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Botswana - Deception Valley Lodge

With an area of 581.730 square kilometres, Botswana is virtually the same size as France or Texas. This landlocked country levels at an average of 950m above sea level and is more than 600 kilometres from the nearest coast. The most striking features of Botswana are its flatness and aridity. With the exception of the eastern part of Botswana, where the great majority of Botswana live, and where the summer rainfall is slightly higher, three quarters of Botswana is semi-desert. The Okavango Delta, a wonderful wetland within a desert, getting its water from rain falling in Central Africa, creating 15,000 sq km (5850sq mi) of convoluted channels and islands that comprise the Okavango Delta. Most of Botswana is covered by savannah. The Kalahari of Botswana was only recently discovered as a desirable tourist destination in its own right. This neglected area now boasts a luxury Lodge namely Deception Valley Lodge. The vast Kalahari Desert, extending from the Orange River in South Africa to the equator in Gabon, is the largest continuous stretch of sand in the world. 33% of Botswana is protected as national parks. In Botswana three major national parks are in the Kalahari, and in conjunction with the vast private conservation areas that surround them, they protect the animal and plant life of this fragile ecosystem. Although it straddles the Tropic of Capricorn, Botswana experience extremes in temperature. Days normally clear, warm and sunny, but nights range from cool to bitterly cold. In the Kalahari, subfreezing night time temperatures are normal.

THE BUSHMAN OF THE KALAHARI The Bushmen of Southern Africa are renowned, both for their ancient culture and their unique ways of surviving. Even in the most inhospitable environments, such as the arid Kalahari, hunting and gathering provide sustenance as it has done for thousands of years. The ancestors of the Bushmen were the first-known inhabitants of the sub-continent. Fascination with the Bushmen has many dimensions. The heritage of their ancestors includes artefacts and rock art. The contemporary arts and crafts produced by various groups of Bushmen today in Botswana have received international acclaim. The veldcraft and hunting skills of the Bushmen are legendary, and their complex traditions and social life are of continuing interest to people who are intrigued by the rich cultural fabric of sub-Saharan Africa. At Deception Valley Lodge the guest are given the opportunity to get first hand experience of the Bushmen. Background and History: The Bushmen or San as they are also called are one of Africa's oldest peoples. This "little yellow people" as some writers described them, unfortunately can't live the subsistence way of life anymore.

It is also interesting to note that the Khoi Khoi (herders) who lived more along the coastal areas and parts of South Africa did not survive the Colonial changes, however the Bushmen (hunter gatherers) who mainly lived in arid semi desert areas survived to tell their tales, although their lives were far more difficult.

Needless to say, present-day Bushmen do not live in the Stone Age, but their way of life - collecting plant foods and hunting game - is the oldest known human economy, on which provides a lining even in the vast, arid stretches of the Kalahari. Although their style of living seems simple, it is based on an intimate understanding of the environment, as well as traditional knowledge that may go back many generations.

The Bushmen also have an extraordinary rich cultural and social life. Anthropologists have extensively studied all their story-telling traditions, dances, music, traditional healing practices, arts and craft making. San-speakers today are acutely aware of their heritage and of the need to preserve it.

It is often thought that the Kalahari Bushmen were driven into this inhospitable region through conflict with other African peoples and European settlers, but archaeology shows that hunter-gatherers have lived in the Kalahari for millennia, developing unique ways of dealing with the environment. Another misconception has it that the Bushmen lived in isolation, but they have in fact been interacting with their neighbours for many centuries.

Even in the arid Kalahari, the veld provides people with all the materials required for their everyday lives. At Deception Valley Lodge the Bushmen take the guest on a guided walk in the veld highlighting the use of natural gifts of the veld.

The Moremi area receives up to 700mm while the Kalahari area average as low as 200mm. During summer time temperatures can rise to over 40ºC and usually drop to under 25ºC during the night.

Rainfall occurs mainly between December and February. Short, sharp thunderstorms.

Winter starts May through to September and is a good time to visit Botswana, as the days are generally pleasant and wildlife never wanders far from water sources. Day temperatures average 22ºC and nighttime temperatures can fall below zero.

ECONOMY
Botswana is often cited as a model for the African continent. For the first 20 years of its independence the country experienced the highest growth rate of GNP per capita in the world with an average growth of 13 percent.

