Unique Places in Botswana

The Moremi Game Reserve, designated as such in 1963, stretches almost 5000 square kilometres and totals 20% of the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana.

It is home to nearly 500 species of bird (from water to forest dwellers), and a vast array of wildlife, including lion, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, leopard, cheetah, hyena, jackal, impala and lechwe. The reserve also boasts upwards of thirty percent of the surviving wild dog population.

Game viewing is via 4WD, on foot or by mokoro, a dug-out canoe poled by a private guide.

Game viewing is best from July to October when seasonal pans dry up and animals congregate around the permanent basins. The weather warms up considerably from October and the rainy season starts at the end of November or beginning December.

Camp sites are at South Gate, Third Bridge, Xakanaxa, and Khwai.

Chobe is Botswana's second largest game reserve and has one of the highest concentrations of game found anywhere in Africa.

The park has four distinct habits - plains, dense forests, marsh and swamps - which allows for a wide variety of wildlife.

Chobe is famous for its elephant population, of which there are about 120 000 in Botswana. These elephants are huge and it is an awesome spectacle to see them rush towards a water hole late in the afternoon (presumably to intimidate and frighten away potential predators).

Chobe is home to buffalo, Burchell's zebra, lion, leopard, spotted hyena, cheetah, antelope (including sable, impala, puku, tsessebe, eland, kudu, red lechwe, waterbuck and the rare Chobe Bushbuck), giraffe, warthog and wildebeest.

Linyanti lies on the southern banks of the Linyanti River and Chobe's western border. The 111 000 hectare private reserve features three main habitats: marshland subsiding into lagoons and rivers with riverine forests of jackalberry and sauage trees; open grasslands of the Savuti Channel; and dry inland wooded areas.

Rain falls from November to March. The best viewing period is during the dry season, from May to October. As the surface water evaporates, wildlife congregate in huge numbers along the river. This is when game is at its most dense and easily visible.

Elephants, buffalo and zebra gather in huge numbers at the rivers and waterholes, particularly in the late afternoon or early morning. Zebra spend the winter in the reserve before migrating to Savuti in November. Giraffe, impala and roan antelope is most often seen in the forests. The reserve also boasts red lechwe and the aquatic sitatunga. Predators include lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, wild dog and even the serval.

Linyanti has four small camps: Duma Tau, King's Pool, Linyanti Tented Camp and Savuti Camp.

Savuti is most famous for its predators: lion, spotted hyena, jackal, wild dog and cheetah. Derek and Beverly Joubert’s classic ‘The Eternal Enemies’ immortalised the often brutal struggle between Savuti’s lions and hyenas. Research has shown that lions may lose up to 20% of their kill to hyenas!

Another great – if more rare - sight is the endangered wild dog.

While winter (May to October) provides the best viewing, November and December bears witness to the great migration of Zebra from Linyanti to Savuti where they graze and give birth in the grasslands of the Mobabe Depression.

Viewing at waterholes is exceptional. Look out for elephant herds and predators!
Other species of the Savuti include giraffe, bat-eared fox, impala, tsessebe, roan, sable, wildebeest, kudu, buffalo, waterbuck, warthog and eland. Birdlife is plentiful with large secretary birds and kori bustards often seen around the Savuti Marsh. Summer migrants and water birds include Abdim’s Storks, Carmine bee-eaters, fish eagles and quelea finches.

Savuti Camp Site is situated about 172 km south west of the Sedudu Gate and overlooks the Savuti River Channel.

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IHAHA

Now this was our final campsite and probably the most spectacular. Situated over the river, looking down, it makes for brilliant game viewing. Evening brings the animals to the waters edge and baboons to camp if you are not careful so make sure you have everything secured, with no scrummy appertisers left around for them to steal.

Ihaha is the new and only camping site for private visitors within northern Chobe.

The ablution block is good! Set a little away from our camp, so take care after dark.

Two sites share one tap, situated between the them, again after dark probably best used in pairs.

A lovely, lovely campsite.

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Fabulous!
After driving around Botswana from camp to camp we were parking ourselves here at Tuli for our final 4 days and what a great four days it was, two of which were spent in the meru tents.

Tents... well, rather luxurious if they are to be called tents, although we did on one occasion have a monkey decide to use our en suite bathroom. Lovely cosy tents, as with all the holiday apart from when staying in the Lodges, there was no electricity and hurricane lamps sufficed. In Africa, you retire not long after sundown and rise with the birds, so rest was clean, deep and rejuvenating.

We had our own chef, guides and tracker. We also had use of the Lodge facilities if required and hence we found this spot a tough one to leave behind.

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Savuti Campsite is situated on the Savuti Channel and has an elephant proof ablution block and elephant proof stand pipes. It also has hot water and lights in the ablution block, trala, a real treat. The elephant proof wall around the ablution block is cleverly made to allow wild cats etc to be able to escape out but elephant and the like not to be able to get in.

We had two days here at Savuti campsite. At this time of year (September) probably we would all say the same and that is, that only one night at Savuti would surfice.
It seems a lot of the animals had migrated.

The, I think 8 camping pitches are separated and marked but you do have to search for the marks. Many sit under old camelthorn trees, with site number one being particularly good (take note when booking, it seems a ploy of people is to 'nik' the best plot and then claim there has been a mix up and that they were put there and they tend to send you off to find a vacant plot, normally it's the one they did not want) The size of the site, and the distance between the pitches, is such that some campers even drive to the ablution block after dark.

Savuti particularly attracks the elephant and hyenas. Hyena's being mostly scavanging opportunists, also have that trait of cowardice, despite their strong ability to drag off just about any sized object, they are dangerous, they will take risks and children are more so a target, but make enough noise and they most likely will run. However, this is not the case with elephants visiting the campsite, they dislike like being shone at them and indeed do not like noise so if you want to invite trouble into your area, try both of these!!

Surrounding our campsite were the Kalahari Appleleaf bushes, like a miniature version of the Jacaranda, very pretty amongst the dusty scenes.

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KHWAI CAMPSITE (and Xakanaxa)

Khwai Campsite, very similar to Xakanaxa but on the north east of the reserve. The drive from Mboma island to Khwai is a long one, (its where we left from after a mokoro trip) maybe 5 hours or so if you enjoy the view along the way. Taking the river road along the Khwai is probably the best advice with plenty of animal spotting to do.

The monkeys at Khwai can be a pest so be aware.

If you have time there are hippo pools to take a look at.

Again the ablution block was okayyy, nah, I am fibbing, it was for the advanced adventurer and cold water only, nicely invigorating.