Upon arriving in Maun you will be met by a Moremi Air representative who will check you in for your light aircraft transfer into Tau Pan Camp.
On arrival at Tau Pan our guide will welcome you at the airstrip. After settling into your rooms, the afternoon will be spent on a game drive discovering what makes the Kalahari so special. Dinner will be served back at camp and then you can relax around the campfire and reflect on the day gone by.
Tau Pan is the first semi-permanent camp inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and offers truly incredible views from the elevated ridge of an ancient sand dune, an unusual experience in a land as flat as Botswana, and overlooks the famous Tau Pan - recognised for its stark beauty and remoteness.
‘Tau’ which means lion in Setswana, is so named for the pride of iconic black-maned Kalahari lions who frequent the camp - with a particular preference for the family tent!
Species that can be found in the Kalahari include oryx, the desert-adapted springbok, jackals, the rare brown hyena as well wildebeest and red crested korhaan
After breakfast we depart on a nature walk before saying goodbye to Tau Pan Camp as we leave to get further into the CKGR.
Most of the scenery en-route to CKGR is cattle country and dry savannah bush. We will spend the next three nights in the CKGR. After approx. 2 hours driving from Tau Pan, the vegetation changes and small dry pans (open areas) appear and then the land falls gradually away to Deception Valley.
Your camp crew will have set up the camp for you so all you need to do is sits around the fire , enjoy a drink and enjoy a good hearty meal
The valleys in the Kalahari are extinct river valleys that occurred millions of years ago and are now covered in short dry grass. After a little rainfall the grass turns green offering the wildlife much needed nutrition. We explore areas like Deception Valley, Passarge Valley, Sundays Pans and Letiahau.
To get a better idea of this unique ecosystem we recommend you read “Cry of the Kalahari” by Mark and Delia Owens.
The CKGR was established in 1961 by the British Government to protect the traditional way of life of the nomadic San Bushman tribes. The park covers an area of 52800 square kilometres and makes up an 11th of Botswana’s total land area making it the second largest game reserve in the world, the first being the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania covering 54 000 km2. The CKGR is a scrub desert with almost no surface water available.
Home to the famous “Kalahari Lions” the area has healthy populations of cheetah, brown hyena, gemsbok, springbok, giraffe, wildebeest, bat eared fox and the tenacious honey badger.
A landscape with endless horizons, the early evening air is dominated by the never ending calls of the Kalahari barking geckos.
The Kalahari is a fiercely beautiful but hostile environment - the CKGR will creep into your soul and for many months after your visit you will yearn to return.
We pack and move camp east to the huge expansive grasslands of the Makgadikgadi Pans in search of the huge numbers of zebra (up to 25000 animals) that leave the Boteti river system and concentrate on the open grasslands in search of nutritious grasses to give birth to their young. Despite their numbers they can be elusive and we spend the next three nights in search of the herds and exploring this vast open landscape.
A scenic flight by helicopter is included in the safari in search of the Zebra Migration.
When travelling between campsites from Deception Valley to Makgadikgadi Pans, we choose routes through wildlife areas wherever possible which means that each transfer is really an extended game drive. A picnic lunch will be served at a suitably scenic spot en-route.
Scenic helicopter flight
The Makgadikgadi zebra migration moves east away from the Boteti River into the huge open grasslands of the Makgadikgadi Pans after our first good rains. Our camp will be erected in the grasslands just north - west of the expansive Ntwetwe Pans or further north at Baines Baobabs or Nxai Pan.
The salt pans cover an area of over 16 000km2 in the Kalahari Basin and form the bed of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi which evaporated millions of years ago.
Although Nxai Pan was once part of the great super lake, it is quite different to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans as it boasts broad hectares of short sweet grasslands with occasional “islands” of trees. The rich grassland provides good grazing and attracts springbok, impala, gemsbok, giraffe, kudu, hartebeest, zebra, wildebeest, all followed by lions and hyena, as well as a wide array of birdlife.
The grasslands of the Makgadikgadi hide small colonies of meerkats that have become habituated to people and provide a few hours of rewarding interaction.
Baines Baobabs, a cluster of seven Baobab trees, are located within the park. The Baobabs were
painted by Thomas Baines when he passed through travelling with John Chapman in 1862.
Following our customary early morning breakfast and early game drive we say goodbye to our back up team and camp staff and drive back to Maun. You will arrive in Maun around noon in time for outbound flights or for your onward arrangements.
