Botswana in Low Season
 

The low season is December through March. Which of these months would be the best for game viewing and/or weather?

Thanks.
cj

No personal experience. Here are two charts.
http://www.africa-adventure.com/dsp_besttime.html

http://www.bornfreesafaris.com/best_travel.htm

I was there in February and had a great trip... it was nice and green, and we had some amazing sightings... I also liked the fact there were less people at the camps.

I would definitely go again at this time of the year.

Richard

where are you going? we are very excited about our trip to the Kalahari and Makgadigadi (sp?) late Dec 08 - should be beautiful with pretty good game, although it will be dispersed. The price difference made our trip possible.

Cj,

I have been in end November into December. Was pretty good ...... no big herds of buffalo or elephant but, the predators were around.

Hari

It's going to vary from year to year with weather. I've been in January and March. An advantage to December and January is the grass will be much shorter and thus a little easier to find more secretive species and less obstructive to photograph but it can also be much hotter. December also tends to be the calving season which adds to viewing so I'd probably give an edge to the earlier months but it could rain more then too -- of course I had virtually no rain in January and quite a bit in March which was uncharacteristic.

PB is right .... depends year to year. The December visit was extremely rainy (but, that was the unusually wet year)

I'm getting mixed messages about Botswana (specifically, Okavango) in late December and early January. One "expert" says it's still a very good time to view wildlife. Another says that it's so rainy, roads are impassable and many lodges close.

We're going to southern Africa this time next year, come hell or high water (no pun intended). Should we go safari in Okavango? If not, what's your suggestion? Thanks!

Yes Hitman, I would go without hesitation. Your expert who says there is still excellent wildlife viewing is correct and the one who is claiming many lodges close is absolutely wrong. There probably are a couple but viturally every camp I know of in Botswana stays open year round unless they are doing a refurbish.

One camp I went to, Duba Plains, has large areas that cannot be reached during much of the year due to water and when I stayed there in January (2003) we could get anywhere on the property. Typically how much water levels impact in Botswana has a lot more to do with the seasonal floods than rain and that makes late December and early January one of the driest times of year at major water resourcces but rains will allow wildlife to be more dispersed instead of concentrated at major water sources due to puddling all over the place. Still plenty of good viewing to be found in most areas. When you know which camps are of interest post them on the board and see who has experience with them during that time of year to confirm the choices.

Thanks PB. I'll take you up on that offer and throw some camp names up here if in fact we decide to venture into Botswana.

hitman: Here's some to think about if you decide to investigate further. I had very good viewing in the Linyanti Concession during January so that would cover Duma Tau, Savuti, and King's Pool Camps. The Selinda and Kwando Concessions are usually quite similar to Linyanti so they should all be good.

I had very good viewing in the northern Delta too at Duba Plains which is not the most diverse area but unparalleled for lion hunting buffalo. Neighboring Mapula Lodge and the Vumbura concession are more diverse and I would expect them to be good as well.

I also went to Kwando Camps -- Lebala and Kwara during March and they both had excellent green season viewing at that time and I believe both would be strong in December/January too.

I'm sure there are others but those are the areas that I have personally been to during the green season that had excellent vieiwng.

I've been to Botswana in August 2000 and also February 2006. I preferred the August trip. In February, the grasses were tall and the animals dispersed. Also, we were regularly soaked in rainstorms, which made it hard to keep the camera equipment dry. The guides kept saying, "You should be here in the dry season! You'd see so much more!"

The weather varies from year to year, so you might be lucky and be there during a drier "wet season." The guides also said that the grasses begin to lay down later in March, so you might have better game-viewing then.