Makgadikgadi Pans National Park 

Imagine – if you will – an area the size of Portugal, largely uninhabited by humans. Its stark, flat, featureless terrain stretches – it would seem – to eternity, meeting and fusing with a milky-blue horizon. This is the Makgadikgadi – an area of 12 000 sq kms, part of the Kalahari Basin, yet unique to it – one of the largest salt pans in the world. For much of the year, most of this desolate area remains waterless and extremely arid; and large mammals are thus absent. But during and following years of good rain, the two largest pans – Sowa to the east and Ntwetwe to the west – flood, attracting wildlife – zebra and wildebeest on the grassy plains – and most spectacularly flamingos at Sowa and Nata Sanctuary. Flamingo numbers can run into the tens – and sometimes – hundreds of thousands, and the spectacle can be completely overwhelming.

The rainwater that pours down on the pans is supplemented by seasonal river flows – the Nata, Tutume, Semowane and Mosetse Rivers in the east, and in years of exceptional rains, the Okavango via the Boteti River in the west. During this time, the pans can be transformed into a powder blue lake, the waters gently lapping the shorelines, and flowing over the pebble beaches – a clear indication of the gigantic, prehistoric lake the Makgadikgadi once was. Research suggests that the Makgadikgadi is a relic of what was once one of the biggest inland lakes Africa has ever had.

Africa’s most famous explorer, Dr. David Livingstone, crossed these pans in the 19th century, guided by a massive baobab, Chapman’s Tree – believed to be 3 000 to 4 000 years old, and the only landmark for hundreds of miles around. Seeing this amazing tree today, you are given entry to an era when much of the continent was uncharted, and explorers often risked their lives navigating the wilderness on oxcarts through rough and grueling terrain. The Makgadikgadi is in fact a series of pans, the largest of which are Sowa and Ntwetwe, both of which are surrounded by a myriad of smaller pans. North of these two pans are Kudiakam pan, Nxai Pan and Kaucaca Pan. Interspersed between the pans are sand dunes, rocky islands and peninsulas, and desert terrain.

No vegetation can grow on the salty surface of the pans, but the fringes are covered with grasslands. Massive baobab trees populate some fringe areas – and their silhouettes create dramatic landscapes against a setting sun. The Makgadikgadi Pans Game Reserve – with an area of 3 900 sq kms – incorporates the western end of Ntwetwe, extensive grasslands and acacia woodland. At its northern boundary, it meets the Nxai Pan National Park, separated only by the Nata- Maun Road.

In the wet season, this reserve can offer good wildlife viewing, particularly when large herds of zebra and wildebeest begin their westward migration to the Boteti region. other species include gemsbok, eland and red hartebeest, as well as kudu, bushbuck, duiker, giraffe, springbok, steenbok, and even elephant, with all the accompanying predators, as well as the rare brown hyena. Humans have inhabited areas of the pans since the Stone age, and have adapted to geographical and climatic changes as they have occurred. Archaeological sites on the pans are rich with Early Man’s tools, and the bones of the fish and animals he ate.

Human inhabitation has continued to the present day; and a number of villages, including Mopipi, Mmatshumo, Nata, Gweta and Rakops, are situated on the fringes of the pans.

Maloti-Drakensberg Park 

The incredible scenic Maloti-Drakensberg Park is a transnational property that includes South Africa's uKhahlamba Drakensberg National Park and Lesotho's Sehlathebe National Park. The site's soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks and golden sandstone walls, as well as aesthetically beautiful sculptured arches, caves, cliffs, pillars and rock pools, have extraordinary natural beauty. The site's diverse ecosystems help to safeguard a large number of indigenous and globally significant plants, it is also home to endangered animals like the Cape and Bearded Vultures.

The Maloti minnow, a highly endangered fish species found only in Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho lives here. This magnificent natural site has numerous caves and rock shelters, as well as Africa's largest and most concentrated collection of paintings south of the Sahara. They depict the San people's spiritual lives during their 4,000-year presence in this area.

