Gemsbok National Park

One of the most interesting but lesser known regions of Botswana, the Gemsbok National Park is set in the remote south-western corner of Botswana, where the annual rainfall seldom exceeds 125 millimetres. Closer to the traditional image of a desert, it consists of gently undulating sand dunes that are sparseley vegetaged and criss-crossed by fossil rivers.

There are two Gemsbok parks; the larger, Gemsbock National Park (26 000 square kilometres) is in Botswana and the smaller adjacent Kalahari Gemsbok Park (9 600 square kilometres) is in South Africa. The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa, which was proclaimed a national park on July 3, 1931 mainly to curb the activities of game poachers, ranks among the great game reserves of Africa, partly because it shares an unfenced boundary with an equally rugged sanctuary in Botswana, facilitating the seasonal migration of animals in search of water.