Safari in Chobe

containing three very different locations

At around 11,700 square kilometres, Chobe National Park is an extremely large national park in the north of Botswana.

The reserve forms the heart of a vast and incredibly important wildlife area which stretches south into the Okavango Delta and north into the surrounding countries of Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This area has a reputation for rich wildlife dating back to the earliest reports by explorer David Livingstone and was a famous hunting area from around 1870, until it came under governmental protection in 1967.

The wildlife here can be prodigious, particularly along the Northern Waterfront and around the Savuti Marshes during the peak dry season Jun-Oct.

The Chobe area contains three key areas, each of which is very different in terms of terrain, wildlife and seasonality.

Set in the north of Botswana, Chobe Northern Waterfront is the part of Chobe National Park which fronts onto the main river and is renowned for prodigious wildlife viewing during the May-Oct dry season, but which also suffers badly from very high visitor traffic.

Set in the north of Botswana, the Savuti Marshes are a part of Chobe National Park, a famous old safari area which is renowned for very rich wildlife viewing, but which is also very busy with visitors these days.

Set deep within Chobe National Park, the Nogatsaa Pans are a collection of remote seasonal waterholes that lie some 80 km south of the Chobe River, attracting a good deal of wildlife, especially during the Dec-Apr green season.

We very rarely recommend including Chobe in trips. This is due to the fact that Chobe is a public access area with congestion issues in contrast to the blissful pristine and peaceful private concessions for which Botswana is best known.

Over the years, we have tried and failed to find ways to include this area in a trip whilst retaining the quality of the safari. It’s simply not possible.

Getting there

On the rare occasions we do include this area in trips, we recommend access by light aircraft.

This is by contrast with the usual way to access Chobe, which is by means of the overland route from Maun to Kasane. But this route can get very busy with self-drivers and budget overland traffic, so we try to avoid it whenever we can.

Seasonality

On seasonality, like most areas in Botswana, safari in the Chobe is very seasonal and careful planning is essential. However, in this particular area, there is, arguably, no good time to visit. Please refer to the sub-locations for more details.

difficult to deliver quality safari experiences