The Maloti-Drakensberg Park range of mountains is Southern Africa's primary water-production area. The escarpment that forms the watershed for two of Southern Africa's main drainage basins has a drainage divide along the international border between the two countries. The Thukela River flows eastward into the Indian Ocean from the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. The southern Maloti-Drakensberg rivers, which include Sehlabathebe National Park, drain into the Senqu/Orange River, which flows westwards into the Atlantic Ocean. The extension of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site to include Sehlabathebe National Park adds special hydrologic qualities to the area.

The property includes shelters housing an estimated 690 rock art sites, with the number of individual images in those sites likely exceeding 35,000. The pictures portray animals and humans and represent the San people's spiritual life, expressing an unusually unified tradition that spans millennia and embodies their beliefs as well as cosmology. There are additional rock art paintings attributed to Bantu speaking people dating from the nineteenth and twentieth century.

The property, which stretches along much of KwaZulu-south-western Natal's border with Lesotho, is a key sanctuary for more than 250 indigenous plant species and their related wildlife. It also contains almost all of the province's remaining subalpine and alpine vegetation, as well as significant high altitude wetlands over 2,750 m, and is a RAMSAR site. The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park is a major element of the Lesotho Highlands Endemic Bird Area and has been designated as an Important Bird Area.

The Maloti-Drakensberg Park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. (Source UNESCO)

Mana Pools National Park 

The World Heritage Site of Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas is a place of stunning terrain and ecological processes. This large property of 676,600 ha, which is physically protected to the north by the Zambezi River and to the south by the steep escarpment (which rises to over 1,000 m from the valley floor), provides shelter for massive congregations of Africa's large mammal populations in its flood plains.

The Mana Pools are former Zambezi River channels, and ongoing geological processes show how a huge seasonal river may erode and deposit, with a recognizable pattern of plant succession on its alluvial deposits. While black rhino has vanished since the property was established, vast herds of elephant and buffalo, followed by zebra, waterbuck, and a variety of other antelope species, as well as their predators such as lion and hyena, move to the area every year during the dry winter months.

The river is also known for its large hippopotamus and Nile crocodile populations. There are about 450 kinds of resident and migratory birds in the area. In the safari zones, controlled quota hunting is permitted.

The Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

(Source UNESCO)

Mangetti National Park 

Mangetti is part of a new generation of parks aimed at reducing rural poverty through tourism development, joint management and benefit sharing with local communities. One of Namibia’s latest national parks, it has the potential to become a new tourism highlight in the north, while protecting wildlife and vegetation and providing tangible socioeconomic benefits to local communities through careful tourism development.

Situated in the eastern Kalahari woodlands about 100 km south-west of Rundu, the area was previously managed as a game camp for breeding rare and endangered species. The land was originally set aside for conservation by the Ukwangali Traditional Authority.

Mapungubwe National Park 

As you enter the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site, one of the things that first captures the eye is the architecture of the Museum and Interpretive Centre. The extraordinary curvature and lines of the building will mesmerise all visitors but the true treasures are located inside.

The centre was constructed with the intention of merging the natural location with the park's cultural heritage, by using modern environmentally sensitive techniques. In 2009 the building won the World Architectural Building of the Year Award, out-performing buildings from New York, Singapore and China.The stone-walling technique used in the building of the centre was adopted from a native method prevalent in the Mapungubwe area.

The motivation behind the costruction of such a centre was created when native communities requested the return of the remains and artifacts removed from Mapungubwe in the 1930's. The human remains we reburried. It was decided that the artifacts needed to be displayed in a museum in order to educate and inform visitors of the area's rich heritage.

A short boardwalk ramp leads you to the entrance of the facility, where you will be met by a knowledgeable guide who is eager to share the mysteries of Mapungubwe and one of southern Africa's first trading kingdoms, with you. The museum houses historical artefacts, images and information that tell the story of Mapungubwe's incredle history. The holy grail of the museum is the Golden Rhino which was discovered in a grave in 1932, more than seven centuries after the civilization inhabited the area. The museum tour ends with a short walk to a look-out point where you will be able to see the hill that was, according to legend, the inspiration behind architect Gerard Moerdijk's Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria.

