Gabarone Travel - Rich Wildlife Heritage amid the Gleaming Skyscrapers of Diamond Companies

Added: 05/24/2006

Botswana's capital, Gaborone, is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Things aren't perfect here, but it's clear that things are different. On the road into town; modern and gleaming shopping centers spring from the hot, brown earth. There's construction on every corner, new offices, new hotels, new apartments - everything one needs to have a great holiday. Gabarone travel offers you an opportunity to experience a new culture at a price you can easily afford.

Botswana is unrivalled as a country in Africa and offers a unique investment climate. Politically, it is rated as the most stable country in Africa and was ranked number one for good governance in Africa, by the World Economic Forum in June 2003.

The country possesses an abundance of wildlife and natural resources that are as diverse as the Kalahari Desert in the southern and eastern parts of the country, and the delta swamps and river plains of the north. Seventeen percent of available land has been set aside for the maintenance and development of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Until independence, administrative power was south of the border in Mafeking, South Africa.

Since then the new capital of Botswana, Gabarone, has grown rapidly and now counts more than one in ten of the nation's inhabitants. Gabarone was built around the time of independence in the 1960s - its foundations laid to the South East of the Kalahari Desert and at the entrance to the hot road of flat, featureless land that leads to the Zimbabwe border and changes further north into the stunning wetlands of the Okavango Delta.

Gabarone travel is mainly transit for the visitor rather than a sightseeing goal in itself. But while you're making plans, getting accustomed to the climate, changing money, and shopping along the nicely laid out Mall, you can take some time out to visit the National Museum and Art Gallery. The art is African and European, not just from Botswana. Winter (April through August) is a good time for Gabarone travel, as the days are generally pleasant and the wildlife never wanders far from water sources. In general, June, early July and mid to late September are the least crowded times to visit. Summer isn't the best time to hit the back roads, enjoy wildlife viewing or explore the Okavango, as prolonged rains may render sandy roads unserviceable, and animals disperse when water is abundant.

For tourists swooping in and out, the Gabarone Game Reserve, on the edge of the capital, gives an exciting preview of some of the wildlife on show at the major national parks. Gabarone travel commuters can go out and back in a morning to see wildebeest, zebra, white rhino and several kinds of antelope. Early mornings and evenings are the best times for spotting game.

It doesn't rain much in Gabarone. Of course, rain isn't quite so important to Botswana's prosperity these days. A country formerly reliant on the cattle industry, its diamonds that are bringing about the rapid development that's happening in Gabarone. By diamond value, Botswana is the biggest producer in the world. So the gleaming skyscrapers are the houses of diamond companies, the hotels are filled with executives and the clean streets and Gabarone guest houses are the products bought with diamond dollars for the people of this city. The roads here are wide and well maintained, with white gutters and proper street signs. That's a sure sign that you're in a first world country.

Gabarone travel is a contrast to traveling around other towns and villages of South Africa; where just a few kilometers away over the border, people beg at traffic lights - the result of being victims of massive unemployment. Gaborone has really been transformed, largely by the influx of dollars from nearby diamond minds.

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