So, it was day 2 of the tour. In my opinion, the first real day of the trip, since before that we had only had the presentation.
I woke up at 4am, had a fast shower, packed everything in a rush and head downstairs. The truck, that later would be known as the white elephant, was already there waiting for us. We all sat with the people we had shared the room with, in my case, Sh.
At 4.30 we were all on board except for one couple of Americans, J and T, which unfortunately were a bit late. Most likely due to jet lag. Because of this, they had to take the first row of seats. These seats did not have views and the space was quite limited, which led to some friction down the road. Pun intended.
The first long haul
A quarter before five, we left Johannesburg far before the sun started to shine. While E drove and Ir was next to him in the cabin, G gave us our breakfast and lunch. In this case, two paper bags containing a couple of juices, some fruit, a box with pastries, a sandwich with cheese and tomato, and two cereal bars.
Interesting thing: I cannot have any dairy. Not even yogurts. The previous day, when the guides introduce themselves, they asked us whether there were some people with dietary problems on the group. And I did tell them this. I also think that these bags were prepared by the hotel, so maybe it was their mistake. In any case, all I could eat from that bag was a croissant, the sandwich after removing the cheese and the fruit. Thankfully, I still had a massive number of snacks that I bought for the trip. Among them, some McVitties that ended up… interesting. But I will go back to that.
After giving us the bags G informed us that we would be doing all our meals for the day in the bus. Then, he doze off along with the rest of the bus. I mean, it was 5am.
First animal sightings
While everyone else was sleeping and the sun started to rise, I saw the first animals along the road. Yes, they were not elephants. Not even zebras. But I liked them anyways. The first animal that I saw, and the one that I saw more often during the trip was the same: goats. There were goats (and donkeys) everywhere!
I do think at some point here and there I did see a couple of antelopes, but the truck was too fast for me to properly distinguish them. Anyways, I was happy to have seen something while everybody else was just sleeping.
Arriving to the border
Even though when we got into the white elephant in the morning it was quite chilly, the sun did not take long to warm up the truck. A bit after 10, we had been in the truck for more than 5 hours. And the temperature was, outside, on the high 30ºC (close to the 100ºF). Considering that 25 people were confined in a closed space with no AC… Yes, as you can imagine, it was quite warm.
At around that time, we saw for the first time some bigger animals: 2 giraffes! I don’t know why, but I had never imagined that wild animals would be roaming around roads and motorways. I guess that because I have always lived in Europe, where there are barely any big animals living outside natural reserves, I was very shocked by just seeing a family of giraffes casually eating by the road. It was a lovely sight though.
Crossing the border to Botswana
Right after leaving the giraffes behind, we finally made it to the border with Botswana. A bit before that, G passed by the truck asking to either eat our fruit or put it on a bag to discard. The traffic of fruit and some food across the border is forbidden.
Once we reached the border, they made us leave the truck and sterilize the bottom of our shoes. The reason behind this is to avoid the spread of the foot and mouth disease. In order to do this, you need to leave the truck and step on a small carpet covered with disinfectant. Then the truck also had to pass through a small pond of the same liquid. While this was happening, we all saw a quite funny board. And then some of the people in the group took some pics. Followed by G telling us that we could be detained and fined for that. That we were not in Europe. Oops.
After that, we went back to the truck and made it to the actual the border. The whole procedure went smoothly since none of us needed a visa for the crossing. Then, we went back to the white elephant and continued to the never-ending road trip.
I will admit at that point it was just too warm. It felt as all we had done that day was sweating. My butt hurt and it was just too hot. And we had woken up very early. In summary, we all just felt quite tired and cranky.
At around 3.30pm (finally!) we reached our destination of the day: Khama Rhino Sanctuary.
Visiting Khama Rhino Sanctuary
Right after we arrived to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, we stopped by the entrance so that our guides could register us. We were all pretty happy to finally get to walk a little and stretch our legs. My butt was beyond sore, just so you all know. And being out of that greenhouse with wheels was also beyond fantastic.
We were all just chatting by the reception when some of us decided to check for the promised internet. And there was none, but hey, the guides had promised us internet, so why worry? About five minutes later, we went back to the truck and straight to the camping side.
We drove through the sand for ten minutes to find a small clearing under some leafless trees. In the middle, there was a small concrete structure for a fire. After getting out of the white elephant, we had a small demonstration on how to mount our tents. It did feel as a challenge, but to be honest, it was really really easy. By the third day we were all pros.
Right after that, we went on a trip to discover where were the bathrooms. Note to self: I should have paid more attention to this.
First game drive of the trip!
