Crossing the Kalahari in Botswana

ENTERING THE GREAT RESERVES OF AFRICA always feels like crossing a threshold into an entirely different world where anything is possible. And so it was that, feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland or the children who climb the Magic Faraway Tree in search of adventures, I left the paved road and drove out onto the sands of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

This is one of Africa’s largest protected areas, but it encloses