Africa

The Savuti

Regarded by many as the prime wildlife viewing area, Savuti is in the western section of the park, and is renowned for great concentrations of both elephants and lions. Wild dog, cheetah and leopard are also often sighted. Situated at the head of the Mababe Depression, once a great lake, and held in the arm of the Magwikhwe Sand Ridge, the Savuti Marsh is anything but wet. This is the culmination of the Savuti Channel, a spillway for overflow from the Linyanti and Chobe floodwaters and very occasionally the Okavango spills a little floodwater into the Channel. Flowing in Livingstone’s time, the channel was dry in 1880, and remained dry for about seventy years. It flooded again in 1957, and the giant skeletons of drowned trees still mark the extent of the deluge. The channel flowed perennially – except for 1966 – until 1981 when it stopped, probably due to tectonic action. Savuti Marsh has been dry for 18 years. Treeless, the grassy plain of the marsh stretches to the horizon – a magnet for game. The annual zebra migration from Mababe to the south is one of the more dramatic spectacles of this area. A variety of safari operators provide tours of Savuti, and these are often added to a tour of the Okavango. There is a public campsite and two tented camps which are perched on the banks of the Savuti Channel, the latter offer luxury tented accommodation.