Botswana Trip : July 2021 : Drotskys Cabins, Shakawe

Monday 5 July to Wednesday 7 July

Lockdown Day 466 to 468

Maun to Shakawe takes 5 hours because the A35 has to be the worst road in Botswana, possibly in Southern Africa. It's more pothole than tar and you have to keep veering off onto the sand shoulder so you don't disappear into a gaping hole. In a Landcruiser it's do-able and we are very glad we aren't towing the caravan. This road heads out to the Mohembo border with the Namibian Caprivi. The ridiculous thing is that Bots is building a magnificent bridge over the Okavango River at Mohembo ( there's currently a ferry ) instead of repairing the road! We stayed two nights at Drotskys Cabins. This was a trip down memory lane as we had camped here over 20 years ago with a group of friends.

The new lodge is very much smarter but the old bar and campsite is unchanged.

I shared photos with the old crowd on What's App and we shared lots of stories and anecdotes about that trip. Everyone remembered the snakes. Especially Steve, who walked back to the camp in the dark without a torch, using his camera flash to check the path for snakes as he walked along. And sure enough we came across a huge snake in the path as we walked back to our cabin.

Neil took a photo of it and we identified it as a Cape Cobra on Google. Lodge manager Pete said it was only an Olive Grass Snake though, when we showed him the pics. We are both still in shock. 

We did a boat trip on the Okavango River.

The birding was great and we saw a Pels Fishing Owl. The Tiger fishing was less successful, although we did catch three big Barbel, which our guide Otto kept to eat.

Gert found the old photos of our previous boat trip. 

On Wednesday we returned to Audi Camp, Maun to overnight en route to Khwai.