Selinda Concession
The Selinda Reserve is a private 135 000-hectare (330 000-acre) wildlife area located in northern Botswana. What makes this locale special is that it follows the floodplains of the Selinda Spillway, the waterway that winds its way through dry countryside to connect the Okavango Delta in the west to the Linyanti and Kwando wetlands and rivers in the east.
Image supplied courtesy of Wilderness Safaris
The full length of the Selinda Spillway winds its way through the Reserve and forms a magnet for the wildlife of the region. As Botswana is so flat, this river can flow in one of two directions or - as happens in some years - it can flow in both! Waters from the Okavango pour into the Selinda Spillway and flow from west to east. In the extreme east of the Reserve, waters from the Kwando and Linyanti rivers and floodplains force their way up the Spillway from east to west. Only in years of exceptional water levels in both these systems does the water that flows in from both the east and the west join up.
This concession is blessed with a variety of habitats - wide-open savannah dotted with attractive palm trees; thirst-quenching waterways surrounded by dry woodland and then the river systems and floodplains themselves that draw thousands of animals to it, as they are forced to quench their thirst in the dry season along these waterways.
The Selinda floodplains are host to a wide diversity of antelope and plains game. Game drives are fruitful with a multiplicity of antelope, Burchell's zebra, southern giraffe, blue wildebeest, and plenty of elephant and buffalo to be seen. Predator viewing is exceptional including the hippo-killing lions of Selinda, leopard, wild dog and cheetah.
The Selinda Concession is ecologically similar to Linyanti, but differs in the increased extent of its floodplains. Like the Linyanti, in the dry winter months, enormous herds of elephant remain close to the permanent water of the Zibadianja Lagoon (the Savute Channel's origin) and the Linyanti waters.
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Central Kalahari