We just got back to Gabarone after six days camping in the Khutse Game Reserve in the southeastern corner of the Central Kalahari--no fences, no water and no electricity. We stayed at a few different campsites: Khutse 9, Molose 3 (not number 1 as we had planned, but more on that), and Moreswe 2.
When we arrived, we decided that camping the first night would be easiest near the gate, as some of the camps are a couple of hours drive after you enter the park, and there's a lot of sand to get through, so it's slow going. After camping near the gate the first night, we opted for the camps further away.
Khutse #9 near the gate turned out to be a great site for us to unpack and get a feel for camping in the wild. Your ears become very attentive to every sound when you know there are lions roaming (and elephants). Lions, especially. You would never see one coming through that tawny grass and low scrub. Luckily, our first night was uneventful, in the best sense, and relaxing. That night and the following night we had some really dramatic thunder and lightning storms. After the second night's storm at Molose, which was not relaxing but intense and a little scary with a few strikes hitting the ground incredibly close to us, I spent a lot of time hoping our camper was never the highest point in the area. Rain or no, most nights and early mornings were cool and a bit chilly, which felt so good after hot days on the sand.
Khutse #9 Campsite
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Looking toward the barely-there trail to camp after turning off the main 4x4 sand track. The easiest way to find a camp is to get close with the Tracks4Africa GPS and then look for the telltale long drop and shower facilities. Once you see your site, you need to spot the inconspicous trail that gets you from the sand track through the bush to the campsite. Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes not!
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| Our Khutse campsite
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| We had a bucket shower -- byow (bring your own water) -- but we opted for our own bucket and the little shower nozzle setup we have on the rig. It was amazing how little water we actually needed for ourselves and dishes, just a few cups each time. Drinking water was separate--we brought six 5L bottles and didn't really have to ration. We filled the rig's water tanks with the hose at the gate. The water was surprisingly saline, and we were always a bit salty and sandy walking around camp. I also gave up washing my hair for a few days to save water, which was not something I was entirely ready for. I'm very thankful for ponytails these days! |
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Separate facilities for the important matters
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The weather is rolling in
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Molose #3
We had planned to spend the next five nights at the Molose #1 campsite, which is maybe four or five hundred meters from the Molose watering hole with the chance of seeing a lot of animals, but the staff at the gate asked us to choose a different camp because the elephants had taken over the watering hole and become destructive, and they were in and around campsite #1 frequently (we saw the elephants at the watering hole several times on our drives and some of them were enormous--a few bigger than any we saw in Kruger). We choose Molose 3, three kilometers further away from the watering hole and spent two nights there.
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The elephants apparently liked Molose 3, too. Not only the bent shower frame, but notice the stomped on pail in the foreground and then there's the back of the shower...
 | | I'm glad we missed the action |
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The elephants dig for water and create holes everywhere, including in our campsite at Molose
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The trail into Molose #3, turning off the main sand track. You always have to wonder if it's really a track that goes somewhere, or whether it just parks you in the bush.
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Cooking our stew
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The beautiful Kalahari sunset
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| Heading to our next campsite at Moreswe -- a family of ostriches |
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| An interesting display -- I'm guessing she was trying to distract us from her chicks |
Moreswe #2
What can I say? This was our favorite site, hands down. We had a spectacular view of the pan with its oryx and giraffes; and we heard lions grunting and huffing and puffing next to our camp every night and then at dawn again. After the first night, we realized how much at ease we had mistakenly become when we were outside the rig. I started carefully and regularly scanning the bush again each day when we were outside, but the lions no doubt slept all day, as the days were hot and the nights mostly cool, or at least comfortable. When we drove down to the pan on our initial visit to Moreswe, we saw a juvenile elephant carcass that had been devoured, leaving only skin and a skeletal frame (and a horrible smell, if you caught it in the wind). The elephant was probably only 500 meters from where we were camping at Moreswe 2, and a good reminder about how easily you can be dinner. We never stayed outside the rig past dark.
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| The lions were somewhere in this bush, just on the edge of our camp |
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Sunset at the Moreswe campsite
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Khutse #9 again
Our last night we returned to Khutse #9. It was two hours closer to the gate and we'd had a couple of days of intense sun and no rain, so the sand tracks were getting harder and slower to drive. To our surprise, that night we were heard lions again. It was a memorable way to wrap up our trip to the Kalahari.
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Another lion was somewhere near Khutse #9 -- just out here
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More pictures from the Khutse Game Reserve --
