Central Kalahari Reserve, Botswana

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve covers a large section of central Botswana. Its harsh, sprawling terrain is dominated by grasslands, home to wildlife such as giraffes, cheetahs, hyenas, and wild dogs.

There are several fossilized river valleys, including Deception Valley and Passarge Valley, which offer basic campsites. Dirt tracks wind south through the reserve’s remote landscapes to the Piper’s Pan area.

Nothing can prepare a visitor for the sheer size and immensity of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), nor its wild, mysterious beauty. There is the immediate impression of unending space, which gives the impression of having the entire reserve to yourself.

Waist-high golden grasses stretch to the horizon, punctuated by dwarfed trees and scrub bushes. Wide and empty pans appear as vast white stretches of pancake-flat earth, meeting a soft, blue-white sky. At night the stars are genuinely awe-inspiring, utterly dominating the land with their brilliance and immediacy.

The CKGR is the largest, most remotely situated reserve in Southern Africa and the second-largest wildlife reserve in the world, encompassing 52,800 sq. km.

During and shortly after good summer rains, the flat grasslands of the reserve’s northern reaches teem with wildlife, which gathers at the best grazing areas. These include large herds of springbok and gemsbok and wildebeest, hartebeest, eland and giraffe. Silver Terminalia sand veldt, Kalahari sand acacias, and Kalahari apple leaf dominate the landscape, interspersed with grasslands, and dotted with occasional dunes, pans, and shallow fossil river valleys.