REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA

TOTAL AREA : 581 730 sq km

CAPITAL : Gaborone

BORDER COUNTRIES : Namibia (west & nor th) ; South

Af r ica (south); Z imbabwe and Zambia (east ) .

Botswana i s a landlocked country .

CLIMATE : Dry , semi -ar id land (ra infa l l i s

unpredictable and droughts occur of ten) wi th

warm winters and hot summers wi th humidi ty

ra i s ing summer temperatures in to the 40’s

(Cel s ius ; 100˚F) . Summer : Sep – Apr i l / Winter : May

– Ju l . Dur ing summer , shor t thunders torms are

f requent, hot days and n ights wi th a cool ing of f

af ter ra in spel l s . Dur ing winter , the days are dry

and warm, wi th n ight t ime temperatures dropping

wi th cool to cold n ights and ear ly morn ings .

GDP : US$26.563 b i l l ion Growth rate 2 .9%

POPULATION : 1 .99 mi l l ion (2009 est . ) – Batswana

(p lura l ) / Motswana (s ingular ) .

ETHNIC GROUPS : T swana (or Setswana) 79%;

Kalanga 11%; Basarwa 3%; o ther , inc luding

Kalahar i and whi te 7%.

LANGUAGES : Setswana 78%; Kalanga 8%;

Sekgalagadi 3%; Engl i sh 2% (of f ic ia l ) ; other 9%.

RELIGIONS : Chr i s t ian 72%; Badimo 6%; other 2%;

none 20%

T IME : UTC/GMT +2

CURRENCY : Pu la (BWP). Denominat ions : P5 , P10,

P50 and P100. V i sa, MasterCard, Amer ican Express

and Diners Club are accepted payment but to a

l imi ted extent . Most hotel s and lodges wi l l accept

major fore ign cur rency or t ravel lers cheques.

INTERNATIONAL DIALLI NG CODE : +267

ELECTRICITY : 230V AC 50 Hz

WATER : Dr ink ing water i s safe in urban areas ,

un less other -wi se s t ipulated.

DRIVES ON : Lef t

Former ly known as Bechuanaland, a B r i t i sh

protectorate, Botswana gained independence in

September 1966. The country i s d iv ided into 9

d i s t r ic ts , wi th i t s largest towns being: Ga borone,

F ranci s town, Sel ib i -Ph ikwe and Lobatse. I ts

dominant economic act iv i ty i s d iamond min ing,

fo l lowed by tour i sm and manufactur ing, wi th

agr icul ture a l so p lay ing a s ign i f icant ro le . I t i s

p redominant ly f lat , dominated by the Kalahar i

Deser t wh ich covers up to 70% of i t s land sur face.

Fact F lash : Botswana i s the wor ld’s la rgest

producer of d iamonds and i s twice the s i ze of the

Un i ted K ingdom – yet on ly has a populat ion of

1 .9 mi l l ion people. S ince independence in 1967,

i t has had one of the fastest growth rates in per

capi ta income in the wor ld.

The mi raculous Okavango Del ta, fed by crys ta l

pure waters f rom the Angolan Highlands , f loods

once a year , spreading f ingers of water through a

deser t wonder land, resu l t ing in teeming herds of

game and unique water and land based game

v iewing opportun i t ies . The Chobe Nat ional Park ,

home to 45 000 e lephant i s eas i l y combined wi th

V ictor ia Fal l s in Zambia, and the Tu l i B lock on the

South Af r ican border of fer s dramat ic landscapes

together wi th b ig game and the ico nic Baobab

t ree.

CHOBE GAME RESERVE

(120 000 hectares)

As one of the largest reserves in Southern Af r ica,

the game at Chobe i s var ied and plent i fu l . Most

t ravel ler s exper ience the Chobe water f ront in the

nor th west , and the main att ract ion i s the vast

herds of e lephant which f requent the r iver . Th i s i s

the largest e lephant populat ion in the wor ld, wi th

numbers of 45 000 in the immediate Chobe

v ic in i ty . Th i s nor th west corner i s a l so renowned

for excel lent h ippo and Ni le crocodi le s ight ings ,

and large herds of buf fa lo , zebra and wi ldebeest

migrat ing towards Savute are of ten t ra i led

by pr ides of l ion . Over 450 species of b i rd have

been record-ed in the reserve. The Chobe River i s

the meet ing point of three countr ies : Botswana,

Namibia and Zambia and boasts d ramatic sk ies

over the expans ive r iver , wi th palms dott ing the

i s lands that make up the th ree di f ferent countr ies .

Savute l ies to the far west of Chobe Nat ional

Park . Once a permanent water channel and now

dr ied up owing to geo -graphical sh i f t s , g rass

grows on the s i l t of the r iver and i s punctuated by

the skeletons of dead t rees , drowned in the

waters 40 years ago. E lephant and other game

s t i l l make the i r t radi t ional migrat ion to th i s area

for water fo l lowing ins t incts past down to them

f rom generat ions wh i le the summer ra ins

(November – Apr i l ) br ing a feast for l ion , hyaena

and cheetah as thousands of migrat ing zebra and

wi ldebeest assemble in a chaot ic pattern on the

Savute marsh .

OKAVANGO DELTA

(250 000 hectares)

There i s no spectacle l ike the Okavango Del ta in

f lood, when ra ins f rom Angola’s western

highlands f i l te r over n ine months to the Del ta,

t ransforming i t in to a un ique sys tem of waterways

that support a vast ar ray of p lant , an imal and

bi rd l i fe . Safar i act iv i t ies by water are the pr imary

specia l i ty of the Okavango and g l id ing th rough

the waterways by mokoro, a f lat bottomed boat,

poled by a local guide makes the Okavango

exper ience unique in the wor ld.

Th i s region boasts large animal numbers

especial ly in the f lood months , which range f rom

May to October . Most commonly seen are

e lephant, h ippo and crocodi les as wel l as un ique

game such as red lechwe and s i tatunga. L ion,

wi ld dogs, buf fa lo , hyaena and cheetah are a l so

of ten seen as wel l as pro l i f ic b i rd l i fe , inc luding

k ing-f i shers , cranes and f i sh e agles . In the

Moremi , certa in areas are par t icular ly renowned

for cer ta in types of game, inc luding Xakanaxa

Lagoon (wi ld dog, cheetah and a very h igh

dens i ty of antelope) and Khwai R iver (vast herds

of e lephant and predators ) .

LINYANTI WILDLIFE RESERVE

(125 000 hectares)

The L inyant i Wi ld l i fe Reserve i s a pr i s t ine

wi lderness area, in one of the most remote and

inaccess ib le par ts of Botswana. Two th i rds of the

famous Savute Channel are in th i s pr ivate reserve

and the las t s t retches of A f r ica’s Great R i f t Val ley

d iv ide the forests of the in ter ior wi th the r iver s

and f loodplains of the L inyant i . I t i s a long th i s

r idge (and along the Savute Channel ) that some

of the best game v iewing in the most untouched

par ts of Af r ica takes p lace.

The L inyant i Wi ld l i fe Reserv e area i s renowned for

pred-ators and large concentrat ions of game,

par t icular ly e le -phant and buf fa lo which move

down to the L inyant i R iver at the s tar t of the

winter months (May – June). Sable and roan

antelope, l ion , leopard and wi ld dog are common

in the L inyant i Reserve area, which was made

famous in the Nat ional Geographic f i lm, “Eternal

enemies” which chron ic les in detai l the

in teract ion between l ion and hyaena.

The marshes are home to red lechwe, s i tatunga,

h ippo, crocodi les and spectacular b i rd l i fe .