Savuti & Moremi track conditions (till end of October)

[John54]

Andyrag on August 16th:
"Xakanaxa to Khwai is still flooded, as is Khwai to Savuti unless you are prepared for a bit of wading. The route across the gravel transit road is very deep, there are two alternative crossings near the airstrip. I was there 2 weeks ago. I don't know about the roads closer to the river from Khwai towards Magotho campsite but I can guess sections will also be under water."

Vnielsen on August 20th:
"Just returned last week. Xakanaxa area under water. You will have to return to south gate and then go via Mababate village to Savute."

Source: 4x4community.co.za

[denie]

Can someone tell me if the road from North gate to Xakanaxa in Moremi is possible be passing Dumbo the hippo pool?

[John54]

On August 25th Nickisa wrote:

"Just returned from Kwai and Xakanaxa. The roads between these two sites are closed, however we met a water affair vehicle whom travels this route daily. We followed him through pretty deep water and they also managed to get stuck. My advice would be to travel to South Gate and then directly back to Xakanaxa or visa versa. Whilst at Kwai take drive to Hippo pools which is still accessible."

Source: 4x4community.co.za

[denie]

Thank you John for your answer. We will take your advice to drive to the south gate.

Do you (or someone else) knows of the observation hide at dombo hippo pool is accessible from the north gate side of from the xakanaxa side? A little bit of water is not so bad but we don’t have a snorkel on the car.

Groetjes Denie

[John54]

Yes, Hippo pool is accessible from North gate. Khwai is the same place as North gate.
Please get updated information from the people at Khwai when you are there.
It is possible that the direct road between North gate and Xakanaxa will be open by then.
Regards, John

[come-along.nl]

Here some extracts concerning track conditions from Dean's report:
source: 4x4community

Kaziikini to South Gate - 27Km. Road is corrugated but not an issue...

The road to Third bridge was where our REAL holiday started.Engaged 4WD and took on the rutted,deep sandy spots we were so looking forward to. The road is relatively easy going with some deep hard patches and some very soft deep sandy areas where I had to deflate my tires to 1,5bar and use Low range to get out. Loved the area around Xini lagoon. Saw plenty of elephant,lechewe,kudu and impala en route to Third bridge. We were told by the game scout that there is an detour around 2nd bridge just after 1st bridge.1st bridge was a breeze-ankle deep water. The detour around 2nd bridge was taken as fear of drowning a vehicle with trailer outweighted the pleasure. This was a nice game drive with plenty pans with a lot of water birds and hippo seen. Arrived at Third bridge at 12:30

Maun to Savute (188Km)

Woke early and left Maun after a great breakfast at the lodge.Left at 7:30am. Took road to Mababe gate.Crossed the Kwhai river over a relatively recently built steel bridge just after the Mababe village. River very full. Took the sand ridge road.I was towing the trailer again as the batteries had to be charged. Arrived at Mababe gate at 11:00.The sand ridge road was not as bad as expected. 2nd gear low range was needed in some places,but generally quite good going.Trailer was towing well. I was pleased that we stayed at Maun and only lost 1 night. Could have been far worse. Saw plent of herds of elephant through the mopane forests. Saw a young female leopard in a tree just before Savute camp. As we approached the Savute camp we were greeted by a soccer field on the right and a volleyball field on the left. Strange and very out of place.the gate was reached 300mfurther. Booked in at the gate.We stayed at CV3.View of the very full Savute channel. Camp was pitched and all done by 16:00. Had a cold shower. Visit from an elephant waking along the channel. The channel is flowing for the first time in 30years. Truly awesome to see. Took us 6hrs from Maun.

[kingshaka]

News from People that visited Moremi last week...
source: Namibia-Forum.ch

Savuti - Moremi was only possible by doing the Detour via South Gate. Last K's towards Mababe Gate are difficult due to deep sand or tracks covered with big holes made by other vehicles. The waterlevels in Moremi should from now on go down but it's expected that the high waterlevels will remain at least until January... It's possible to drive from Khwai (North Gate) to Dombo Hippo Pools but not any further. Water all over the place into the direction of Xakanaxa. Xakanaxa is reachable from North Gate only via South Gate.

The Rangers expressed their concern about people doing watercrossings. They advice not to do it cause they have been too busy recovering lot's of tourists lately.

[kingshaka]

Moremi Water detours (20-Aug 2011)

Route North Gate to Xakanaxa still closed. It is expected to remain unchanged for the near future as there are no detours planned. Access to Xakanaxa via South Gate only.

Route South Gate to 3rd Bridge.
Route possible via Xini Lagoon - 1st Bridge - 2nd Bridge Detour. There is a temporary detour for 2nd Bridge just after 1st Bridge crossing to the West circumnavigating a newly flooded lagoon. The detour joins the main track just after 2nd Bridge on the junction leading to Mboma Island. In my opinion this detour won't last for long as already the track links to some muddy patches getting softer with each passing vehicle. This detour is NOT signposted.

