Kalahari & Meerkats
- 5 days
- Central Kalahari · Makgadikgadi
- Delta or Signature
- from USD 450 pp/day
The Central Kalahari is the second-largest protected area in the world and holds the black-maned lion — bigger, darker and rarer-looking than their northern cousins, and adapted to go without standing water for months.
Deception Valley is the heart of it: an ancient fossil river bed that greens after the rains and draws oryx, springbok and the cats that hunt them. In the dry months it is austere and almost empty; after December it is one of the most surprising wildlife areas in Africa.
Then the pans, and the meerkats. The colonies are habituated but completely wild, which means nobody can promise you anything. What often happens, if you sit still on the ground at sunrise, is that one of them works out you are the tallest thing available and climbs you to look for eagles. People tend to remember that morning longer than the lions.
How the days run
- Day 1Arrive in Maun and transfer south into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Afternoon drive toward Deception Valley.
- Day 2A full day in the Kalahari — black-maned lion, cheetah on the pans, oryx and springbok, and a guided walk with San trackers reading the sand.
- Day 3East to the Makgadikgadi. Afternoon quad-biking out onto the salt crust, and a night under a sky with no horizon and no light.
- Day 4A sunrise morning with the meerkat colony, then Baines' Baobabs or the grasslands depending on the season.
- Day 5A last morning, then the road back to Maun.
- Best monthsDecember to April for Kalahari game after the rains; year-round for the meerkats and the pans
- Where you sleepA Kalahari camp and a Makgadikgadi camp, at Delta or Signature level
- Who it suitsSecond-time visitors, families with older children, photographers, and anyone who wants a safari that is not only about the big cats
- Who it may not suitAnyone who measures a safari in elephant. This is drier, quieter country, and its rewards are subtler than the Delta's.
