Blog – Mokolodi & Khama
363k , 6hrs 30min total transit time, Gaborone-A1-A14-Khama Rhino Sanctuary (note: times include all our messing about in town, shopping, fuel, getting lost, etc.)
We were still making the Big Push to get up into Botswana, to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, our first major destination. This means another day on the road, but not nearly as long as the day before.
When we checked out the Mokolodi Nature Reserve the staff were exceptionally friendly, helpful and professional sorting out our reservation mix up so that we didn’t end up double paying. Their extra effort and friendliness was a nice way to start our first full day in Botswana.
We stocked up on provisions in Gabarone. The Cruiser was approaching fully laden and possibly overloaded. I have been interested in going to a weigh station to get an idea of how close to full, or over full, capacity we are. Looking at the leaf springs, I’m guessing we’re getting there, and as other experienced overlanders have said, overloading is the enemy of overlanding. It a disservice to your vehicle that can result in premature breakdown and damage to the chassis.
We did get new Toyota OEM leaf springs fitted prior to starting out and they do look much better than the originals did, and you can feel the improvement driving the vehicle as well, so perhaps we’re good to go. Never the less, we’ll be trying to shave down our camping kit over this journey to reduce weight and simplify in general.
The drive to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary was uneventful, though I did enjoy the motorway signs “Accident Free A1”, where we occasionally drove by the burned out hulk of an overturned car, so it doesn’t appear everyone has got the message yet.
Khama Rhino Sanctuary is a relatively small 4,300 sq. ha. park that is home to over 30 rhino as of 2008. I forgot to ask the staff what the current population is. We had campsite number 8, where you could have camped an army, it was almost a 100m x 50m in size, perfectly flat with some beautiful shade trees.
We skipped the evening game drive to set up camp in daylight and not have to rush things. We have two nights here so we’ll be able to get out to the pans and see some wildlife.
The next day we made morning and evening game drives and saw pretty much everything the park had to offer, impala, springbok, black backed jackal, hartebeest, ostrich, and rhino. Lots of them. We counted 16 on the evening game drive, including two baby rhino that were very entertaining.
Also lots of good birds, leading me to admit that we are lousy birders. But it turns out birds are more interesting than we thought (I joke that I’m going to write a book called Birds, Not As Boring As You Think) and we have resolved to pick up a guide to elevate our birding past “there is another blue one” and “What do you think that is?” All in good time.
It’s exciting to get our first glimpse of wildlife for the trip, but this park is fenced and heavily patrolled by the Botswana Defense Force for anti poaching to protect the rhinos. Due to it being fenced, relatively small and so closely managed it loses a bit of it’s wild feel. It was still remarkable though, and very enjoyable. And you do need a 4×4 for the deep sandy tracks, it’s not paved roads that you can take your corolla on as in some of the South African parks. This certainly cuts down on the crowds.
Khama was a good stop, but we are ready to sink our teeth into the proper wilds of Africa, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
