Which nationwide park’s scene will reign supreme?
Whether it’s watching a delight of lions stalking impala in opposition to the setting solar, a child elephant splashing round a watering gap, or a striped Zebra grazing on the open plains because it watches warily for indicators of hassle – an African safari is without doubt one of the most distinctive wildlife encounters you’ll ever get pleasure from. Throw in some nights spent beneath the starry skies, swapping tales together with your new mates round a campfire and also you’ve obtained your self a really epic life expertise.
Botswana is the hub of all issues good in relation to high quality African safaris. From wetlands to abandon plains, woodland forest to life-giving rivers, over 17% of the nation is dedicated to protected wildlife reserves. It’s little surprise then that two of the world’s heavyweight safari spots, Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta thrive inside its borders
If you’re visiting this a part of Africa, the one drawback you’ll have is realizing which of the 2 to decide on in your subsequent vacation! This is strictly why we’ve put these two parks face to face in an epic ‘safari battle’.
Are you able to rumble…?
The lay of the land
Chobe National Park
First put aside as a wildlife reserve in 1930, Chobe National Park, which sits to the north east of the nation, formally grew to become Botswana’s first nationwide park in 1968.
It’s been a reasonably widespread safari spot ever since; even Hollywood royalty Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton selected the park for his or her Honeymoon in 1975.
Today, Chobe encompasses 4 various wildlife areas that every one carry the promise of an action-packed safari: the plush Chobe Riverfront (essentially the most concentrated and widespread space), the grassland and clay Ngwezumba pans, distant Savute channel space, and the Linyanti Marshes, much like the Okavango Delta.
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Okavango Delta
If you’ve ever questioned what occurs when a river meets a desert, the Okavango Delta is your reply. After coursing its method via Namibia and Botswana from Angola, it’s right here that the Okavango River reaches the semi-arid sands of the Kalahari desert, spilling life-giving arteries via the flat floodplains.
It’s the world’s solely inland delta and the result’s an ever-changing tapestry of outstanding pure magnificence and pure abundance. The World Heritage-listed space is an ecological hotspot, with its community of reed-lined waterways and channels, flooded woodlands, palm-fringed islands offering important habitat for a few of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife.
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The Wildlife
Chobe National Park
Chobe National Park is house to an unbelievable abundance of wildlife; hippos, giraffes, zebra, kudu, impala, antelopes, monkeys, baboons, birds – you identify it, it’s there. It’s additionally one of many solely locations in Botswana the place the Puku and Chobe Bushbuck species of Antelope might be discovered, which is fairly neat.
But Chobe is an African safari spotlight due to its enormous elephant inhabitants. Thanks to distinctive conservation efforts, the elephant inhabitants right here has swelled to an estimated 120,000 – considered the world’s highest focus of African elephants.
We are inclined to agree, as throughout our two days within the park we witnessed actually a whole lot traverse the floodplains to the Chobe River to drink. Another afternoon, we watched three massive elephant households share bathtub time in a waterhole lower than 10 metres away. If it’s a Pachyderm parade you’re after (and let’s face it, who doesn’t need an actual life Babar encounter?!), Chobe is unquestionably your ele-heaven.
The park can also be among the best locations in Africa to see massive cats, with lion, leopard, and cheetah numbers on the rise. By day, we noticed prides of roaming lions and a leopard chilling up a tree with a recent antelope kill. By evening, we fell asleep in our tent to the sounds of huge cats calling to one another at the hours of darkness.
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Okavango Delta
As the Delta’s expanse floods and transforms into fertile wetland plains, an unbelievable quantity of wildlife migrates from everywhere in the Kalahari area to get pleasure from this African eden.
Most massive African animals might be seen in the course of the winter months (June – October); elephants, hippos, wildebeest, giraffe, nile crocodile, leopards, recreation animals, zebra, warthog, and baboons to call just a few. Great populations of the Brown and Spotted Hyenas are additionally current right here, and the endangered African Wild Dog nonetheless thrives within the space.
One of the largest causes to go to the Okavango Delta is the chook watching alternatives. With over 400 species recorded, the area transforms right into a bird-watcher’s paradise within the wet months!
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When to go to
Chobe National Park
The finest time to go to Chobe National Park is in the course of the dry season (April to October). As the warmth begins to parch water sources in different areas, 1000’s of animals make their strategy to the Chobe River to drink.
If you possibly can stand the extraordinary warmth of the day, recreation viewing peaks in August – October, when extra water-dependent animals stay close to the river. Beware, as days out on the plains can grow to be fairly scorching, whereas the temperature can drop to round zero levels within the night.
