Khwai River - Magotho Camp

Maun was our next town for supplies. It had grown tremendously since we last visited it. We were surprised and excited to find a Woolworths and a Spar Supermarket in Maun. The ladies stocked up on food and water, while the men refueled the vehicles, checked  tyre pressures, refilled water tanks etc. Cable ties and insulation tape was a priority on Steve's shopping list. Gone were the days when a hammer and a piece of wire could fix everything! The Deli next to Reilley's Garage supplied us with great meat. We left Maun and found comfortable accommodation at Drifters, about 22 km outside Maun. Drifters is situated on a river, has camping and Tented bungalows available, as well as a bar and kitchen for dinner and breakfast. Shaun, their manager, was entertaining and informative, and gave us great advice for our journey ahead, especially the trip into Uganda. He had worked as a Safari Operator for 14 years, of which 7 were in Uganda. We had a lovely dinner and breakfast the next morning, served on the deck next to the swimming pool, overlooking the water.

Breakfast at Drifters

  After breakfast we set off for the Khwai River. At first the sandy road was comfortable and the scenery beautiful - a large Mopani forest. Then the sand got thicker and we let the tyre pressure down. From this point on the road had deteriorated to potholes of dust at regular intervals, forcing us to drive very slowly. After driving the whole day, we eventually got to Magotho Camp, on the Khwai. We were exhausted. We were lucky to find a camp site right opposite the river. While setting up camp, we had our first visitor - a big bull elephant, quietly walking through our site. This became a regular occurance. A few lone bulls with Askari would walk through our camp site every morning and evening to get to the river to drink. Sometimes they stopped to graze on the foliage of trees and bushes, watching us closely, even lifting a trunk to smell us. We loved it. The next day we did not go for a drive. The animals came in groups to the river to drink water. We could just sit on our chairs in the shade of a massive Russet Bush Willow, and enjoy the scenery. We loved the baby elephants. The one baby rolled around in the mud like a naughty child. At one stage we thought that he got stuck in the mud! Impala, Zebra, Waterbuck, Giraffe and Warthog were regular visitors to the river. At night we heard hippo and lion. Ross and Theo spotted a leopard and lion on one of their drives. Another time they watched the male lion walking through the river to get to the female. We got some information from a camper that had been following the lions movements for 2 weeks. It seemed that the male lion would walk a circular route and mark his territory, always returning to the female to mate. Then early one morning, after an exciting night of lions roaring, we spotted a female lion walking behind our camp site. That night we were sitting around our camp fire, when a game drive vehicle stopped and warned us that the male lion was walking on the road towards our camp site. Everyone scattered, grabbing spotlights and cameras! Very exciting stuff!  On a drive we were always rewarded with sightings of animals as well as many hippos and enormous crocodiles. The river also attracted a variety of birds and the call of the Fish Eagle was ever present. We loved our stay at Khwai River, but was also saddened by the lack of control by the Park authorities. There has been an influx of tour operators and an increase of camp sites at the Khwai. Double bookings seems to be regular and we often found people driving in circles looking for a place to camp. Camp sites were littered with ash from numerous fires and some campers still have not learned to burn their toilet paper.