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Chobe National Park in extreme north-eastern Botswana is one of South Africa's finest conservation areas. Covering approximately 12 000km squared, this vast park is almost completley flat with the exception of the low hills of Gubatsaa, Gcoha and Magwikhwe, the Mababe Depression and of course the great Chobe River on the northern boundary. Throughout the area numerous clay-bottomed pans hold water during the short rainy season. This availability of water away from the Delta and the northern border rivers allows thousands of head of game to disperse, graze and browse on Chobe's grasslands, mopane and mixed woodlands that dominate the park's vegetation.
Chobe, especially in the dry season is home to some of the biggest herds of elephant on earth totalling some 35 000, and, during the rainy season, you can see the migration cross the vast expanses through groves of baobabs. Tens of thousands of plains zebra share the marshes with tsessebe, wildebeest, giraffe and great herds of buffalo - some a thousand strong.
The Savute region of Chobe pulses to a rhythm of wet and dry cycles. For years the Savute has been dry. A winding fossil channel vanishes into the sweeping expanse of a relic marsh, where the flat countryside is relieved by the rock fortress of the Gubatsa Hills. The woodlands fringing the Savute marsh shelter kudu and roan antelope, while the hills conceal leopard and klipspringer and the sights recorded aeons ago by the San, are painted on the rock walls.
These fragile water holes also welcome thousands of migrant birds to swollen waters in the rainy season. Spurwing geese, knobbilled ducks and lesser moorhens paddle in the rain-filled pans where you might glimpse a visiting hippo. Savute Elephant Camp and Savute Safari Lodge are set amidst camelthorns on the banks of the Savute Channel. One of the features of Elephant Camp is its specially constructed ‘elephant proof' swimming pool which is enormously attractive to the large numbers of elephant that roam this rugged, semi arid portion of the park.
From either the tented comfort of Elephant Camp, or the contemporary African design of Savute Safari Lodge's thatched suites, viewing decks afford glorious views, maybe even of wild dogs hunting in the channel where the crocodiles once lurked.
Although not in the park itself Mowana Safari Lodge is spectacularly sited on the banks of the Chobe River, near the point where four countries meet. The experience of this great river, by six-seater powerboat or sunset launch, is a welcome punctuation to a Chobe safari. The highly personalised Muchenje Safari Lodge bordering Chobe and set on an escarpment overlooking a waterhole and the sprawling expanse of the Caprivi Strip, offers one of the best views across these plains that stretch to the horizon.
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