Botswana is shaped like a pentagon. That is it has five corners, like a star. The immense open waterless plains of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve dominate the centre of the country, as does its equally expansive white-washed neighbour, the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. But while both are fascinating visits in their own right, it’s in the five corners that Botswana’s real personality resides.
Along the frontier moving west towards the bottom left corner, following the dry Molopo River, one arrives at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. This corner is dominated by red dunes and scattered thornveld, and enjoys one of the highest concentrations of large predators on the sub-continent. The size of the park is staggering and, if you add the salt-pan-spangled Mabuasehube National Park that is attached like a barnacle on its rump, as well as the Transfrontier bit in South Africa, it is a whopping 35,000 km² – that’s bigger than Swaziland! This is a rudimentary destination by most standards, as there are no luxury game lodges or hotels – or even roads beyond sand-tracks for that matter. But that’s all part of its appeal. If you want solitude and to immerse yourself in real nature with just a tent between you and large, toothy grimalkins that roar the starry nights away, this is the place. You’ll need a reliable 4x4, though.
Running up the arrow-straight border with Namibia over some of the most inhospitable landscapes on earth, one unexpectedly arrives at Botswana’s great emerald jewel at the top left, the twinkling waters of the Okavango Delta. The contrast in scenery could not be more pronounced. Desert dunes and scrub are replaced by a maze of lazily snaking rivulets and streams that appear to struggle through an impeding density of verdant tropical vegetation. The Delta also contrasts with the Kgalagadi in that it is the antithesis of rudimentary. Ecologically low impact and widely scattered five-star luxury lodges provide a window into one of the most beautiful paradises on earth. Being poled down the placid streams in a dug-out **makoro**, where elephants and hippos bath among grazing Lechwe, is a truly special experience.
On the reed-choked pan handle of the Delta one could even try your hand at fly-fishing. Some lodges here, like Nxamaseri, cater exclusively for fly-fishermen. The owner, PJ Bestelinck, is an avid fly-fisherman himself and is an even more avid horseman. Riding a horse among herds of buffalo and giraffe on many of the Delta’s “islands” is possibly the best safari experience money can buy. Game viewing is excellent on a horse, as one is higher up than even a 4x4, so it’s easy to spot game. Unlike mechanised vehicles, horses are fairly quiet and appear natural-looking to their wild cousins – despite the fact they have a human plonked squarely on their backs – which also allows you to get much closer to wild animals than you may otherwise be able to in a 4x4.
From the Okavango the border hugs the southern swampy section of the Caprivi Strip to the border town of Kasane – a town just behind the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi
Rivers. Kasane holds the accolade of having not two, but four separate border crossings for four separate countries – Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – making it a veritable cross-roads. It is here that one can do another kind of safari that is special. A luxury river cruise has a charm reminiscent of the old days when travel was about journeying without really arriving. The Chobe-Zambezi confluence also has one of the most prolific riverfront concentrations as far as wildlife is concerned. Most noteworthy are the elephants that arrive in such multitudes that it becomes difficult to have them out of constant vision while lounging on deck.
Moving to the south and the last of the five corners is the Tuli block. Like so much of Botswana, is teeming with wildlife, but unlike the other corners this place is rocky and rugged, giving off more of an African Rift Valley feel. There are a smattering of top-end lodges set among giant baobabs, sparkling swimming pools and green lawns, all within a few hours' drive from Gabarone.
It’s clearly difficult not to find top-star nature in Botswana, because it’s certainly abundantly apparent in even the nation’s most far-flung corners.
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