Central Kalahari Game Reserve
San people – Botswana is a premier Southern African safari destination offering some of the best wildlife viewing on the planet, especially in and around the Chobe and Okavango Delta region. The Kalahari Desert with its San Bushman culture is another Botswana highlight that deserves a place on your itinerary. Mzilikazi Way Safaris offers you unlimited options to choose from for your own preferred destination.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve (read more) is a wide National Park in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana and it covers an area of 52,800 km making. It is the second largest game reserve in the world. The park contains wildlife such as giraffe, brown hyena, warthog, cheetah, wild dog, leopard, lion, blue wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, kudu and red hartebeest. The CKGR has always been a refuge for the San Bushmen – the inhabitants of the Kalahari for the past 30,000 years. They lived in nomadic hunter-gatherer family groups only taking what they needed to survive – which is an art form in the Kalahari.
Rainy season is between November and March, but as rainfall is unreliable this is by no means sure. Rainstorms are frequent but fast and roads can become very muddy and a fully equipped 4×4 vehicle is essential.
May to October is hot, dry and dusty in the Kalahari with little water and limited animals. October is the hottest month.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve has various activities including game drives, walking safaris with san people, photography, Scenic Flight, Horseback Riding, Cultural Village Tour. The Kgalagadi boasts with 60 species of mammals and include large herds of antelope, especially oryx (gemsbok), springbok, blue wildebeest and eland. Red hartebeest also occur here. An abundance of rodents and reptiles are found here. These in combination with the antelope species support a wide variety of carnivores such as leopard, brown and spotted hyena, lion and cheetah, as well as black-backed jackal, caracal, bat-eared fox and the endangered Cape fox.
Some of the more unique mammals found in Kgalagadi is the pangolin, honey badger, wild dogs (on rare occasions) and Woodsman’s rat. Not to be missed is the suricate, or meerkat with it’s wonderfully intricate social family structures and hyper-active behavior.
The Kgalagadi is famous for its birds of prey. Over 300 bird species have been recorded, including species endemic to the arid southwest region of southern Africa. Large nests of sociable weavers are characteristic of the region. One nest can be home to up to 300 birds! Ostrich is frequently spotted and the Kori bustard is always a good sighting. 52 raptors have been recorded in the Kgalagadi. Keep an open for the pygmy falcon which occurs here.