Selinda Spillway Connects

Headwaters meet

a dry selinda spillway

The Selinda Spillway, which winds through Botswana's 320000 acre Selinda Reserve finally connected late in August 2009. With the headwaters racing toward each other for most of the year, the last 1 kilometer seemed to take forever as the Spillway had to "climb" over a slight ridge or fault line.

Tessa and Stuart, managers of Great Plain's Zarafa Camp, sent these two photos which show the same spot, one dry and the other with the Selinda Spillway finally connecting after nearly 30 years. They were taken about 3 weeks apart.

Dereck Joubert summed up the historic moment as follows in a note he wrote commemorating this event to our staff and partners.

"As you know the head waters from the Okavango joined up the Selinda Spillway for the first time in nearly 30 years! It is, in our small part of the world and for our concession, a momentous occasion. The Spillway itself runs right through our concession from the south west to the north. It is the first time in three decades that the Okavango system has joined the Kwando / Linyanti river system. Beverly and I saw it connect once when we first came to Botswana, and only briefly, but it is a river of legends that very few in the world have ever seen in its full colour.

I am sure it will dissolve again later in the season and probably reconnect this time next year again, but this is an important occasion for us all right now." concluded Dereck