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Rhino Sanctuary – The Full Story

While Amanda and I are quite used to quick weekend getaways, we are not used to quick weekend getaways in Botswana. We were feeling somewhat settled here in Gaborone, but planning a weekend away presents a whole new series of questions and considerations.

We eventually decided on the Khama Rhino Sanctuary just outside of Serowe, Botswana. They have a total of 13 campsites and some rustic chalets within the confines of the game reserve. We brought most of our camping gear with us, so the only thing we needed to borrow from friends was a tent.

The rhino sanctuary itself is 4-5 hours outside of Gaborone depending on how you choose to get there. We decided to jump right in and venture out early on Saturday morning on public transportation. That in itself felt like half the adventure. There are no published bus schedules here that anyone was aware of, but most people seemed to think the first bus in the morning to Serowe leaves sometime around 6 am. We were advised to get there a bit early to ensure we got a seat, so we phoned for a cab to pick us up at 5:30 am and we were off for the weekend.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of the journey to or from Serowe. Many people here in Gaborone suggested that we would be drawing too much attention to ourselves if we pulled out cameras and put ourselves at risk of having it stolen. (I would argue we stand out enough anyways!) So, you are left with descriptions of the journey.

Upon arriving at the bus terminal, we noticed that there is a wide variety of transportation methods ranging from taxis, to mini-buses (also known as combis), to larger buses that looked much like a chartered bus back home. Our taxi driver was nice enough to help us find the correct bus heading to where we wanted to go and we boarded the bus. This is when we realized that the insides of the buses are not the same as back home. The seats were arranged 2 on the left and 3 on the right making for some pretty narrow seats. I used to think airplanes had the least amount of legroom out of any seat, then I went to Fenway Park with Matt back in May. The legroom on the bus definitely rivalled that of Fenway. When we first left, I thought “no problem, I’ll just sit slightly sideways, at least I have an aisle!” That lasted for what seemed like 10 minutes after we left Gaborone before the the bus became so crowded that people were standing in the aisle all the way to the back of the bus. Needless to say, when we finally arrived at the rhino reserve 4 and a half hours later, my legs were happy for a good stretch. But you can’t been the price tag: 64 pula (or about $10 Canadian)!

After checking in at the rhino sanctuary, we met our driver “Wax” who drove us out to our campsite. It was only a kilometre or two, but guests were advised not to walk around the grounds given the danger of animals. Makes sense, except if we can’t walk to the campsite because of risks of running into rhinos, what makes them not come to our campsite? Wax assured us we had nothing to worry about but we were still a bit skeptical especially knowing that the moon was going to be full and we were assigned campsite 13; good thing we aren’t superstitious!

We setup camp and then ate lunch at the restaurant before heading out on our first game drive in Africa. Wax was our driver for this as well. He was very informative and made sure we enjoyed ourselves. We saw too many birds and animals to name (or at least for me to remember their names), but included were rhinos, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, kudu, springbok, ostrich and vultures.

After a large steak dinner, we headed back to our campsite and settled in for the night. We have been camping a lot of different places, but for some reason, this night was particularly cold. We knew that it would cool down quite a bit at night, but we didn’t expect it to feel as cold as it did while we were sleeping. We had enough gear to keep warm but we are still unsure why it felt so cold. I think it must have been that our tent was setup on sand which loses it’s heat very quickly at night.

The next morning, we were up and ready by 6 am to go out rhino tracking with two of the park rangers. We drove out deep into the park and were allowed to leave the vehicle with the rangers. The ranger at the back of our group had a gun which we were assured was to scare off the rhinos should they charge by firing it into the air, not to shoot them. On one hand, it made me feel safer that there was a gun in our group, on the other hand, I thought how safe could this be if we need to bring a gun! We eventually did get a fairly decent view of two rhinos “in the wild” and then headed in for a warm omelette breakfast.

After packing up our campsite, we got a drive back to the park gates, and crossed the road to catch a bus back to Gaborone. It was not an official bus stop so we weren’t too sure how it was going to work out, but about 10 minutes later, a smaller bus pulled over to pick us up. Initially it seemed like a “luxury combi” with clean seats and a bit more room than the other bus, but just as on the way to Serowe, within a few minutes of moving, it was quickly filled up and all extra room was lost. Another 4 and a half hours later, we were back in Gaborone and survived our first weekend getaway. We hope they only get easier from here on!

As a side note, we were very pleased with our new camera (thanks Chris!) and took over 200 pictures of the weekend. Lucky for all of you, we narrowed it down to our favourite 40 here. Let us know if you have any questions!

UPDATE: For Amanda’s take on the weekend, click here.