The next day we left Savuti. The drive out of there going south was sandy and bumpy and kinda rough, but nothing compared to the route that we took in from Kasane. We drove super slowly and cautiously because of the roof tent fiasco, but the repairs we had done in Savuti held tight and the car made it ok. Within several hours, we arrived to Nokanyana, a lodge just outside Mababe, near Khwai and the Moremi game reserve.
When planning this trip, I had a hard time choosing this piece of the stay. We could have either stayed directly in Moremi, or here. Most people do Moremi, but our agent had told us that this would be a better option because Moremi was overcrowded and just bursting at the seams with tourists and safari cars everywhere. In the end, I am super glad with the choice I made. This place is amazing! Right on the Khwai river, it’s super picturesque, and in a really chill area. It’s fairly undeveloped here with only 3 small lodges in this area. The lodge is also unfenced, so we have wild animals cruising through whenever and again need to be escorted by a guard to our tent at night. There are elephants just wandering through camp, literally next to the accommodations, sometimes blocking pathways through camp, which is incredible. The main deck of the lodge has a view out to the river and elephants cruise through there to drink all day long. Our tented accommodation itself is super nice and pretty fancy. This is definitely the best place we’ve stayed so far.
That afternoon, we went on a guided game drive. Was pretty chill and enjoyable. We ended with a sundowner right next to the Khwai river. We had our drinks while watching the elephants come strolling in to drink from the river. A dozen elephants came through. Then another dozen. Than even more. One of the guys in our group stopped counting once he reached 60, so we don’t know how many there ended up being in the end. What a magical sunset with all of these elephants.
Eventually, we came back to camp, we’re fed a delicious dinner, spent some time by the fire, and then went to bed with the sounds of barking hippos, whooping hyenas, and the crash of trees/bushed being knocked down by elephants all around us. Just laying in bed and listening to all the insane sounds of the wild outside is such an experience.
