Okavango Delta

Interesting facts

Across some 15,000 square kilometres the surface of the delta varies in height by less than 2 metres.

Because the Okavango carries almost no mud, plants act as the glue that traps the river's sand, building up channel banks and new islands.

Salt accumulates around tree roots at the heart of many islands, leaving bare white patches where only the odd salt-tolerant palm survives.

Its 71 fish species, from a 1.4-metre sharptooth catfish to a 3.2-centimetre sickle barb, also live in the Zambezi, hinting at an ancient link between the rivers.

The delta occupies part of the bed of ancient Lake Makgadikgadi, which had mostly dried up by the early Holocene.

Chief's Island owes its name to its past as a hunting ground reserved for the chief; today it is the wildlife core of the delta.

The flood surge travels about 1,200 km down the river from Angola in roughly a month, then needs about four more months to spread across the delta.

Botanists have recorded 1,068 plant species in the delta, from papyrus in the deep channels to palms and acacias on the islands.

In 2013 the Okavango Delta was declared one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.

The name comes from the Kavango people of northern Namibia; the initial O- is not native to their languages and is attributed to Herero influence.

Why it is worth it

The Okavango is a river that never reaches the sea. Rising in the highlands of Angola, it flows south-east into Botswana and then simply spreads out and disappears into the sands of the Kalahari, forming a vast inland delta of channels, lagoons, reed beds and islands. Its extent swings between roughly 6,000 and 15,000 square kilometres through the year, and almost all of the water that arrives – well over 95 per cent – ends up evaporating or being drawn up by plants rather than flowing onwards. When UNESCO inscribed it in 2014, it became the thousandth site on the World Heritage List.

The delta's rhythm runs against the local seasons. Rain falls on the Angolan highlands in the southern summer, and the flood then takes months to crawl down the river and seep across the flat fan of the delta, so the water peaks between June and August, in the heart of Botswana's dry winter. At that moment the delta can be three times its permanent size, and animals from the surrounding dry country converge on it. The whole system sits in a shallow tectonic trough, and fault lines shape where the water goes: Chief's Island, the largest island in the delta, is a block uplifted along a fault, more than 70 km long.

Much of the delta's beauty is in its detail. Around seven in ten of its islands started as termite mounds on which a tree took root and then spread into a wooded islet. Papyrus lines the deeper channels, water lilies float in the lagoons, and from the air the whole place looks like a network of silver threads on green and gold. The wildlife is as rich as anywhere in Africa: tens of thousands of red lechwe splashing through the shallows, hippos, elephants, buffalo, wild dogs, the swamp-dwelling sitatunga antelope and more than 400 species of birds. Moremi Game Reserve, established in 1963 on the initiative of the BaTawana people, protects much of the eastern delta, including Chief's Island.

The classic way to see the inner delta is by mokoro, a narrow canoe once carved from a single tree trunk and now more often made of fibreglass, poled silently through the reeds by a local guide.

Getting there

The main gateway is Maun, on the Thamalakane River at the south-eastern edge of the delta, about 84 km from the protected core. Maun International Airport (MUB) has scheduled flights, and the town is the base of the safari and air-charter operators that fly visitors on light aircraft to camps inside the delta. The eastern side, including Moremi Game Reserve, can also be reached by road from Maun with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Okavango Delta

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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