Africa’s biggest game reserve waiting to be explored
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Learn More HereWhere would you go to truly get away from it all? How about a game reserve that spans over five million hectares or 13 million acres? Where there is so little light and air pollution you can see the stars as your long-lost ancestors once did every night? The Central Kalahari Game Reserve lies south of Maun and is an immense area with only a handful of lodges and the occasional intrepid self-driving camper. Many dismiss it as ‘just a desert’ but it is so much more than that with abundant life to prove it including cheetah, leopard and African wild cat.
CKGR’s game depends on a series of pans – with intriguing names like Tau (‘lion’), Piper, Sunday and Passarge – that fill up over the summer rains. These keep large numbers of springbok, zebra, wildebeest and oryx alive as well as the mighty black-maned lions, jackals and rare brown hyena that feast on them. Birders are delighted by spotting ‘lifers’ like red-crested korhaan and pale chanting goshawks. Once the home of Bushmen families, many of original San descendants are now guides, patiently imparting their boundless knowledge of this beautiful land. A highlight is a trip to Deception Valley, where you can see just how confusing desert mirages can be. There are private concessions closed to the public within the reserve if you want an even more exclusive and private safari.
CKGR is a semi-desert so gets little rain at the best of times. The mid-year peak or high season means no rain at all and animals do not move far from (often pumped) waterholes, making sightings very easy to find. Mornings and evenings are very cold so pack accordingly. Because the reserve has so few lodges, book in advance to ensure you get your first choice of accommodation.
Even as a semi-desert, the reserve does get some rain, mostly in the form of dramatic but short-lived thunderstorms. This much-needed moisture turns the bush a surprisingly lush green and carpets of flowers – as well as butterflies and birds – can be seen for miles around. Unlike many other areas, CKGR doesn’t have much thicket or forest, which means animals are slightly easier to see in the long grass although they will be dispersed as they no longer rely on a limited number of water sources where they can be easily ambushed by predators. The reserve is flat so that makes scanning the landscape for telltale shapes a lot easier.
The heat starts dropping, the grass dies down and the rain dries up. Autumn in CKGR can be very productive as animals’ movements become slightly more predictable; many will begin heading to permanent water sources in preparation for the coming dry winter.
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