Madikwe
We spent this past weekend at Tau Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve. It was a great opportunity for us to spend some more time with our new friends Dave and Lidija. It was also very nice since it meant that we would be able to get a ride there with them and not have to brave the bus or other forms of transportation.
Madikwe is just over the border from Gaborone in South Africa. It is a relatively short drive that is made longer by the rather inefficient border crossings. When leaving Botswana, one has to go through customs and immigration in Botswana, then drive another 100 metres or so, then go through customs and immigration in South Africa. Despite this being a rather simple process and virtually no lines this weekend, it still was quite remarkable how long it can take for someone to stamp your passport. We made it through both ways without any major hiccups though, which I guess is really all we can ask for.
Tau Lodge is definitely the nicest place we have stayed at so far in Africa. As such, we decided to try something different with the pictures this time and post one set with details about the lodge followed by another set with details of the game reserve. We will see how it works out.
For those not familiar with the Big 5, these are the animals that everyone wants to see in Africa and all of them can be see at Madikwe if you are lucky. We were fortunate enough to see four out of the 5 in one weekend so we are quite happy with that. We saw elephants, buffalo, rhinoceros (but too far away for good pictures) and lions during our game drives. Only the leopard remains on “our list” now, but in general, leopards are the hardest of the Big 5 to see. In addition, we also saw giraffe, warthogs, springbok, kudo, zebra, wildebeests, and many different species of birds. (Hopefully I didn’t forget any.)
I think I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking this time!
UPDATE: Amanda’s take on the weekend is here.
Leslie & Vic 9:58 pm on 9/12/2011 Permalink
Andy, The lodge looks amazing – this is my idea of camping
and the Game drive pictures are awesome – the sunset pic is absolutely outstanding and the variety of animals incredible. Keep it coming !
Safariing in Style! | amandaskinn.com 11:17 am on 9/14/2011 Permalink
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