The Linyanti Wildlife Reserve consists of 125,000 hectares of pristine wildlife area and is bordered by The Linyanti River in the north and the Chobe National Park in the east.
LINYANTI WILDLIFE RESERVE

The Linyanti Wildlife Reserve consists of 125,000 hectares of pristine wildlife area and is bordered by The Linyanti River in the north and the Chobe National Park in the east. Across the Linyanti River northwards lies Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. This area is very different from the Okavango Delta and should be included in every Botswana safari itinerary so that travellers have a more complete and varied experience of the country’s different wildlife areas.

This private reserve is enormous and is one of the least visited and most pristine corners of Botswana and the concession owners intend to keep it this way. The Linyanti region is shared between a very small number of private camps, ensuring that guests are able to view the abundant wildlife privately and exclusively.

Much of Chobe National Park’s wildlife spends the winter season in this area and huge concentrations of migratory species such as zebra and elephant can be seen. The Linyanti area is also renowned for its predators, particularly lions and hyenas. It has a wonderful diversity of habitat – open grasslands and waterholes, spectacular mature woodlands, towering mopane and Leadwood forests.

The Linyanti’s waters weave and meander as they make their way eastward towards Chobe and along its way form a myriad of pools and lagoons that are favored by hippos, crocodiles and incredible bird life. These pools also attract game from the dry lands to the east, for out of the rainy season they hold the first permanent waters to be found. In the early evening, with youngsters in tow, several breeding herds of elephant will gather to the pools along the Linyanti to enjoy a drink and to wallow and play in the mud holes.

There are large concentrations of buffalo and antelopes such as Red Lechwe, Tsessebe, Impala and Kudu. More elusive species such as Sable and Roan Antelope are also regularly encountered in this area. The Linyanti has high concentrations of giraffe, which love to feed on the abundant acacia trees along the floodplains, while cheetahs find the open areas of the Savute channel perfect for running down their prey.

THE SAVUTE CHANNEL

The Savute channel is a now dry “waterway” that connects the Linyanti River with the interior of the Chobe National Park, ending at the Savute marsh. The Savute has only ever flowed intermittently and today the channel is open grassland and is home to numerous animals including large herds of zebra, impala and wildebeests, as well as abundant predators such as lion, cheetah and Painted Hunting Dog.

Records show that the Savute channel and the marsh dried out during the 1880′s. The channel remained dry until summer 1957-58 when heavy rains in the catchments of the Angolan highlands re-flooded the Chobe system and the Channel flowed once again. Savute continued to flow until 1966 when it dried up for one season only and then began a wet cycle that lasted until 1981 when it stopped once more. This occurrence (including the fate of the animals which lived in and depended on the channels waters) is chronicled in Derek and Beverly Joubert’s documentary film, “The Stolen River”.

This cyclical and changing feature of wet and dry in the Channel is not completely understood, but it is generally believed that tectonic activity deep below the Kalahari’s sand bed is responsible. Others argue that its flow is primarily dependent upon the rainfall in the Angolan highlands that feed the Okavango and Chobe river basins and the channel.

THE SELINDA SPILLWAY

The Selinda (or Magweqana) Spillway is a shallow channel connecting the Panhandle region of the Okavango Delta with the Chobe River system. The Spillway flows only in years of high waters. Contrary to popular belief, the spillway flows only in one direction, from the Okavango to the Chobe. Legend has it that it flows in either direction depending upon water levels in the two systems, but this is not likely as the Okavango side is 30 meters higher than on the Chobe/Linyanti side.