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Bumper flood in Botswana's Okavango Delta
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There is still time to book for a Botswana Safari and, if ever there was a year to indulge a yen for a true wilderness safari, this is it! The Flood this year is spectacular and the dollar is weak so prices are really keen in sterling or Euro! Yes, the canny travellers know this so availability is an issue but we always go the extra mile to find that odd room at even sought-after locations.
From January through March, the Okavango Delta in Botswana enjoyed rainfall higher than for the last 20 years. With lots of cloud cover, there was minimal evaporation. Coupled with strong early rains the catchments of the Cubango and Cuito rivers in Angola, this means that this years water levels in the Okavango Delta flood plains are just perfect! There hasn't been a second huge wave of waters from Angola, as might have been expected which so the flood is better than most years without being too much of a good thing!
But it's still a big flood, with water running over floodplains that have not had water for many years. Big floods are good for the environment because they 'clean out' the channels that have become silted up and forge new paths through the wilderness. Islands that continually get surrounded by water start to become poisoned by the salts that leach out of the water, resulting in the death of plant life. Changing of the channel courses changes the floodplain patterns, allowing these islands a reprieve to return to normal - all part of the delicate balance in this unique ecosystem.
Red lechwe antelope love these conditions, and can be seen in large numbers throughout the Okavango. The lechwe is another species, which will benefit from the widespread floodwaters. They will have increased areas to live away from many of the dry land based predators. It can be expected that their numbers will increase dramatically this year, back to the numbers of years gone by.
The floodwaters appear to be abating and record numbers of guests are filling the small, remote camps. They are already having fantastic game viewing and it's early in the season. The Chobe River is in full flood and looks spectacular, with the entire Caprivi floodplain to the north shimmering at sunset. It seems as though Lake Ngami will get flood waters for the first time in nearly 20 years - and at just about the same time as Maun will. The cooler temperatures have the advantage of decreasing the numbers of insects, particularly mosquitoes, at night. This makes eating outdoors at night all the more enjoyable.
Note: If you feel inspired but cannot get away until later in the year, make sure that you check out the Linyanti Explorations 'special' for the month of November.
News update courtesy of Colin Bell and Map Ives of Wilderness Safaris and Ryan Powell of Sanctuary Lodges, June 2004
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