Sandwiched between the Kwando and Linyanti concessions, this 1,300-square-km (500-square-mile) reserve trades the river frontage of its neighbors for the Zibadianja Lagoon, a sprawling, permanent body of water fed by the Kwando River and presided over by towering African mangosteen and jackalberry trees. It is also the location for the seasonal and intriguing Selinda Spillway. After a multidecade arid period the spillway sprang to life in 2009 as water from the Kwando River flooded the Linyanti Swamps, filling this narrow, west-flowing channel until it eventually joined up with the Okavango River. The Okavango, which tends to flood a couple of months before the Linyanti Swamps, flows in the opposite direction, leading to the remarkable phenomenon that the Selinda Spillway can flow in both directions at the same time.
Game-viewing is on a par with the Kwando and Linyanti reserves: lions, leopards and wild dogs are all sighted regularly in the dry season, along with the usual plains game.
