5 BEST REASONS TO VISIT BWABWATA

5 Best Reasons To Visit Bwabwata National Park In Namibia

The 5 best reasons to visit Bwabwata national park include; Elephant Tracking, Game drives, Safari walks, Canoeing, Community-wildlife interlinkage.

Bwabwata national park is found in Namibia south of the African continent. The national park is located in the northern part of the country and it was officially nominated a national park in 2007. The park covers a surface area of about 6,275 sq km in Namibia.  The park is also unique with so thousands of people living in the park with the wildlife. The people in the park are estimated above 5000 people living in the park, visit bwabwata national park namibia and experience the desert life in Africa.

 

1. Elephant Tracking in Bwabwata National Park

The elephants are the most the backbone animals of Bwabwata national park. Most visitors visit the park majorly to see the elephant and its lifestyle. The elephant is one of the biggest land creature and also one of the Big 5 animals. The Elephant has unique features as to why you need to visit Bwabwata national park and have an experience.

One of the amazing features elephants posses is the big body but with a small tail. This feature puts a smile on the faces of visitors as they wonder and laugh at the scene. Then the elephant also has its trunk that helps it in breathing, smelling, feeding, pulling, defense, drinking among others. The elephant trunk is that long from the lips to the nose and that’s why the trunk can help it perform more activities as some are mentioned above.

Tourists who visit Bwabwata national park, must be ready to wake up so early in the morning, get in the bush with the accompany of a tour guide and a game ranger to track down the elephants. However, not only elephants exist in the park. There other wildlife animals such as the Lions, leopards, Antelopes, Zebras, Buffalos, Hyenas among others.

The tour guide will explain about the animals the tourist comes across as they track the elephants. The game ranger shall scare away the aggressive elephants that attack visitors. The experience a tourist finds in elephant tracking is amazing. Going through the bush, looking for the elephant footsteps, and really seeing the elephant living its fancy life makes visitors have a smile and memories never to be forgotten.

 

2. Game Drives in Bwabwata National Park

Bwabwata national park has a relatively flat landscape that enables the tourists and game drivers to drive through the park routes with ease to access deep into the park for visitors to view the wildlife. This is one of the best tourism practice that gives a tourist the exact experience of the wildlife and have a safari tours in bwabwata national park for the best game drives.

Well tourism established vehicles of 4×4 open roof and open sided vehicles are recommended for such a tourism package. This applies to either self driving visitors or the game drivers. These vehicles are open sided because of visitors need a proper viewing of the wildlife animals and nature. These vehicles have tour guides to explain to the visitors on the nature and animals spotted in the game park.

The game ranger shall carry a gun and only shots to scare in case an animal attacked the visitors. The game ranger can only kill the animal if it really injured someone and he is to provide evidence at court that the animal really injured someone and he killed it.

Visitors of interest to this activity also have to get up early at around 5am and get to the road to have the game drive. The game driver shall drive deep in the game park in search for the animals and the tour guide shall help visitors spot and explain to them more about the animals. And the guide shall also answer the questions the visitors ask. The open windows will help the visitors have a proper view and photography if intended to capture any.

 

3. Safari Walks in Bwabwata National Park

Safari walks is also a popular activity in Bwabwata national park. This activity is general in a way that, there is no specific goal as to where to go and what to see. The game ranger and the tour guide move with the visitors in any direction of the park hopefully to spot some animals in that taken direction. Here what is found by luck is what the tourist studies and different spots are established for tea and some rest as they prepare to move on.

Safari walks is the extremely the best way one can study the wildlife and the nature of the park because its more practical and physical in experience. Here a visitor can touch and feel the vegetation and some not so dangerous animals like the tortoise among others.

The real experience comes when the big 5 animals are spotted. The fear, tremble within the visitors body as they think they are in extreme danger but actually nothing happens to them. The game rangers are always available to protect the visitors from the wildlife attacks.

With safari walks, visitors are guided on where to pass and which direction to take because some animals in the park are territorial in nature such as the Buffalo, Lions, they can attack with vigor if they are encroached in their territories. And visitors are advised to move together in group not alone. This helps the game rangers easily stop attacks from the wildlife in case any happened.

