Four views of... Botswana

Shared between Botswana and South Africa, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is an arid, sparsely vegetated area with rolling red sand dunes. This unforgiving environment is patrolled by blackmaned lions while cheetahs hunt along river beds, leopards lounge in trees, meerkats keep watch and raptors soar above.

An area roughly the size of Portugal, Makgadikgadi is mostly uninhabited by humans. A series of flat, featureless salt pans are fringed by grasslands and dotted with huge gnarled baobab trees, creating a dramatic backdrop against the sunset. In the wet season water appears and herds of zebra and wildebeest gather as well as giraffes, elephants and rare brown hyenas.

Swelling three times in size between March and August, this delta floods into the savannah instead of the sea, creating one of the richest environments on earth. Wildlife drawn to this labyrinth of papyrus-fringed waterways, serene lagoons and wild islands includes rare fish eating owls, big cats, African wild dogs and rhinos.

Chobe National Park has some of the highest game density of any place in Africa. The Chobe River trails through sandy terrain, lush floodplains and dense forests of cathedral mopane trees. Thousands of elephant and buffalo trek from Zimbabwe to drink at the river along with lions, baboons and zebras, while hippos and crocodiles lurk.