Mosetlha trees in bloom - must be summer!

[Jode]

I've just returned from a lovely trip that may be Botswana's answer to South Africa's Namaqualand, famous for its flowering cactii. I drove yesterday from Lobatse in southern Botswana up to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary outside of Paje (a total distance of around 425 kilometres), and along the entire trip I saw thousands of flowering mosetlha trees (african wattle), their bright yellow flowers waving in the breeze. What a lovely summer display!

And it was also very nice to be camping again at the Rhino Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was established some 15 years ago to provide a safe haven (protected by the Botswana Defence Force) for the last of Botswana's rhino population. The very few (4) white rhino that were found alive in the north of the country were captured and relocated to the Sanctuary, and additional breeding stock have also been bought from South African parks in order to deepen the gene pool. The Trust that manages the Sanctuary has already started to reintroduce white rhino into the Okavango Delta, and in the longer term it is also hoped that they can assist in breeding black rhino (long extinct in Botswana).

Khama Rhino Sanctuary is one of the very prettiest camping sites in Botswana. The camp sites are situated on the side of a rise in the terrain, and are beautifully placed to take advantage of the rich shade provided by quite dense tree coverage. The planners have cleverly sited each campsite beneath a large Mokongwa tree (unfortunately I don't know the common name for this tree - feather tree?), with the sand beneath cleared of bush and with both an open hearth for a fire as well as a brick braai stand for cooking food. When I arrived yesterday evening I startled four female kudu who were browsing through the bush. And the Sanctuary is especially good for birding.

Worth a visit if you're in Botswana and have time for relaxing.

Cheers.

[mmgemini]

I've just returned from a lovely trip that may be Botswana's answer to South Africa's Namaqualand, famous for its flowering cactii. I drove yesterday from Lobatse in southern Botswana up to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary outside of Paje (a total distance of around 425 kilometres), and along the entire trip I saw thousands of flowering mosetlha trees (african wattle), their bright yellow flowers waving in the breeze. What a lovely summer display!

And it was also very nice to be camping again at the Rhino Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was established some 15 years ago to provide a safe haven (protected by the Botswana Defence Force) for the last of Botswana's rhino population. The very few (4) white rhino that were found alive in the north of the country were captured and relocated to the Sanctuary, and additional breeding stock have also been bought from South African parks in order to deepen the gene pool. The Trust that manages the Sanctuary has already started to reintroduce white rhino into the Okavango Delta, and in the longer term it is also hoped that they can assist in breeding black rhino (long extinct in Botswana).

Khama Rhino Sanctuary is one of the very prettiest camping sites in Botswana. The camp sites are situated on the side of a rise in the terrain, and are beautifully placed to take advantage of the rich shade provided by quite dense tree coverage. The planners have cleverly sited each campsite beneath a large Mokongwa tree (unfortunately I don't know the common name for this tree - feather tree?), with the sand beneath cleared of bush and with both an open hearth for a fire as well as a brick braai stand for cooking food. When I arrived yesterday evening I startled four female kudu who were browsing through the bush. And the Sanctuary is especially good for birding.

Worth a visit if you're in Botswana and have time for relaxing.

Cheers.

I wouldn't go near the Karma Rhino Sanctury again.

We had bookings which they wouldn't accept.
The ablution block was filthy.
We arrived at 4.30Pm and had we been able to find somwhere else we wouild have done so.
We waited to leave as the gates were opened next morning.

[K&S]

Jode have they improved then from how Mike describes them?

And what are the fees like?

[Jode]

Kevin -
1) The ablutions are not designed particularly well, and there's little natural (and no electric) light. I've seen both cleaner and filthier ablutions in this part of the world. Of course, you'll need your own loo paper....

2) We had no problems with booking - called them on the 'phone (Serowe kgotla number, 009 - 267 - 460 0204) a couple of days before leaving and they had my details when I pitched up, was able to choose a campsite (there were only a few campers - middle of the week and off-season) rather than sticking with the site they had given with the booking.

3) The campsite was immaculate, bar a filtre cig butt that someone thoughtless had dropped on the floor.

It's one of our favourite spots!

Cheers.

[mmgemini]

Kevin -
1) The ablutions are not designed particularly well, and there's little natural (and no electric) light. I've seen both cleaner and filthier ablutions in this part of the world. Of course, you'll need your own loo paper....

2) We had no problems with booking - called them on the 'phone (Serowe kgotla number, 009 - 267 - 460 0204) a couple of days before leaving and they had my details when I pitched up, was able to choose a campsite (there were only a few campers - middle of the week and off-season) rather than sticking with the site they had given with the booking.

3) The campsite was immaculate, bar a filtre cig butt that someone thoughtless had dropped on the floor.

It's one of our favourite spots!

Cheers.

Things must have changed dramatically since we were there in 2004 in the booking department especially.

As we were new to the travelling in the south of africa and also had the (wrongly) preconceived idea that you should have a travel itinery and stick to it :DWe booked with the office for Khama before we left England and had e-mailed booking references etc to take with us. When we arrived in the afternoon we were told that there was no space for us despite having made the booking. Despite outr insistence the officer would not be moved. Eventually she did agree that we had made a booking only after I lost my rag and made demands to see the manager - who as usual in these cases was conveniently off site. She sent us off to our booked site - named on our papers only for us to find it was occupied by 3 units. Back to the office where we suggested we camped on the managers front lawn!!!
We were the told if we could find a site we could use it. Guess what the first site Mike went to was empty so much for the site being full.

As we said previously the ablutions were filthy and although we had been told by the office there was hot water there was very little of any.

We went there because we had read good reports of their work with wildlife and wanted to support the local community but for the only time in our 3 month trip were very disappointed with what we found - so much so that we left the following morning as soon as the gates opened and didn't even look around the place.
We were later told that the community running it had so much money coming in that they just couldn't be bothered with customer relations.

Botswana as well as Namibia and South africa are wonderful countries with lovely people and that is why we will be coming back next year for 6 months but the experiences such as I have described above never leave the memory.

if you want to read our full story then go to www.REEDX.net (http://www.REEDX.net) (go to land rover then travels to read Mike & Margarets Trip)

:D Margaret :D using mikes login :eek: