Makgadikgadi & Deception Valley - Botswana

The people who own Island Safari Lodge had recently opened a new lodge on the edge of the Makgadikgadi called LeRoo-La-Tau (Setswana for The Lion's Paw). Shaun, Shane & Joe had been telling us about it so we thought we would swing by and give it a visit. You can camp with your tent, stay in one of their Rondavels near to the campsite or stay at the lodge itself, camping being by far the cheapest option.

The Lodge lies just outside of the Makgadikgadi National Park and has quite a bit of game passing through, even Elephant, but unfortunately you are not allowed to drive around the concession in your own vehicle, although it does have the advantage that you can be taken on night drives by the lodge something which is not allowed in the national park plus you can reach the park itself in less than 30 minutes.

Even so as we like to do our own thing and camp where the action is so to speak we decided to stay just the one night then head into the park to camp at the public campsite at Khumaga. The campsite at LeRoo is nice, six sites in the bush and you can pick your site when you arrive, we picked site 3 as sites 1 & 2 are quite close to one another and there were people already camped on 1. Site 4 is nice but close to one of the Rondavels and 5 & 6 are also close to each other and the swimming pool.

We were told Lions had been around site 5 the night before so not to stray after dark or try to visit the pool! As it was we had a quiet night except for hearing some Lions in the distance over in the park. Next morning we packed up to go onto Khumaga, stopping at the lodge to say hello to Joe who was working there for a few days.

As we pulled into the car park we were met by a couple of young Zebra's who Joe said had been rescued as babies and raised by them, soon they would be kicked out to fend for themselves but for now they were earning their keep as car park attendants! Before we left we went to look at the waterhole which the lodge pumps water to for the game, at that time of day there was not much about but we were treated to the sight of thousands of Quelea flying in and out for a drink - a fantastic sight.

The park gate at Khumaga is only 6km or so away from LeRoo so you are there in no time. When we lived in Botswana the Makgadikgadi was not a national park and Khumaga was a non descript stop along the dry Boteti river, now it is fairly substantial village and the main entrance gate into the park.

The public campsite at Khumaga is nice although a little too close to the rangers camp as we could hear their generator of a night. There was no one there when we arrived so we chose the nicest spot, lit the Rhodesian boiler so we could have hot showers and generally settled in before our afternoon game drive.

One of the good things that seems to have come out of all the rains Botswana has been having is that Elephant have now come back to the Makgadikgadi. In the 80's we never saw one that far South and we didn't know of anyone else who had, now on our first game drive in the park for 20 years we saw a nice big bull followed by another on the dried up river Boteti, a good sign.

We drove out aimlessly on the afternoon game drive, the rangers have no maps of the park and there are no official ones that we know of. The only one we've seen is a small insert on Veronica Roodts Shell map of Botswana but this doesn't show all the tracks. We drove along the Boteti river bed and eventually reached a lovely Hippo pool where seven Hippo were in or around the pool. This was enough as there was not that much water so God only knows what they will do when the dry season reaches it height and there is very little water for miles.

It had been a lovely sunny day with no wind so the pool was like a mirror reflecting the Hippo's perfectly. We had our sundowner at a lookout point over the Boteti, in the 80's we had had to be hand pulled across the river on a pontoon but sadly that too has now gone. As we watched the Sun go down a herd of about 30 Zebra came trotting down the dry river bed heading for the water hole at LeRoo followed shortly after by a small group of Ele's while all the time thousands upon thousands of Quelea were flying backwards and forwards looking for roosting places - a lovely end to the day.

Next morning we were up later than planned for our game drive, no one else had arrived on the camp site so we had had a very nice night and stayed up till well gone midnight. Even so by 7.30am we had made tea and were on the road. The Makgadikgadi is big stretching from the Boteti across huge grasslands amongst which you get clusters of Mokolone Palm Trees and then eventually onto the salt pans themselves. In the 80's it was our favourite place in Botswana as the vast open expanses of yellow grass just blew you away with their solitude and beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets.

Since then Botswana has enjoyed so many good years of rain that more shrubs have grown up so the grasslands seem not so open and vibrant and there seemed less Palms than we remembered. Even so it remains a stunning place to visit, it has never been a place for huge amounts of game but you are almost guaranteed that whatever you spot you will have to yourself which to us is far better than seeing loads of game in the over hyped parks of say Kenya where you are surrounded by a multitude of game viewing vehicles.

