Savute
David Livingston explored the area in 1851 and referred to it as the dismal swamp. The original inhabitants of this area were the San Bushmen (also known as the Basarwa people in Botswana). They were nomadic hunter-gatherers who were constantly moving from place to place to find food sources, namely fruits, water and wild animals. Nowadays one will only find San paintings inside rocky hills of the Savuti area.
Travelling south from the Chobe area, through the thick sands of the Chobe Forrest Reserve you notice the Ghoha Hills. This is the start of the majestic Savute. Al though Savute is within the borders of Chobe National park you will notice that it has very little in common
These days Savuti is famed for its predators and the bushman paintings,extensive grasslands dotted with hills, some of which have evidence of former human habitation and rock paintings.
The Savuté channel flows from the Linyanti River for about 100 kilometres, diverting water away from the river and releasing it into a vast swampland called the Savuté Marsh, Geographically, Savuté is an area of many curiosities. One of its greatest mysteries is the Savuté channel itself, which has over the past 100 year inexplicably dried up and recommenced its flow several times. This irregular water flow explains the numerous dead trees that line the channel, germinating and growing when the channel was dry and drowning when the channel flowed again.
Perhaps with the steady rain we have been experiencing and an abundance of water in the catchment areas we may get to experience this natural phenomenon once again. This will surely make for exiting game viewing.