Situated about mid-way between the Chobe River and the Okavango Delta, Savuti is a harsh, arid landscape, which until recently, was only watered by the annual rains. These rains were the lifeblood of the Savute Marsh, which would then play host to huge herds of zebra, as they migrate from the north.
However, after about 30 years of dryness, the Savuti Channel has started to flow again, changing the dynamics of the area, and providing year round water access to the resident animals.
Stretching from the waterways of the Linyanti all the way to Savute Marsh, the winding waterways of the channel have pumped life into the western section of Chobe National Park for many thousands of generations. But this fickle and unpredictable channel has a fascinating history of flooding and drying up independently of good rainy seasons and flood levels elsewhere - a mystery that has intrigued geologists and other researchers for many years.
When David Livingstone discovered the Savute Channel in 1851 it was flowing. Thirty years later the channel had disappeared and the Savute Marsh had dried out, remaining this way for almost 80 years. It flowed again in the late 1950s, continuing until the early 1980s when it again receded, gaining the channel its reputation as ‘the river which flows in both directions.’
In 2009, after another extended hiatus, the channel began flowing again and by January 2010 had spilled into the Savute Marsh for the first time in three decades.
Savute has long been spoken of in awe by safari enthusiasts due to its wild reputation, and fierce concentration of predators.