1st Bridge is still passable albeit all supporting logs broken or displaced. No detour - water level max 500 mm.

3rd Bridge to Xakanaxa.
DWNP has cut a dry track between 4th Bridge and Xakanaxa. The track leaves the main route after a few muddy sections about 4 km after 4th Bridge turning South into a dusty soft sand track and leading in general direction of Xakanaxa joining the original South Gate to Xakanaxa route about 2.5 km south of Xakanaxa. Detour signposted from both directions. Unfortunately this track is just a link with no touristic attractions or views whatsoever.

3rd Bridge.
This contraption is very slippery and about to give way and is submerged on the entire length with wheel deep water access on both sides. Use at own risk - if possible watch somebody passing before you handle it! In my opinion it won't last much longer under current situation. No repairs planned at this stage.

source: 4x4community

[come-along.nl]

Maun to 3rd Bridge:



"Out of Maun, there are plenty of woodpiles along the road at a cost of P5-P10, much cheaper than Moremi South Gate. Easy roads to reach South Gate. Check-in and we are in! Rangers informed us about all the closed roads due to flooding (almost all of them between Xakanaxa and North Gate as well as that one from 3rd Bridge to Xakanaxa, although it was a detour after crossing 4th Bridge). They also told us that Xini lagoon was flooded so it was much better not doing that loop. We did it anyway (not in purpose, we were just following T4A) and the lagoon was not as flooded as the rangers told us. We only got wet on our left side of the car, and only in some stretches. It was easy do-able. After leaving Xini lagoon, the road became more sandy…and we got stuck, again. We realized then that our Hilux had not enough ground clearance. We were struggling with both the differential and crankcase. Luckily, less than 5 minutes a green Jeep (thank you!!!) was on his way back and he could tow us with our new tow rope. He got us out of the sand very quickly and we could go on to the 3rd Bridge by deflating tires at 1.4. First Bridge was wet (less than the wheels) and we did it easily. Second Bridge was flooded. There is a detour on the right side although it’s also bit flooded: we were told that it was do-able but we followed the ranger’s instructions and took the dry alternative detour on the left side, few hundred meters before reaching the 2nd Bridge, and we popped in the other side of the bridge. From here to the camping, the road was even more sandy"

3rd Bridge (Mboma Station):







"Breakfast and hot shower before the morning drive. Very clean ablutions (solar panels for heating water). Went to Mboma loop to reach Mboma boat station for a mokoro trip. Mboma loop was completely dry, so no problem. It was immediately after taking the turn-off that leads to the boat station that we found what it seemed a small puddle, no more than 5 meter long. We decided to go through without checking the depth. Mistake! In the middle of the puddle the water level covered our car’s hood. Hopefully we could go through the pool thanks to L4 gear. Bit scary, anyway. The rest of the way to the boat station (less than 1km) was dry and we popped in there around 9am. We went there without any reservation for the mokoro trip but we had no problem to do a 2-hour trip as soon as we parked. Rates were P225 per mokoro(2 people) per hour. Very relaxing trip through the channels. The pole-man was very friendly and he was talking about the plants and animals that live there. Back to the boat station and we continued driving through the Mboma loop (to the south) after crossing again the “small” puddle"

"After lunch we crossed the 3rd bridge. Rangers told us that most of the paths here we flooded and we couldn’t go further than 4th bridge (at least we were not confident to cross it), so we were driving around one of the hippo pools there. In general, roads were fine but there were some stretches with heavy sand"

3rd Bridge - Savuti:

"Our idea was to drive from 3rd Bridge to Xakanaxa to North Gate to Savuti, but the rangers suggested us that the best way to go to Savuti was via South Gate due to floodings around North gate (the road from Xakanaxa to North gate was closed). This meant a big detour so we knew that this would be a long day, and we got up early to be ready asap. On our way back to South Gate we did not go through 2nd Bridge (we took the dry detour) and we headed south quite easily. Immediately after leaving south gate, we inflated the tires because the way to Mabebe gate is not sandy, just dirt road"





"From here to Mababe Gate is an easy drive except the last 7 km, with thick sand. So we stopped again to deflate tires at 1.4. We took the sandridge road and it was very sandy, especially around and inside Savuti camp (deep sand). We reached Savuti around 6:30pm (we saw again thousands of elephants), just with the sunset. I do not know what would happen if we got stuck in the sand at that time. Fortunately, nothing happened. We were surprised by the bad road conditions inside the camping: very thick sand around the ablutions block. Some of us paid 50$ per night…The camping is big and it was crowded (some of the sites with more than 20 people). However, it was not noisy. Maybe the worse thing was that there were many mozzys (we were closed to the channel)"

[Lisa]

Hi
Does anyone have any up to dat information on the road from moremi to salute via north gate / kwhai? We will be attempting it on 30 September.
Thank you, Lisa