Did you manage to catch the first episode of the new David Attenborough BBC television series “Africa” last week? We were all glued to this mesmerising programme with wonderful photography and jaw dropping animal antics. The episode focused on the awe inspiring Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa so we thought we too would take a closer look at this amazing place.
The Kalahari is a semi-arid sandy savannah covering almost a million square kilometres in Southern Africa. This giant flat basin stretches across borders covers almost a third of Namibia (merging in the south with the Namib Desert), almost all of Botswana and the Northern Cape area of neighbouring South Africa. The name Kalahari in the local language Tswana means “thirsty land” or “place without water” which is very apt although is also home to a vast array of flora and fauna which thrive in the difficult conditions. As it receives quite a lot of rainfall it is not classed as desert just semi-arid savannah. Parts of it are home to the Okavango River Delta and are marshy whereas other parts are totally arid and home to miles of red sand dunes. There are also areas which vary across the year such as the unbelievably vast salt pans of Makgadikgadi. There are also the occasional rocky outcrop called kopjes which pop up here and there. The landscape in the Kalahari is varied but always seriously impressive and very beautiful.
The name savannah conjures up a scrubland of native grasses and acacia trees and this is what a lot of the Kalahari looks like, indeed a typical African scene. It is home to many rare species and there are lots of game parks and reserves in the Kalahari. The northern Kalahari supports a considerable population of giraffes, zebras, elephants, buffalo, and antelopes as well as a good number of predators such as lions, cheetahs, leopards and the incredibly rare African wild hunting dogs. There are also plenty of other mammals, such as jackals, hyenas, warthogs, baboons, and a large and varied wealth of birdlife.
The other ancient and more famous inhabitants of the Kalahari are the bushmen or the San tribe which we have talked about in detail here on the blog before. The San were traditionally hunter-gatherers who lived across the Kalahari. Nowadays many have been resettled by the government of Botswana from their traditional homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to new villages built outside the reserve.
The weather varies depending on where you are in the Kalahari but in general it tends to be hot, sunny and dry with temperatures as high as 50 degrees in the summer months which can bring on some spectacular thunderstorms. The winters are dry but less hot during the day and can be actually freezing at night time. This is partly due to the high altitude (3000ft above sea level) and also due to the lack of cloud cover and clear skies.