Enjoy a view over the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers where three countries meet. There is a picnic site with shaded picnic spots with tables and taps along with ablution facilities. You can also hire a skottel braai and get basic necessities at the tuck shop.

The bird hide is located within a short driving distance from Limpopo Forest Tented Camp and the Mazhou Camping Site. It offers a lovely location from which to view birds and mammals of all kinds.

The auditorium caters for meetings or educational groups and can seat up to 50 guests.

Marakele National Park 

The park was first known as the Kransberg National Park when it was first proclaimed in 1994.

The Kwaggasvlakte plains immediately north of the reception/office complex and camping site can be traversed in a normal sedan although certain areas might be a bit challenging. The entrance roads to the safari tent camp and bush camp and t he narrow track up to the towers, can also be accessed with a sedan. Most other roads will present difficult terrain.

The Waterberg was the area that the naturalist, poet and author Eugene Marais lived in and inspired such works as his renowned novel "Soul of the White Ant."

Ramolefe Boy Moatshe has lived in the area all his life. On 4 August 1981 he survived a 15 minute bare handed fight with a leopard (that he had surprised) after taking a calf from the herd he was tending. Ten hours after the attack he made it to hospital. He spent 2 months in rehabilitation in the hospital.

The park also has an abundance of iron-age sites that will be made accessible to visitors in the future.

Matobo National Park 

This National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Matopo/Matobo is a corruption of a shona/Venda word, "matombo" which means stones in Tshivenda. It was named by the Lozwi, who are the ancestors of Kalanga. A different tradition states that the first King , Mzilikazi Khumalo when told by the local residents that the great granite domes were called madombo he replied , possible half jest, "We will call them matobo" - an IsiNdebele play on 'Bald heads'.

The Hills cover an area of about 3100 km² (1200 sq mi), of which 424 km² (164 sq mi) is National Park, the remainder being largely communal land and a small proportion of commercial farmland. The park extends along the Thuli, Mtshelele, Maleme and Mpopoma river valleys. Part of the national park is set aside as a 100 km² (39 sq mi) game park, which has been stocked with game including the white rhinoceros. The highest point in the hills is the promontory named Gulati (1549 m; 5082 ft) just outside the north-eastern corner of the park.

Administratively, Matobo National Park incorporates the Lake Matopos Recreational Park, being the area around Hazelside, Sandy Spruit and Lake Matopos.

The national park is located within the southern Africa bushveld ecoregion.

Matusadona National Park 

Matusadona was proclaimed a non-hunting area on 7 November 1958 before being declared as a Game Reserve in 1963, and then in 1975 it became a National Park, under the Parks & Wildlife Act of Rhodesia. Matusadona National Park covers 1,400 km2 (540 sq mi) of flat plains and rugged mountains protecting a diverse flora and fauna. Its area encompasses a combination of pristine and rugged wilderness, which before the Kariba Dam was built and Lake Kariba created, was very inaccessible.

The creation of the lake caused profound ecological changes. in particular, the availability of grazing on the lakeshore has contributed to an increase in the populations of large mammals large mammal in the park, especially those of elephant and Cape buffalo. The species of grass growing on the shoreline is Panicum repens which grows as long as the lake levels fluctuate bringing nutrients to the shore. This source of grazing has allowed populations of large grazers such as Cape buffalo, waterbuck, common zebra, and impala to thrive, attracting the associated predators. Matusadona National Park is an Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ) and home to several relocated rhinoceros.

Mokala National Park 

The official proclamation, naming and launch of Mokala National Park by Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk took place on 19 June 2007.

About the Camel Thorn Acacia Erioloba (Cameeldoring/Mokala) 

Occurring in dry woodland and arid stony or sandy areas, this is one of the major tree species of the desert regions of Southern Africa. This immensely important species has a great range over the Northern Cape and North-East province. It varies from a small, spiny shrub barely 2m high to a tree up to 16m tall with a wide, spreading crown. The seed pods are characteristic in shape and colour. This tree provides valuable shade and an essential micro-habitat, e.g. the home of sociable weavers, in the thirst-lands of the far north.

