Kavango kin

The Kavango River forms 360 km of Namibia’s northern border with Angola. Along the Namibian side there are many great places to stay, especially near the towns of Rundu and Divundu. Meet some of the people who call this remote area home.

- TOAST COETZER

Mark & Charlie Paxton

Mark and Charlie are originally from South Africa but moved to Namibia in 1982. They own Shamvura Camp (110 km east of Rundu), which they started in 1999. While I chat to Mark, their dogs dart in and out of the living room, a chicken lays her eggs on a cabinet nearby and a swamp boubou calls outside.

Our region, Kavango East, is a safe, year-round destination, and perfect for self-drive tourists who want to avoid the big tourist crowds elsewhere in Namibia. Shamvura is actually on a sand dune, so we are high above the river, which means we have a view and we’re not cut off from dry land when the rains come, which is a problem many of the river lodges have in summer.

We have a healthy croc and hippo population. Before 2000 there were no hippos – they’d all been killed during the Angolan civil war years.

Our birding list is currently at 438, with many rare specials like Souza’s shrike, sharp-tailed starling, rufous bellied tit, green-backed honeybird and white-breasted cuckoo shrike. They’re the kind of species that birders from South Africa will go to great trouble to see.

There are almost 100 species of fish in the river, from tigerfish and various bream species to largemouth and catfish. We try to stop illegal fishing whenever possible, and anglers can still catch something here.