The wider Kalahari is a vast arid and semi-arid region of sandy, porous soils that extends across much of southern Kgalagadi Africa. Stretching from South Africa’s Orange River northwards, across eastern Namibia, Botswana, western Zimbabwe and into Angola, Zambia and the Congo - a total area of more than 2,5 million square kilometers, or ten times the size of Great Britain.
Although termed a desert it not a true desert as it receives rainfall in the summer months and this dry land, it’s scant grasses and hardy thorn-trees support a surprising number and variety of life forms- animals, reptiles and insects that manage to survive because they have adapted superbly and often ingeniously to this environment. Herds of gemsbok, graceful springbok, eland and hartebeest roam this vast expanse, adapted to survive with little water and living off the pastures that the unpredictable rains bring.
In turn, the antelope provide food for the desert carnivores, lions, cheetah, hyena who share this land with an amazing array of fascinating and rare smaller creatures.
