Khwai to Kasane, September 2022

From Khwai we are heading onwards to Kasane along the Chobe river and then
Zambia to Malawi until finally East African Tanzania and Kenya. Our main aim is
East Africa as much as possible before the rains begin in November. We are
trying to balance this with seeing and enjoying sights along the way. It is now
beginning of September. A one night stop over in each location can become
tiring and the depth of experience minimal. On the other hand, completely
missing out on an entire country or major “thing you gotta see” can be
irritating.

We found that transiting Botswana a few months previously on the way to
Namibia gave us the opportunity to see a few places in Botswana but also gave
us a better sense of what we wanted to do if we returned. We were then able to
do the Maun to Kasane via Khwai route because we partially researched it on the
first transit.

The Khwai route is only possible for most in the dry season so would have
been impossible for us on our first transit in March anyway. Something else we
have learnt along the way is that you are only ever seeing a place in one state
if you visit it once. Seeing everything in the dry season will mean that you
miss the vibrancy of the rainy season or the colours of spring time. Circling
back over routes gives the opportunity to pick up activities and places missed
the first time and you get to watch the changing of the seasons in some of the
most amazing places on earth.

Anything missed in Botswana? Plenty. At the least I want to explore Moremi
some more and do what looks like a possible route from there along the east and north of the Okavango Delta ending up at the Mohembo ferry over the Okavango river. The Namibian Caprivi Strip side is also a much more accessible area for game viewing which I feel is under appreciated. Maybe from Ngoma through the southern Caprivi strip
to Mohembo ferry in Botswana to Moremi game reserve and then on to either Maun
or Kasane. A difficult route to balance with game viewing opportunites, floods
and rainfall seasons.

We enter Chobe National Park at the Mababe Gate satiated with the sights and
sounds of the Khwai area. Entrance to the park is a little pricey with the new
price list but much cheaper than East African opportunities and the camping in
Chobe is cheap once you’re in the park. If you’re willing to pay the daily park
fee on top. We decide instead to give ourselves a grueling but fun
route through the Savuti section in a single day, stopping only for a quick lunch at Savuti camp.

The scenery moving from Khwai to Kasane through the Chobe National Park is
ever changing with first the teak forests falling away to mopani scrub. Soon
after there is an opening in the dried leather leaves of the mopanis and the
forever stretching grasslands of the Savuti Marsh appear. All the time, you are
bumping and sliding over a few feet deep kalahari sand. After ages, the Savuti
camp area approaches with even deeper sand tracks. The camp area is surrounded
by cubed granite hills hiding leopard dens amongst ages old baobabs. Weathered
signs point off into the distance for ancient san paintings, Linyanti and
little known game viewing areas.

The Savuti camp site is well worth a stop and the immediately surrounding
land is again another unique area of the world worth exploration. In 2022 the
Savuti channel is still not running and so the Savuti area is dry with
seemingly inhospitable sights. The Kalahari sand around the Savuti camp is deep
and low range 4×4 with some clearance is very useful. We got stuck
only a kilometre or so north of Savuti camp after pancaking down onto a middle
hump of sand during a badly timed gear change. For once the sand tracks plus
shovel actually did as advertised and we were on our way after a few minutes.
This being the dry land of elephant hunting lion, I wasn’t overly happy about
jumping out the hilux to dig it out of the sand trap.

Even in this dry waterless Savuti channel era, the never ending view of tall
grasslands of the Savuti Marsh are incredible and still frequented and enjoyed
by elephant, antelope and all other accompanying game.

The turn-off towards the Chobe Flood Plains takes you through an even deeper
and more difficult section of Kalahari sand. A few hours of this in the
afternoon sun should be stressful but the remoteness and sense of adventure
keeps us open eyed for a potential sighting of a leopard or lion along with the
friendly elephant, zebra and others that do show themselves.

The final section up to Kachikau is both steep and deep sand as if the Chobe
area has been training us gradually and wants to give us our final test before
releasing us to the tarred road lying just on the other side of the village.
With our low range gears revving deeply and our vehicle shunting from side to
side we arrive a little ridiculously at the tarred road ahead with wide eyes.
We drive delicately over the asphalt with low pressure tyres to our camp site
lying alongside the Chobe Flood Plain. Our view takes in the flood plain across to Namibia, hippo and cattle of the local peoples. The camp is an oasis after the endless Kalahari sands. We open our car bonnet to discover half of the Kalahari transported with us.

We skip through the Chobe section of the Chobe National Park the next day as time is short, and more importantly we have a drinks date planned with old
family friends on the banks of the Chobe river in Kasane.