Chove and Savuti Overview

North of the Okavango Delta and occupying 4200 square miles is Chobe National Park, the second largest in Botswana. This park has a variety of habitats ranging from the verdant floodplains, grasslands and thickets bordering the Chobe River, to forest, mopane woodland and scrub. The original inhabitants of this area were the San people. They were hunter-gatherers who moved from one area to another in search of water, wild fruits and wild animals. A major feature of Chobe National Park is its elephant population. The Chobe elephants comprise part of what is probably the largest surviving continuous elephant population in the world, estimated at about 100,000.

Chobe is also home to buffalo, hippo, lion, leopard and hyena. Game viewing here is by open four-wheel drive vehicles as well as in small boats on the river. Game viewing is at its best during the dry season (April – October), when the majority of natural pans have dried up. Savuti is an arid region located in the southern part of Chobe National Park. Bisected by the Savuti Channel, this strange waterway seemingly has a mind of its own. After remaining dry for 100 years, it abruptly flooded again in the 1950’s and remained flooded until the early 1980’s, when subterranean earth movements caused it to dry up once more. Savuti has open plains which are the permanent home of elephant, lion and spotted hyena. Large herds of Burchell’s zebra visit the region in late summer (February – March).

Climate

Average daytime temperatures in the Dry season (April to October) start at 30°C/86°F in April, and by October they’ve climbed to a very hot 35°C/95°F. Conditions stay fairly hot in the first two months of the Wet season (November to March), before the heavy storms of January and February sweep away the worst of the heat.