Okavango, Caprivi, Vic Falls ride, 20 Nov - 1 December

[tifua]

Decided it was time to take a ride up to see family in Maun and at the same time see the old mans place in the Okavango. He has retired and is building himself a house and small camp right on the Okavango (I have discussed it in more detail here: https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=189446.0). Myself and Chris met up and discussed the basic route, the timelines and the departure date. We would leave early on Sunday 20 November and push straight through the day to Maun. 20th came, I left Sasolburg at 245am on a fully loaded R1200GSA and headed to Pretoria to meet with Chris on his R1150GS. 1.5 hours later, we were fueled up and ready to start the long push to Maun. Idea was to get to border as early as possible and use the cool overcast weather as long as possible to get as much distance before the hot Botswana weather started to beat down. Progress was good, we got through the border at Martins Drift in 20 min. Quick stop to refuel and then push onto Palapye for Wimpy breakfast.

Pic 1: My riding buddy Chris and his faithful, never say die, desert tank.
Pic 2 & 3: The long ride to the border via Ellisras
Pic 4: Quick stop to stretch legs
Pic 5: Border crossing
Pic 6: Long roads ahead and avoiding boredom... Chris in full adventure regalia
Pic 7: Good old Wimpy
Pic 8: Pit stop
Pic 9: Long straight road with little to see and hot weather
Pic 10: Leg stretch

 

[mother]

nice ride

 

[silvrav]

:ricky:

 

[Mikie]

This should be interesting

 

[tifua]

Pic 11: First sighting of a river...about 1 hour from Maun in small town called Motopi
Pic 12: Pulling into Maun
Pic 13: The first day ride

 

[tifua]

Arrived in Maun just after 5:30pm, got to my aunts house where cold beers were waiting. Unpack, catch up with family and sit in the garden just relaxing. My dads cottage was vacant so no tents for us, we would have beds and proper facility which was great after all day on a bike. Jumped into aunt car and drove into town to a backpackers lodge next to the river for drink and dinner. Early night followed and a good nights rest. Next morning had some errands to run in town so we took the old safari jalopy and drove into town for breakfast then drive through Maun to see how its grown. We came back after lunch and decided to explore rest of Maun on the bikes

Pic 1, 2 & 3: Aunts garden on the river and dads cottage
Pic 4: dinner at backpackers
Pic 5: Old hilux we used to get around
Pic 6, 7, 8: Driving around Maun
Pic 9 & 10: Breakfast

 

[TVB]

:sip:

 

[tifua]

Time to explore Maun on the bikes...first stop Matlapaneng bridge where I fished as a boy growing up in Maun. From there we went to see my dads house that we lived in. Its rented out now but still nice to walk around and remember places and events there from happy childhood. Off to lodge next door for a drink before heading off to Island Safari lodge for sunset drink then the ride home. Ride into Island Safari lodge is a nice sandy dirty road and it gave us a taste of what to expect later.

Pics 1 - 7: Matlapaneng bridge
Pic 8 & 9: dads house where I grew up

 

[tifua]

Pic 1: Old cars at dads house
Pic 2, 3: Okavango River Lodge
Pic 4 - 8: Island Safari Lodge and the ride home with setting sun

 

[tifua]

Day 3: Few things to collect in town and then a quick refuel and hit the road to Shakawe. Got away just after lunch (had to pick up some cutting discs, drywall screws and 2 kg of nails for the old man. Stopped from lunch on the way and saw just how heavy the bikes are in thicker sand. Tar road is in ok condition until you get near Gumare and then you have to dodge potholes. Arrived in good time and met up with my brother and my dad and some cold beers. He has tents so we each took a tent and after unpacking, sat down to dinner before showers and early night. Dads place is about 10km South of Shakawe near the village of Samochima. He has had it since 1969 and now that he is retired, he is finally able to build his house and enjoy a break from 40 years of safaris.

Pic 1: leaving Maun
Pic 2: Lunch break
Pic 3-5: ride to Shakawe and fuel stop at Gumare
Pic 6 - 10: the camp

 

[tifua]

Pic 1: dinner with old man and brother
Pic 2: the tent.
Pic 3 & 4: Area being cleared for camp site for people staying over
Pic 5: Walk from bathroom area to dining area
Pic 6 & 7: Boats and jetty at camp

 

[tifua]

The route to Shakawe

 

[TVB]

This is just so awesome - I think there should be a stronger word that can replace Love'.
Since there is not - I Love Africa
This reminds me of the lifestyle, the animal kingdom, fona and flora and people.....hope you got more picts to share

Did you go out on the Delta? What wildlife can one expect to see in the vicinity and what fish can be targeted on a fishing outing?