The Camel Thorn is an incredible resource to both wildlife and humans who survive in often harsh conditions. Traditionally, the gum and bark have been used by local tribes to treat coughs, colds, nosebleeds and even tuberculosis. The roasted seeds are used as a coffee substitute.

The Topnaar of Namibia made a powder from the inner bark that was used to perfume the body and the home. Local farmers say the pods are an excellent fodder source and its use as a good firewood is widely renowned.

Mountain Zebra National Park 

From prehistoric sites with concentrations of stone artifacts situated along the river banks and rock art panels on the mountain slopes to historic farmsteads and cemeteries, Mountain Zebra National Park has acted as a backdrop for thousands of years of human history. From 14 000 to 10 000 years ago, Later Stone Age inhabitants lived in the area now proclaimed as national park. Evidence of their settlements is found along the banks of the Wilger River. There are some 30 sites with pottery and stone artifacts that have been identified through research done by the University of Stellenbosch.

The San people left evidence of their lives about 300 years ago in at least three rock shelters containing rock art in the Park. The paintings show an antelope, baboons, a large cat - possibly a leopard or cheetah - and human figures. Visitors can view rock paintings in one of the shelters by hiring a Park guide to show them the way. Although a fence protects the painting site, it is quite exciting to be able to stand less than a metre away from ancient artwork.

During the 1800s, British soldiers created a chessboard on the top of Saltpeterskop, a 1514m high koppie in the Park. While hiding out during the Anglo-Boer War, they played chess with their fellow soldiers in the old fort in Cradock, transmitting moves by means of a mirror, which had the official purpose of communicating warning signals.

The story goes that a certain farmer – unbeknown to the soldiers - picked up the signals and started a game against the soldiers while sitting on the stoep of his farmhouse. The chessboard and the names of the soldiers are etched onto a flat slab of rock at the top of Saltpeterskop. Names recorded include the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers, the Coldstream Guards and some privates, corporals and a captain.

The legacy of white pioneers who moved into the area and set up farms during the Great Trek of 1836 still stands today. In 1838, one of the first permanent farmhouses in the area was constructed on the farm De Doornkloof, then owned by Hendrik Jacobus van Heerden. The house presently known as Doornhoek, declared a national monument in 1986, was restored and is still used as a guesthouse in the Park. It is popular with those who want a tranquil family getaway overlooking a lake, with spectacular star-gazing vistas at night.

In 1937, 1712 hectares of land was proclaimed as the Mountain Zebra National Park. Thanks to the conservation efforts of farmers in the area, a small herds of the endangered Cape mountain zebra still survived in the area and these provided a founder population for the Park. Paul Michau donated 6 zebra and later Mr H L Lombard donated 11 zebra to the Park. The Park’s Cape mountain zebra herd now numbers over 350 animals.

The Park at first expanded slowly over the years, but then received a boost with a joint public-private conservation initiative. An artist by the name of David Shepherd kick-started the initiative by donating prints of his works “Mountain Zebra: A Vision in Black and White” in 1996 and “Cheetahs” in 1998 so that money could be raised to buy surrounding farms and expand the size of the Park. SABC’s 50/50 programme shared the story with viewers and encouraged them to support the project by buying prints so that the necessary funds could be raised. The response was fantastic and also caused private individuals and businesses to make donations including The Barbara Delano Foundation, WildAid, Sasol and Vesta Medicines. South African National Parks Trust matched all of the funds that were raised.

Nine surrounding farms were purchased through this process, enabling the Park to expand from 6 536 hectares to 28 412 hectares in size. Following this, black rhino, buffalo and finally cheetah could be introduced to the Park.

Mudumu National Park 

Mudumu National Park, one of Namibia’s least-known parks, is richly rewarding for adventurous visitors. The main attraction is the riverine habitat of the Kwando River, while inland the Mudumu Mulapo fossilised river course and the dense mopane woodland shelter woodland species. There is no formal entrance gate or park fence – the park is separated from neighbouring communal farmland by a graded cutline.

