just before sunset on the stretch of the Chobe river from Kasane town to
Serondela campsite and watch masses of hippo, crocodile and elephant along the
banks as the fiery orb dips slowly beneath the horizon with a glass of champagne
in your hand.
But you shouldn't restrict yourself to only this area because a deeper
exploration of the park will reveal a great variety of habitats, wildlife and
birds.
The area is rich in plant life and
contains floodplain, grassland, baobab, mopane woodland and sandveld habitats.
This is elephant country and there are so many of them that they cause
considerable damage to the vegetation in the park.
It also has big buffalo herds (which attract lion and hyena), zebra, lechwe, the
chobe bushbuck and the rare puku antelope. Leopard and cheetah also avail
themselves of the big gazelle herds and the Savuti channel which bisects the
park is a good place to see the predators.
Over 440 species of bird have been recorded here including the rare Pel's Fishing
Owl which can be spotted at dusk and small flocks of African skimmers which
visit in June and July. The distinctive call of the Fish Eagle is a common sound
as they thrive in this water rich area.
There are over twenty species of edible fish that you can catch in the Chobe
river.
View Chobe trip reviews »
3. Mashatu Game Reserve Botswana Tours
This is the largest privately owned
game reserve in Southern Africa and it is situated in the remote eastern part of
Botswana at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers.
Botswana tours here will reveal no less than seven of Africa's giants: the
African elephant, the lion, giraffe, the baobab tree, the eland, the ostrich,
and the kori bustard.
Night drives are available which will allow you to see leopard, genet, serval,
caracal, aardwolf, aardvark and springhares and because this is a private
reserve off-road riding is allowed which gets you much closer to the animals and
helps in tracking them.
You are almost guaranteed of seeing the big five here and a large variety of
birdlife too such as the martial and black eagles, kingfishers, rollers and the
strange looking ground hornbill.
View Mashatu trip reviews »
4. Linyanti Game Reserve
The Linyanti river forms a natural
border between Botswana and Namibia and on its southern banks the Linyanti
reserve contains marshland and lagoons similar to the Okavango farther south.
This is a private reserve so off road and night drives are the order of the day
and some fantastic game viewing is on offer with a proliferation of birdlife
too. The wildlife here lives in a world of floodplain grassland - dotted with
islands of ivory palms and other trees - savannah, scrub and woodland.
Rare and beautiful antelope like the sable, roan, red lechwe and the aquatic
sitatunga which submerges itself under the water when it feels threatened make
their home here. The main predators are lion, hyena, leopard, cheetah, wild dog,
serval and bat eared foxes.
If you are very lucky on any of your Botswana tours, you might catch a glimpse of the
multi colored Narina Trogon bird which is quite rare in this area.
5. Makgadikgadi National Park
For Botswana tours with a
difference, the Makgadikgadi National Park is hard to beat.
Standing in this vast expanse which was once a super lake but has dried up to
form a huge salt pan which is flat as far as the eye can see with an occasional
rocky outcrop and sand dune dotting the landscape is an amazing experience.
And the contrast with the wet season when the park is transformed into a water
wonderland is simply breathtaking. Wildebeest, zebra, springbok and gemsbok
migrate here during the rainy season to take advantage of the temporary pans
that form and then leave again once they start drying up in the searing heat of
the dry season and if the rains are good thousands of migratory flamingos arrive
to breed.
The primary objective in visiting this reserve is not to view game because the
areas they frequent during the rainy season are virtually inaccessible, but to
experience the magnificent solitude and true isolation of this location.
You will experience millions of
stars in the night sky and absolute unremitting silence which is a rare thing in
the modern world.
View Makgadikgadi trip reviews »
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