 

[tifua]

Haven't been back for a while but each time I have to seriously think about going back. I could be happy there and would be good to go back to roots. Animal wise we saw elephant on way into Maun; in Okavango we didn't see much but in Kasane we should warthog, buffalo, giraffe, kudu, impala, crocodile, hippo etc. Chris saw lion on his game drive. Fishing is not good at moment. The water is dirty and muddy as it comes from Angola where they are increasing diamond mining in an effort to try get people to move back to villages and small towns from city.

 

[TVB]

Haven't been back for a while but each time I have to seriously think about going back. I could be happy there and would be good to go back to roots. Animal wise we saw elephant on way into Maun; in Okavango we didn't see much but in Kasane we should warthog, buffalo, giraffe, kudu, impala, crocodile, hippo etc. Chris saw lion on his game drive. Fishing is not good at moment. The water is dirty and muddy as it comes from Angola where they are increasing diamond mining in an effort to try get people to move back to villages and small towns from city.

Agh no man....One wonder why they did not try other methods other than mining which contaminate the water. I hope it will just be a 'muddy/visibility' problem and not chemicals. 

 

[tifua]

not sure. My dad said its the dirtiest he has ever seen the swamps in his life. Used to be crystal clear water you could drink now its like dirty washing machine water

 

[tifua]

Next morning (23rd) we met up with two American friends that are renting my 800s to travel around Southern Africa for 1.5 months. They were coming in from the Caprivi side and we met up in Shakawe so they could take a break and see bit of the Okavango. Arriving in camp, unpacking and then taking boat for a ride up the river to my aunt and uncle camp. There are two camps, one is the old Drotsky cabins and its been renamed something else now and then there is the new one. We stopped at the old one to have a quick look around before heading upstream to the new one for a drink.

Pic 1 & 2: the gangs all here
Pic 3 & 4: boat ride
Pics 5, 6, 7 & 8: Old Drotsky Cabins
Pic 9: going up river
Pic 10: New Drotsky's Cabins

 

[tifua]

Pic 1: The bar in the new camp
Pic 2: the slow ride back to camp
Pic 3: dinner
Pic 4: Look at the insects building up. It rained a lot so flying ants and all manner of beetles and insects came out

 

[tifua]

Next morning my brother fetched us and took us to the camp he is managing. Its their quite season and camp was empty so he offered to let us go out for a boat trip and light bit of fishing with one of his guides. Also a chance to see his camp. We went out and got to see hippo and some big crocodiles. Spot of fishing only landed two small tiger which were thrown back but one didnt make it because because of a fowl hook through its gills. On the way out of the lagc on we spotted a baby croc which we caught, had a look at and put back before heading back to brothers camp.

Pic 1: heading downstream
Pic 2: Fishing camp on the way down to brothers place
Pic 3: Getting ready to go out with the guide
Pic 4: lagoon
Pic 5 & 6: baby croc (no South Africans were harmed in the making of this pic

 

[tifua]

After we got back to brothers place we had a look around while we waited for a lift back to my dads place. Very beautiful camp. On the boat ride back we took the dead tiger fish, put some papyrus in it to stop it sinking and threw it to the resident fish eagle at my dads camp. After a few moments the fish eagle swooped down and grab the fish in front of us. I didn't get pic of it but the others did and will post when I get a copy. Got back, had lunch then we decided to explore a bit and took a ride out to the Mohembo ferry. Crossing over to the other side of the river, we took a 30 min ride through villages before turning back to catch the ferry before it shut for the day. We noticed group of hippo across the river so once we were back on the other side, we rode along the water edge until we found them and could sit and watch them for a while. We had a good ride offroad to this point and decided to follow dirt roads through the villages back to Shakawe. Seemed a good idea at the time and we were feeling cocky...light sand soon became thick sand (thick enough to allow my bike to stand upright without a stand). Fun and games and a few falls but all in all a great ride and we headed back the last 10 km to my old mans place in dark being hammered by insects hitting the front of the bikes.

Pic 1 - 8: fishing camp