They are however best visited during the morning hours and dry season before the heat becomes unbearable and you will also need a lot water as you hike up and around the red dunes and this is also an opportunity for all those that love photography to go to the Desert and also take as many photos as they want. You will need a 4×4 car to get you through the sandy roads and with the help of your tour guide, you might as well try to hike up the red Desert dunes just for fun and adventure. Unlike the high and mighty sand dunes that are located within the Namib Desert, the red Desert dunes that are located within the Kalahari Desert are not that high and impressive but they are worth a visit while you take a trip through the desert. There are about 250 bird species here and some of the most commonly seen bird species include the red billed Queleas, the common kestrel, the chat flycatcher, the Namaqua dove, the martial eagle, the double banded sandgrouse, the black shouldered kite, the red crested bustard, ostriches, the red billed francolin and many more other species.
Birding in the KalahariĮven though the Kalahari receives rainfall that is above 100 millimeters, not every part of the Desert is good for birding and this activity can only be carried out in the central part of the Desert known as the central Kalahari. while on a drive through the Kalahari desert you will need to take a lot of water with you to keep hydrated, dress appropriately during the day so that you do not become too hot, a large brimmed hat to keep sun rays away and it is better if you do whatever the tour guide tells you to do so that you enjoy your safari in the Kalahari. The Kalahari Desert is a home to many animals and these can be seen during the dry season especially because this is the time that they come out to the different seasonal waterholes in the Desert and a game drive through the Desert is best done in the morning when the sun is not too much and some of the animals that you will get to see include ostriches, antelopes, the black maned lions, meerkats which are referred to as the pride of the African Desert, brown hyenas, the Kalahari red, cheetahs, warthogs and many more other species. The most commonly seen vegetation is mostly shrub and these are believed to stay in the Desert conditions for about ten months during the dry season and the other vegetation type that can be found in the Kalahari Desert are the Acacia trees that have been known to stand the tough dry conditions for a long time. The temperatures that is received in the Kalahari keeps on changing and during the day, it gets pretty high and you will need to take lots of water whereas when it comes to the night it sometimes becomes too cold.ĭue to the constant rainfall that is received in the Kalahari, you will find that it has various vegetation types and is a home to numerous wild animals that are getting used to the hot and cold conditions that habitate within the Desert. A place which is considered to be a Desert is done after looking at the precipitation that is received in the area and that is the rainfall is always less than 50 millimeters and that is why some people refer to the Kalahari Desert as a semi Desert because it receives rainfall that runs between 100 and 650 millimeters.
However, the water seeps into the sand in a very short time and whatever accumulates in the clay or lime pans has soon evaporates meaning surface water is a rarity.The Kalahari Desert runs through different countries in the southern part of the African continent and Namibia is one of them. The mean annual rainfall in this part of the Kalahari desert is between 200 and 250 mm, which is far more than the usual average of less than 100 mm for a desert. The park represents two vegetation types: the tree and shrub savannah of the southern Kalahari (grasses and acacias) and the Karas dwarf shrub land which is actually classed with the Nama Karoo. Gondwana Kalahari Park covers an area of 98 square kilometres and is home to such wildlife as springbok, gemsbok, jackal, ostrich, giraffe, bat-eared fox, kori bustard and many other types of birds. Gondwana Kalahari Park is a private nature reserve located in the southern part of the Kalahari desert. The Kalahari desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.