For those that desire watching birds of a feather flock collectively, make plans to go to Chobe in the course of the wet summer season months (December to March). Bird-watching situations are prime throughout these months as most migratory birds have returned to Botswana. If you’re fortunate, you might also glimpse new life in the course of the Impala birthing season!
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Okavango Delta
Ironically, throughout Botswana’s dry winter months (May – October), the Okavango Delta’s waters swell to greater than 3 times their regular ranges. The sudden abundance of live-saving water and meals beckons animals from far and huge, creating one among Africa’s biggest concentrations of wildlife in a single area (and your finest safari expertise ever).
As with Chobe, bird-watching is finest for new child animals and migratory birds in the course of the second wet season (November – April).
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What to do
Chobe National Park
If it’s safaris you’re after, it’s safaris you shall have in Chobe.
Book your self on a morning recreation drive and watch as the gorgeous landscapes come alive, because the solar rises. Enjoy a soothing sundowner from the deck of your sundown Chobe River safari as wallowing hippos name to one another and herds of elephants cross. Then, get pleasure from all of the trimmings of an expensive safari lodge, or for the actually adventurous, go to sleep contained in the park whereas listening to lions calling to one another exterior your tent. Some corporations additionally run particular pictures and bird-watching excursions, so maintain a watch out for them.
Whether it’s a 4×4 safari, a ship cruise, or a recreation lodge expertise, be ready and e book your journey forward of time. The park can get extraordinarily busy, and there’s nothing worse than turning up and watching from the sidelines as a result of they’re booked out.
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Okavango Delta
In quick: the Okavango Delta gives a few of the most unusual safari choices on this planet.
For a begin, it’s one among only a few locations the place you possibly can get pleasure from a safari from river top, and it’s all because of a conventional dug-out canoe known as a Mokoro. Traditionally carved from tree trunks, the boats are lengthy and slim, poled alongside like a gondolier by a neighborhood information (who doubtless learnt easy methods to grasp this very delicate artwork as a pre-teen!).
Travelling by Mokoro is gradual by nature, which suggests there’s loads of time to calm down and take within the surrounds; the whoosh as you glide over thick river reeds, the distant grunts of hippos calling to one another, and the chirp of a Kingfisher on a department above the waterways.
This distinctive safari takes you deep into the internal Delta (principally inaccessible except you constitution a aircraft), traversing the wealthy maze of waterways and lagoons teeming with wildlife. Keep your fingers contained in the boat although – there are Nile crocodiles and hippos aplenty!
If the Mokoro trip doesn’t tickle you sufficient, spend an evening tenting beneath the celebrities on one of many Delta’s islands, and rise early subsequent morning to go on a strolling safari together with your native information. There’s one thing so intensely intimate and primal about strolling via an African plain and being fully surrounded by the sights and sounds of the wild (and doubtlessly a predator or two – however we survived!). The native guides are exceptionally well-trained right here, which suggests you’ll be an knowledgeable in wildlife monitoring and dung studying earlier than the morning is over.
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Park Accessibility
Chobe National Park
Chobe’s distinctive place on the border of 4 international locations (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana) makes it extraordinarily accessible from all sides, notably when travelling by automotive, bus, native van, or taxi. Only 4x4s will make it via the extraordinarily sandy terrain as soon as within the park although, so when you can self-drive, ensure you’ve obtained an acceptable mode of transport!
It can also be doable to fly into close by Kasane airport, a very good base for earlier than and after your safari. The land crossing at Kasane is a reasonably widespread one with travellers coming and going from Zambia’s Victoria Falls, and most safari corporations will acquire you from Kasane in your safari and take you into the nationwide park.
Okavango Delta
Whether you’re flying right into a luxurious safari lodge or planning to self-drive your method via the nationwide park, each one among your Okavango Delta experiences begins and ends about an hour away in Maun.
This dusty vacationer city exists because the gateway to the Delta, and whereas it does have a world airport, just a few bus routes and native vans run alongside the three major roads connecting the city to the remainder of the nation.
The verdict
The factors have been tallied, the outcomes are in, and the winner is…. Botswana!
Wait, what?!
So we all know Chobe National Park is technically the winner proper right here, however having seen each with our personal eyes, it’s too arduous for us to name. Both parks are distinctive in their very own proper, and but, so vastly completely different it’s arduous to imagine they name the identical nation house.
If you’re poor on time or assets and need to make the selection, we suggest taking a look at it the next method:
- If you’re after an action-packed animal journey in lush surrounds, Chobe’s your home
- If you’re after a real wilderness expertise in one among Africa’s final Eden’s, make the time to discover the Okavango Delta
Of course, if time, cash and entry isn’t any concern, then why not select each…?
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