Gantsi, more commonly known as Ghanzi

There’s a widely held but misguided idea that Botswana towns that are far removed from the capital city, Gaborone are boring and have nothing to offer for entertainment, What’s more, most other interesting places in Botswana are overshadowed by the more famous and popular areas such as the Chobe and Okavango Delta. Ghanzi is one such example, which is sad because the town does have a lot to offer! Gantzi is teeming with so much to see, do and experience, you just have to know where to go.

Aha Hills

Central Kalahari Game Reserve

Cheetah Conservation Botswana Gantsi Outpost

Gantsi Trail Blazers

Gcwihaba Caves

Ghanzi Craft

Kuru Art Centre

Kuru Dance Festival

The San Museum in D'Kar

Whatona Cultural Village

The Aha Hills straddle the Botswana and Namibia border. The hills lie about 50km North West of Gcwihaba and can be seen from it. The hills are mostly rough jagged, having been split by the elements into numerous faults and fractures. They cover an area of approximately 245 sq km, mostly in Botswana.

The infamous Central Kalahari Game Reserve lies about 150km from Gantsi. Is the most contested area due to the much-publicised conflict between the Botswana government and the San people. Many San people have been relocated from the area and resettled in settlements around Botswana.

Headquartered in Gaborone, a research and education field camp situated in the Gantsi farmlands of the western Kalahari, and an education base in Maun, just south of the Okavango Delta. The camp staff are very experienced in conservation and conduct research on cheetahs in and around the Gantsi region.

Julian Butler, a local businessman, set aside a former cattle ranch in Gantsi in order to set up as authentic hunter/gatherer community of the San with a view to helping them cope with the socio-economic pressures they face in modern day Botswana.

The caves are without a doubt situated in an area of Botswana counted among the wildest and most remote destinations in Botswana. Gcwihaba is a fascinating underground labyrinth of caverns and pits, linked passages, fantastical stalagmite and stalactite formations and beautifully coloured flowstones that appear like waterfalls of rack.

Run by the Ghanzi Craft Trust, a non-profit organisation that works to empower San communities in Botswana through craft production. The retail shop at Gantsi Craft has displays outlining the various skills and creativity that go into making the craft products, both in the past and present. Gantsi Craft works with craft producers in 16 remote settlements in the Ghanzi and Kgalagadi disticts.

Much like their ancestors before them did all over Southern Africa, the modern day San Artisits of the Kuru Art Projects use art as an outlet through which to express their traditions and recent life experiences. Kuru Art Project artists are well known the world over- their art pieces have been exhibited in over 15 countries globally.

Every year, the Kuru Dance Festival brings together various San groups from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa for an electrifying celebration of their rich cultural heritage of storytelling, song and dance.

D’Kar village, the site of the museum, is one of the San settlements located about 40km form Gantsi. Not much happens in D’Kar but the museum, which houses a wealth of San culture and history, a cultural centre and the Naro Language Project. A real treat awaits the History lovers in the form of information about hunting and gathering, craft production and traditional medicine there.

On the outskirts of town is a quaint cultural village run by a local woman. The idea behind the village is to share some of the Setswana culture and way of life. There are various traditional huts in different styles dotted around the area. A truly authentic experience of life in a typical Setswana village – with goats and chickens freely roaming around.