Series 5: EP22: Road???, Modern, Chill - Boteti River to Mababe

According to my calendar, it's the 3rd of October, 2025 today and we have only got a few more days before our trip is over and we have to head home. We still have some empty slots on our wildlife list and we are heading to good locations to see the missing animals. Today we say goodby to Boteti River and head back to Maun to get fuel, stock up on water and head to the Toyota dealer to get a quote to replace the side mirror. I know where to find the spare parts office now. Our end destination for the day is the village of Mababe and the lodge there. From where we are, we have to go back through Maun to get there. There is no more direct route. I'm a bit worried because it's only 130km from Maun to Mababe but our route instructions and Google Maps both say it's going to take over four hours. I think the Hilux might earn its keep on this stretch. Turns out that the Hilux is the right tool for the job. The road has a very bad 20km stretch as bad as anything I have seen. Deep, loose sand intersected by rocky ridges. The car and us took a pounding but this is what any decent 4WD is made to do and the Hilux did it well. On a technical note, there is a sound in the video which people might mistake for us bottoming out on the sound. It's not. It's the traction control operating. I tried to turn it off but it seems that I switched it from one mode to another. It did a good job in the sand so I just left it. One issue I didn't mention in the video is that we kept catching up to the car in front of us and losing momentum. That was a bit of a problem at times. Anyway we get to Mababe and get checked in to our very modern chalet. It's quite a new lodge and it's very nice there. Mababe has an electricity feed from the Maun grid but I think the lodge pushed the capabilities of the connection. The power kept dropping out and there was a crew in the village working on the power lines. We often had no AC in the chalet because the backup generators were needed to power the freezers and the kitchen. In spite of the mixup with our Safari Drive booking it was a nice stay. We just chilled on our verandah reading and taking photos. There were Zebras and Gnu in the distance, the occasional dust devil and plenty of birds which Africa has in abundance. I went to the bar and got some drinks to stock up our fridge so we were hardly deprived. The next day we have to leave and head to our final stop, Khwai Guest House. We have a dawn game drive at Mababe and then a game drive in the afternoon at Khwai. It's only 37km from Mababe to Khwai but our travel guide recommends we allow and hour and a half for the trip. That's about a 25kmh average speed. After the trip up from Maun, we believe it. #Travel #Africa #Botswana #Mababe