Khama Rhino Sanctuary

Jag har varit alldeles för lat på sistone för att srkvia och lägga upp bilder, men här kommer en liten berättelse från när vi åkte upp till Khama Rhino Sanctuary när vi hade besök av Mirtha. Dessvärre är den bara på engelska (och en aning lång), men det kommer förhoppnignsvis en svensk eller norsk översättning när jag får lagt ut några bilder också.

Fianlly came the day for seeing more of the country Botswana. Before Christmas we’ve had more than enough to get installed in the apartment, getting to know people and seeing Gaborone and its surroundings, but having a visitor made a good reason for leaving the city and travel a bit up north. We decided on Khama Rhino Sanctuary as it is not so far away, your pretty certain to see a lot of animals and lodging isn’t as expensive as most places in Botswana. Botswana has deliberately aimed for more exclusive tourism, in contrast to for example Kenya and Tanzania, resulting in fabulous lodges (at least from what I’ve heard and read) but quite costly. The exception is camping, park fees are generally low, and this place outside Serowe. We soon enough found out why...

Everyone we asked said that driving up ther (about 320 km) would take about 3h 20min, but that seemed way to fast so we aimed for about 4 hours. Left the city after lunch on Friday and it turned out that the road up north, the A1, was really good and 120 km/h almost all the way. So in fact, we didn’t spend much more time getting up there than everyone had said.

We were going to live in a chalet (a small tent-shaped house with grass roof) and at first sight it looked very nice. Two rooms, a tea kitchen and a toilet and shower. We realised that we had forgotten to buy firewood at the reception as we were going to do a braai (barbeque) that evening, so Tore went back to the reception. That’s when Mirtha and I found out that we had a bat hanging at the roof. On the inside. We started turning on all lights, opening the door and windows and tried to chase it out. It flew back and forth a couple of times, seeming very confused as to what happened, but eventually disappeared. That’s when we saw the two squirrels. They lived under the roof on the outside, but the mosquito net had several holes, so of course they came in as well. Specially when they could sniff our food. Cadbury chocolate seemed to be a favorite. I was glad that I had brought my mosquito net, and certainly after seeing that all our light and open windows had attracted a lot of bugs. And a big lizard eating th bugs. Mirtha decided to sleep in the car. Well, at least the accommodation was cheap and the small monkeys outside in the trees were cute!

As for the barbeque, I can just say that we now know how to make a fire from only using semi-dried fire wood, toilet paper and the car cigarette lighter...

Saturday morning we got up early, cannot rally say from after a good night sleep, and went rhino tracking with a guide. First we drove around and got really close to Hector, a young male white rhino. We also saw springbok, impalas, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, jackals, wilder beast and lots of birds. And some other animals that I don't remember the name of. After some time we went out of the car and started tracking. We followed the giant footsteps of the rhinos, saw the enormous pile of dung they recently had left (to the joy of the dung beetles) and ate some berries along the way. After a while we came out on a more open area and there we saw two rhinos. We were not allowed to go any closer than 50 meters (and that was ok, we were only a couple of meters away from one that morning in the car and they are really big and can run almost 50 km/h) so we kept our distance and just studied them for a while. They are not at all as fat as I imagined, just big. The guided trip was finished at 9 am so then we headed for brunch at the restaurant. We then drove around for ourselves, but the day turned out to be really hot, so at mid day we just had to go back to our chalet and try to get some sleep. With over 40 degrees in the shade and absolutely no wind, it's not very easy.

Late afternoon we tried our luck out on the tracks and yet again we saw lots of animals. Specially the cute impala babies were fun to see, jumping around all over. And of course the meeting with several groups of rhinos. There are supposed to be black rhinos there as well, but unfortunately we didn’t see them. We did see a kudu, and the horns on that thing are really impressive. And quite fun to see the little birds rinding on their back, eating parasites.

Sunday morning we woke up and was what we believe to be leopard tracks around our chalet. There are leopards in the game reserve and they looked a lot like tha tracks we had seen together with the guide the day before. Fun! I’m glad we didn’t leave the door open... After some breakfast we headed back to Gaborone, but another route this time. We drove what seemed to be a smaller road on the map, but it was an almost new road with 120 km/h as well. The only thing that lowers the speed is the many donkey carts and all the donkeys, goats and cattle that are grazing along the way. I had expected maybe more of a desert like environment as it was closer to the Kalahari, but the area was lush and green and full of small trees and cattle. It was really pretty. With small villages with traditional huts scattered along the way. Almost back in Gabs, we ate lunch in Molepolole. We had really thought of looking at some rock paintings and an aloe forest, but signs leading tourists to interesting areas is not such a big deal in this country... So, we ended up at KFC and then we went to Thamaga. There we took a drink at a local bar, talked to the owner and someone (very drunk Sunday afternoon) claiming he was the cousin removed 20 times, to Barack Obama. You would think that almost everybody was related to everybody at that stage... Anyway, we proceeded to the pottery at Thamaga and Tore became the most popular person that afternoon when ho took the pictures of a group of children. They really like to pose and show off here, fun! Mirtha and I found some very cute clay huts to have a small candle in, so we just had to buy those. After that, it was really nice to come home and have a long shower and dinner. And of course to hear all about Martes weekend in Livingstone and Victoria Falls. That will have to be another trip!