Savute Elephant Camp

This area of Botswana is hotter and drier than the other two camps. It's farther north and out on the plains a bit. From the name, you can guess that elephant are plentiful, here. There is a man-made waterhole just below the main reception area, where we take our meals. The government sets up these watering sites to help preserve the wildlife, since the Savute Channel dried up about 25 years ago. Robert Livingston canoed down this channel to this very spot, and the next year or so when he returned, the channel was dry. This happens in a 30-year cycle, so the channel is technically due to return any year now. However, in the interim, the land near the source of the channel has risen about 8 meters. The rains will have to be quite heavy to build up the river high enough to start running into the channel or carving out a new path.

Here is one view from my deck back to the main area.

There's a small gate on our decks. The hosts tell us that this is unique to the Savute camp and is designed to keep out the spotted hyena. Darned considerate, I'd say! However, we were further cautioned that it does nothibg to keep out the leopard or lion. Here's a picture that the hosts use for wallpaper on the computer here:

This is right next to our dining area. Although this picture was taken some time ago, this same leopard was drinking here Monday night at about 7:45 as several of us were congregated at the bar. It's wet footprints were still visible when we were alerted to its presence.

One amenity that Savute has that the other two camps does not is an outdoor shower (in addition to the inside shower). Once again, we were cautioned not to use it after 6:30: sundown. For the first time, I regret traveling alone.

Finally, on one of our game drives we watched two elephant chase birds away from a waterhole. A small herd of impala approached, but were in alert because in the bush quite nearby were 7 lion, including two males. These lion were quite skittish because there are 3 new and larger male lions in the Chobe National Park breaking up the Savute pride, killing the males, and stealing the females. The males we saw have been hunted for several days, now, and this group moves around quite a bit. Anyway, the elephant eventually left, one of the lions moved too soon and scared off the impala, so the group decided to cautiously approach the water and drink. It took them a full 7 minutes to do so.