Central Kalahari Game Reserve

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve covers fifty-two thousand eight hundred square kilometres of Kalahari in Botswana's Ghanzi District — the second largest wildlife reserve in the world. The scale of it is the first thing you notice: flat grasslands running to the horizon, waist-high after good summer rain, broken by low scrub, occasional dunes, wide white pans, and shallow fossil river valleys. At night, with no light pollution of any kind, the stars are close and very bright.

The reserve was established in 1961, originally to give the San people space for traditional lifeways in the heart of the Kalahari. Concessions for lodge construction were allocated later, with camps sited at the edges and inside the reserve, making fly-in access possible. Self-drive visitors enter through three gates: Matswere in the east, and Xade and Tsau on the far side of the reserve. Public campsites are available at all three gates.

Deception Valley in the north is the most visited area. After the summer rains, large herds of springbok, gemsbok, wildebeest, hartebeest, eland and giraffe gather on the sweet grasses here, and predators follow. Sunday Pan, Leopard Pan, Passarge Valley and Piper's Pan are also worth the drive. The dominant vegetation across the reserve is Silver Terminalia sand veldt, Kalahari sand acacias and Kalahari apple leaf.

Activities inside the reserve include game drives, wilderness drives, nature walks with San guides, and cultural dances.