Travel Guide Ng/16 – Selinda Reserve

In the north of the delta, beyond the NG/20 concession, this long, east-west strip of land of 1,350 km², with the NG/12 to its west, creates the junction between the Panhandle and the Kwando and Linyanti Rivers. It extends from the swamps of these rivers in the east to the swamps of the far northern Okavango Delta in the west. The concession encompasses a significant portion of the scenic Magwegqana (or Selinda) Spillway. The latter is a sort of weir that receives water from the east and west from these swamps. This dry bed is now rarely reached by the flood and is gradually invaded by the sage or acacia. The camps were set up to the east of the concession, in the Spillway, which has become a large plain, dotted with small islands abundantly irrigated by the Kwando-Linyanti river complex. Most of the central part of the concession is covered by mopane forests. The area is rich in permanent wildlife, and lions, wild dogs, jackals, antelopes and giraffes, among other species, can be seen. The area is swollen from June-July onwards by the migrations of mammals from the drylands - elephants and buffalo from the mopane forests and grasslands of the west and south; wildebeest and zebra from the Chobe grasslands in the east; the movements are reversed with the first rains in December. The elephant herds here are among the largest in Africa!