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Month by month

Chobe in May

May is when Chobe turns from green to gold. The rain is over at 2 mm, the river is still high and in some years peaks this month, and the drying pans start to pull the first herds back towards the Chobe.

If you only want the answer

May is the best-value month in Chobe: dry at 2 mm of rain, comfortable at 27.7°C, with the river still high and game starting to return as the pans dry. The Savuti and Nogatsaa lodges with published rates are still on shoulder pricing, though Chobe Bakwena moves to peak on 1 May. Malaria risk stays high until the end of the month.

May weather and the peak of the flood

The normals for the middle of the park give May 2 mm of rain on a single day, afternoons of 27.7°C and nights of 15.2°C. It is the first of the four months the climate record rates prime. Chobe Game Lodge says early mornings from April to June can drop to 4°C, so keep a fleece to hand for dawn.

On the river, May is the end of the flood window. In one monthly sampling series the Chobe's conductivity was lowest in May, at peak flood height, and in the 2000 to 2014 record the latest peak came on 17 May. From here the water falls, back to bank-full at Kasane by mid-July, and leaves fresh floodplain grass behind it.

The herds start coming back

As the inland pans dry, game begins to return to the river. Seasonal pans typically hold water into August, so the build-up is gradual rather than sudden, and May sits at the start of it. SafariBookings rates May as an excellent month and Expert Africa calls it a very popular one.

On the riverfront, a two-year study of the tourist routes found buffalo and the other common grazers more often on the floodplain grassland in the afternoon than in the morning during the dry season. If you have one game drive and one cruise to place, put both in the afternoon.

Rates and practicalities in May

Chobe Bakwena, on the river outside Kasane, moves to its peak rate on 1 May: $766 per person per night for two nights or $749 for three or more. Inside the park, Ghoha Hills Savuti Lodge stays on its shoulder rate of $841 and Nogatsaa Pans Chobe Lodge on $607 until 30 June. Wilderness Savuti, in the Linyanti concession, lists May 2027 at $1,746, between its shoulder and peak rates.

One campsite booking site says reservations are often made a year ahead for the April to October season, so treat May as part of the busy period. Malaria risk is high until 31 May and low from 1 June. Gate hours are 06:00 to 18:30.

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