Maun · BW

Maun

Maun sits on the Thamalakane River at the south-eastern lip of the Okavango Delta, and it is here that nearly every journey into one of Africa's great wetland wildernesses begins. Dusty, fast-growing and permanently humming with light aircraft, this northern Botswana town is the country's unofficial safari capital—the place where travellers load up 4x4s, board charter planes for fly-in camps, and hire traditional mokoro canoes to glide into the delta's channels. The name Maun comes from the San word maung, meaning roughly "the place of short reeds," and the town grew from a quiet settlement of Batawana cattle herders into one of Botswana's largest towns after it became the Tawana capital in 1915. Today it still feels like a frontier staging post rather than a polished resort, but with the UNESCO-listed Okavango Delta at its doorstep, the Moremi Game Reserve close by, and the small, characterful Nhabe Museum to its culture, a day or two here is far more rewarding than a mere drive-through.