Lonely Planet - Botswana & Namibia Travel Guide

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Ever wanted to experience the raw, wild heart of Africa? Teeming with wildlife and lush with extraordinary landscapes, Botswana and Namibia unfurl African dreams.

A towering sand dune in Sossusvlei ()
JOHAN LE ROUX / GETTY IMAGES

Botswana is one of Africas great safari destinations. There are more elephants here than in any other country on the planet. But whether its elephants, lions, leopards, hyenas, rhinos, buffaloes, antelopes or myriad other species, the numbers and variety in Botswana will quickly overwhelm your digital camera. In Namibia the series of waterholes around Etosha Pan attract astounding numbers of animals especially in the dry season, making wildlife watching as simple as parking your car, putting your feet up and letting the animals come to you. And if thats not up-close-and-personal enough, what about the chance to track highly endangered black rhinos...on foot?

The landscapes of Namibia and Botswana will sometimes leave you wondering if you have arrived on another planet. That mighty gash hacked out of the earths surface at Fish River Canyon is one of the great natural sights on the continent. Lonely desert roads expose you to a wilderness that will clear your mind and work its way into your soul. Humongous slabs of flat-topped granite rise out of mists of windblown sand and swirling dust the effect is ethereal with the granite appearing to float above the ground. As the road snakes into the distant horizon you may just feel as though you are driving through a coffee-table book of landscapes.

The ancestors of the San, an ancient people who have direct links back to the Stone Age, left behind extraordinary records in the form of rock paintings dotted throughout the region. The Tsodilo Hills, Botswanas only Unesco World Heritage Site, showcase the pictorial record of this prehistoric culture, as do extensive galleries of rock art in Namibia. Also, in Namibia, opportunities to interact with local cultures in the north include meeting the Himba of the Kaokoveld (a Herero subgroup that were a part of the early Bantu migrations). Here the women are famous for smearing themselves with a fragrant mixture of ochre, butter and bush herbs, which dyes their skin a burnt-orange hue.

Namibia is Southern Africas headquarters for adrenaline-pumping fun. Fling yourself out of a plane and float back to earth, hurl yourself down a sand dune, surf the breakers on the Atlantic coast or head off into a desert sunset atop a camel. There are many ways to ensure that a visit to this region lives with you long after the desert sands recede into the distance.

Etosha National Park (Namibia)

There are few places in Southern Africa that can compete with the wildlife prospects in extraordinary Etosha National Park ( ). A network of waterholes dispersed among the bush and grasslands surrounding the pan a blindingly white, flat, saline desert that stretches into the horizon attracts enormous congregations of animals. A single waterhole can render thousands of sightings over the course of a day Etosha is simply one of the best places on the planet for watching wildlife.

PETER TEN BROECKE / GETTY IMAGES

Sossusvlei (Namibia)

Towering red dunes of incredibly fine sand that feels soft when it trickles through your fingers and changes indelibly with the light, Sossusvlei ( ) is an astounding place, especially given that the sands originated in the Kalahari millions of years ago. The Sossusvlei valley is dotted with hulking dunes and interspersed with unearthly dry vleis (low, open landscapes), and clambering up the face of these constantly moving giants is a uniquely Namibian experience. You survey the seemingly endless swath of nothingness that surrounds you and it feels as though time itself has slowed.

Dry vlei and red dunes, Sossusvlei
JOHN WANG / GETTY IMAGES

Okavango Delta (Botswana)

The Okavango ( ) is an astonishing, beautiful, wild place. Home to wildlife spectacles of rare power and drama, the delta changes with the seasons as flood waters ebb and flow, creating islands, river channels and pathways for animals that move this way and that at the waters behest. Exclusive and remote lodges are an Okavango speciality but self-drivers can find outstanding campsites in the heart of the Okavangos Moremi Game Reserve. No visit to the delta is complete without drifting through the waters in a traditional mokoro (dugout canoe).

TORSTEN KAROCK / GETTY IMAGES

Fish River Canyon (Namibia)

This enormous gash in the surface of the planet in the south of Namibia is an almost implausible landscape. Seen most clearly in the morning, Fish River Canyon ( ) is desolate, immense and seemingly carved into the earth by a master builder. The exposed rock and lack of plant life is quite startling and trying to take pictures is soon replaced with thoughtful reflection and a quiet sense of awe. Its rounded edges and sharp corners create a symphony in stone of gigantic and imposing proportions.

MARTIN HARVEY / GETTY IMAGES

Chobe National Park (Botswana)

There are more elephants in Chobe tens of thousands of them than anywhere else on earth. And these are big elephants, really big. Then there are the iconic landscapes of Savuti, with its elephant-eating lions; or Linyanti, one of the best places on the continent to see the highly endangered African wild dog; or the Chobe Riverfront, where most of Africas charismatic megafauna comes to drink. Put all of this together and its easy to see why Chobe National Park ( ) ranks among the elite of African safari destinations.

PATRICIO ROBLES GIL / GETTY IMAGES