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Month by month

Chobe in March

March is the month the Chobe floods. From about the start of the month the Zambezi pushes its pulse down the Chobe and over the floodplain, the rain eases to 64 mm, the fishing season opens, and the green-season lodge rates run out on the last day.

If you only want the answer

March is a quiet turning point: rain eases to 64 mm over nine days, the river rises across the floodplain, and puku calving reaches its peak. Green-season lodge rates hold until 31 March, fishing reopens outside the park on 1 March, and the Savuti tracks start to recover late in the month.

March weather and the Chobe flood

The normals for the middle of the park give March 64 mm of rain over nine days, about half of February's total, with afternoons of 30.2°C and nights of 20.3°C. It is the first month the climate record classes as shoulder rather than green.

The flood is the month's signature. Floodwater is pushed from the Zambezi east through the Bukalo channel and down the Chobe, usually around the beginning of March, and spills over the floodplain through March and April. Between 2000 and 2014 the peak came anywhere from 1 March to 17 May, and floods have been larger since 2008: the highest Zambezi discharges in that study came on 25 March 2009 and 22 March 2010. In 2026 the flood was big again, and by early April Botswana's Daily News was reporting the highest Chobe River readings in five years.

Puku calving, raptors and the last of the rains

March and April are the calving peak for the Chobe's puku, Botswana's only population, which calve all year on the riverfront floodplain. BirdLife records the park's second big raptor passage of the year in March and April. On the migration study's timing, the zebra that left the Chobe for Nxai Pan in December are heading back after about ten weeks there.

Game is still dispersed and the bush is thick, and Expert Africa notes that few tourists come in March. From a boat, the rising water pushes onto the floodplain grass and the channels widen through the month.

Rates, roads and the fishing season in March

The green season ends on 31 March at the lodges with published tables. Ghoha Hills Savuti Lodge stays at $636 per person per night to the end of the month before rising to $841, Nogatsaa Pans Chobe Lodge reopens on 1 April, and Wilderness Savuti's green rate ($1,043 in 2027) also runs to 31 March. The roads improve as the rain eases, but the Savuti clay can still hold water after a late storm.

Botswana's fishing season opens on 1 March: you need a licence from any DWNP office, you must be 18 or over, and it takes about two hours to issue. Fishing stays outside the park, on the Chobe beyond the boundary or the Kasai channel in Namibia. March is also the last month of summer gate hours, 05:30 to 19:00; from 1 April the gates open at 06:00 and close at 18:30.

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