Besides the Eagles, there are other wildlife that you can’t go without seeing. In the northern part of Botswana  include the Moremi Game Reserve as well as Chobe National park, these are  famous for both wild and bird-life and they are heavily protected with tight security.Makadikadi Pan Complex is also popular with pelicans, flamingos and wildlife. In case you want an experience of a bush safari, Botswana is the best destination in Africa that will give a perfect guide. Okavango delta a is an amazing attraction in Botswana, it’s a mong the few inland deltas in the world and the second in Africa. The most exciting aspect about this delta is that the waters of the Okavango River floors to arid Kalahari Fringe thus forming a beautiful garden for both wild along with bird-life species.

Botswana is known to be a landlocked country in the southern Africa, The people are usually called Batswana, the country is such great destinations with beautiful attractions that will make any visitor love the place. Botswana has two international Airports and these are; Sir Seretse Khama international Airport serving the capital of Gabarone, more still Maun Airport helping the town of Maun and also to the Okavango delta that is known as the tourist destination.

Botswana as a country has a self-effacing air travel network with no direct inter-continental flights that serves the country. It’s only South Africa that can offer a direct route to Botswana thus connecting Gabarone with Cape Town along with Johannesburg. Air Botswana can only offer programmed services to Cape Town Harare as well as Windhoek

Maun Airport is famous for the usual Air Botswana flights from Gabarone further more with a direct link via Air Namibia from Windhoek. The private along with the charter air traffic deals with the incomplete programmed services that usually concern the major tourist destinations. At times tour operators come in to give a hand to the remote destinations through private and elite air access.

Makgadikgadi, Pans National Park were once a huge prehistoric lakes, they dried up only 10,000 years ago and today they are salt plains, grasslands and isolated “islands” of vegetation, baobab and palm trees. Most of the time they appear as glaring, white, endless plains but during the rainy season they are one of the most important wetland areas in Botswana. There are Bushman hunting shelters and sacred sites and the shorelines of Makgadikgadi are littered with archaeological relics including Stone Age tools.

Linyanti, Savute and Selinda, areas are home to huge quantities of wildlife including big herds of buffalo and elephant, and predators, particularly lions and hyenas. The Linyanti Wildlife Reserve is a private reserve shared by a very small number of private camps, ensuring that guests are able to view the abundant wildlife privately and exclusively. The Savute channel is a now dry “waterway” that connects the Linyanti River with the interior of the Chobe National Park, ending at the Savute marsh. The Selinda (or Magweqana) Spillway is a shallow channel connecting the Panhandle region of the Okavango Delta with the Chobe River system.

The Moremi, Wildlife Reserve on the north-eastern edge of the Okavango Delta packs acacia forests, wetlands, lagoons and swamps into 1,800 sq km (700 sq miles). As varied as the terrain is, so is the game. From lion and leopard to elephant and buffalo right down to the bird-life, even the least inspired ornithologists will be amazed.

Okavango, Rivers flow to the ocean – not so the Okavango, which originates in Angola and spills back inland to the sands of the Kalahari Desert where it fans out and forms a vast delta of wetlands and waterways. At the flood this is quite literally a land of water; lagoons dotted with lilies, narrow channels that are invaded by papyrus reeds, islands and shallow sheets of water that glisten in the sun. This bounty attracts a huge variety of mammals and bird species, though on occasion they are almost secondary to the sheer wonder of the setting.
BOTSWANA FACTS

Country     Republic of Botswana, Known as Botswana and formerly Bechuanaland
Capital     Gaborone
Government type     Parliamentary Republic
Independence     Independence Day (Botswana Day), 30 September (1966)
Population     1,591,232 (July 2002 est.)
Nationality     Noun is Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
Adjective     Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
Ethnic groups

Tswana (or Setswana) 78% : Kalanga 11% : Basarwa 4% : other including Kgalagadi and white 7%
Religions

Indigenous beliefs 85%, Christian 15%
Languages

English (official) / Setswana
Currency     Pula (BWP), Pula means rain which is considered very precious in this dry land
Area     With a total of 600,370 sq km, Botswana is slightly smaller than Texas
Borders

Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe & is land locked
Economic overview

Botswana has maintained one of the world’s highest growth rates since independence in 1966 and through fiscal discipline and good management, has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of $7,800 in 2001. Diamond mining currently accounts for ore than one-third of GDP and for four-fifths of export earnings. Tourism, subsistence farming, and cattle are the other key sectors. On the downside, the government must deal with high rates of unemployment, poverty and HIV/AIDS infection rates that are amongst the highest in the world.

The Chobe River rises in the northern Angolan highlands and travels enormous distances through Kalahari sands before reaching Botswana where it is known as the Linyanti and then the Chobe. Like the Okavango and Zambezi, the Chobe’s course is affected by fault lines, which are extensions of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley. These three mighty rivers carry more water than all other rivers in Southern Africa and naturally attract a huge quantity of wildlife.