Mudumu is home to a large elephant population. The park acts as a corridor for these pachyderms as they migrate between Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Zimbabwe.

Namaqua National Park 

The park was proclaimed on 29 June 2002 for the purpose of conserving the rich diversity of succulent plants. NNP is in the process of development, having grown to its current size of 141,000ha (including the coastal contract area between the Groen and Spoeg rivers) in nine years, thus expanding the park to include more succulent habitats and an important coastal section.

The park has one access-controlled route; the main entrance gate at the Skilpad section. The use of this gate is normally restricted to between 06h00 and 18h00. The Groen-Spoeg River section can be entered at the Groenriver where a marine SANParks official is based.

Cultural History 

The cultural history of Namaqualand stretches back hundreds of thousands of years. Hand axes, presumably made by humans Homo erectus, have been found in the Namaqua NP. The San (a hunter-gatherer people) inhabited the region for thousands of years, moving seasonally after game, edible plants and water. Evidence of hunter-gatherers and herders is dotted all over Namaqualand along the Gariep River, along the coast, in caves and on the rocky outcrops. The descendants of the herder people are still living in Namaqualand today, although having lost a great deal of their original culture and traditions. During colonial times, in the 1700’s, the Europeans moved in and settled as stock farmers. Technology became part of the Namaqualand cultural landscape in the form of copper and diamond mining.

Namib-Naukluft Park 

Namibia’s largest conservation area contains some of the country’s most iconic attractions: towering sand dunes at Sossusvlei, the imposing canyon at Sesriem, forgotten shipwrecks and ghost towns along the icy Atlantic coast, stark inselbergs and mountain ranges, and lichen-encrusted gravel plains.

Evidence of Stone Age life in the Kuiseb River dates back 200 000 years. Other archaeological finds indicate that the area was used by semi-nomadic communities when rain provided enough grazing for animals. The Topnaar people still live along the Kuiseb River inside the park and were guaranteed rights of residence by Queen Victoria more than a century ago.

Nkhotakota Game Reserve 

The park has been vulnerable to charcoal burning, logging, and poaching. In 2012, the Global Environmental Facility invested $850,000 through the "Effective Management of the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve" project to improve the management of the reserve, with a focus on its Bua watershed area.

The nonprofit organization African Parks started managing the reserve in 2015, and immediately began working to make Nkhotakota "ecologically and socially sustainable" by increasing animal populations and reducing poaching by hiring and training rangers. The organization's twenty-year agreement with Malawi's government through the Department of National Parks and Wildlife was administered by the Public Private Partnership Commission.

During 2016–2017, African Parks relocated approximately 500 elephants from Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve to Nkhotakota. The $1.6 million project was funded by Nationale Postcode Loterij and the Wyss Foundation, among other donors. Buffalo, elands, impalas, kudu, sables, warthogs, waterbuck, and zebras were also relocated. Prior to the relocation, African Parks worked to create roads, establish a fence around Nkhotakota, create a sanctuary within the reserve, and "completely overhaul the law enforcement and anti-poaching efforts" to make the park safer. Prince Harry assisted during both years of the relocation.

In 2017, African Parks received $65 million from the Wyss Foundation to support management efforts of Nkhotakota and other national parks, including Liwonde, Majete, and Rwanda's Akagera National Park, among others.

North Luangwa National Park 

This National Park is a national park in Zambia, the northernmost of the three in the valley of the Luangwa River. Founded as a game reserve in 1938, it became a national park in 1972 and now covers 4,636 km².

Like the South Park, its eastern boundary is the Luangwa River, while it rises to cover a stretch of the Muchinga Escarpment to the west. The Mwaleshi River flows east–west through the centre of the park, the area to its south being a strict wilderness zone.

