High rainfalls have led to a unique opportunity: due to record floods in Botswana in 2010 and early 2011, you can now canoe down the Selinda Spillway on Okavango Delta trips for the first time in a generation. Read on for more on this once in a lifetime travel opportunity...
The first time in 30 years
This is the only activity of its kind in Botswana and is now possible due to exceptional rainfall and high water tables in the Kalahari Desert, and rainwater arriving from hundreds of miles away in the Angolan highlands. The waters of the Okavango River - the world's largest inland delta - usually fan out and evaporate, but since 2009 things have been very different. High water levels have pushed Okavango water eastwards along the ancient watercourse of the Selinda Spillway, and simultaneously, high floods from the Linyanti River pushed waters westwards towards the Okavango, where they joined for the first time in over 30 years. No-one knew how long the phenomenon would last, but after two years the waters are still high enough.
Explore game-rich landscapes
The Selinda Canoe Trail offers a chance to explore the game-rich 320,000 acre Selinda Reserve. Each safari is lead by a guide, four camp staff and a chef, with a maximum of eight guests paddling wide-bodied Canadian canoes. Experts believe Botswana is in a 'wet-cycle', and with the continuing high water tables the Selinda Canoe Safaris will be running in 2011 from mid-May to early October, but after that no-one really knows how long the waters will stay high enough.
