This safari will take place at the following national parks and reserves in Botswana.
Chobe National Park
Whether arriving by air or road, the first glimpse of the river, deep and dazzling in the sandy terrain, is always breathtaking. It appears as a swathe of brilliant, peacock blue ribbon, winding its way through the tiny town of Kasane, and ensuing wilderness, the Chobe National Park.
Undoubtedly one of Africa’s most beautiful rivers, the Chobe, supports a diversity and concentration of wildlife unparalleled anywhere else in the country.
Established in 1968, the park covers approximately 11,700 square kilometers, encompassing floodplains, swamps, and woodland. The Chobe River forms its northern boundary. There are four distinct geographical areas in the park: the Chobe Riverfront, the Ngwezumba pans, Savute, and Linyanti.
The most accessible and frequently visited of Botswana’s big game country, the Chobe Riverfront is most famous for its large herds of elephants and Cape Buffalo, which during the dry winter months converge upon the river to drink.
During the season, on an afternoon game drive, you may see hundreds of elephants at one time. You may be surrounded by elephants, as the main Serondella road becomes impassable and scores of family herds cross the main road to make their way to the river to drink, bathe, and play.
Driving the loops that hug the river’s edge, you may see up to 15 different species of animals on any one game drive, including waterbuck, lechwe, puku (this is the only part of Botswana where they can be seen), giraffe, kudu, roan and sable, impala, warthog, bushbuck, monkeys and baboons, along with the accompanying predators lion, leopard, hyena and jackal.
Take a river cruise and you will experience the park, and the animals, from another vantage point. From there, you will get up close and personal with hippo, crocodile, and a mind-boggling array of water birds.
Over 460 bird species have been recorded in the park, making it one of Africa’s premier venues for bird safaris. Common species to be seen include the sacred ibis, Egyptian geese, the ubiquitous cormorants and darters, spur-winged geese, Pel’s fishing owl, carmine bee-eaters, most members of the kingfisher family, all the rollers, the unmistakable fish eagle, the martial eagle, and many members of the stork family.
The Chobe River rises in the northern Angolan highlands, travels enormous distances before it reaches Botswana at Ngoma. Like the Okavango and Zambezi rivers, the Chobe’s course is affected by fault lines that are extensions of the Great Rift Valley. These three mighty rivers carry more water than all other rivers in Southern Africa.
Savuti
Truly at the interior of Chobe National Park, Savuti boasts most of the Chobe species, except for water-loving antelope. It is best known for its predators, particularly lion, cheetah and hyena, of which there are large resident populations.
The Savuti channel flows from the Linyanti River for about 100 kilometers, carrying water away from the river and releasing it into a vast swampland called the Savuté Marsh, and further south onto the Mababe Depression, which is also fed by the Ngwezumba River from the northeast.
The Mababe, immense and flat and fringed by thickets of trees, was once part of the Makgadikgadi super-lake. When filled with water, it becomes the venue for thousands of migratory birds and animals, particularly large herds of zebra.
Geographically, Savuti is an area of many curiosities. One of its greatest mysteries is the Savuti channel itself, which has over the past 100 years inexplicably dried up and recommenced its flow several times. This irregular water flow explains the numerous dead trees that line the channel, for they have germinated and grown when the channel was dry and drowned when the channel flowed again.
Khwai
The Khwai community concession deserves special mention due to its proximity to the Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavango Delta, and the fact that it operates under different beneficial rules to most other regions. That’s the right place to do bush walks and have a chance to see the local. “Cultural tour”.
This area is deemed to be a private concession and is of outstanding beauty, delivering the same reputation as the above two mentioned, in that the diversity of game and vegetation is shared. Much smaller in size, its real benefit is accessibility.
The main border is along the Khwai River, the others being Moremi Game Reserve to the west, the entrance to the Savuti area to the north and a little-used area of the Chobe National Park. The concession is run by the members of the Khwai Village community and extends from their village to Mababe village to the east.
As ever, there are no fences around the neighboring national parks and the game is free to roam in and out as it wishes. Khwai is an area of outstanding beauty and due to the arid conditions to the north towards Savuti, the game will flock to the Khwai River, especially in the drier winter months.
Moremi Game Reserve
This gem of a national park has garnered a number of important distinctions. In 2008, it was voted the ‘best game reserve in Africa’ by the prestigious African Travel and Tourism Association at South Africa’s premier tourism fair, Indaba.
It is the first reserve in Africa that was established by local residents. Concerned about the rapid depletion of wildlife in their ancestral land, due to uncontrolled hunting and cattle encroachment, the Batawana people of Ngamiland, under the leadership of the deceased Chief Moremi III’s wife, Mrs. Moremi, took the bold initiative to proclaim Moremi a game reserve in 1963.
It is the only officially protected area of the Okavango Delta, and as such holds tremendous scientific, environmental and conservation importance. And, undoubtedly, Moremi ranks as one of the most beautiful reserves in Africa, possibly in the world.
Moremi Game Reserve is situated in the central and eastern areas of the Okavango and includes the Moremi Tongue and chief’s island, boasting one of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the continent.
This makes for spectacular game viewing and bird watching, including all major naturally occurring herbivore and carnivore species in the region, and over 400 species of birds, many migratory, and some endangered. Both black and white rhino have recently been re-introduced, now making the reserve a ‘Big Five’ destination.
Contained within an area of approximately 3,900 square kilometers, land and delta meet to create an exceedingly picturesque preserve of floodplains, either seasonally or perennially wet, waterways, lagoons, pools, pans, grasslands, and riparian, riverine, and mopane forests. This terrain makes driving Moremi’s many loops and trails both delightful and, at times, totally inspiring.
Moremi is a very popular destination for the self-drive camper and is often combined with the Chobe National Park to the northeast. The rustic Third Bridge campsite, situated near the pretty Sekire River, flanked with thick stands of papyrus, is a favorite, creating lasting memories of resplendent Okavango sunsets.