Wildlife is widely found, including Cookson's wildebeest, Crawshay's zebra and many antelopes and birds. Elephant numbers have recovered from poaching in the 1970s and 1980s. The struggle against poaching in the park was described by Delia and Mark Owens in their book The Eye of the Elephant.[citation needed]

For many years its wildlife suffered greatly from poaching, but recent years have seen poaching almost entirely stopped. It has generally suffered from a lack of investment and interest compared to the much more popular South Luangwa National Park, although its flora and fauna are very similar to its southern counterpart. In 2003, black rhinos were re-introduced to the park.[citation needed]

Since 2005, the protected area is considered a Lion Conservation Unit together with South Luangwa National Park.

Nyanga National Park 

The national park is one of the oldest in Zimbabwe, established as Rhodes Inyanga National Park, a bequest from Cecil Rhodes. The original park borders extended beyond Udu Dam, along the east bank of the Nyangombe River to the north of the current park boundary. This extension was sold in the 1970s, but the Warrendale section, immediately beyond Udu Dam, had been recovered by the early 1980s.

The park nearly doubled in size with the late 1990s purchase of most of the Inyanga Block and Kwaraguza farms. These purchases expanded the national park to the north and east of Mount Nyangani, incorporating some important areas of montane rainforest, the source area of the Kairezi River and Nyama Falls. The incorporation of Nyazengu farm in 2014, previously an enclave within the park, completed the formal protection of Mount Nyangani and the headwaters of the Pungwe River, although Nyazengu had been operated as a private nature reserve until 2000 and as unincorporated council land after the designation and acquisition of Nyazengu farm in 2000.

The current name Nyanga reflects the correct vernacular pronunciation of the area.

Nyika National Park 

The name Nyika means "where the water comes from" as the plateau's elevation makes it wetter than surrounding areas. Other suggested meanings are "wilderness" and "short grassland". The top is frequently in cloud, both in the rainy season and in the cold dry season when dense fogs, called Chiperoni, may persist well into the morning and sometimes all day. The persistent moisture brings over 200 types of orchid into flower. The grasslands of Nyika are rich in wildflowers all through the year but especially from January to April during the rains.

Most people experience the Nyika by staying on or driving over the plateau itself but this represents only around one third of the National Park. The escarpments and northern hill areas descend to lower altitude and feature a much drier landscape seasonally. This is dominated by Brachystegia woodland and Protea scrub at the interzone between the grassland and the woodlands. To travel into these zones you will need to be fully equipped for camping and take a local guide with you. It is very easy to get lost and leaving the marked roads is not recommended without local support

The plateau itself is recommended for trekking and mountain biking, as well as more conventional 4x4 excursions. The montane vegetation attracts large numbers of antelope from the diminutive Common duiker to eland and roan. Zebra are common near Chelinda and the highest part of the plateau. The park is said to have one of the highest densities of leopards in Central Africa but this has not been supported by any scientific survey in the past 20 years and all mammals suffer changes in populations which can be rapid. Being mainly nocturnal they are rarely seen, although tracks and signs have been regularly found. There are a number of species of smaller mammals such as warthogs and bushpigs, the smaller cats and porcupine. Elephants are often seen anywhere on the plateau but buffalo are rare or probably extinct now. Hoof prints associated with them in the north of the park probably represent wandering domestic cattle from Uledi. Lions and elephants have recently been seen on the high plateau.

Over 400 species of bird have been recorded in the park. The rare Denham’s bustard and the wattled crane are among those to be seen, as is the red-winged francolin - endemic to Nyika.

Other attractions include waterfalls, the most impressive being Chisanga Falls where the North Rukuru river falls off the plateau to Thalire District, neolithic rock shelter, trout pools and even a "magic lake". The recently refurbished Chelinda Camp and the brand new log cabin lodge provide excellent accommodation and facilities. There is an airstrip for fly-in safaris.

The lower-lying Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve is close to the Nyika National Park and can be accessed off the Rumphi Road on arrival or departure to the Nyika entrance gate at Thazima.

