The Changing Flood

A lattice-work of channels meandering through the islands of the Okavango

The flood is coming! It is with great excitement we welcome the flood of 2025 to the Kwapa Training Camp concession. Why the excitement? Surely, this is predicable you say? The Okavango is an incredibly dynamic system. The same amount of flood water entering the delta in consecutive years can look very different on the ground. Why is this?

One of the driving forces for this enigmatic system is the almost pool table flat landscape. Our hills and mountains are our termite mounds. The slightest change can drive water in a different direction changing a woodland into a lagoon overnight. Another major factor is the extension of the Great East African fault-line below northern Botswana. It is rare that we feel earthquakes here but they are happening all the time. The seismic activity below is cushioned by the 80 to 300meters of Kalahari sand that separates us from the bed-rock below. It is the gradual settling of the sands that can mean a seismic shift may take years to manifest itself fully on the surface.

There has been a slow, historic trend over the past centuries. So gradual, it is not noticeable year by year. When the first European explorers "discovered" Lake Ngami it was fed primarlily from the north and west by the Thaoge River. The western side of the delta was inundated with water and the areas of Moremi were much drier. Gradually over the years the Thaoge has dried up and it has been many decades since Lake Ngami was fed from the west. It was the flood, or lack thereof, in the 2019 season that really highlighted how the west and even central delta is drying up.

Note how the limited water went east while the central, western delta remained dry

So, in short, the flood is not a given. It is a gift to be celebrated every year it arrives. With the flood comes the flocks of wattled cranes, the herds of red lechwe and an eruption of dragonflies, frogs and almost all things living. The receding waters will see hundreds-of-thousands of fish trapped in drying pools, feeding the nesting waterbirds. For now it enough that we have the miracle on our doorstep.

Come and learn about the incredible ecosystems surrounding Kwapa Training Camp. We offer nature guide courses, trails guide courses, primitive wilderness trails as well as private ecology and tracking courses. Book Now