Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Botsalano - the secret is out

About 15 km east of the Ramatlabama border post is a small game reserve of the North West province, called Botsalano. We have camped here more than once before. It is one of my all time favourite camping sites, one of those that you don't really want too many people to know about.

It is well stocked with a variety of game such as giraffe, kudu, black wildebeest, springbok, water buck, impala, white rhino and more.There are no predators such as lion and hyena, and there are no elephants. This makes it a relative safe game park when you camp in unfenced camping sites.

There are a number of bush camps inside Botsalano with basic facilities such as flush toilet, cold water shower, water tap, braai lapa. What makes it different from most camp sites is a low wall built with rocks all around the camp site (kraalmuur) and a shed for shelter: 3 walls with corrugated roof. To top it all is that each bush camp is supplied with a mass of firewood, included in the very reasonable camp fees !

At the time of our visit (13 Oct), the reserve was very dry and the animals are taking strain. Sadly, the poachers also discovered Botsalano and 8 white rhinos were poached during the past 3 months. We came across 2 carcasses not far from Lerako Bush camp.

Lerako Bush Camp in Botsalano

Sad reality of rhino poaching in Botsalano