The Chobe National Park is bordered by the Chobe River and the Moremi Game Reserve and encompasses 11,000 sq km (4,500 sq miles) of river flood plains, open pans and riverine woodlands. The good grazing land and the plentiful supply of water attracts exceptionally large herds of elephant, buffalo, wildebeest, kudu, impala, zebra and of course the predators that follow in their wake.

In such varied habitat bird life is prolific and there are 440 bird species found in the river area, including many rare and unusual species. Keep an eye out for the African skimmer, the tiny and exquisitely coloured malachite kingfishers and Pel’s fishing owl.

Where the Chobe River is known as the Linyanti, great trees dwarf swampland, lagoons, reeds and papyrus – the perfect habitat for the handsome roan antelope with its chestnut coat and curving horns. During the dry season, from May to October, huge quantities of game shift from the Chobe area to the Linyanti area. In the south west of the park the Savuti plains are famous for the numerous & much studied lion, hyena, cheetah and leopard, you may also be lucky enough to see wild dog.

Chobe really is one of the great African national parks. Elephant, buffalo and lion are numerous, many rare animals and birds are to be found, animal behaviour is specialised and therefore particularly fascinating, and the sunsets are spectacular. The best time to visit is from May to September, the dry season; be aware that during the wet months even 25,000 elephant can disappear into a park this size.

The Linyanti Wildlife Reserve consists of 125,000 hectares of pristine wildlife area and is bordered by The Linyanti River in the north and the Chobe National Park in the east. Across the Linyanti River northwards lies Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. This area is very different from the Okavango Delta and should be included in every Botswana safari itinerary so that travellers have a more complete and varied experience of the country’s different wildlife areas.

This private reserve is enormous and is one of the least visited and most pristine corners of Botswana and the concession owners intend to keep it this way. The Linyanti region is shared between a very small number of private camps, ensuring that guests are able to view the abundant wildlife privately and exclusively.

Much of Chobe National Park’s wildlife spends the winter season in this area and huge concentrations of migratory species such as zebra and elephant can be seen. The Linyanti area is also renowned for its predators, particularly lions and hyenas. It has a wonderful diversity of habitat – open grasslands and waterholes, spectacular mature woodlands, towering mopane and Leadwood forests.

The Linyanti’s waters weave and meander as they make their way eastward towards Chobe and along its way form a myriad of pools and lagoons that are favored by hippos, crocodiles and incredible bird life. These pools also attract game from the dry lands to the east, for out of the rainy season they hold the first permanent waters to be found. In the early evening, with youngsters in tow, several breeding herds of elephant will gather to the pools along the Linyanti to enjoy a drink and to wallow and play in the mud holes.

There are large concentrations of buffalo and antelopes such as Red Lechwe, Tsessebe, Impala and Kudu. More elusive species such as Sable and Roan Antelope are also regularly encountered in this area. The Linyanti has high concentrations of giraffe, which love to feed on the abundant acacia trees along the floodplains, while cheetahs find the open areas of the Savute channel perfect for running down their prey.

THE SAVUTE CHANNEL

The Savute channel is a now dry “waterway” that connects the Linyanti River with the interior of the Chobe National Park, ending at the Savute marsh. The Savute has only ever flowed intermittently and today the channel is open grassland and is home to numerous animals including large herds of zebra, impala and wildebeests, as well as abundant predators such as lion, cheetah and Painted Hunting Dog.

Records show that the Savute channel and the marsh dried out during the 1880′s. The channel remained dry until summer 1957-58 when heavy rains in the catchments of the Angolan highlands re-flooded the Chobe system and the Channel flowed once again. Savute continued to flow until 1966 when it dried up for one season only and then began a wet cycle that lasted until 1981 when it stopped once more. This occurrence (including the fate of the animals which lived in and depended on the channels waters) is chronicled in Derek and Beverly Joubert’s documentary film, “The Stolen River”.

This cyclical and changing feature of wet and dry in the Channel is not completely understood, but it is generally believed that tectonic activity deep below the Kalahari’s sand bed is responsible. Others argue that its flow is primarily dependent upon the rainfall in the Angolan highlands that feed the Okavango and Chobe river basins and the channel.

THE SELINDA SPILLWAY

The Selinda (or Magweqana) Spillway is a shallow channel connecting the Panhandle region of the Okavango Delta with the Chobe River system. The Spillway flows only in years of high waters. Contrary to popular belief, the spillway flows only in one direction, from the Okavango to the Chobe. Legend has it that it flows in either direction depending upon water levels in the two systems, but this is not likely as the Okavango side is 30 meters higher than on the Chobe/Linyanti side.

