Travel Adviser : Botswana’s other beauty

HOW TO GET THERE

From South Africa you can fly either to Maun on Air Botswana, or to Victoria Falls on Air Zimbabwe. From there you will fly by charter to Kasane, or direct to one of the camps.

WHOM TO CONTACT

You can contact Photo Africa Safaris direct in Kasane at PO Box 11, Kasane, Botswana. Tel (09267) 65-0385/8, fax (09267) 65-0383. Otherwise you can contact the Johannesburg agents, Safaris Par Excellence, at PO Box 1395, Randburg 2124. Tel (011) 787-9500/9756, fax (011) 787-9757.

WHAT TO DO

At Selinda most activities centre around early-morning, evening and night game drives. King’s Pool and Linyanti concentrate more on water activities and game walks. Both these camps have customised game-viewing craft, as well as smaller boats used for fishing. There is plenty of time to relax and, because the camps are small, to do more or less what you want.

WHAT TO TAKE

Obviously malaria precautions must be your first consideration. Take typical safari clothes plus good walking shoes or boots, and warm clothes for the early and late drives. It gets bitterly cold in winter.

Binoculars are a must, as are bird field guides and plenty of film if you take a camera.

RECOMMENDED READING

Although no books deal specifically with this area, several general reference books on Botswana are available. The best of these is Michael Main’s Kalahari: Life’s Variety in Dune and Delta (Southern Book Publishers, Johannesburg). The best coffee-table books on the area are Okavango: Sea of Land, Land of Water by Anthony Bannister and Peter Johnston and The Lions and Elephants of the Chobe: Botswana’s Untamed Wilderness by Bruce Aitkin (both Struik Publishers, Cape Town). There is also Clive Walker’s more personalised book Savuti: The Vanishing River (Southern Book Publishers).