Chobe River Waterfront

The Chobe River waterfront between Kasane and the park is the most accessible game-viewing area in northern Botswana and one of the finest in Africa. A dirt road runs along the river bank for about 15km, with multiple official viewpoints. In the morning and evening, the road is alive with animals: elephant families in the shallows, buffalo herds drinking at the bank, crocodiles on the sand, and the enormous bird life of a permanent African river.

The density of elephants here is simply extraordinary. At the dry-season peak (August–October), when animals are concentrated around the permanent water, hundreds of elephants can be visible simultaneously from a single viewpoint. The spectacle of a 200-strong herd entering the river to swim and drink — trunks raised, calves held above the water, the whole group moving with surprising coordination — is genuinely hard to absorb.

The waterfront can be driven independently in any 4WD from Kasane, but many visitors combine it with a boat safari for the river-level perspective. The combination — morning boat, afternoon drive — gives the most complete experience of the riverfront ecosystem.

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A story
The Chobe River forms the international border between Botswana and Namibia, and the island of Sedudu/Kasikili, visible from the Kasane waterfront, was the subject of a border dispute between the two countries that went to the International Court of Justice in 1999. Botswana won. Today the island is uninhabited and frequented mainly by elephants, who swim across from both banks. During the dry season, hundreds of elephants cross the river from Zimbabwe and Zambia, having been compressed by the dry season onto the Botswana bank where the permanent water is.

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