About The Activity
Be unrestricted when it comes to safaribecause those who made safari have also made a variety of it. You can ride not just in a car but even a horse for it. Horseback riding in Botswana allows you to experience all that this magnificent land has to offer. Botswana is the immortal heart of the splendidly desolate and roadless Kalahari Desert. This wild land consists of endless savannahs, dunes, ephemeral lakes and salt pans.
This is the land of the Bushmen, those ancient nomads who have lived since the stone age in the extreme conditions of the Kalahari, leaving little trace of their habitation beyond poignant etchings in stone.
Botswana is also known for the awe-inspiring Okavango Delta — the world’s largest inland delta, which teems with animals and birds, and justly deserves its reputation as the Jewel of Africa.
Outstandingly dramatic, Botswana encompasses striking salt pans, diamond-rich deserts and fertile flood plains which teem with game. The north and south offer superb wildlife-watching opportunities, making this one of southern Africa's top equestrian horseback riding safari destinations. Hidden Trails offer three excellent Botswana horse back riding holidays – from luxury game lodges to the stunning Okavango Delta.
The Okavango Delta is one of the world’s largest inland water systems. It's headwaters start in Angola’s western highlands, with numerous tributaries joining to form the Cubango river, which then flows through Namibia (called the Kavango) and finally enters Botswana, where it is then called the Okavango.
Millions of years ago the Okavango river use to flow into a large inland lake called Lake Makgadikgadi (now Makgadikgadi Pans).
Tectonic activity and faulting interrupted the flow of the river causing it to backup and form what is now the Okavango delta. This has created a unique system of water ways that now supports a vast array of animal and plant life that would have otherwise been a dry Kalahari savanna.
The delta’s floods are fed from the Angolan rains, which start in October and finish sometime in April. The floods only cross the border between Botswana and Namibia in December and will only reach the bottom end of the delta (Maun) sometime in July,
Taking almost nine months from the source to the bottom. This slow meandering pace of the flood is due to the lack of drop in elevation, which drops a little more than 60 meters over a distance of 450 kilometers. The delta’s water dead ends in the Kalahari – via the Botetle river, with over 95 per cent of the water eventually evaporating.
The delta environment has large numbers of animal populations that are otherwise rare, such as crocodile, red lechwe, sitatunga, elephant, wild dogs, buffalo, wattled crane as well as the other more common mammals and bird life.
The best time for game viewing in the delta is during the May-October period, as the animal life is concentrated along the flooded areas and the vegetation has dried out. The best time for birding and vegetation is during the rainy season (Nov.- April) as the migrant bird populations are returning and the plants are flowering and green.
In only a few days it is possible to spot 100 to 200 different types of birds. After the rainy season, when the delta is flooded, you will horseback ride across river channels from island to island. In the drier areas around the flood plain there are some good opportunities for trots and canters. Your hosts are exceptionally accommodating and knowledgeable. You will stay at very comfortable British-style safari camps and begin each day with a sunrise ride to the animals' favorite resting places. Botswana is one of the few remaining destinations in Africa that still provides a good sense of the adventure of safari. Its expansive game parks and preserves combined with wildlife as diverse and abundant as that found anywhere else, are still largely undeveloped and untamed.