At around 5pm, we all headed to the first game drive of the trip. To be honest, since we were in an animal reserve, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of me thought that we would be seeing a very small “park” with a few animals here and there. Let’s just say I was quite wrong.
Our guide for this trip came to pick us up to our camp. We were then split into two open vans and told to get a jacket. The legend says that it gets colder after the sunset. That day, it was not the case though.
As soon as we left the camp, we started rolling through the sand dunes and realized it was going to be a fun drive. The truck, that surprisingly did not lose any wheel during the game, was rocking like a bat on a disco. We were jumping out of our seats and grabbing the safety bar with all we had inside.
Yes, I am being a tad dramatic here, but it was our first game drive, you know?
The discovery of the ugly five
Only a few meters from our campsite, we saw the first animal: a wildebeest. And just now I learnt how to spell that, since I thought it was wilder beast. For me, this will always be the animal that killed Mufasa, also known as Gnu.
Our guide stopped and told us about it, asked us a few questions and told us some curiosities about wildebeests. Turns out, that these guys are not part of the famous Big Five, but they are some of the Ugly Five! Up until that moment no one in our group had any idea about who these animals were. FYI, by the end of the trip we had seem them all.
Not far from the gnu, we saw some giraffes and two oryx. All of these were different types of antelopes and could happily share the space because they did not compete for food.
After that, we went into a huge open space where sometime during the year there is a pond. Our guide explained to us that this dry season had been one of the hardest of the previous decade. What would usually be a big “lake”, it was nothing more than a small pond.
How to bath when there’s no water
There, we saw more wildebeest, some antelopes, a few vultures (also in the ugly five group), and more zebras. Interestingly, they were all doing very strange things. They would roll around the floor and then start shaking in a sort of a funny dance. Zebras were doing this. Ostriches were doing this too…
After asking our guide about this strange behavior, he told us that it is the way they keep themselves clean. By doing a sandbathe, they scrub all insects from their pelt. Basically, they were doing a scrub.
Since the sun was behind them and they were creating a massive cloud of dust, the image was beautiful. In summary, I was happy with the explanation and the chance to capture it.
Suddenly, he listened to something on the radio and rapidly drove away. When we asked, he told us that some other guide had spotted white rhinos and he knew about their location. All excited about seeing these animals, we were all trying to spot them while our guide doubled the speed to get us there as fast as possible.
And suddenly K, one of the Irish gals, spotted something far away and shouted to us that it was one of the rhinos!
Ostriches in disguise
After listening to our excited sounds, the driver asked us what it was that we had seen. When we told him, he looked away and said… I do not think that those are the rhinos.
He didn’t really say much more until we made it to the “rhinos”… just to discover that indeed it was an ostrich. Laughing, we were all joking about the ostrich in disguise when our guide finally made it to the actual rhinos.
White rhinos in Khama Rhino Sanctuary
We were all in awe. That is true description of that moment. We spotted a family of rhinos (one old female, two young males and a baby), just enjoying some water. It was beautiful seeing them interact and move around in freedom. And, according to our guide, we were extremely lucky. No one had seen them before that week (and it was Saturday!).
Our guide then told us about white and black rhinos. About their differences, especially in behavior: white rhinos are more familiar than the aggressive and loners black rhinos. In the Khama Rhino Sanctuary they only have white ones. They help in their conservation by keeping an environment as free of poachers as possible. At the same time, with the same aim, they also move some animals from different parks in Botswana to help spread the genetic pool.
As the sun started to fall behind the trees, we headed back to camp. The whole drive was meant to last about 2.5h and were almost around that time. On our way back, I started to see how beautiful the sky was. And soon we were all taking pictures of the sunset. Our fantastic guide then stopped and let us take as many pictures as we wanted. N (one of the kiwis), half joked about us staying there until the sunset was over. And then the guide said, sure, why not. He was fantastic.
African turkeys on the go!
After taking 2000 pictures of the sunset, we headed back to the campsite. It was finally starting to get colder and it felt great. For the whole day I had been sweating like a pig, and I was enjoying the wind.
While the sun was down but there was still light, I started to see weird things moving away from the truck. They were extremely fast and moving in groups. For me, they were, and are up until this day are, African turkeys. Yes, some people may call them guineafowls, but for me will always be very fast African turkeys. Also, our guide made the comment about them being the McDonalds of the sabana. Because you know… fast food! (terrible pun but at least wasn’t mine!)
These guys are beautiful. They wear a fancy polka dot suit from the neck down and have a beautiful bright blue head. And they move hilariously fast with a head that goes back and forth at the same speed.
