Okavango Delta & Moremi

Slideshow

Described as "the jewel" of the Kalahari, the Okavango Delta is a tranquil and isolated oasis in Botswana's harsh and dry desert, which many regard as one of the best safari destinations in Africa because of its special diversity of flora and fauna.

Fuelled by huge subtropical storms, the Cubango River raises in central Angola, flows through Namibia as the Kuvango River and ultimately arrives in Botswana as the Okavango River near Mohembo in the north. This brings in about 11 billion cubic meters of water every year, which flows out through a maze of lagoons, channels and islands before disappearing into the wilderness of the Kalahari in the south.
This is the Okavango Delta, about 15,000 sq km water area with a special variety of flora and fauna.

The seasonal floods of the Okavango

An important feature of the Okavango is the seasonal flow that begins mid-summer in the north and approximately six months later, ends in the south. This results in a cyclical movement of water that rises in the north as it disappears to the south in summer, and rises in the south as it drops in the north during the winter months. The nature of the annual flow is pleasant with plains and islands disappearing under water and then emerge into an ever-changing landscape at the end of every season - this is mostly in the central part of the Okavango.

The Delta can reasonably be divided into a permanent flooded area in the north and a seasonally flooded area in the south.
The northern part is the 'saucepan' with its wooded river banks immediately adjacent to the dry forests of the Kalahari and depending on the amount of water from Angola, a vast wetland of 12,000 km ² islands, reed beds, channels, wooded banks and permanent waterways.

The seasonally flooded portion has surrounded great Kalahari sand islands with its dry, bare trees, by wide grassy plains that are highly influenced by the seasonal floods.

Moremi Game Reserve

Botswana's "treasure trove" that covers nearly a third of the Okavango Delta, has a special habitat where the desert and delta meet, forests, lagoons, water areas, pans and woodlands.

Twenty-five years after the proclamation to nature reserve by the family of Chief Moremi, the reserve is now one of the finest and most varied wildlife parks in Africa, with a wealth of wildlife and birds. In Moremi you find the complete spectrum of wildlife and birds that reside in the Okavango Moremi and thus is the top safari attraction in the Delta. The Delta is also famous for its mokoro (canoe) trips.

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