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Kalahari
The Kalahari is a vast semi-desert
that covers more than tree quaters of the whole land area of Botswana.
It is a great wilderness where the interepid traveller can find isolation
and marvel at pristine Africa. It covers a vast area, including the
dazzling white saltpans under the baobab trees and savannah where
the game is plentiful. The original San inhabintants, some of whom
still live in the desert today, have left their indelible imprint.
The word Kalahari is an Anglicised
corruption of the Setswana name Kgalagadi. It is one of the largest
areas of semi-desert in the world.
The Kalahari was formed over
60 million years ago when Africa became a continent. Three major
basins were formed in the interior - the Chad basin in the north,
the Congo basin in central Africa and the largest of the three,
the Kalahari basin, in the south, which covers 80% of the land surface
of Botswana. The Khoi (Hottentot) and the San (Bushmen) were the
first modern inhabitants of southern Africa. their rock paintings,
tools and pottery can be found in the Tsodilo hills and the Lepokole
hills in the east and in other rocky parts of the Kalahari. Today,
their present population has dwindled, but some San still live and
follow their traditional lifestyle as hunter-gatherers in teh Central
Kalahari Game Reserve and other parts of the Kalahari.
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Central Kalahari Game
Reserve
The 52,800 sq km reserve in the
Ghanzi district of central Botswana is one of the largest protected
areas in Africa, most of which is totally inaccessible. Though some
San people still live there the area is only seen by a handful of
visitors each year. This makes the experience, far from the modern
world and madding crowd, unusual and exclusive. The
adventure is well worth it as the traveller experiences endless
dunes, dry fossil valleys and grassy plains under Africa's bruning
sun and cobalt blue skies. In Deception Valley and numerous pans
nearby the game is plentiful in the first few month of the year.
The first flush of green vegetation attracts thousands of springbok,
gemsbok and wildebeest, ostrich, giraffe, leopard, lion and cheetah
and lots of smaller cats. As the game gather at the infrequent waterholes
there is often the chance of witnessing a dramatic chase and kill.
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