Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari Desert is a huge area in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa covering about 900.000 square kilometres. As per definition it is a semi-desert, because it receives is too much rainfall to qualify for a desert. Nonetheless the dry season in the Kalahari with no or extremely low rainfall usually lasts from April to October/November. In this time a sunny, blue sky is almost guaranteed making the Kalahari a perfect holiday destination.

Although the rainfall does not exceed 200 mm a year, an abundance of plants and animals call the dunes of the Kalahari Desert their home. The northern wetlands of Botswana also form part of the Kalahari Basin.

Bushmen families have lived in the Kalahari for about 20.000 years where they had great opportunities to hunt for big game. They adapted perfectly to the harsh environment and have a deep knowledge of plant use for food, medicine and perfume.

The Southern African traveller can find a number of Game Reserves in the Kalahari (for example Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Makgadikgadi National Park) where a lot of game can be observed. Among others you can spot cheetah, leopard, lion, spotted hyena, brown hyena, aardwolf, caracal, bat eared fox, giraffe, eland, red hartebeest, gemsbock (oryx), blue wildebeest and a variety of birds and reptiles. In the northern wetlands of the Kalahari Basin you can also observe elephant, hippo, buffalo, crocodile etc.