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, parts of Namibia and regions of South Africa. In Namibia the Kalahari covers much of the eastern and southern areas.
The Kalahari is not a true desert as it receives too much rain, but it is actually a fossil desert. The landscape is more one of golden grass and small red dunes. As the Kalahari is covered with trees, ephemeral rivers and fossil watercourses, the reasonably regular rainfall patterns that occur every year do allow for huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, plant life and insects to thrive. In terms of vegetation most of the southern segment is taken up with camelthorn, red ebony and other acacias, and towards the centre silver terminalia and shrubs are common. Farther north, where the climate is wetter, the acacia gives way to bush savannah and dry woodland of kiaat (also known as wild teak) Zambezi teak (also called mkusi or Rhodesian teak) wild seringa (formerly Rhodesian ash) manketti, shiwi and other magnificent timber species. Large numbers of Tamboti trees grow in the Grootfontein area. The quiver tree (Aloe dichotoma).
We visited here in June 2017.
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