It was a rather gloomy morning when we said goodbye on December 19th, 2020 at the RiverDance Lodge and set off for Divundu. There the C48 turns south-east to Botswana. We followed the initially tarred road to the Popa Falls. The Okavango flows over a cataract here – it is not a waterfall! (The facility has grown bigger in the years since we first visited it; but it didn’t get any nicer.) A few kilometers further on, the tar turned into red sand. The heavy rain filled the holes in the dirt road in no time. The water splashed up on both sides of the car and after a short while Mahangu looked like what 4×4 cars look like in commercials!

After a quarter of an hour, we met the entrance gate to the Bwabwata National Park, which extends over a wide area of the western Caprivi Strip in Namibia. In the north and south it is bounded by the Namibian state border, in the west by the Okavango and in the east by the Kwando. At 6.274 km², the park is rather small. But he makes up for that with his charm. We did not meet any big game, but saw many impalas, kudu, warthogs, turtles and many water birds. They seemed to like the rain and the puddles better than we did …

PS. We set up camp for the next three nights at the Nunda River Lodge on the banks of the Okavango. From where we are, we not only see the hippos; we also hear their snort when they emerge …