The Chobe River meanders through occasional low, flat islands and floating mats of papyrus and reeds. These islands, and beside the river, is always lush and green – and hence attracts high densities of game. Beside this the bleached-white riverbank rises up just a few metres, and instantly becomes dry and dusty. Standing on top of this are skeletons of dead trees, sometimes draped by a covering of woolly caper-bushes.

In several areas this bank has been eroded away, perhaps originally where small seasonal streams have joined the main river or hippo tracks out of the water have become widened by general animal use to access the floodplains. Here there are often mineral licks, and you'll see herds of animals in the dry season coming down to eat the soil as well as drink from the river.

Flora

On the bank beside the river the vegetation contains many of the usual plants found in riparian forest in the subcontinent. Yet despite this it has a very distinctive appearance, different from that any other African river – and perhaps largely this difference is due to the sheer volumes of game, and especially elephants, that visit it during the dry season.
The main tree species found in this riverine forest include Natal mahogany (Trichilia emetica) – which isn't found in the rest of Botswana, plus Rhodesian teak (Baikiaea plurijuga), large fever-berry (Croton megalobotryus), umbrella thorn (Acacia tortilis), knobthorn (Acacia negrescens), raintree (Lonchocarpus capassa), African mangosteen (Gardenia livingstonei), bird plum (Berchemia discolor), jackalberry (Diospyros mespiliformis) and the odd sausage tree (Kigelia africana).

Because of the intense pressure from elephants, you'll often see the remains of dead trees still standing which have been ring-barked by elephants; with the termite-resistant skeletons, probably leadwoods (Combretum imberbe), being particularly noticeable.

These riverside forests can seem quite denuded towards the end of the dry season, which many naturally blame on heavy grazing by the game. Clearly this has an impact here, but commercial logging took place along this riverside before and during World War IIand also took its toll of some of the larger trees.

Despite this, several different types of bushes thrive here. Buffalo thorn (Ziziphus mucronata) and knobbly combretum (Combretum mossambicense) are common, though Chobe's most distinctive bush must be the remarkably successful woolly caper-bush (Capparis tomentosa). This sometimes grows into a dense, tangled shrub, but equally often you'll find it as a creeper which forms an untidy mantle covering an old termite mound. Sometimes you'll even find it covering the crown of dead trees, or draped continuously over a series of bushes.

If you're out game viewing with a Botswana guide, then ask him or her if they know of any local medicinal uses for woolly caper-bush. The plant has very strong antiseptic qualities, and both Palgrave and Roodt report that this is one of the trees most widely used in Africa for its magico-medicinal properties.

Fauna

The game densities in the Chobe Riverfront vary greatly with the seasons, but towards the end of the dry season it is certainly one of Africa's most prolific areas for game. It is an ideal destination for visitors seeking big game. Elsewhere in the dry season you'll find fascination in termites or ground-squirrels; but here you can find huge herds of buffalo, relaxed prides of lion, and perhaps Africa's highest concentration of elephant – huge herds which are the hallmark of the area.

One of the main attractions of the boat trips on the Chobe is that large family groups of elephants will troop down to the river to drink and bathe, affording spectacular viewing and photography. You'll find these here at any time of day, but they're especially common in the late afternoons, just before sunset.

When it's very dry you'll also find elephants swimming across the river at night to raid the relatively verdant crops and farms on the Namibian side – often coming back to Botswana during the day when the villagers feel more confident to emerge and scare them.

If you are not floating but driving, then be cautious. Most of Chobe's elephants are in family groups containing mothers with calves. They can be sensitive to any perceived threat – so keep a respectful distance from them. This can be especially difficult when you see licensed guides driving closer, but you should still keep your distance. Their experience, and general coolness in case of elephant aggression, will allow them to do relatively safely what would be dangerous for you to attempt.

If you find your car surrounded by elephants, then try to relax. Virtually all of Chobe's elephants have seen lots of vehicles before, and so are unlikely to get too upset. Don't panic or rev your engine, just sit quiet and still until the animals have passed. Ideally switch off your engine – but this is not for the faint hearted.

The riverfront is the best chance to see hippos, crocodiles and the odd sunbathing leguvaan (water monitor). Whilst there also look out for the delightful Cape clawless and spotted-necked otters, which make their homes in the riverbank.

Perhaps the Riverfront's most talked-about antelope is the Chobe bushbuck. This is a localised race, or perhaps a subspecies, of the bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus and if a subspecies then ornata) which has wide distribution within sub-Saharan Africa, from the edge of rainforests to the edges of the Kalahari and throughout the eastern side of southern Africa. Their colouration exhibits a lot of regional variation, and there is certainly a distinctive race which occurs only in this Chobe Riverfront areas – with brighter colouration and clearer markings than are found in the rest of southern Africa.

