Changes in Botswana’s Selinda Spillway create new opportunities for guests…

Mar 302011
 
A message from our friends at Great Plains Conservation:

Historic Opening of the Selinda / Zarafa Waterway in Botswana |
A channel now links two Great Plains Camps to the Zibidianja Lagoon

The Selinda Reserve is situated in the Linyanti Region of Northern Botswana and forms a vital conservation link between the Okavango Delta in the North West and Savuti / Chobe areas in the East. A river channel, known as the Selinda Spillway, ribbons through the reserve flowing eastward from the Okavango Delta into the Zibidianja lagoon before splitting into the the Linyanti and Chobe rivers to feed the Savute Channel.

Up until two years ago the Selinda Spillway was not a complete waterway. Through increased rainfall levels in Angola, and theories of substrata seismic activity in 2008, the spillway now runs freely from the Okavango through to the Zibidianja Lagoon.

This incredible change has already had a marked impact on the activities of the Selinda Reserve. The most substantial is the four day/three night Selinda Canoe Trail down the spillway, ending close to Selinda Camp during May to October. Fishing and boat cruises are expanded on the spillway and guests can arrive in camp by boat from the airstrip.

Between Selinda Camp and the Zibidianja lagoon lies a 4 kilometre stretch of the channel, previously blocked by floating reed beds. Now the reeds are cleared there is a channel from the Okavango Delta to the mouth of the Savuti Channel, eliminating the two hour drive between the camps. Guests can now find themselves in either the north or southern parts of the reserve in less than thirty minutes.

The newly expansive channel between Selinda and Zarafa camps is a stunning, deep waterway surrounded by high reeds. This untainted part of the spillway hides many rare birds and a Black Crowned Night Heronry.

Great Plains Conservation will move the Selinda Camp canoes further along the new channel. Opening up walking areas on the islands between the channels linking to a Selinda Hide. On the Zarafa side it opens up the Zibidianja Lagoon to the Selinda Spillway. HMS Zibidianja, a large platform boat for guests, has a new water system to explore.

Game viewing without boundaries will have a profound impact on both camps in the Selinda Reserve. At Great Plains we like to explore new boundaries and provide adventure for our guests. This breakthrough will certainly provide that.

Click to find the latest news of the newly opened waterway between Zarafa and Selinda camps.

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Epic Flooding in the Selinda Reserve

May 172010
 

Selinda SpillwayIn northern Botswana the floodwaters have brought an epic event that may truly turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  As if the Okavango Delta didn’t offer enough, last year, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the waters of the Delta connected with the Kwando-Linyanti system and flooded the gorgeous Selinda Spillway to create conditions for an extraordinary wilderness adventure.  It looks as though this year will again bring these amazing floods and connect the Spillway once more!

The mysterious river created in the Spillway is very rarely seen in its full color and its flowing brings new life to this region of Botswana, creating an interexchange of species between the Okavango and Kwando-Linyanti systems. Dried up for the better part of the past three decades, the spillway is as wide as 100 yards in some places but mostly shallow and has become an absolute magnet for the wildlife in the area.

To fully experience this rare event guests in the Selinda Reserve, the 320,000 acre private wildlife sanctuary, are now able to canoe through the Spillway, bringing them closer to the flora and fauna than ever before.

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