With around 85,000 inhabitants, Maun (a nine-to-ten-hour drive from Gaborone or a flight of just under two hours) is a scruffy, spread-out frontier town with riverside bars and curio/souvenir shops (not too much changed from when I visited 27 years ago), but more relevant as the gateway to the Okavango, the vast wetlands which ranges in size from around 5,800 square miles (15 000 square kilometres) during the dry season to nearly 85,00 (22 000 sq. km) during the rainier months (December to April). This UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to an amazing 122 species of mammals, including antelopes, buffalos, cheetahs, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, hippos, leopards, lions, rhinos, and zebras. One of the signature experiences here is having a local guide pole you by makoro (wooden dugout canoe) through the delta´s reed-lined water channels, where you can spot antelope and birdlife as well as elephants. There are numerous game reserves and lodges of varying degrees of luxury, such as Camp Moremi, Eagle Island, and Xigera, and they all offer game drives and walking safaris, and if you take a light-aircraft hop from Maun into one of these lodges, you´ll get a bonus of some incredible aerial views along the way.
Read more in my post 5 Botswana Bucket-listers.
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