Botswana is wide, wild Africa cushioned with air-conditioning and mahogany bedsteads. It owes its success as an international tourist destination to its pampering safaris, but these have shifted the country beyond the wallets of its neighbours, unless you take on the bumpy roads in a 4x4. Basically three regions draw visitors: the Tuli Block, the eastern Kalahari and the far north (comprising the Okavango Delta and Chobe).
The Tuli block is sandwiched between the borders of Zimbabwe , South Africa and Botswana . At one time or another it was Cecil John Rhodes's hunting grounds, the site of Iron Age ruins and now it's home to close on 1000 head of elephant. Add to this a high density of lions and the game viewing is impressive. The landscape is also re mark able: dry, open plains are interspersed with wind-cobbled sandstone massifs and sand rivers littered with semi-precious stones. Try a different approach from the usual game-lodge-and-ranger set-up and sign on for a horse safari, particularly thrilling with the Tuli's bountiful elephant population.
If it's more than elephants and lions you're after travel to the northern reaches. There lies Chobe National Park , beautiful, dry and harsh. Bull's eye in the centre is Savuti offering a choice of luxury safari or a seriously rough holiday. Unfortunately Savuti is spoiled by the brandy and coke brigade which descends on the dry watercourses in long convoys, leaving tyre tracks, beer bottles and all manner of litter - which is why the park's only public campsite is the last place on Earth you want to visit. The way to explore the Savuti and retain some sanity is to cough up for the exorbitant dollars prices and stay at one of the luxury lodges.
Then there's Botswana 's "empty quarter", the bleak Makgadikgadi salt pans and scorched Kalahari further south. Take a quad bike across the pans to the granite outcrop of Kubu Island , studded with ancient baobab tress. In the Kalahari, a good pair of binoculars is all you'll need to see birds of prey and myriad small carnivores - it's rats and mice they're after, one more reason why the Kalahari is not for the faint-hearted. Here, too, you'll find the expansive Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park which traverses the border with South Africa .
Botswana 's jewel is the Okavango Delta and, quite frankly, a trip to the country is not complete until you've poled through the waterways, witnessed the water spraying out from under leaping lechwe and had a few near misses with hippos. It's hellishly expensive whichever way you tackle it - but worth every pula.
