Chobe Game Lodge holds the only permanent lodge site on the Chobe River inside Chobe National Park, in Botswana’s far northeast. Elephants cross the water in front of the decks most days. Inside the boundary, drives leave at first light, ahead of the day vehicles still queuing at Sedudu Gate, and the same riverbank launches the boat safaris.
Elephants cross the water in front of the decks most days.
The Southern Sun group built the lodge in 1972 in a Moorish idiom of arches, vaulted ceilings and quarry-tiled floors, then closed it in 1977 as the Rhodesian Bush War drew close. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had honeymooned here in October 1975. Jonathan Gibson and Ian Green bought the derelict shell in 1983. They restored it, and reopened it in March 1984 with President Sir Ketumile Masire presiding.
Johan Bruwer has run the lodge since 2004, and he began training women as guides in a field that had almost none. The guiding team became entirely female, and many women have since qualified through the lodge’s training programme. The Chobe Angels now drive the game vehicles and skipper the boats.
The boats drift within metres of drinking elephants.
Since 2014 the fleet has included electric game vehicles and solar-electric boats built for the lodge. The boats drift within metres of drinking elephants. There is no diesel engine to move the herds off. A 250-metre boardwalk runs the bank behind the main buildings, raised high enough to look down on hippos and crocodiles, with bushbuck and warthogs on the lawns beneath and vervet monkeys and baboons in the mahogany canopy overhead.
Elephants are a year-round presence on this stretch of river, and the dry season concentrates them further as the floodplain shrinks. By September the herds pack onto the last stretches of wet ground before the lodge. Buffalo, giraffe, zebra and blue wildebeest work the same open country, while puku, red lechwe and Chobe bushbuck hold to the wetter margins. Lion, leopard, spotted hyena, cheetah and wild dog follow the concentration of prey, and across the water lie Namibia’s Caprivi floodplains.
Under mahogany and sausage trees, the buildings hold to their 1970s Moorish plan: high plaster arches that catch the breeze, barrel-vaulted ceilings, quarry tiles underfoot and Rhodesian teak furniture. Breakfast and lunch are served on an open dining terrace over the water, and dinner moves to a reed-walled boma on the riverbank, cooked over open fires. Moroccan lanterns are lit along the brick paths at dusk, and a marimba band plays on the deck while buffalo graze the reeds below.
By September the herds pack onto the last stretches of wet ground before the lodge.
Drives run morning and afternoon inside the national park, which means no off-road driving, no night drives and no walking safaris; park rules apply here as everywhere else within the boundary. Mid-morning and sunset cruises on flat-decked solar-electric boats put guests level with hippos, crocodiles on the sandbars and fish eagles overhead, and the swivel seats matter when a herd swims past close to the hull. At midday, the ecotourism manager Albert Ndereki leads a tour of the systems that keep the lodge running, from wastewater treatment to the electric fleet.
Kasane and its airport lie a short drive east, and Victoria Falls is within driving distance, which makes the lodge a workable first or last stop on a longer Botswana route. Behind the park lie the villages: guests staying four nights or more can spend a full day at Kachikau, with the basket weavers who work there, while the lodge’s Chobe Impact programme funds buildings, boarding equipment and environmental teaching at local schools. Staff gather to sing before the first vehicles pull away each morning, and at night the hippos are audible from the rooms.
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accommodation
Forty-four rooms and suites face the river, air-conditioned, each with an en-suite bathroom and a private terrace. Several interlead for families and others sleep three, while the family suites and the honeymoon suite have their own plunge pools. Two rooms are wheelchair accessible. The honeymoon suite was Taylor and Burton's in 1975.
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activities
Morning and afternoon game drives in open 4x4s or electric vehicles, and mid-morning and sunset cruises on flat-decked solar-electric boats. Birding along the floodplain and riverine forest. A midday back-of-house eco-tour. Park rules mean no night drives, off-road driving or walking safaris inside Chobe National Park.
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conservation
Through its Chobe Impact programme, the lodge supports local schools, funding buildings, boarding equipment and environmental teaching. Wastewater is treated, and waste glass is crushed into bricks for local construction.
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