republic of botswana -...
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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 .