Top 10 Botswana Activities

All the descriptions and explanations in the world can’t compete with seeing the magnificent and huge Okavango Delta from the air. It is only then that it’s possible to appreciate the incredible occurrence of a major African river literally never reaching the sea. Instead, the great Okavango fans into a myriad of waterways and wetlands bringing life-giving water to a place that would otherwise be arid and sterile.

From your seat in a nimble and rapid chopper, you will buzz over the wildlife and landscape of this African Garden of Eden, a birds-eye view enabling your pilot to show you great groups of elephant, herds of wildebeest, zebra and the water-adapted lechwe. A helicopter is also the way to access some of the most isolated camps such as the luxurious Atzaro Okavango camp.

You’ll see the sentinels of the meerkat, groups of rapidly-running ostriches, and the landmarks of sparse but prominent and surreal baobab trees as you head out into the salt pans of Makgadikgadi. It’s here that the environment becomes dazzling white, flat and sterile; the evaporation means algae is the life form that flourishes, but shallow pools can support huge flocks of flamingos when there is rain.

The pans are what remains of an ancient great lake, once larger than Switzerland but now all but gone through evaporation, so there is plenty of space to have an exhilarating adventure on your own four-wheeled steed of powerful propulsion.

There’s a festival atmosphere to the great congregations of elephant during the months of August to December. In every direction and at every turn, you’ll see more of these magnificent mammals grazing, rolling in the mud, bathing and consuming thousands of litres of water.

The Chobe Linyanti area contains the largest population of free-ranging elephants on the whole of the African continent, and this becomes abundantly apparent during the dry season when they have no choice but to flock to the more permanent sources of grazing and water provided by the Chobe and Linyanti Rivers. This isn’t just a herd of elephant, it’s a herd of herds; a meta-herd that will blow your mind.

We may think we are wise, but a day spent with the San people of the Kalahari Desert may encourage you to re-assess yourself and the values of the modern world. These people have walked the sands for more than 70,000 years, surviving in harmony with their environment through click-laden oral traditions which maintain their survival against the odds.

Imagine a society where material wealth is considered a burden, where there is no personal property and therefore nobody can think themselves better than anyone else. The wisdom of elders and of fellow animals is revered, plants are deeply understood, dance and rock art are interwoven with a rich spiritual tradition: there is much to learn from these wise and gentle people.

From your perch above a waterhole, with the whole spectrum of animal life journeying back and forth below, your eyes will be drawn increasing upwards as the day comes to its conclusion, first to the blood-red blazing sunset and then to the glorious heavens above. It’s a humbling experience to lie in a sky bed atop the platform beneath the whole sweep of the Milky Way, with shooting stars and a moon so clear that it seems to be within touching distance.

At the Khwai private reserve, their three sky bed platforms are quietly exclusive. Your alfresco bedroom is raised two stories above the ground, there’s a warm duvet and even a hot water bottle if required, all the better to revel in the majesty of the Botswanan sky.