Chobe National Park

Chobe National Park is arguably Botswana’s next most well known conservation area, after the Okavango Delta. It is a surprising diverse Park, from its northern border at the Chobe River, to the now dry Savute Channel, and beyond to the borders of the Moremi Wildlife Reserve/ Okavango Delta.

Chobe National Park, which is the third largest national park in Botswana and covers some 11 700 square kilometres, has some of the greatest concentrations of game found on the African continent, not least of which are the estimated 120 000 head of elephant.

The idea of a National Park in the Chobe area was first put forward in 1931, and the following year an area of some 24 000 square kilometres was declared a non-hunting zone. By 1933 the area had increased to 31 600 square kilometres. Unfortunately tsetse fly problems caused the park to be shelved until 1957, when proposal were made again. This time the area proposed was merely 21 000 square kilometres. It was only in 1960 that an even smaller area was gazetted as a Game Reserve, and in 1967, the Reserve was declared a National Park – the first one in the newly independent Botswana. Chobe National Park was enlarged in 1980 and 1987 to its current size.

Chobe National Park is most often associated with its elephant population – which covers much of Northern Botswana, and the north-west of Zimbabwe. The elephant population is migratory, making seasonal moves of up to 200 kilometres from the Chobe and Linyanti Rivers (their dry season home) to the pans in the south east of the Park, where they disperse to in the rainy season.

The Park is also home to a good numbers of buffalo, antelope and predators.

In general, game viewing is best in the dry months (generally April to October), although birding is at its height from November to March. Malarial mosquitoes are found throughout the Park, and you are strongly advised to anti-malarial prophylactics before, during and after travel to the area.

There are distinct eco-systems in the Park - Serondela with its lush plains and dense forests in the Chobe River area in the extreme north-east; the Savute Marsh in the west; the Linyanti Marsh in the north-west and the hot dry plains in between.

The Serondela area is situated in the extreme North East of the Chobe National Park, and is the major area for tourism, based mainly out of the small town of Kasane, overlooking the Chobe River. There are riverine forests, and seasonal flood plains with excellent vistas across to Namibia’s Caprivi strip.

Serondela was originally home to a small timber industry, traces of which are still visible. There is now 1 tarred road in the Park, as it acts as the main access from Kasane to the Namibian border at Ngoma. Otherwise, as the Park enjoys good River frontage, boat cruises are popular for site-seeing and game viewing, although all of the lodges also offer game drives.

The Linyanti is tucked away in the west of the Chobe National Park, and being secluded, is far less busy that the Serondela area. The Linyanti, named for the River (which is itself a tributary of the Chobe), is, ecologically, a miniature Okavango Delta – with its own permanent water-ways, papyrus-lined lagoons, reed-beds, and towering trees. Unfortunately the Park only touches the River for a short section on the far eastern edge of the 900 square kilometre Linyanti marsh.

However, there is still plentiful wildlife, with excellent numbers of elephant, buffalo and zebra congregating along the river in the dry season, and giraffe, impala and roan antelope being seen in the forests, and birdlife is diverse and numerous.

Savute is known as an excellent game viewing area, and boasts good sightings throughout the year. The channel, and marsh are now dry (there is some seasonal flooding), and have been so since 1982, however, flooding could happen at any time, as it has done so on a number of occasions in the last century or so.

The area is home not only to good populations of elephant and lion, there are also excellent concentrations of plains game, such as giraffe, zebra, impala, tsessebe, wildebeest, kudu, waterbuck, warthog, and eland. Other than lion, predators are common (indeed the Savute area is known for its predators), which include spotted hyaena, jackal, bat-eared fox, cheetah and wild dog.

Between Serondela and Savute is the Tchinga/ Nogatsaa are, which is a grassy woodland area, interspersed with pans, making for excellent game viewing.

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