Facts and Figures
Spanning across 600 370km2(231,788 miles²) Botswana is one of Africa’s most popular tourism destinations. Located in southern Africa, just north of South Africa, Botswana is bordered by South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and is home to over 1.5 million people. This varied and fascinating country has some unique and outstanding facts and trivia around it.
Facts About the Land
At 600 370km² (231,788 miles²) Botswana is a similar size to Madagascar and is just slightly smaller than Texas and only slightly larger than France.
The Kalahari Desert covers over 80% of Botswana resulting in its climate being mostly arid to semi-arid. Rainfall occurs mainly in summer with the peak times being in January. The average rainfall is about 500mm per year in the northeast and less than 250mm in the other parts of the country, some countries or areas, such as Chocó in Columbia can receive 500 mm of rain in just one day.
The Okavango River runs through the centre of the Kalahari Desert, creating the unique ecosystem known as the Okavango Delta, from which the abundant bird and wildlife populations flourish. The Okavango River Delta is one of the world’s largest inland deltas. Chobe National Park is located on the banks of part of the Okavango River and is home to over 120 000 Elephants.
A predominantly flat landscape, the two highest points in Botswana are Otse Mountain, which is 1 491 metres, and the Tsodilo Hills which is 1 489 metres. Both of these points are taller than Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain which is only 1 085 metres high. Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro is almost 4 times higher than both points.
Tsodilo Hills is well-known for its bushmen rock art with over 4 500 paintings being found in the various caves in the hills. Most of these paintings date back over hundred thousand years ago.
Wild Places and Trophy Hunters
When seeing Maun airport for the first time one can be forgiven for thinking that it is the product of a decades old safari industry. Known to be one of the busiest small-craft airports in Africa, Maun has grown fast over the past ten years. Many aircraft stand waiting to ferry passengers to one of the many lodges around The Okavango and other parks of the country. But it has not always been so!
In the first half of the 1900’s the northern wilderness areas of Botswana were the haunt of crocodile hunters and other adventurers, with tourism almost non-existent save for some hardy operators who ventured into the wild lands with guests. In the 1960’s hunters from Kenya, seeking new hunting grounds after the political changes in the country, settled in Maun and made Northern Botswana their new home.
For many years the Delta and other parts of Botswana were divided into concession areas and leased out to the hunting companies.
Birth of a Legend
The National Parks and Game Reserves of Botswana provided the most unadulterated wilderness in Africa and safari connoisseurs began to see the attractions of this new safari frontier. In the 1980’s a smattering of rustic safari camps sprang up but a Botswana safari was still very much a tented camping experience.
This began to change in the 1990’s with photographic safari companies tendering for the hunting concessions and soon more and more lodges sprang up – and they began to resemble the luxury lodges of South Africa. Today, like elsewhere in Africa, the Botswana safari is a lodge-based affair – with mobile camping safaris becoming the exception rather than the rule.
Botswana Tourism Tomorrow
Over the years trophy hunting in Botswana has been squeezed into smaller and smaller pockets and the announcement by the Botswana Government that hunting is to be stopped altogether in 2014 will open up new concession areas for photographic tourism. Sound tourism policies will ensure that the industry remains strong into the future.
