|
The Chobe River
The Chobe River runs along the northern border of Chobe National Park. It rises in the northern Angolan highlands, where it is called the Kwando and travels enormous
distances through Kalahari sands before reaching Botswana; here it becomes the Linyanti until it reaches Ngoma where it becomes the Chobe.
The Chobe twists and turns through swamps of wide reed and papyrus beds, forming hidden lagoons, which sometimes fill with water lilies. Its south bank alternates from
open flood plains dotted with pans to thick woodlands.
Chobe Chilwero is situated on the Chobe River.
The Linyanti and Selinda Wildlife Areas
To the north-east of the Okavango Delta are the Chobe, Selinda and Linyanti areas. The many varied habitats within these concessions, such as marshes, waterways, riverine
forests, dry woodlands and grasslands and the prolific and diverse wildlife and wonderful scenery together form a wonderful contrast to the Okavango.
The 125 000 hectare (308 000 acre) private Linyanti Concession bordering Chobe National Park’s western boundry is an enormous, wildlife-rich area, which creates an
unrivalled atmosphere of remoteness and space.
There are three main features of the Linyanti Concession: the river, the woodlands of the interior and the well-known Savute Channel, famous as a sporadic and unusual watercourse.
The Channel last flowed in 1980; today it is an open grassland and home to a wide variety of animals. Savuti Camp and
Kings Pool Camp are situated in the Linyanti Concession.
The adjacent 135 000 hectare (333 000 acre) SeIinda Concession is ecologically similar, but differs in the increased extent of its floodplains. Like the Linyanti, in the dry winter
months, enormous herds of elephant remain close to the permanent water of the Zibadianja Lagoon (the Savute Channel’s origin) and the Linyanti waters. Selinda Camp is situated in the
Selinda Reserve.
Plains game such as wildebeest, zebra and giraffe, together with their rarer counterparts such as roan, are found, followed naturally by predators such as lion, cheetah, leopard,
hyena and wild dog.
The Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta is considered one of the most incredible wildlife and wilderness sanctuaries in Africa. It is the largest inland delta system in the world, an area of 15 000 square kilometres
filled with water channels, lagoons, swamps and islands. The Okavango Delta lies between shallow fault lines at the end of the Great African Rift valley that cuts through the length
of Africa. What makes this area most remarkable is that is it a wetland paradise located deep within the arid Kalahari Desert. The area was once part of Lake Makgadikgadi, an ancient
lake that dried up some 10 000 years ago. The Okavango River has no outlet to the sea and each year floodwaters flow from their source, catchment areas in the moist central African
highlands over 1000 km away, into the Delta to create the miracle that is the Okavango Delta.
Apart from the outstanding beauty of the wetland habitat, this unique area supports and sustains a huge diversity of flora and fauna.
The game viewing is excellent though out the year and one can encounter African elephants, African buffalo, hippopotamus, lechwe, topi, blue wildebeest, giraffe, nile crocodile, lion,
cheetah, leopard, hyenas, wild dogs, greater kudu, sable antelope, both the black and the white rhinoceros, water monitor, zebras, warthog and the chacma baboon.
The delta also includes over 400 species of birds, including African fish eagle, crested crane and sacred ibis.
Abu Camp, Baines’ Camp, Chief’s Camp, Chitabe Camp, Kwetsani Camp, Little Mombo Camp, Little Vumbura, Mombo Camp, Nxabega Okavango Safari Camp, Sandibe
Safari
Lodge, Stanley’s Camp, Vumbura Plains, Walking with Elephants, Xaranna Tented Camp, Xigera Camp and Xudum Delta Lodge
are all situated within the Okavango Delta.
Tuli Game Reserve
The greater Tuli region, which encompasses the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, is bordered by the Motloutse, the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers in the north-eastern corner of Botswana and
the south-western part of Zimbabwe. It is in the northern reaches of the Northern Tuli Game Reserve that one will find Nitani Private Game Reserve.
Mashatu Tent Camp and Mashatu Main Camp are situated in the north-eastern Tuli Game Reserve.
The region has a variety of landscapes. Riverine forests along the river banks and watercourses, sandstone outcrops, dolerite dykes (most notably, the renowned Solomon's Wall)
and Mopane savanna.
The wildlife experience within the reserve is also vast. There are admirable populations of elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, giraffe and eland. In addition to the common plains
animals (such as wildebeest and zebra), there are also monkeys and baboons, as well as steenbok, duiker, grysbok, impala, common waterbuck, bushbuck and warthog. Also present are
aardvark, aardwolf, bat-eared fox, African wild cat, spotted hyena and black-backed jackal. The bird-life in the area is astounding.
Botswana’s Climate
The summer season begins in November and ends in March. Summer days are hot, especially in the weeks that precede the coming of the cooling rains and shade temperatures rise
to the 38°C mark and higher, reaching a blistering 44°C on rare occasions.
The rainy season is in summer, with October and April being transitional months. January and February are generally regarded as the peak months. The mean annual rainfall varies
from a maximum of over 650 mm in the extreme north-east area of the Chobe District to a minimum of less than 250 mm in the extreme south-west part of Kgalagadi District.
The winter season begins in May and ends in August. This is also the dry season when virtually no rainfall occurs. Winter days are invariably sunny and cool to warm; however,
evening and night temperatures can drop below freezing point in some areas, especially in the south-west.
The in-between periods - April to early May and September to October - still tend to be dry, but the days are cooler than in summer and the nights are warmer than in winter.
|