 

4. Canoeing in Bwabwata National Park

Canoeing is also another good activity a tourist can take interest of in the park. Due to several water sources, one can engage in canoeing in Bwabwata national park. The park has several nature to view while on a boat providing a beautiful scenery of good diversity of the ecosystem that includes of Kalahari woodland, Caprivi mopane woodlands, riverine woodlands, shrub savanna biome and  Caprivi floodplains in the park.

Several rivers flow through the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia and these include; Kwando, Okavango, Zambezi, Chobe and Linyanti. These rivers enable canoeing in the park. Visitors use the boat to move from different points of the water bodies to have a view of the nature and other wildlife in the park. This is the best view of the birds in the park such as the Collared palm-thrush, Slaty egret, Southern ground hornbill among others.

Visitors also in this case may view some of the aquatic life in the water bodies such as the fish, crocodiles, alligators, hippopotamus among others. With boat rides the visitor mostly views things along and those in the river though its the most relaxing activity in the park. The vegetation and the water give a pleasing cool sounds and fresh air to the tourists and so making them relax their bodies as they feel the breeze.

 

5. Community-Wildlife Interlinkage in Bwabwata National Park

Bwabwata national park is really a unique park where one will find both local people and wildlife in the same park. The government of Namibia has played a great role in this.  Over 5000 local people live in the park and then largest group lives along the caprivi strip. The government calls upon the local people and they plan for the game park. Innovations can be evidenced where the local groups in the park sell their products to the tourists such as their harvests among others.

Different people live in the park and so the tourist shall experience different cultures. These people live with these animals in the same place though the area they live in is protected from the wildlife. Both the wildlife and the people in this case are a danger to each other. As the wildlife attack people and destroy the crops, People in return poach in the park. This is another challenge the government is yet to completely solve it but now there is reduced practices of crop destruction by the animals and poaching by the hunters.

When To Visit Bwabwata National Park In Namibia

Bwabwata national park can be visited anytime of the year according to the tourists interested time. Although, visiting the park during the dry season would carry more possibilities of having the best experience in the park. The months of June, July, August and September are the best to visit Bwabwata national park.

The dry season gives the visitors the best wildlife views because the animals are concentrated in one area near the water bodies and so a proper view of most animals in the park is possible. Here is where the hungry predators really hunt their prey best as they have a lot of options and at times visitors have the chance to experience such a scenario.

The wet seasons calls for more growth of pastures and other water bowls filled and so many animals move to far more places in search for pasture and water. This really gives the tourist and the tour guides hard time to track down the animals. As they have to move more far distances to view the respective animals of interest.

 

How To Access Bwabwata National Park In Namibia.

Bwabwata national park can be accessed both by road or using the chartered planes to the airstrips within the park. Note, there is no direct flight to the park. The air plane will drop the visitor at the Hosea Kutako international airport of Namibia in Windhoek the capital city of Namibia. Then a chartered plane will drop the visitor at one of the lodges with air strips outside the park.

For visitors taking the option of using the road, Bwabwata national park is 900 sq km from Windhoek the capital of Namibia. Traveling through the trans caprivi highway takes more than 6 hours to reach the park. To access the park, the vehicle visitors use should be 4×4 open sided as recommended in the park. This applies to all vehicles entering the park.

 

Accommodation In Bwabwata National Park In Namibia.

Bwabwata national park also has several options in terms of accommodation to the visitors. Some of the lodges at Bwabwata include; nambwa tented lodge, White sands lodge which is 1.2 km, Rainbow river lodge which is 1.7 km, Shametu river lodge and campsite which is 2.1 km from Bwabwata national park among others.

 

In Conclusion.

Touring Africa for adventure is a perfect idea and choice you make as a tourist. Kubwa Five Safaris is a trustworthy African tour company that bases in South and East African tours. The company has good administration and good tour guides to ensure the visitors get the best experiences out of their trips with the  tour company. A tourist can book with Kubwa Five Safaris through their office or Online booking through their website: www.kubwafive-safaris.com or contact them through their email: reservations@kubwafive-safaris.com.