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Bradt Guide Botswana
Ref: BRA017
The ideal guide for safari visitors, concentrating on Botswana’s most popular regions. Extensive guidance is offered on choosing lodges and safari camps, and there are detailed sections on environment, wildlife and flora, including the abundant birdlife in the wetland paradise of the Okavango Delta.
Book Reviews
"There can be few people better qualified to write a travel guide on Botswana than Chris McIntyre...Like all good guide books, this is packed with all kinds of practical and wide-ranging advice - from driving near elephants to maps with GPS references and how to shake hands Botswana style....What's more, even the nuts-and-bolts sections are well-written and make enjoyable reading. In particular, the region-by-region chapters on the country's reserves, camps and lodges had me longing to jump on the first plane to Maun. Each area is painstakingly described - clearly the result of meticulous first-hand research...If you can take only one book to Botswana, make sure it's this one."
-— BBC Wildlife
"If you can only take one book to Botswana, make sure it's this one."
-- BBC Wildlife
"…gives a complete coverage of this unique ecosystem and its bird and plant life."
NHBS (Natural History Book Services), October 2004
About this Destination
Northern Botswana's pristine wilderness protects some of the earth’s most spectacular wildlife: dense concentrations of big-game animals, an amazing wealth of birdlife, and huge herds, roaming from the saltpans of the Kalahari to the lush Okavango Delta. Devoid of the marks of modern man, the landscape still bears the imprints of our ancestors, from the subtle art of the Tsodilo Hills to the more brutal remnants of the Stone Age.
A few remote camping spots and a handful of the world’s best safari lodges attract true lovers of nature to share in this extraordinary region. With a wealth of practical and background information, this is the essential companion.
Author's Note, by Chris McIntyre
It's tempting here, by way of introduction, to list the highlights of Botswana's main areas one-by-one, describing each to entice the reader. But to do this would be misleading, as Botswana has just three main attractions for me.
Firstly, it's the wildlife. Whether this is you first safari or your fiftieth, Botswana won't disappoint. The sheer variation of the country, from the arid Kalahari to lush, well-watered forest glades, ensures tremendous variety. Botswana is serious about its big game. It has spectacular herds of elephants and buffalo, and prolific populations of predators. Experienced safari enthusiasts can bounce across the bush following a pack of wild dogs; Botswana has probably the continent's best population of these highly endangered predators. Yet often it's the country's smaller residents that will keep you entertained, from tiny painted reed frogs and barking geckos, to troops of entertaining meerkats.
Secondly and the underlying reason why many come here is the feeling in Botswana that you're within an endless pristine wilderness, almost devoid of human imprint. For city-dwellers, such space seems to be the ultimate luxury. In Botswana, animals wander freely across vast reserves which are measured in thousands of square kilometres, not hectares. Exploring these wilder corners is invariably deeply liberating.
Thirdly, and missed by some, is Botswana's rich history. It's often barely hinted at but, veiled and mysterious, it's all the more enticing. It reveals itself in the paintings at Tsodilo, and the magic that seems to surround those hills. You'll catch a glimpse of it as you search for Stone-Age arrowheads on the Makgadikgadi Pans. And standing on an ancient river-bed, or the wave-washed hills around Savuti, it's hard not to think back and wonder what forces shaped this country, long before you, or any Europeans, first set eyes on it.
Chris McIntyre is managing director of a UK travel company that specialises in southern Africa, and is author of Bradt’s acclaimed Namibia and Zambia guides.
£14.95
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