Cash issues
After we arrived to the camp, we were all very happy about our first game drive. And then we realized that we had not discussed the tipping. We were told the day before that we had to tip our day guides from $5 and up unless the service had been real bad. The problem was that I was not carrying a single dollar on me. Stupid, I know, but did not think about it before leaving Amsterdam and I could not do anything about it once I was already in Africa.
While other people in the van had American dollars, none of us had local currency: Pulas. Because of that, we were unsure on how to tip. After a very stressed moment, Irish K offered to give the guide $5 extra on my behalf so that I could pay her back in the local currency later. Thank you K.
First feast: our cook is a magician
After the tipping was sorted out, we made it to the campsite to discover a magnificent bonfire and beyond amazing food. While we were gone, Ir had prepared roasted chicken, spiced pumpkin, rice, tomato salsa and green beans. And a fresh fruit and cream pie for dessert. Yes, all of this on a bonfire. We had a genius as a cook!
Before we got even close to the food, Ir told us about the mechanics to wash our hands before any meal. There was a small “thing” (bucket?) with water by the food. It would be later known as Jerry. In order to wash your hands with Jerry, you had to get some soap and then use one hand to scoop water out. Then, wash your hands outside of the bucket. And repeat to rinse.
After that, the feast started. And we discovered that the food not only looked and smelled good. It tasted even better.
A surprise…
The dinner would have been fantastic… if you did not consider the beetles. These little suckers were attracted by the light in our torches and headlamps to the point that you had to make sure you didn’t have any in your fork before getting it into your mouth. Since I did not have a headlamp, only a torch, holding the plate on my legs, while I was using one hand for the torch and another one for the fork… it was a challenge. Hard enough without even considering the beetles. My solution was to ended up holding the torch with my chin and then using the fork and the knife with my free hands. I realized how bad the idea of pointing my light straight into my food was after finding out that the crunchy part of the rice had wings and moved. In my mouth.
Gs first evening talk
While we were all enjoying (more or less) our dinner, G, our guide, asked us who planned to partake on the scenic flight in the Okavango Delta. He had to call and book enough planes so that we could all make it. The majority of us were interested on doing this, so we agreed to think about it for a day and give him the exact numbers the following night.
After that, G told us about the following day. And our next waking time. We were to have the whole campsite down and packed by 6am. Ouch again. Then, we were informed of following day’s plan. And then, the questions started. I seem to recall that this was the first time that N asked about whether she could have coffee before leaving.
The trip to the showers
Once we finished dinner, we all cleaned and dried our dishes. Then I went back to the tent that I was sharing with Sh and picked my PJ and some clean underwear. When I was about to leave the campsite, a little bit stressed about how clean would the showers be and how many beetles would be there, I saw a couple of more people from the group heading to the same place.
Aware that my compass is completely useless outside cities, I was happy to have someone else lead the way. Funny thing: their compass was as good as mine. The four of us ended up walking in circles for a whiled. Everything looked the same, with the difference of truck A or truck B parked in different spots.
After a little bit, we made it back to the camp and realized our mistake. We had taken the central road, instead of the left one. Which considering that it was pitch black, could happen very easily.
The showers, oh the showers
Once we made it there, there was already a small queue. Some people were trying to charge their phone. Other people were just waiting to shower.
When it was finally my turn, I looked at the shower, inspired, and went in. You see, I had never gone camping before and the germaphobe in me was skeptical about the showers (little did I knew what it was to come).
At the end, I will admit that it was not as bad as I thought. There was hot water and even though the shower was partly open, there were not big insects inside. Three minutes after entering I was out, getting into my PJ, and ready to put my night face cream.
Aware of how tricky it had been to make it to the showers, I decided to join C and D, the cutest and nicest couple of Brits I have ever met. We chat a little bit on our way back and then I headed into our tent.
Right then, I realized my mistake: I should have sorted out all my clothes and items when there was still sunlight! I had a torch that was having a tantrum and, believe me, it is very hard to do anything when one of your hands is busy holding a light.
And the first day came to an end…
After returning from the shower, I tried to socialize around the fire. And only tried, because I was exhausted. Everyone else had slept most of the day in the truck, but I woke up at 4 and never closed again my eyes during the day.
I went back to the tent to avoid the mosquitoes and read a bit. Five minutes later, it was 8.30 pm and I was sleeping like a rock.
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Amazing photos! I’ve never heard of a Rhino Sanctuary, that is so interesting! I’ve heard about elephant sanctuary and know there’s a whole fuss about it so it’s good to know there are also sanctuaries for rhino and not just fads with the elephants to attract turists.
