GrassTrack Safaris: Chobe National Park - Day 2 More of the " Chobe Riverfront"

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Our last African safari started in Maun, Botswana, traveled to the Moremi Game Reserve, the Savuti Marsh in Chobe National Park, and then to what is known as the Chobe Riverfront before finishing at Victoria Falls in Zambia, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In this blog we have been reporting on this fabulous trip and today we recount our experience visiting the Chobe Riverfront.

After having spent one marvelous day in Chobe National Park, the fifth of our safari, our sixth day was spent in additional explorations along the magnificent Chobe Riverfront. The Riverfront lies along approximately 10 miles of the Chobe River near the town of Kasane in extreme northeastern Botswana, only 55 miles west of Victoria Falls. On the two maps below you can see the locations of Maun, Moremi, Chobe National Park within Botswana, and the location of the Riverfront within the Park.

The Riverfront is known for the large number of wildlife that migrate to the area during the dry season. In very dry years it is the only place where wildlife can find water to sustain themselves until the rejuvenating rains come again. The highlands of Angola receive copious amounts of rainfall during the rainy season and these rains are carried out of the mountains by the Cuando River, which becomes the Kwando, Linyanti, and finally the Chobe River before meeting the Zambezi river outside of Kasane at the Botswana-Zambia border. It is the last stretch of this great river, when it becomes the Chobe, where great herds of wildlife congregate.

A family of elephants make way across the Chobe River along the Riverfront

Large herds of wildlife occur everywhere along the waterfront. Elephant and buffalo, especially, form into huge herds for which the park is famous. The number of elephant at the Chobe Riverfront is just mindboggling and there must have been 200 to 300 elephants on the Riverfront this day. Along with the huge herds of elephant, buffalo, and giraffe you can also expect to see tsessebe, waterbuck, roan, eland, sable, and giraffe (all of which we saw) and, if you are lucky, the rare puku, which we did see for a fleeting moment, but were unable to capture on film. The Puku is a rare antelope found in floodplain grasslands near water in south-central Africa.

Cape buffalo chew the cud along the Chobe Riverfront


Sable drink from a water hole along the Chobe River. These shy antelope are rarely ever seen.

The floodplain along the Riverfront makes an ideal viewing area with mixed patches of open grassland, thickets of bush, and riverine forest. In the river itself you will see hippo and crocodile and from the Namibian side of the river you may even see fishermen casting their nets into the Chobe while trying to avoid the resident crocodiles.


A hippo opens its mouth wide


Namibians fish the Chobe River.

Because of its abundant wildlife, the Riverfront is the Park's greatest attraction drawing thousands of visitors every year. This amazing place is one of the top ecotravel destinations in the world and because of the number of giraffe, zebra and antelope residing in the area lion, leopard, and chetah are a regular sight. The birdlife is also exceptional, from the larger species such as kori bustards, secretary birds and maribou storks, through to the brilliantly colored lilac-breasted rollers. Fish eagles swoop overhead, dive bombing into the river to catch their daily diet of fish. Botswana and the Chobe Riverfront are a must see destination for every traveler so don't hesitate any longer, go to GrassTrack Safaris today and book your adventure safari to visit this magnificent place!