Okavango Delta 

Permanent marshlands and seasonally flooded plains make up the Okavango Delta in northwestern Botswana. It is one of the few significant interior delta systems that does not flow into a sea or ocean, and it has a nearly intact wetland system. One of the site's unique features is that the annual flooding from the River Okavango happens during the dry season, causing local plants and animals to synchronize their biological cycles with the seasonal rains and floods. 

It's a fantastic example of how climatic, hydrological and biological processes interact. Cheetahs, white and black rhinos, African wild dogs and lions, all live in the Okavango Delta which is home to some of the world's most endangered large mammal species. 

With its waters draining into the Kalahari Basin's arid sands, the Okavango Delta is the continent's largest endorheic delta and Africa's third largest alluvial fan. It's also in a near-pristine state as a mainly undisturbed wetland system. The biota, particularly the flooded grassland biota, has evolved unique growth and reproductive strategies to coincide with the advent of floodwater in Botswana's dry winter season. 

The Okavango River was "captured" by the geology of the area, which is part of the African Rift Valley System, resulting in the formation of the Delta and its numerous rivers, marshes, flooded grasslands and floodplains. With a length of 1,500 kilometers, the Okavango River is the third largest in southern Africa. 

The hydrology of the Delta is influenced by its dynamic geomorphological history, which determines water flow direction, flooding and drying of broad areas within the Delta system. The site is an excellent illustration of how the Okavango Delta's flora and animals have adapted their lifecycles to the annual cycle of rains and flooding, as well as the interplay of climatic, geomorphological, hydrological and biological processes that drive and shape the system. 

For its biodiversity and ecological uniqueness, the Okavango Delta was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014. (Source UNESCO)

Quirimbus National Park 

The Quirimbas National Park (QNP) is a protected area in the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique, encompassing the southern part of the Quirimbas Islands, as well as a significant mainland area. The mainland region of Taratibua contain various inselbergs.

The park was established in June 2002. It stretches for 110 kilometres (68 mi) along the northeast coast of Mozambique, and contains the southernmost 11 of the Quirimbas islands. The park has a tropical climate with a rainy season from December to April and a drier but cooler season from May to September. Daytime temperatures vary from around 25 °C (77 °F) to 35 °C (95 °F) depending on the time of year. Water temperatures are from 24 °C (75 °F) to 27 °C (81 °F). Accommodations for tourists range from basic beach-front cottages to luxurious villas.

Islands include Ibo Island, Mefunvo Island, Matemo Island, Quirimba Island, Quisiva island, Quilálea Island, Sencar Island and Rolas Island.

Savannah Southern Safaris 

Based in Livingstone, our Savannah Southern Safaris is a family-owned Zambian tour operator who offers professional, guided multi day packages, including accommodation, or sightseeing and day tours in Livingstone, combining leisure, social and environmental awareness. 

Our Tours 

Choose between a wide range of nature walks with birding and game watching or visits to local community projects with community interactions, either as single tours or in full packages. 

Walking safaris through the Musi-Ou-Tunya National Park and surrounding areas are suitable for active and adventurous participants. This national park hosts one of the seven natural wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Shungunamutitima Falls, commonly known as the Victoria Falls. Through our guides find the best spots and trails for your photos, immerse yourself in the beauty of nature by following the path down to the boiling pot and see for yourself the story, history and information about these mighty falls. 

Birding 

We will provide birders exclusive tours within the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park and the surrounding areas. This park prides itself of at least 450 or more bird species, most of which are resident and can be seen all year round. Migrating birds set in around November/December while some waders may come in as early as August. 

Cultural Tours 

Visit a local community. Dance and sing with children from a community school; see how traditional mud houses are constructed; play a round of soccer or share some other experiences with Livingstone’s community. These tours either lead you to local community projects or to orphanages. Many travellers only get to see village life from their vehicle’s windows. We can take you into the heart of villages where you will be introduced to the village chief or chieftainess and where you can experience their day to day life. 

Experience vibrant Livingstone, whilst our local guides keep your special interests in mind. All guides are trained by Savannah Southern Safaris and can be hired on a half-day or full-day basis. They will join you and be there for you with information about the best sites, places, attractions and activities.