Bushbuck are small, attractive antelope which usually occur singly or in pairs. Only the males have horns, which are short and spiralled. They are well camouflaged, with a red-brown coloration, like the soil, and a covering of white spots that blend into the shadows of the riverside's thick vegetation. They will freeze if disturbed, and there are reliable reports of lions and hyena passing within 10m of a plainly visible bushbuck and not noticing it. Only eventually, if disturbed, will they bolt for cover as a last resort.

Another antelope often noted here is the puku (Kobus vardonii) – which some sources claim is rarely seen. This is true, but only if you've never been to Zambia, where puku are probably the most common antelope. South of the Chobe they probably only occur in this Chobe Riverfront area, and especially around the aptly named 'Puku Flats' peninsula of the floodplain.

The red lechwe (Kobus leche) is another water-loving antelope which is resident here, and easy to confuse with the puku at first glance. Look closely and you'll see that the lechwe's underparts are much lighter, their coats seem less shaggy, and the males' horns larger. Also notice that when they run, Lechwe usually seem to hold their heads close to the ground, while Puku usually run with their heads held much higher. This makes identifying them from a distance much easier – and soon you'll realise that red lechwe are usually the most common antelope on the Chobe's floodplains.

Waterbuck and reedbuck are also usually found in wetter areas, and so are found around Chobe Riverfront and Linyanti but not elsewhere in Chobe. Roan are also found here, but are fairly scarce, as befits an antelope that is sought-after by private game areas and expensive to buy. Finally, the beautiful sable antelope are common nowhere, but I've seen large and relaxed herds here on several occasions. Being specialist grazers, they are more commonly found in the wooded south of the Riverfront, though as sable and roan usually drink during the middle of the day, you will quite often see a small herd near the riverfront road, between Ngoma and Kasane.

Birdlife

From a boat on the main river in the park you're likely to spot numerous beautiful kingfishers (pied, giant, some malachite and the occasional half-collared) – with the pied seeming to be particularly numerous, perching on reeds by the river, or hovering to hold their eyes static above the river's surface. You'll also see plenty of reed cormorants and darters, various bee-eaters; hammerkops, wire-tailed swallows, a high density of fish eagles and even African skimmers (November–March only; the best place to see them is probably near Hippo Pools, beside Watercart Drive).

The fringes of the islands and floodplain are particularly good for birding, being home to many storks, herons, geese, egrets and a wide variety of plovers (blacksmiths, long-toed, crowned, wattled and, of special interest, white-crowned). Particularly unusual and worth seeking are rufous-bellied and white-backed night herons, slaty egrets, brown firefinches and wattled cranes.

For a totally different environment attracting several different species, head downstream and out of the park, to the shallow rapids dotted with rocks, which are adjacent to Impalila Island on the Chobe and Zambezi rivers. (The Chobe's are the Kasane Rapids, whilst those on the Zambezi are known as the Mambova Rapids.) In the dense waterside vegetation before the rapids look out for the shy finfoot, whilst around the rapids themselves there's a thriving population of rock pratincoles.

If you have the chance to explore the Kasane Channel (which connects the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers), then do so. Technically you'll need to cross into Namibia, so this trip is probably easiest to undertake from one of the lodges on Impalila Island. Here you'll find small lagoons beside the main channel covered in water lilies, and bird species that include the uncommon lesser and purple gallinules, lesser jacanas and moorhens, pygmy geese and African rails. On the edge of these, in the adjacent reeds and papyrus beds you'll probably hear (if not see) chirping cisticolas, greater swamp warblers and swamp boubous.

Back inside the park, in the band of forest beside the river, you'll find many drier-country species, including coucals (Senegal and coppery-tailed), oxpeckers, sunbirds (you can find coppery sunbirds here), rollers (look out for the racket-tailed), hornbills, flycatchers, weavers, shrikes and francolins. Large flocks of helmeted guineafowl seem particularly visible here, and are especially fond of loitering along the tracks in front of vehicles. Or so it seems!

There's a tremendously wide range of raptors here, from the ubiquitous fish eagles perching on dead trees overlooking the river, through to the huge martial eagles patrolling the drier woodlands. Other resident eagles include the uncommon western banded snake eagle, black-breasted and brown snake eagles, bateleur, tawny, long-crested, Ayres' and African hawk eagle. These are joined in the summer by migrant eagles, including Steppe and Wahlberg's eagles, and all year by many species of falcons, goshawks, harriers, kites and even the rarely-seen bat-hawk.