Desert & Delta Safaris awakens legend of Tsodilo Hills

Far out on the western horizon, through the vast plains of the Kalahari shrub bush, a wintry morning mist fuses with the smoke from the veldt fires to produce a pinkish hue that skirts around the isolated hills in the middle of nowhere. That is the bird’s eye view of the mystical Tsodilo Hills from the Okavango Delta Panhandle.

As we approach in a small helicopter, just at the right elevation, the soft morning light illuminates the dramatically rising peak of the Male hill – one of the highest points in Botswana at 1,400m above sea level. The ‘Child’, the small hill on the far north, is almost completely buried in the haze while the dotted peaks of the Female Hill in the middle, are just barely visible. The panoramic spectacle resembles a watercolour ancient painting, a minimalist fine art piece, or a surreal landscape artwork.