Covering 52,800 square kilometres – some 9% of Botswana – Central Kalahari Game Reserve is the world’s second largest game reserve. The gently undulating land is dotted with sand dunes and covered with waist-high grass and bush scrub.
Wide, pancake-flat areas of white salt pan seem to merge into the soft blue sky, and the shallow valleys of four fossilized rivers meander through the reserve. With the arrival of the summer rains, large herds of springbok and gemsbok, plus wildebeest, red hartebeest, eland, kudu, warthog and giraffe gather to graze the northern grasslands, accompanied by a host of predators such as brown hyena, wild dog, cheetah, leopard and lion.
The rest of the year, animals are more widespread, adding to the sensation of travelling through an untouched wilderness of unending dimensions. After sunset the brilliance of the star-filled night skies is spellbinding. The main highlights are Deception Valley, with its high concentrations of herbivores during the rainy season, Sunday and Leopard Pans to the north, Passarge Valley, and Piper’s Pan to the south.
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