Makgadikgadi Pans Game Reserve includes a portion of the 12000 sq km (4600 sq mile) Makgadikgadi Pans, which is the size of Portugal. Over 10,000 years ago these pans were one of the world’s largest prehistoric lakes. They dried up due to continual shifting of the earth’s crust and formed the Pans as we see them – salt plains covered with grasslands and isolated “islands” of vegetation marked by baobab and palm trees.

When the sparse summer rain comes, shallow depressions of saline clay and silt become pools that attract a migration of wildlife – zebra, wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, springbok and hartebeest ebb and flow across the plains in ceaseless pursuit of water and grazing. Following in their footsteps are the inevitable array of carnivores – lion, cheetah, leopard, wild dog, and hyena. It is not an uncommon sight to see game, far out on the pans eating the mineral-rich silt, as if up to their knees in water as the heat shimmers a mirage across the surface of the pans.

Though man has been around these parts from time immemorial, the pans are nearly devoid of human habitation and give one the feeling of true isolation. There are Bushman hunting shelters and sacred sites and the shorelines of Makgadikgadi are littered with archaeological relics including Stone Age tools. The seasonal bounty of game has attracted hunters through the ages.

The bird life is a specialist’s dream – white backed and lappet faced vultures, bateleur, ostrich, kori bustard, black korhaan and bronze winged courser, four species of sand grouse and a startling variety of larks. In the wet season flamingos, pelicans, avocet and a huge range of ducks move into the area.

Situated to the north-east of the Okavango Delta of Botswana, the Moremi Wildlife Reserve covers more than 1 000 sq kms of grassy floodplains, winding waterways, palm-fringed islands, woodland forests and lush, lily-covered lagoons. This mix of landscapes makes it not only exceptionally beautiful but additionally provides refuge for an amazing quantity and variety of game.

This is where hippos wallow in crystal-clear lagoons, where huge herds of impala and tsessebe roam the savannah and where the rare sitatunga and lechwe antelope live in the papyrus banks of the waterways. Naturally this profusion of life attracts predators and the Moremi offers an excellent chance at seeing lion, leopard, the endangered painted hunting dogs and even cheetah.
Okavango Delta Safari Botswana

Although much of the game is migratory, the choice grazing and permanent waters ensure game viewing all year round. However the peak months are in the dryer winter months (June to September) when large herds of buffalo, wildebeest and zebra that have been feeding in the Kalahari over the wet summer months, swarm back into the Moremi. By July, when the Okavango floodwaters reach the Moremi it is bursting with game.

The Moremi was established in 1963 and can be divided into three areas: the permanently flooded delta, Chief’s Island and then the mainland areas – accessible by vehicle, Mopane Tongue and Mboma Island. It has become one of the most successful wildlife havens in Africa – a tribute to the founders and protectors of this sanctuary.
Wildlife safaris in Botswana.

Rivers flow to the ocean – not so the Okavango, which is not only a river but also one of the world’s largest inland water systems. The river’s headwaters start in Angola’s western highlands, with numerous tributaries joining to form the Cubango river, which then flows through Namibia where it is called the Kavango and finally enters Botswana, where it is then called the Okavango.

Millions of years ago the Okavango River flowed into the huge Lake Makgadikgadi (now Makgadikgadi Pans). Tectonic activity interrupted the flow of the river causing it to backup and spill into the sands of the Kalahari Desert where it fans out and forms a vast delta of wetlands and waterways. This unique system of lagoons dotted with lilies, narrow channels invaded by papyrus reeds, islands and shallow sheets of water that glisten in the sun supports a vast array of animal and plant life in what would have otherwise been a dry Kalahari savanna.

The Delta’s floods are fed by Angolan rains, which start in October and finish in April. The floods only cross the border between Botswana and Namibia in December and only reach the bottom end of the delta (Maun) sometime in July. This slow meandering pace is due to the lack of drop in elevation, little more than 60 meters over a distance of 450 kilometers. The Delta’s water ends in the Kalahari – via the Botetle River, over 95 per cent of the water has evaporated along the way.

During the peak of the flooding the Delta’s area can expand to over 16,000 square kilometers, shrinking to less than 9,000 square kilometers in the low period. Naturally this bounty attracts a huge variety of mammals and bird species, though on occasion they are almost secondary to the sheer wonder of the setting. The water moves into the Delta as the surrounding land dries out (winter months are dry in Botswana) and so huge populations of wildlife congregates on the edge of the newly flooded areas – May through October.

Okavango Delta Safari Botswana
The Delta is home to large numbers of animal populations including crocodile, red lechwe, sitatunga, elephant, wild dogs, buffalo, wattled crane as well as the other more common mammals and bird life. The best time for game viewing in the delta is from May to October. The best time for birding and vegetation is during the rainy season, November to April, as the migrant bird populations are returning and the plants are flowering and green.