I have been to one of these “elephant sanctuaries” in Thailand and tbh they are not really sanctuaries but mostly tourist attractions. The nice part about the Khama Rhino Sanctuary is that it is actually a national park where they make an active job on helping Rhinos reproduce. It is nice to see that some times there are real conservation efforts outside the tourism insdustry!
WOW! The animal photos you captured and just incredible. Those babies are SO CUTE 😍 giraffes are my favorite safari animal.
Come back in a few weeks when I post about Chobe or Hwange and you will see hundreds of animals in the pics. Thank you for passing by!
What an adventure! It must have been so exciting to see all those wild animals in the safari. I am going on a safari in Tanzania in a month and I can’t wait! 🙂
Oh! I am sure it will be fantastic! contact me if you want or need any tips before leaving!
I’ve heard of Beetle Juice but not beetle rice?! 😂 Note to self for next outdoor eating! Your trip looks amazing though, so many animal sightings. For me giraffes have to be number one, followed closely by rhinos. Not sure about blaming the poor wildebeest for Mufasa though, haha. As long as you don’t bump into Scar!
We did run into Scar later on in Krugger haha. But yes, all of these were simply amazing to see. And later on we saw so many more elephants, giraffes and much more…!
I see you’ve had a good taste of Africa! Enjoy your adventurous safari. Khama Rhino Sanctuary is lovely.
I dont know if when you say “taste of africa” you are talking with a second meaning haha. But yes, it was a beautiful trip!
What an incredible experience you had! I imagine that you didn’t mind forgoing your cheese sandwich in exchange for such a wonderful day 😊 I’d love to see Rhinos in the wild, wow!
Nahh the cheese was the minor problem. And the food we had later throughout the rest of the trip was beyond fantastic so no complains from my end here!
Africa is a dream trip of mine – thanks for sharing your photos!
I think that Africa is far too big to do it all in one go but thanks for passing by!
This looks like an amazing trip! I’d love to do something like this one day. It’s so sad that these beautiful rhinos are being poached. The wildlife in Africa is incredible.
The situation in Zimbabwe is terrible, in a few weeks, when I post about Matobos I will include some of the history behind the whole situation. It was a real eye opener…!
Ooh wow! I am dreaming about doing this one day. Thank you so much for sharing this, it really made my day.
Your reading my posts and my diaries makes my day too! Thank you for stopping by!
This looks like an amazing trip! I’d love to visit Botswana – I really have no excuse for not visiting before since it’s a hop, skip and a jump from Cape Town.
Yes Elzette! You have no excuse haha! Living down there I think I would have tried to visit most of the continent by now. It is very different from South Africa but it is equally lovely.
I really enjoyed reading this. You took some great photos and it felt as if I was on the trip with you.
Oh, thank you very much! I try to write about my experiences from my own personal perspective, so thank you for your comment!
South Africa – one of the most beautiful places on earth! This post and pictures are fabulous.
Well, this was actually in Botswana already, but it was just beautiful anyways…!
Oh Wow, what an amazing adventure! And you got to see those beautiful creatures up so close :O I’m getting some major travel envy after reading this post <3
Oh thanks! You should really then try and go there yourself. It is a beautiful trip and worth it every second!
What an amazing experience this trip must have been. Your pictures are beautiful. I’m not sure I would have survived dinner with the beetles though.
To be honest, it was dinner with the beetles or you dont eat up until the following day so… The hunger was bad!
I loved reading your stories with all its honesty. I would have had a very difficult time eating with the beetles. and for your cash problem, the same thing happened to us in the Amazon. Our bank card didn’t work at the machine, so we didn’t have any local currency to tip with and we were so upset. Glad you had someone to loan you some.
It was really disgusting as we could not really see them, we would just be slapping the air around our faces to get rid of whatever was bitiing us. Fortunately, we only had this issue this first night!
And about having some money for tipping… this happened to all of us. No one had local currency and even though some people had dollars, they wanted to save them for Zimbabwe so… I was lucky to have nice group partners!
I was hanging on to your every word. I grew up in Jamajca and we had goats x so it was hilarious to me that they were the first thing you saw. Also one of my students just completed in dept research on different animals and a Wildebeest/Gnu was one. I’ll be waiting to hear more about your trip.
hahaha! yes! I had no idea there would be so many goats in Africa! It was honestly shocking, but they are very useful animals so I guess they are a good investment. And how curious that someone just finished a study on the gnus, they are not the most common animal to focus on. What was it about?
Wow what an amazing journey , I like it
Oh my! This trip sounds wonderful and I’ve got some wander envy! Safari is on my list for the near future so I love looking at other’s photos for inspiration. Thanks for sharing!