Ichingo Lodge on the Namibian side of the Chobe River, was the third wildlife destination on our recent African trip. Although we'd stayed on the river in a houseboat eleven years ago, we thought a land-based lodge might also be interesting to experience. Getting there wasn't much faster than when we did the trip 11 years ago.
From Cape Town we flew to Maun in Botswana on a regular SAA Airlink flight but then picked up a Mack Air flight to Kasane in the far north-eastern part of Botswana. Mack Air operates 11-seat Cessna Caravan airplanes. They're small, so space is tight, and so is its weight allowance - 20 kilos in total!
Once in Kasane, we were met by a local fixer who drove us a few kilometres from the new, Chinese built airport to the immigration office on the riverfront. We were stamped out of Botswana and another fellow, our Ichingo guide, took us in his small boat across the river into Namibia. From the jetty we walked a couple of hundred metres up the road to the Namibian immigration post where a woman talked to us through a small open hatchway. Despite her magnificent two-inch long fingernails she managed to stamp our docs and send us back down to the river. The three male officers inside the airconditioned office didn't look up once from their respective smartphones. A white board on the wall behind them was labelled 'crime reports'. It was blank. Clearly the boys had everything under control.
We walked back to our guide and he then fired up the outboard and we motored for a few hundred metres downriver to Ichingo Lodge. Quite a journey.
Thirty minutes later we were headed out to experience some of the unique Chobe River wildlife.
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