The Caprivi is a piece of a different Africa, a verdant land of woodlands and flood plains where rivers never run dry, lies in the north-east Kalahari. Known historically as the Caprivi Zipfel or Caprivi Strip, it is a panhandle that joins Namibia to four other countries, across an extraordinary convergence of rivers.

Only 32 km wide at its narrowest and 100 km at its broadest, the Caprivi extends eastward for 450 km, roughly from the Okavango River to the Zambezi. With an area of 20 000 km², equal to 2,4% of Namibia, it lies about midway between the equator and the southern tip of Africa, as well as midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian.  See map.

The Zambezi is the largest of three rivers that flow into the Caprivi from countries to the north. The others are the Kwando and the Okavango. Another two rivers in the Caprivi, the Chobe and Linyanti, are not rivers in their own right. They are interconnected extensions of the Zambezi and the Kwando respectively and run between the two.

Click on map for full picture.

The only one that eventually reaches the sea is the Zambezi, the largest river in southern Africa, with a catchment that extends into eight countries. With headwaters in Angola and Zambia, its basin drains 1,4 million km².

The Zambezi is 2 650 km long and forms part of the border between Namibia and Zambia for about 100 km of its length in the north-eastern Caprivi. Where the river leaves the Caprivi, it also forms a border with Zimbabwe, but this is just a point on the map.

The rivers joined to the Zambezi from the west, through the Kwando-Linyanti-Chobe system, form a border with Botswana in the south.

The Okavango River at the other end of the Caprivi rises in highlands in Angola. With a total length of 1 100 km, it follows the border between Angola and Namibia for 415 km before it turns south-east, crosses the Caprivi and inundates its inland delta in Botswana.

In combination with the highest rainfall in Namibia, 500-700 mm per year, the rivers give large parts of the Caprivi a tropical character. Open water and flood plains with palm trees, reeds and papyrus cover about a fifth of the area. Woodlands on the riverbanks and elsewhere largely hold broadleaved trees. Thorn trees are scarce.

Three river parks are situated in the Caprivi, the Mahango Game Reserve (245 km²) on the Okavango, the Mudumu National Park (1 000 km²) in the Kwando swamps and the Mamili National Park (320 km²) on the Linyanti.  A 4x4 is required to negotiate tracks in all the parks.