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A quiet hidden treasure on the Okavango River
If you want somewhere to escape all the crowds and really absorb nature then
this is one of the places that should be on your list.
At the very top of the Delta where the Okavango river runs into the delta
is the town of Shakawe, the town itself is of no interest, except for buying
fuel, but there are a handful of lodges alongside the river outside of town,
a couple are accessable in a normal car and they offer riverviews, birdwatching
and excellent fisihing and as it is so far off the normal toursit route that
the peace and quiet is idylic, I sat on the verandah of my chalet watching
first a bee-eater then a kingfisher hunting only metres away from where I
relaxed.
After a couple of timeless days spent hippo spotting on the river, trying
some fishing, sundowners on the sunset deck and even manging to spot the rare
Pels Owl it was time to move on, so I turned north out of Shakawe and to the
border with Namibia.
It is a tar road all the way to the border and its a very quiet border (took
me longer to find an awake official then to process the paperwork) Namibia
is also a very tourist friendly destination with most nationalities able to
get a free 30 day visa at the border, same paperwork needed for the vehicle
as for entering Botswana.
Across the border was the first gravel road, it is a very good road and is
gravel because it runs through a game park, waiting to greet me around the
very first corner was a giraffe standing elegantly in the middle of the road!
It is only 30km before you are back on tar road again and at the end of the
road is a T juntion left into the heart of Namibia with Etosha and more ...
I was tempted but thats for another trip, I turned right along the Caprivi
strip, an odd finger of Namibia that sticks between Botswana and Angola reaching
the border with Zambia.
It is a lovely route following the river that divides the countries and there
is lots of wildlife and a handful of places to stay at along the way.
