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Savuti Channel snakes towards the marsh

21 Apr 2009

Location: Savuti Camp, Linyanti Concession, Botswana
Date: 17 April 2009
Observers: Glynis Humphrey and Anthony Bennett

The snaking, sinuous Savute Channel continues to enthral us as it sweeps forward to the legendary and long dry Savute Marsh in the neighbouring Chobe National Park.

In August 2008 when we were raving about the fact that the Channel had reached and even passed Savuti Camp, the water had travelled approximately 24km from its source at the Zibadianja Lagoon on the Linyanti Fault Line. By April 2009 however the water had travelled a further 26km and is now no less than 50km from the Lagoon.

Anthony and I had the opportunity to drive to end of the water on 17 April and plotted a GPS track which allowed us to measure the distance with some accuracy. The time elapsed since August and the distance covered by the water in that time means that over the 8 month period the water moved on average 100m a day, equating to approximately 3.25km every month. The current depth of the Channel in front of Savuti Camp is 0.81m.

This is quite phenomenal and it certainly doesn't look like abating just yet. Quite the contrary. With the lion's share of the flood waters of the Kwando River still to arrive in the area and the massive Zambezi River flood causing water to back up the Chobe into the Linyanti, we are beginning to expect the Channel to reach all the way to the Savute Marsh this year.

This will entail the water to move at roughly double the speed it has done over the past 8 months but will be an exciting event and one we'll keep you up to date with.