The private Linyanti Wildlife Reserve is a 125,000 hectare concession area on the western boundary of Chobe National Park. A remote and pristine wildlife area, it is bordered by the Linyanti River, which runs from west to east. On the far bank of the river lies Namibia’s Caprivi Strip, the long wetland of this otherwise arid country.
The Linyanti area is renowned for its predators and large concentrations of game, particularly elephant. Dereck and Beverly Joubert made the region famous in their National Geographic films. "Eternal enemies" is a classic, and chronicles in detail the interaction between lion and hyena.
There are three main features of the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve: the Linyanti River, Savuti Channel and the woodlands of the interior. The last stretches of Africa's Great Rift Valley separate the forests of the interior from the rivers and floodplains of the Linyanti and it is along this ridge - and along the Savuti Channel - that the best wildlife can be seen.
The Savuti Channel is a "dry waterway" that used to connect the Linyanti River at Zibadianja Lagoon with the interior of the south Chobe National Park at the Savuti Marsh. The Savuti has only ever flowed intermittently and dried up for the last time in 1980. Two thirds of the famous Savuti Channel savannah is in the Linyanti concession and guests are able to view the abundant wildlife privately and exclusively.
Elephants are one of the prime attractions, especially during the dry winter months when they congregate along the waterways and around the waterholes as the rainfall-filled depressions and pans of the interior dry up. At times the reserve must have several thousand elephants roaming around. Red lechwe, zebra, wildebeest, impala, waterbuck, sable, roan, eland, giraffe, baboon, monkey, warthog, crocodile and buffalo are some of the other animals to be found here. Predators include lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog and hyena. Night drives provide a chance to see nocturnal animals such as bushbaby, spring hare, aardwolf, serval, genet and pangolin. Birding is excellent from the Okavango "specials" such as slaty egret, white-rumped babbler and wattled crane through to the bushveld species.
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Central Kalahari Game Reserve