Safaris / Camps / Botswana Linyanti/Selinda / Selinda Camp - Classic

NG16 - Selinda Reserve

The Selinda Reserve is a private 135 000-hectare wildlife area which 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. The full length of the Selinda Spillway winds its way through the Selinda Reserve and forms a magnet for the wildlife of the region.
 
In that 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 Delta pour into the Selinda Spillway and flow from west to east. In the extreme east of the Selinda Reserve, waters from the Kwando and Linyanti rivers and floodplains force their way up the Selinda 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.

The area surrounding Selinda Camp is blessed with a variety of habitats: wide-open savannah dotted with attractive palm trees; thirst-quenching waterways surrounded by dry woodland; and the river systems and floodplains themselves. These waterways draw thousands of animals seeking to quench their thirst in the dry season.

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 incredible hippo-killing lions of Selinda, leopard, wild dog and cheetah.

The Selinda Reserve is ecologically similar to the Linyanti Reserve, 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.