Where the horizon stops existing.
The second-largest protected area in the world, salt flats the size of Switzerland, black-maned lions, meerkats and Africa’s longest mammal migration.
About as far from the Delta as the country gets.
After a week of water, reeds and palm islands, the Kalahari lands as a shock. There is no standing water at all. The land runs flat to the edge of sight. At night the silence is complete in a way most people have never actually experienced, and the stars come out so dense that photographs of them look overdone.
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is the second-largest protected area on earth. Beside it lie the Makgadikgadi and Nxai pans: the remnants of a superlake that dried out thousands of years ago, leaving salt flats that are blinding and lifeless in the dry, and green grassland full of zebra after the rains.
Hardly anyone comes to Botswana for the Kalahari alone. A good many of the people who tack it on the end say afterwards it was the part they were not ready for.
Six reasons to give it the days.
Black-maned lion
The Kalahari population, darker and larger-framed than their northern cousins, and adapted to go months without standing water.
Deception Valley
An ancient fossil river bed that greens after the rains and fills with oryx, springbok and the cats that hunt them. The heart of the CKGR.
Habituated meerkats
Wild colonies used to people, who will quite often climb a seated guest to get a better view. Most people rate the morning higher than the lions.
The zebra migration
December to March. Africa’s longest terrestrial mammal migration, from the Makgadikgadi grasslands to Nxai Pan, with newborn foals and predators behind.
Baines’ Baobabs
Seven ancient trees on the edge of Nxai Pan, painted by Thomas Baines in 1862 and barely changed since. Best at sunrise.
San tracking
Walking with San trackers who read the sand as text — and time with communities in the Kalahari, arranged on their terms and paid directly.
What guests ask us.
When is the Kalahari at its best?
Backwards from most of Botswana. The Central Kalahari is at its finest from December to April, when the summer rains green the fossil valleys and draw oryx, springbok and the predators that follow them. In the dry months it is austere and very empty — beautiful, but a harder sell for game.
What is a black-maned lion?
The Kalahari population, distinguished by unusually dark, full manes and a larger frame. They are adapted to survive without standing water for long periods, taking moisture from prey. They are also considerably harder to find than lion in the Delta — which is part of the appeal.
Are the meerkats tame?
Habituated, not tame. Researchers have accustomed several colonies to human presence, so the meerkats ignore you and get on with their morning. Because they need height to scan for eagles, and because you are the tallest thing on a flat pan, they will sometimes climb you to use as a lookout. Nobody feeds or handles them.
What is the zebra migration and when does it happen?
The longest terrestrial mammal migration in Africa, running between the Makgadikgadi grasslands and Nxai Pan when the summer rains arrive — December to March. Tens of thousands of zebra, newborn foals and the predators behind them. See The Zebra Migration.
Can you really sleep out on the salt pans?
Yes, and it is one of the most extraordinary nights we can arrange. A bedroll on the salt crust, no tent, no light and no sound at all: the pans are so flat and so empty that the horizon disappears and the stars appear to come down to the ground. It runs in the dry months only, and it is included on The Grand Botswana.
Tell us what you want this journey to feel like.
Not just what you want to see. Send a few lines about who is travelling and roughly when, and we will come back to you with something written for you rather than pulled off a shelf.