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Month by month

Chobe in November

November is the month the rains return, 84 mm over 14 days at the middle of the park, and the year turns: the heat breaks, the migrant birds arrive, the pans refill and the herds that crowded the river begin to drift away.

If you only want the answer

November is a good gamble, best in its first half: the first storms break the heat, game is still near the river early in the month before it disperses, and shoulder rates return on 1 November. It is also the start of the best birding season. Expect 84 mm of rain over 14 days and highs of 32.3°C.

November weather: the first storms

The normals for the middle of the park give November 84 mm of rain over 14 days, afternoons of 32.3°C and nights of 21.5°C, and the climate record already classes it as green season. The heat has not gone: the model series for Kasane still averages eight to ten days of 35°C or more. What changes is the sky, with storms breaking October's heat.

The river stays low until the local rain and, much later, the Zambezi flood arrive; the floodplain will not fill until about March.

The birds arrive and the herds leave

November opens the best birding stretch of the year, November to April by SafariBookings' reckoning, when Palearctic migrants join the residents. BirdLife records a large raptor passage through the park in November and December, and the carmine bee-eater, a spring and early-summer bird on the Chobe, is still in season.

On the ground the year reverses. The larger seasonal pans typically hold water only until November, and once the storms refill them the game no longer needs the river and begins to disperse. At Savuti, the lions' documented season of hunting young elephants, August to November, comes to an end. Expert Africa singles out the first half of November as a favourite, before the dispersal is complete.

Rates and roads in November

Shoulder rates return on 1 November: Ghoha Hills Savuti Lodge at $841 per person per night and Nogatsaa Pans Chobe Lodge at $607 for the month, Wilderness Savuti at $1,259 from 1 November to 19 December 2026, and Chobe Bakwena back on its low rate of $653 for a two-night stay. Chobe Game Lodge still counts November in its dry season.

Roads become variable once the rain sets in, and the clay around the Savuti marsh turns slippery when wet, so ask at the gate before heading inland. Gate hours are 05:30 to 19:00 and malaria risk is high.

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