The Kalahari

The southern Kalahari receives somewhat more rain than the central Kalahari due to its local climatic conditions, allowing it to support a large diversity of life. This has earned the region the nickname of “Green Kalahari”. It is a semi-arid grassland with wide open savannahs and a diversity of habitats, which has been inhabited by the Bushman for 20,000 years as hunter-gatherers who lived in a harmonious relationship with the environment. The Kalahari has remained a true wilderness area due to its unfavorable conditions for modern man.

Seasons in the southern Kalahari can be described in traditional terms - spring, summer, autumn and winter - but their nature and duration are very different, with summer lasting almost six months. The seasonal variation means that you can always promises things that can never be seen elsewhere, with each month revealing sights and sounds different to the last. There are about 80 species of mammals and approximately 240 species of birds. The open habitat makes game viewing excellent and the animals can be appreciated within their habitat rather than amongst bushes. In addition to the traditional safari sightings there are great opportunities to see rare species which are also seldom seen in the “usual” safari areas. These include Roan and Sable antelope, Tsessebe, Hartmanns mountain zebra and of course the desert black rhino.

The South African portion of The Kalahari situated in the heart of the Northern Cape Province, some 300 kilometres north-west of Kimberley and 270 kilometres north-east of Upington. Johannesburg lies 560 kilometres to the east and Cape Town some 850 kilometres to the south.