From Ngepi Camp to Bwabwata National Park
After leaving Chris and Pascale, we followed the B8 towards Divundu and checked into Ngepi Camp. The camp is pretty wacky, and we enjoyed ourselves and stayed here for 2 nights. On both days we wanted to visit the Bwabwata National Park. The B8 takes you right through the middle of it and the park is divided by the Kavango, so there are two areas that you can visit independently.
On the first day we drove to the Mahango Game Reserve in the morning. The drivable part is obvious and there is a path parallel to the river bank along the park. At irregular intervals, you can get to the river and see what’s going on in the surrounding floodplains.
Our experiences in the park
Scenically, the park is nice, and you can go for an entertaining game drive. Driving slowly and looking for wildlife, it takes about two hours to drive the cleared trail. If you drive the additional trail that takes you to a waterhole, you have to add another 45 minutes. The road is partly very deep sandy and not passable without a 4×4 vehicle.
From our point of view the park is recommendable. It is manageable but therefore holds no less great surprises. The landscape is also varied, and therefore you will not get bored.
We can’t complain about a lack of sightings. We had the incredible luck to observe a Martial Eagle with prey. This eagle reaches up to 90 cm of height and has a wingspan of up to 2.4 m! In the photo that shows him, you can see a rather large duck as prey in his claws. The ratio reflects its size quite well – a very majestic and impressive animal.
Elephants at the waterhole
Driving the second loop to the waterhole, we encountered elephants again. They are ‘our animals’ and we have actually been able to see them on every occasion so far.
The drive through the Buffalo Core Area the next day was not less exciting. A couple of lions ran right in front of our car. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to take pictures because they disappeared directly into the bush. We also drove along the riverbank for about 30 minutes and were lucky to see large herds of buffalo (up to about 200 animals) and to get quite close to them.
Entering the Caprivi was successful. 🙂
