Linyanti Wildlife Reserve

To the northeast of the Okavango Delta are the Chobe and Linyanti Game Reserves. These areas are renowned for their predators and large concentrations of game, particularly Elephant. Dereck and Beverly Joubert made the region famous in theor National Geographic films. “Eternal Enemies” is a classic and chronicles in detail the interaction between Lion and Hyena. There are many varied habitats within the Chobe and Linyanti parks, marshes, waterways, riverine forests, dry woodlands and the world famous Savuti Channel. The Savuti Channel is a “waterway” that connects the Linyanti River from Zarafa Lagoon, with the interior of the Chobe National Park at the Savuti Marsh. The Savuti has only ever flowed intermittently and dried up for the last time in 1980. Today the Savuti Channel is an open grassland and home to a variety of different animals.

The Linyanti Reserve is a 275,000 acre private reserve on Chobe’s Western boundary. This area is very different from the Okavango Delta and should be included in every Botswana itinerary so that travellers have a more varied and balanced experience of the country. This private reserve is an enormous area shared between four small camps: Duma Tau, King’s Pool, Linyanti Tented Camp and Savuti Camp. There are three main features of the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve: the Linyanti River, Savuti Channel and the woodlands of the interior. Two thirds of the famous Savuti Channel is in the private reserve and guests are able to view abundant wildlife privately and exclusively. The last stretches of Africa’s Great Rift Valley divide the forests of the interior with the rivers and floodplains of the Linyanti and it is along this ridge (and along the Savuti Channel) that one sees the best wildlife.