This is a result of the country's astute financial management and free enterprise policies, which have made Botswana attractive to foreign investors. Botswana is a well-run country: politically stable, economically prosperous, and uncompromisingly democratic and capitalist.

Botswana is currently estimated at being the largest diamond producer in the world. Its annual output is well over 17 million carats. With the Orapa 2000 project in full production from January 2000, the national output of diamonds is topping 22 million carats per year. Successful diversification policies ensured that the percentage contribution made by diamonds to the national GDP has fallen consistently over the past few years.

In addition to mining and vehicles, other major exports are beef and textiles. Imports are machinery, vehicles, food and beverages, chemicals, metals, wood and paper. Favorable exchange control regulations and a strategic geographic position have further encouraged foreign investors.

GOVERNMENT Botswana is a multiparty democracy. Under the Botswana Constitution, legislative power is vested in the Parliament, which comprises the president as ex-officio member and a unicameral National Assembly. Within the assembly the speaker, the attorney general (non voting), 40 elected members and four members specially elected by the assembly. Elections are held every 5 years. Currently the president of Botswana is Mr Festus Mogae.

HISTORY
The semi-nomadic San people were Botswana's earliest inhabitants. Bantu-speaking tribes from the north moved into the area before the first millennium, and European missionaries arrived in the mid 19th century, in 1885, to counter Boer expansion from South Africa and Ndebele incursions from the north led by Mzilikazi, Botswana came under British protection.

By 1895, Rhodes' British South African Company hoped to annex Botswana prompting three Batswana chiefs to persuade Queen Victoria to keep their land under British control. The British administered the Bechuananland Protectorate until 1966 when it granted the Batswana full independence under the leadership of Sir Seretse Khama.

Botswana is Africa's success story. Prior to independence in 1966, it was one of the world's poorest countries. Diamonds were discovered in the Kalahari shortly after independence and this gave Botswana the economic injection needed. Sir Seretse Khama was the first post independence president. He was a good leader and one of the most pragmatic and far-thinking presidents any country could ever hope for. He laid the foundations that Botswana needed to propel it forward. Democracy has never been compromised and the economy has been booming. His son Ian's love for conservation stopped poaching on the northern borders and the game concentrations multiplied overnight. Botswana focused on high quality / low volume tourism.

Today wildlife and tourism employs about 45%of all the people who live in northern Botswana.

THE KALAHARI
Few place names are as evocative as "the Kalahari". This miss-spelt anglosism has come to represent the vastness of Africa's outback with all the romantic undertones of nomadic hunter-gatherers, lions and golden grasslands gently waving under the canopy of a limitless blue sky.

Yet within this remote expansive landscape there is a rich diversity of life, each with its own remarkable adaptation to survive the parched dryness.

200 Million years ago, the super continent of Gondwana started breaking up, and formed several basins, one of which, The Kalahari Basin is now almost completely full of Aeolian sand. Fragments of granite gneiss rock, which formed the base of this original basin, can be found along the borders of the country, particularly around Francistown and the southern Barolon area. These rocks are more than 3.5 billion years of age and are probably the oldest rocks in the world. Overlaying this deeply buried foundation stone is a matrix of Karoo deposits, made up of sandstone, baalt lava's, shale's and thin seams of coal all about 300 million years old.

80 Million years ago, the eruption of several kimberlitic volcano pipes punched through the earth's crust. The right temperature and pressure conditions changed the carbon contained in some of these lavas over a long period, into the diamonds, which today fuels Botswana's economic development.

The Kalahari, or "Kgalagadi" as it is correctly called in Setswana, covers much of Botswana.

With little more than 100 to 200mm of rainfall per year, the fauna and flora in the Kalahari wages a daily struggle for survival and cannot cope with the additional pressures on unchecked visitors or the encroaching cattle.

It is said that in the Kalahari it is not necessarily the strongest or most intelligent of species that survive, but rather those that can best adapt to change. This being the case the wildlife of the Kalahari should be able to survive almost anything, as they have made remarkable adaptations in the past to overcome this challenging environment.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve covering an area just under the combined size of Holland and Belgium, is truly immense, and the irony is that when it was declared in 1961 one of the primary purposes was not necessarily to protect the animals that lived in the area but to protect the people that lived there.