Design your own Botswana Safari | Doug Macdonald Safari

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Experience the classic Botswana safari

Located in Central Southern Africa, Botswana is one of the most famous wildlife safari countries of Africa with a big reputation that is well deserved. The main focus for people coming on safari here is exploring its Northern parks which contain the Okavango Delta, the Linyanti Swamps, The Savuti and Chobe River Front. However, there is more to this big country than these areas, like the World’s largest salt pans – the Makgadikgadi Pans. The vast and wild Central Kalahari Game Reserve and in the far South the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Within and surrounding these designated reserves are several community owned concession areas like the Khwai community area which help to keep vast areas of wilderness wild and interconnected, at the same time benefiting local communities. Home to Africa’s largest population of Elephants and great for excellent big predator sightings.

Get a taste of it all

Combining various ecosystems and game viewing experiences within Botswana will give you an amazing safari whether it is your first time or the safari veteran. It is also a country that is great for safari during the green season as you still experience incredible sightings with a volume and variety of wildlife and few access problems – a country for all seasons with incredible luxury safari camps down to more basic mobile tented safari camp experiences.

What you need
to know

Things that are worth knowing about when traveling to Botswana

Botswana is in Southern Africa famous for its huge elephant population and largely successful conservation measures driven by tourism. It sits right on top of the vast Kalahari sands – The Worlds largest contiguous body of sand. It has some really interesting geological features like the vast Makgadikgadi Salt Pans and the huge inland delta of the Okavango River both of which are the World’s largest in their categories. It has a small population of people which allows for these vast wild areas to remain intact with little human pressure.

Oldest Baobab tree at Makgadikgadi Salt Pans

All Year around

Best time to go

Setswana, English

Language

Botswana Pula (BWP)

Currency

Habituated Meerkats

These amazing family orientated animals made famous by various documentaries are always a favourite. Being able to sit amongst them as they get on with their day and use you as a lookout post is a very special experience. This activity is possible from only a few camps in the Makgadikgadi Pans area.

The Tsodilo Hills

An area of rocky outcrops on the Western side of the Pan Handle area of the Okavango Delta – this area has been used by both the San and Hambakushu people as a place of worship and holds great significance for them to this day. It is adorned with 100’s of ancient rock art paintings dating back hundreds of years making it a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Central Kalahari
Game Reserve

This vast area of untouched wilderness is a unique experience to visit. It has no natural surface water but holds an amazing amount of large mammals like Giraffe, Oryx and Springbok even a few elephants, they are especially visible during the rain season when they move into the fertile ancient river valleys between the sand dunes. Great for predator sightings like Cheetah, Black-Maned Lions, Brown Hyena, leopard and Bat -eared foxes.

Weather

Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa, with a climate largely determined by its location in the tropics. The weather is generally hot and dry year-round, with two distinct seasons: a wet season typically from October to May and a dry season from June to September. Temperatures in Botswana can reach up to 40°C (104°F) in the hottest months, making the dry season the best time to go on safari, when the weather is more comfortable and game viewing is easier.

January to March

These are the main summer rainy season months for this part of Africa, all of the parks are accessible at this time however the road network within certain parks might be quite limited. It is, however, an excellent time to see the parks when animals, birds and plants are at their best. The usually dry areas like the Central Kalahari come to life during this time of year so a good time to visit.

June to August

The dry winter season is well set in by this time of year, the vegetation is thinning out and wildlife becoming more focused on particular feeding and watering areas. This is the height of winter as well and the mornings and evenings can be surprisingly cold even dropping below freezing in the early morning, so you’ll make good use of the camp fire at night, but during the day the temperatures warm up to the mid twenties Celsius and the skies are generally always clear and blue. A really popular time to be on safari and the Okavango Delta is depending on the amount of rain in Angola either stable or still filling especially in the Southern reaches of it.

November to December

These months are really hot during the day and it’s when we expect to see our first rains and the incredible change that happens almost immediately. This transformation brings with it the drama of tropical rain and lightning storms, amazing cloudscapes, clear dustless skies and many of the animal species begin their birthing. This can be one of the most beautiful times to be in the bush and often you can get some good special accommodation rates.

April to May

You can still experience some rain at this time but usually quite limited, if at all. These months mark the start of the bush drying out and the beginning of the long dry spell that will go through to November. The bush is usually quite thick at this time so sightings can be difficult but the animals are still there and you can have huge wild areas all to yourself which is excellent in itself and you can get some great accommodation specials. The Okavango Delta - Chobe and Linyanti Rivers are at peak height during this time of year.

September to October

These months are when the temperatures start to climb and the wildlife concentrates at the last available feeding and watering sites. September is probably the best of these months from a temperature perspective as October can be really hot during the day going towards the 40 degrees Celsius mark but it does cool off at night time. At this time many species of tree start to flower and migratory birds start arriving. For some, these are the best months to be on safari in Botswana when looking for big predators and prey animal drama.