Savuti Camp is raised on stilts along the bank of the Savuti Channel, in Botswana’s Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, a private concession between the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park. The channel runs for years, then dries to grass. Slow tectonic shifts in the ground beneath decide which, so the view from the deck never settles into one version of itself.
The channel runs for years, then dries to grass.
At Savuti Marsh, inside Chobe, visitors keep to the roads, and only in daylight. On the private concession the guides are free of both limits. After dark they run night drives, spotlights sweeping the bush. By day they leave the track to follow predators, or set out on foot across 125,000 hectares that no vehicle from outside the concession ever crosses.
In the dry months more than 2,000 elephants gather in the reserve, and a steady procession of herds reaches the waterhole in front of camp by day and by night. The midday heat draws them in, in full view of the shaded pool deck. Large buffalo herds come down to drink as well, and the local lion prides are never far behind them.
At the log pile hide, elephants drink at eye level.
A borehole feeds the pan, and beside it a hide of heavy stacked logs has been sunk low into the ground. At the log pile hide, elephants drink at eye level. Beyond the water, wild dogs hunt through the mopane, and sable and roan make shy, occasional appearances. Raptors are thick overhead, among more than 400 bird species that have earned the channel recognition as an Important Bird Area.
Each tent is raised a couple of metres above the channel bank on timber poles, a canvas room under a thatched roof carried on a wooden frame. Glazed sliding doors open onto a private deck. Large mesh windows let in the breeze and the night sounds, and canvas flaps drop over them on cool evenings. Inside, a four-poster bed waits under its netting beneath a ceiling fan, with armchairs and a shelf of reference books close by. The en-suite bathroom has a walk-in shower and a separate toilet room, and raised boardwalks link every tent to the main lodge.
The boardwalks lead to a tall, open-sided lodge of timber and thatch, hung with Botswana basketwork. An open-sided lounge and a small library share one level. The dining area runs long, and the bar looks out over the channel. Breakfast is often taken on the deck above the waterhole, and brunch brings soups and salads with fresh bread. On set nights dinner moves to the boma, a fire-lit enclosure open to the sky. The kitchen leans on local staples such as seswa, oxtail, and samp and beans, with produce bought in Maun and from nearby communities.
Owls call from the dark trees, and hyenas whoop somewhere beyond the platform.
One night can be spent away from the tent altogether, on the star bed, a raised wooden platform made up with a netted bed. Dinner is served there under open sky, and a guide beds down within earshot for the night. Owls call from the dark trees, and hyenas whoop somewhere beyond the platform. Back in camp the fire pit is lit at dawn and again after dark. Every vehicle returning from a drive is met with a towel, cool or warm depending on the hour, and with a two-handed wave from the staff.
Light aircraft fly guests in from Maun or Kasane, and the last forty minutes to camp are a game drive in their own right. Children are welcome from the age of six. Families with young children book a private vehicle, so each drive can follow the children’s own pace. When the channel carries enough water, boating and fishing join the programme. When it recedes, the guides drive and walk the grassland it leaves behind, following the game across what was once the channel bed.
accommodation
Savuti Camp has six tents raised on timber decks above the channel bank. Each has a thatched roof over canvas walls and opens onto a private deck. One is a family unit of two en-suite bedrooms with separate entrances and a shared deck, sleeping up to four. A raised star bed platform adds the option of a night under open sky.
activities
Because the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve is a private concession, the guides work beyond national park rules. Drives run by day and after dark in open 4x4s, leaving the track to follow predators, and guided walks go out in season. Guests can spend time in the log pile hide or a night on the star bed, and birders have an Important Bird Area on the doorstep. Boating and fishing run when water levels allow.
conservation
Elephants in this reserve carry satellite collars fitted in partnership with Ecoexist, a Botswana organisation working on coexistence between elephants and farmers. Their hourly positions map the corridors the herds still use between rural communities, so those routes can be protected rather than built over, keeping elephants moving between Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Angola. Guest presence here also supports government anti-poaching patrols.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
By light aircraft, on the safari circuit that links the camps of northern Botswana. The flight comes in from Maun or from Kasane, and just as easily from a camp in the Okavango Delta, so the leg slots into a wider route rather than being flown there and back. From the airstrip it is around forty minutes by game drive to camp, with wildlife much of the way.
If you would rather set your own timings, or come in without changing aircraft at a hub, we can put in a private charter. The Cessna Caravan is the workhorse of the Botswana bush strips and the aircraft most likely to fly it, and it lands on the same strip, with the same drive to camp at the other end.
No, and that is the interest of the place. The Savuti is a river that starts and stops. Depending on subtle shifts in the tectonic plates beneath it, the channel either flows strongly and pulls thirsty animals to the bank, or it ebbs away and leaves grassy plains where the water ran. Either state is normal and neither lasts.
It matters less to the game viewing than you might think. A borehole pump feeds a pan in front of camp, beside the log pile hide, so water stays within sight of the deck whatever the channel is doing. When it runs, boating and catch and release fishing open up. When it does not, the dry bed becomes a grass plain that pulls in grazers and the animals behind them.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts northern Botswana at high risk from October to May, with antimalarial tablets recommended for those months, and at low risk for the rest of the year, when the advice is bite avoidance. The CDC recommends prescription medicine to prevent malaria for the northern districts, Ngamiland and Chobe among them. Low risk is not the same as no risk.
We do not make medical recommendations. We plan travel; we are not doctors. The choice of tablets, how they fit with any other medicine and what suits a child all belong in a conversation with your own doctor or a travel clinic, best had with your dates to hand. The practical side is not medical: cover arms and legs from dusk and keep repellent within reach.
Night drives, for a start, which the private concession allows and a national park does not. The vehicles go out after dark for the cats that hunt then, and for the aardvark and aardwolf that almost nobody sees by day. Guided walks run when conditions allow, always with a licensed guide; you never walk alone. Two hides sit over water for a closer view of the drinking.
When the channel is running, boating and catch and release fishing open up, though the water decides that and neither can be promised. Birding is a real draw, with more than 400 species recorded at camp. There is also a star bed for a night out under the sky, which needs booking before travel rather than on the day.
Everything the days are built on. The rate covers the tent, all meals, local drinks, laundry, wifi and the park fees, along with the camp activities: the game drives morning and evening, the night drives, the walks when they run, and the boating and fishing when the channel allows. Premium imported spirits and champagne sit outside it.
We include medical evacuation cover as standard on every trip we arrange. What sits outside the camp rate, and inside the quote we build for you, are the flights in and out and any private charter. We would rather price the whole trip properly at the start than leave a tail of extras behind the nightly rate.
June to October, when the rains have gone and the inland pans have dried, and the animals have to come to permanent water. More than 2,000 elephant gather in the reserve in the dry months, buffalo herds move along the channel, and the lions follow them. June to August is the wild dog denning window, when a pack stays close to one place and is easier to find.
November to April is the green season and it is a different trip rather than a lesser one. The migrant birds arrive and push the count past 400, the impala lamb and the predators concentrate on them, the light after a storm is what photographers come for, and the camps are quiet. Game is harder to find in tall grass, which is the trade-off.
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