Located a few kilometres from the Zambezi River in southwestern Zambia, the bustling town of Livingstone is famous as the home of the magnificent Victoria Falls. One of the original natural wonders of the world, the World Heritage Site is known locally as ‘The Smoke that Thunders’. This spectacle is accessible from both Zambia and Zimbabwe and is an ideal place to combine game viewing and water sports. There is excellent fishing, an exhilarating bungee jump experience and arguably the best commercial whitewater rafting in the world. Visitors can hike around the falls or try ziplining or the bridge swing. Those seeking more leisurely activities can take sunset cruises along the river, with champagne and snacks included, meander through the vibrant local Livingstone Market, or discover the region’s history and archeology at the Livingstone Museum.
The site of Derek and Beverley Joubert’s amazing films “Ultimate Enemies” and “Eternal Enemies”, Savuti is a location of unfamiliar splendour and lies in the heart of Botswana's beautiful Chobe National Park. The Savuti Channel, which is fed from the Linyanti and has now been flowing for a few years, following a 20 year dry period, boasts excellent wildlife viewing.
The Savuti Marsh sits further to the South-East and is a huge area dotted with old dead leadwood trees, and scattered with pockets of game roaming the endless plains. The marsh is easily accessible during the dry season and can become slightly boggy during the rains, but whenever you choose to go, you will be met with life at some stage, in some form, and undoubtedly fascinating.
Savuti has very strong lion, leopard and spotted hyena populations and the night sounds are always dotted by their quixotic calls. More recently, wild dog and cheetah sightings have been good.
Geographically, Savuti is an area of many curiosities. One of its greatest mysteries is the Savuti channel itself, which has over the past 100 year inexplicably dried up and recommenced its flow several times. This irregular water flow explains the numerous dead trees that line the channel, for they have germinated and grown when the channel was dry and drowned when the channel flowed again.
Located between the Chobe National Park and the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana, the 200 000-hectare Khwai Conservancy is an enthralling place of wild landscapes and abundant wildlife. The plentiful Khwai River running through the park and dense Mopani forests in the interior provide the perfect home for numerous animals, and the incredible scenes of animals drinking from the river allow for superb photography opportunities. Visitors can look forward to seeing large elephant herds, and spotting lions, leopards and hyenas quite easily. Other species include wild dog, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, buffalo, lions, cheetahs, leopard, hyenas, hippos, Kudu, Tsessebe, and reasonably rare Roan and Sable. Hiking, game drives, guided walks, spa treatments, and open-air camping are just some of the activities on offer.
Situated in the east of the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve ranks as one of the most beautiful reserves in Africa. In 2008, it was voted the ‘best game reserve in Africa’ by the prestigious African Travel and Tourism Association.
Moremi Game Reserve is the first reserve in Africa that was established by local residents. Concerned about the rapid depletion of wildlife in their ancestral lands – due to uncontrolled hunting and cattle encroachment – the Batawana people of Ngamiland, under the leadership of the deceased Chief Moremi III’s wife, Mrs. Moremi, took the bold initiative to proclaim Moremi a game reserve in 1963.
It is the only officially protected area of the Okavango Delta, and as such holds tremendous scientific, environmental and conservation importance, and undoubtedly, Moremi ranks as one of the most beautiful reserves in Africa, possibly in the world.
This makes for spectacular game viewing and bird watching, including all major naturally occurring herbivore and carnivore species in the region, and over 400 species of birds, many migratory and some endangered. Both Black and White Rhino have recently been re-introduced, now making the reserve a ‘Big Five’ destination.
Contained within an area of approximately 3,900 sq kms, here land and water meet to create an exceedingly picturesque preserve of floodplains – either seasonally or perennially wet, waterways, lagoons, pools, pans, grasslands and riparian, riverine and mopane forests. This terrain makes driving Moremi’s many loops and trails both delightful and, at times, totally inspiring.
