Overland region

Chobe and Savuti by 4x4: local guides and trips

Elephants on the Chobe floodplain
Photo: diego_cue, CC BY-SA 3.0

Chobe, in the far north of Botswana, has been a national park since 1968, and you need a 4x4 to drive it. Its main areas are the river frontage near Kasane, the Savuti marsh and its erratic channel, and the Linyanti marshes on the border with Namibia. In between are thick sand tracks, like the Sandridge Road from Mababe Gate, and the border crossings: Ngoma to Namibia, and Kazungula, where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe almost meet. Here are the local guides who work in the area and the trips that cross it.

9 local guides and 5 trips in Chobe and Savuti on GuideMeet.

On the map

  1. Kazungula Bridge Kazungula Bridge — Border crossing. Road and rail bridge over the Zambezi linking Botswana and Zambia, opened in May 2021 to replace the ferry. A second border post nearby serves the road to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls, 70 km east. -17.7911, 25.2625 · Google Maps
  2. Kasane Kasane — Town. Town on the Chobe River and northern entrance to the park, with banks, a supermarket and boat trips. A tarred road runs 51 km west to the Namibian border at Ngoma. -17.8167, 25.1500 · Google Maps
  3. Sedudu Gate Sedudu Gate — Park. Entrance to the Chobe riverfront, the north-east corner of the park. Floodplains and river draw elephants, giraffes and buffalo in the dry season; the sand gets thick as the heat rises. -17.8433, 25.1434 · Google Maps
  4. Ihaha — Camp. Campsite on the Chobe riverfront, west of Kasane. The sand along this stretch gets thick in the dry months, and the roads by the river turn muddy in the wet season. -17.8382, 24.8795 · Google Maps
  5. Ngoma Bridge Ngoma Bridge — Border crossing. Bridge over the Chobe River and crossing into Namibia, 51 km west of Kasane on a tarred road. On the Namibian side, Katima Mulilo is about 70 km away. -17.9215, 24.7205 · Google Maps
  6. Chobe National Park — Park. Botswana's first national park, begun as a game reserve in 1960 and part of the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. It is noted for its large herds of elephants; Kasane is the northern entrance. -18.6500, 24.4000 · Google Maps
  7. Linyanti Linyanti — River. Marshes in the north-west corner of the park, along the Linyanti River and facing Namibia's Nkasa Rupara National Park across the Kwando. Lions, wild dogs, roan and sable antelope, hippos. -18.3667, 23.6667 · Google Maps
  8. Savuti Channel Savuti Channel — River. The channel that feeds the Savuti marsh dries up for long periods, then flows again. In January 2010 it reached the marsh for the first time since 1982; dead trees line its banks. -18.6167, 24.0667 · Google Maps
  9. Savuti Savuti — Camp. Camp and gate on the Savuti marsh, in the western stretch of the park. Savannah known for zebras and predators; roads are thick sand, and wet black cotton soil can trap vehicles. -18.5657, 24.0638 · Google Maps
  10. Sandridge Road — Track. The sandridge track between Mababe Gate and Savuti: thick sand and tricky driving. After rain the marsh roads near Savuti are worse, with a real risk of getting stuck. -18.9663, 23.9992 · Google Maps
  11. Mababe Gate — Park. Gate on the south-west side of the park and start of the Sandridge Road north to Savuti. To the west lies the Khwai area, on the Moremi side. -19.1028, 23.9852 · Google Maps
  12. Mababe Depression Mababe Depression — Valley. Large seasonal wetland between the Okavango Delta and Chobe, south of the Savuti Channel and north of the Khwai River. Grasslands and shallow pools draw buffalo, elephants and zebras, and the predators that follow. -18.7500, 24.2500 · Google Maps

Local guides in Chobe and Savuti

Overland trips in Chobe and Savuti

When to go

From May to October, in the dry season, large herds come down to the Chobe river, though the sand on the riverfront gets thicker as the heat rises. In the rains the roads by the river turn muddy, and at Savuti the wet black cotton soil can be impassable.

Before you go

Photo credits

Photos from Wikimedia Commons, under the licences shown.

Menu