Botswana Safaris Travel Guide

Chobe National Park lies in the north of Botswana. The famous Chobe River borders with Namibia.
The size of Chobe National Park is approx 11,000kms thus making it Botswana’s third largest park after the  Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Gemsbok National Park.

Chobe National park is widely treasured for its largest concentration of elephants in Africa. But thats not all! You will find more than that, perhaps is the great natural beauty that also attracts the elephants here!

There are various habitats for a variety of wildlife, imagine the flood plains, the mopane trees, acacia trees, grasslands, baobab woodlands and thickets on the borders of Chobe river.

This makes it home to various game species and a multitude of brilliantly colored birds. There is something interesting about the Savuti channel in the Chobe National Park. As it mathematical, the channel was once dry for 100 years and then abrupt and constant floods hit in the 1950s, making the area flooded up to the early 80s when the shift in the location of the subterranean tectonic plates let to another dry up.

Chobe National Park Safari
THE CHOBE NATIONAL PARK

Chobe National Park is one of the largest National parks in Botswana and it has one of the highest concentrations of game left on the African Continent. Chobe National Park covers an area of 10,566 square Kms in Chobe district, which offers a lifetime experience of the true African nature and wildlife in plentiful, as well as great safari mysteries.

The first settlers or inhabitants who settled on this land.
The San people, locally known as the Bushmen or Basarwa, lived most of their life moving from one place to another in search of wild fruits, animals and water.

In order to attract foreign visitors and protect increased extinction, the government proposed to create a National Park to protect wild life extinction. As a result, an area of 24,000 sq Kms in Chobe district was declared a protected area and was a non-hunting zone the follwing year.

By 1943, this area was increased to 31,600 square Kms, but due to heavy tsetse fly concentration in the area, the idea collapsed eventually.

By the end of 1957, the idea was raised again when an extra 21,000 square Kms was proposed to be as a Game Reserve and latter a reduced area was gazetted by 1960, known as Chobe Game Reserve, but later in 1967, the Game Reserve was declared a National Park, being the First National Park in Botswana.
Around 1980 and 1987, the boundaries were reduced up to its present size of 10,566 square Kms.

Among the major surviving features in Chobe National Park are the elephants, of all, they have the highest population of about 120,000 in Botswana.
The elephant population covers as far as the North Western part of Zimbabwe and Northern Botswana.
The elephant population has continuously survived for all years since early 1900s, due to massive escape from illegal off take, that reduced other wild animals in the late 1970s and being the largest in body size.

Among the features of the Chobe National Park, it’s the elephants that are commonly known for their massive movements of up to 200 Kms form Chobe to Linyanti Rivers, due to seasonal changes. They concentrate most in Linyanti Rivers in the dry season, located in the South East part of Chobe National Park, and move back in the rains.

Currently, the park is divided into four different eco-systems, of which include; Linyanti Swamps in the Northwestern part of Chobe National Park and in between we also have the dry hinterland.
We also have the Serondela dense forests and plains in the Chobe River, found in the West. The last one is the Savuti marsh in the West, 50 Kms North of the Mabebe gate entrance.

For the visitors, there is a park, which requires a daily Park Entrance Fee, for local Hotel and Lodge Residents, the price is included on your game drive.
There are also Government and public camping grounds situated  in Saruti and Linyanti, with both having shower facilities and toilets within Chobe.
Also camping facilities include; Mobile Camping Safaris, that travel throughout the regions in the park, which gives tourists an excellent way of discovering the true heart of African Camping grounds.

It is recommended for the visitors travelling through the park to use a Four-wheel drive vehicle, because of the park’s wilderness and the flow of the River Chobe.
The visitors are recommended to carry all their basic necessities such as water, fuel, food, tools, sockets, pumps, torches, extra wheels and cameras when camping.
In all camping grounds, booking is essential for the tourists at DWNP@Gog.bw, the Department of Wild life and National parks.

For those who are interested in Game viewing, it is recommended in the dry season when majority of the natural vegetation has dried up, basically during the season of April to October.

Among the other basic safety items is the fuel, because there are no fuel supplies within the park and the visitors travelling between Kasane and Maun must ensure that they have a full tank and reserve fuel supplies for the entire journey and all the drinking water must be treated chemically or boiled to prevent malaria or take an anti-malaria prophylactic before coming, especially during rainy season, for your 3-4 week’s visit of Chobe National Park.