Things to do
5-
Chobe National Park
Elephant gather along the Chobe riverfront in numbers matched almost nowhere else in Africa, and the afternoon boat cruise puts a viewer level with them as they drink. Inland lie the Savuti marsh and the Linyanti swamps, each with its own predators and its own road network. Dry season from June concentrates game at the water; the rains scatter it inland.
-
Kasane Hot Springs
Warm sulphurous water rises in a small pool on the edge of town, ringed by reeds and free to enter. Baboons and warthog use it, and the smell announces it before the path does. It takes minutes to see, so it works as a short detour on the way to the park gate or the border.
-
Kazungula
Four borders converge at this small settlement on the Zambezi, where a curved road and rail bridge opened in 2021 took over from the ferry that used to carry trucks across. Traffic to Zambia and Zimbabwe funnels through, and the formalities take longer than the crossing. It is a waypoint on the run to Livingstone, worth a stop for the meeting of rivers.
-
Savuti
An unpredictable channel that has dried and flowed again through the last century feeds a marsh in western Chobe, known for lion prides that hunt elephant and for bulls on the pumped waterholes. Getting there means deep sand tracks from Kasane or Maun, or a flight to the airstrip. Camps are basic and lightly fenced, and the nights are loud.
-
Sedudu Island
A low grass island in the Chobe channel floods for much of the year and feeds buffalo, hippo and elephant when the water drops. Botswana and Namibia both claimed it until the International Court of Justice awarded it to Botswana in 1999. River cruises pass close on the way upstream, which is the only practical way to see it.