www.desertification.info

Put the words “Africa” and “desert” together, and what automatically comes to mind for most people is the vast Sahara. But at the opposite end of the continent lies another major desert on the continent” the Kalahari. This desert covers central southeastern Botswana as well as adjacent parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is surrounded on all sides by the Kalahari basin, which extends over most of the rest of Botswana and into Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The desert’s name comes from the Tswana (the national language of Botswana) for “place without water”" a perfectly appropriate name, for their are whole years when no rain falls at all.

The Kalahari is one of the few parts of Africa where most of the natives historically made their living by hunting and gathering long after people elsewhere had turned to farming and herding as sources of food. Its main ethnic groups” the Bushman and Nama peoples” also speak languages unrelated to those spoken in the rest of Africa, and which” unlike languages elsewhere” make use of curious “click” sounds.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park straddles the border between Botswana and South Africa; it was formed in 2000 through the merger of two national parks in those countries and is probably the Kalahari’s main tourist attraction. Many kinds of antelope roam, including the eland, springbok, wildebeest (gnu), and gemsbok (in fact, both the parks that are now Kgalagadi had “Gemsbok” in their names); they are preyed upon by lions, leopards, and the swift cheetah. Also famous are the park’s red dunes and the Orange River.

There are places where visitors can stay and eat unusual foods like the ostrich and springbok. The park also maintains a museum where admittance is free. And a multitude of rest camps dot the landscape, with shops and gas.