Traversing the great expanse of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana may not be as challenging as you may have been lead to believe − if you plan and prepare carefully (and understand the booking procedure), writes Owen Middleton.

You’ve overstayed your welcome by a day, the Botswana Parks Board official insists.

“That’s impossible!” we protest in unison, blaming an entrance gate official for getting the booking wrong. On our way home, we’re in no mood for yet another booking saga.

Whether it is the unshaven, dirty rabble smelling of a week’s braais in front of him, or the experience of many a tourist becoming unhinged in the Kalahari desert, he pronounces, “It’s your lucky day” and sends us on our way − with that understanding look that comes with the territory.

This encounter punctuates the end of our week traversing the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) − from the Khutse Game Reserve in the south to Piper Pans in the north and many other places made famous by Mark and Delia Owens in their book Cry of the Kalahari. I had been dreaming of doing the south-north line through the reserve since I was 17, after reading about the Owens’ incredible wildlife experiences and seeing the images of great open spaces. The massive, 52 000 km2 reserve in central Botswana is widely regarded as the last expanse of wilderness left south of the Zambezi.

However, you would be forgiven for thinking that, being in the Kalahari, the reserve comprises red sand dunes and endless plains devoid of trees − anything but. Other than the open pans and ancient riverbeds spread out at regular intervals through the CKGR, most of the land is thick Kalahari bushveld.