Getting Oriented

Getting Oriented

Roughly the size of France or Texas, and nearly 18% of Botswana's total land area is reserved for conservation and tourism. The Moremi Game Reserve, the first such reserve in southern Africa to have been created by an African community on its own tribal lands, is a major draw. One hundred kilometers (62 mi) west of Victoria Falls in Botswana's northeast corner is Chobe National Park, another of Africa's fine game sanctuaries, known for its elephants. The wide and tranquil Chobe River is surrounded by a natural wilderness of floodplain, dead lake bed, sand ridges, and forest. Downstream it joins the mighty Zambezi on its journey through Zimbabwe and Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. Upstream, where it's known as the Linyanti, it forms the border between Botswana and Namibia. In this area the Linyanti Reserve, which borders Chobe National Park, is a huge private concession, as is the Kwando Reserve, to the west.