Central Kalahari Game Reserve

The spectacular, sandy reserve was founded in 1961. The reserve, surprisingly enough, was not founded to protect any endangered wildlife species but an endangered breed of man, the San Bushmen. The reserve was established to provide a home for the Bushmen in their natural environment, the only place they were able to survive. This unusual reserve is the second largest piece of desert land in the world, and as such is doubly precious.

The reserve is made up of the shimmering pans and golden grasslands of the Central Kalahari Desert. A few solitary mopane, camel thorn, the Kalahari apple and silver custer-leaf trees stand in isolation in this amazing sea of shimmering grass. Four fossil rivers twist and turn through the arid reserve. Among them is DeceptionValley, a dusty old watercourse that wound its way through the Northern Kalahari 16,000 years ago and is today a brilliant game watching area.

A variety of grasses, acacia, thorn trees and other tough, drought-resistant plants cover most of Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Among the shallow valleys, tsamma melons and gemsbok cucumbers are found, which provide the main source of water for the animals and Bushmen during the dry season.