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Published: June 17th 2017
01 Leading to Khutse
The sandy road that leads to the game reserve.Geo: -23.4644, 24.2135
This morning we woke up at 5am and packed a few last minute items into the car and then left the lodge at 5:30am. It took us just under an hour to drive through the park. Strangely enough we didn't see any animals on the drive. We exited the park through Abjaterskop Gate. It was a short drive to the Botswana border. We passed through all the border checks very quickly and easily. For once we honestly had nothing to declare as we were buying all our food in Gaborone.
A little bit after 7am we got to the mall in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. Here we were to buy our food for the next 6 days. Unfortunately the supermarket – Pick n Pay did not open until 8am, so we had breakfast at Wimpy. After breakfast we bought all our food for trip. Then we stopped at the bookshop, while I choose some magazines, Paul had a look in the local city map books for where to find Bigfoot Tours. This was the only company that we could use to book our camp sites. Our silly GPS could not find the name of the street, so that
02 Little Tortoise
A little tortoise that we stopped to watch just outside of the game reserve. is why Paul was looking it up in a book.
It was then time to get moving. We packed the car and I directed Paul to Bigfoot Tours. On the way we stopped to re-fuel the car and the jerry jan. Gaborone is a pretty small city and very easy to navigate. We only decided a few days ago to go on this trip and we have not booked any accommodation. At the office we choose which camp sites we would stay at for our five night stay. Then it was time to hit the road.
On the way out of Gaborone we were on the lookout for a place to buy a car battery from. Paul discovered a few days ago that our car battery was flat. Luckily Francois' car battery fitted in our car, so we used his for this trip and needed a new one for our car. We found a new car battery and also bought some drinks.
An hour down the road we stopped again to refuel the car in the last major town before the game reserve. All the towns we drove through were full of hustle and bustle- there were people everywhere. During
03 Tracks
The tortoise's tracks that it made in the sand. the next hour we drove through very small towns. We then arrived in Salajwe where the last petrol station before Khutse Game Reserve is situated. We stopped here and refuelled for the last time and also bought some cold drinks. The last hour of the drive to the gate was challenging. The road became corrugated and sandy. Quite often along the road there were piles of firewood. We need wood, so we stopped. As soon as we stopped a skinny man, his young children and wife appeared out of nowhere. We bought a few bundles of wood. Further along the sandy track we stopped to look at a tortoise that was crossing the road.
Finally at half past three we arrived at the gate. We checked in and chatted to the staff to see how the sightings have been. There were only a few other vehicles in the reserve- we virtually have the place to ourselves! We had 3 hours to get to our camp site- we were not allowed to drive around the reserve after dark.
We drove in the direction of our camp site. We stopped to look at a few birds. At an open area, there were
04 In a Tree
A species of lark in a tree. a trio of ostriches, a blue wildebeest and a gemsbok. On the road we came across four red hartebeest. They were standing in the middle, with their heads turned around to face us. After a minute or so, they walked away. We continued on. Fifteen minutes later we were at Khutse Pan I. There were no animals here and for a moment I was a bit disappointed with this trip. Then we noticed a lion, less than a metre from the road. It was sitting under a bush, looking at us and panting. In front of him there was his kill of a red hartebeest. It was really exciting – as it was so close to us and we had this sighting to ourselves.
I took some photos of the lion. Luckily his kill didn't smell at all – yet. We then looked around, hoping that there would be more lions around. Outside Paul's window we noticed a female lion that was watching us, she was about 2 metres away from the car, so close! Our excitement caused the other two sleeping lions to put their head up. They were not visible as they were lying down in the grass.
05 Main Track
The main track through the game reserve. We then spotted the fifth lion, a lioness lying on the road, about ten metres in front of us. We drove closer to her, as she continued to rest. Paul turned the car around and we went back to the lion. We observed him enjoying his food. For some strange reason, there were hundreds of yellow butterflies around him. The other four lionesses continued to lay on the grass and what for their turn to eat.
After half an hour with the lions we decided to move on. Further along at Tshilwane Pan we saw a herd of gemsbok and a journey of three giraffe. We then arrived at our camp site for the next two nights. It was called Mahurushele, site number 3. This was a very private camp site as the closest site was about 100 metres away and was unoccupied.
Once we had set up camp, we made the fire, prepared our dinner and then sat around the fire with a drink. Aahhh, it was great to be away, isolated from technology (except for the cameras) and in the middle of nowhere.
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