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Month by month

Chobe in October

October is the river at its lowest and the heat at its highest. The Chobe drops to its annual low, every animal that needs water stays within reach of it, and afternoons average 35.8°C at the middle of the park.

If you only want the answer

October gives the biggest concentrations of the year at the cost of punishing heat: highs of 35.8°C, the river at its lowest, and game packed along the riverfront and at Savuti's waterholes. Gate hours lengthen to 05:30 to 19:00 from 1 October, malaria risk turns high again, and peak rates run to 31 October.

October weather: the hottest month in Chobe

The normals for the middle of the park make October the hottest month: afternoons of 35.8°C, nights of 22.4°C and 24 mm of rain over five days from the first storms of the season. The model series for Kasane averages 17 to 22 days of 35°C or more in October, and a peer-reviewed study of the Savuti-Mababe-Linyanti area describes late dry-season maxima regularly between 35°C and 40°C. A 1960s riverfront station put October's 24-year average maximum at 35°C, so the models and the old record agree.

Drive at dawn and in the late afternoon, rest at midday, and carry more water than you think you need. Expert Africa calls October typically the hottest and driest month.

The Chobe at its lowest

In a monthly sampling series on the Chobe, the river's conductivity was highest in October, when water levels were lowest. With the inland pans long dry, October brings the maximum concentration of game at the water until the rains: elephant and buffalo along the riverfront, and at Savuti, around the pumped waterholes, where the lions' elephant-hunting season continues into November.

From a boat, the low water exposes sandbanks and boulders, and the rock pratincoles that arrived in September are on the rocks. On land, the Savuti approach roads are at their hardest: deep, loose sand through the ridges, so drop your tyre pressure and allow extra time.

Gate hours, malaria and the end of peak rates

Summer gate hours start on 1 October: the gates open at 05:30 and close at 19:00 until 31 March, an hour more of legal driving than in winter. On the same day the Chobe district moves back into NaTHNaC's high-risk malaria season, which runs to the end of May, so antimalarials are recommended from now on.

Peak rates end on 31 October. On 1 November Ghoha Hills Savuti Lodge drops from $1,109 to $841 per person per night, Nogatsaa Pans Chobe Lodge from $827 to $607, and Wilderness Savuti from $2,038 to $1,259.

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