To re-enforce the point an hour into our drive along a deserted track and having seen no one and not much game since we started out we came across two young male Lions stalking through the long grass.

I'm not sure if these guys had seen many humans before as they were very curious and showed no fear whatsoever of us or the vehicle. In the long grass they looked very menacing as anyone who has seen the film the Ghost & The Darkness about the man eaters of Tsavo will know what I mean.

Those two Lions who reeked such havoc over many months at Tsavo where young males who were perfectly healthy but for some reason preferred to hunt humans, killing and eating countless people.

Like the Tsavo man eaters these young males had virtually no manes (as yet) but otherwise were pretty full grown. They were probably nomads kicked out of their pride and wandering in the bush until they are ready to challenge an old male/s for his females and territory. These youngsters can be a menace as like juvenile humans they seem to want to prove they are tough, able to take anyone on, certainly I always feel a bit more apprehensive around these guys than the older bigger males who have established their place and have nothing to prove.

We sat and watched them and they us for over an hour, then like phantoms they melted away in the grass.  We were 15 miles from our campsite so if they had been calling last night it was unlikely we would have heard them, but they were moving our way and 15 miles to a fit Lion is nothing, they could easily be at our camp by nightfall, we would need to be alert tonight.

We drove on another 15 miles to the only other official campsite in the park at Njuca Hills. We wanted to see what it was like just in case we came this way again. We saw no one on the way and when we arrived the place was deserted, here you are further into the plains so the camp has some lovely views spoilt only by the fact the parks people have placed a radio tower on the highest point which kind of spoils the scenery.

On the return journey we came across nine Ele's sauntering down the track. They showed no inclination to move aside so we were stuck behind them for a while and arrived late back to camp.

That afternoon a man and woman turned up and parked on site number 1, this could be interesting as we should have been on that site but had liked site 6 so much better that we had switched the numbers around!

I think the guy must have camped here before and knew the layout as he came over with the lame excuse of warning us to be careful about the monkeys but I could see he really came to check what the number of our site was. If he said anything then we were just going to claim we found the site numbers the way they were and we couldn't move now. He couldn't prove owt and it's dog eat dog in the bush when it comes to grabbing the prime sites!

Gin Riokeys and a chicken casserole for dinner, we expected to hear the boys that night so were rather disappointed that except for some Jackals howling it was all quiet.

However, at 5am we were awoken by Lion and then Zebra calling way off in the distance, so we decided to stay another day to see what transpired. We went out at 7am but failed to find the Lion or their prey so drove on to where the park boundary meets the main tar road to Maun. There is no gate here so it is easy to enter and exit the park via this route without paying, the only problem would be trying to camp without being observed by the rangers.

We had seen very little game so on the way back we detoured off to take a quick look at the Hippo pool but all was quiet there as well, not even the Hippo around. Retracing our steps we suddenly came across fresh Leopard paw prints right across our tyre tracks, bugger we must have missed it crossing our track by a matter of minutes.

Back at camp that afternoon a few Ele's went by in the bush on their way to the water hole and later that night we heard them close by pulling the branches off the trees, otherwise it was all pretty quiet again so we had to content ourselves with looking for shooting stars as again it was a lovely starry night.

Next day we packed up and headed South to the village of Rakops, the Northern gateway to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The last time we did this journey was in 2000 when it was night, pouring with rain and we had been driving all day trying to escape the Kalahari and the torrential rain which had unbeknownst to us claimed so many lives in Mozambique.

The road then was still under construction which made the journey a nightmare as you were frequently and suddenly without warning diverted off into the bush, nowadays it is good tar all the way so it's a doddle. We stopped to fill up with fuel and water at Rakops as our next camp would be Deception Valley deep in the Kalahari Desert made famous by the book "The Cry of the Kalahari".

At Rakops we also took the opportunity to buy the only bottle of Gordon's Gin in the local store, at 55 pula (~£5) for 750 ml, it sure was going to be hard going back to UK prices. From Rakops we were back on dirt all the way to the CKGR entrance gate at Matswere about 30 miles away.

Except for the odd Ostrich and a family of Meerkats the track was deserted so we were surprised when just over half way we suddenly came across a guy walking down the road. It turned out he was a ranger based at Matswere who had been home on leave and was now walking all the way back to report for duty. He still had a hell of a way to go so even though it was a bit of a job to fit him in the back he was happy especially when we also gave him something to eat and drink.

At the gate we all hopped out and he chatted to the guy on duty whilst we filled in our details in the entry book. Usually you pay  your park fees at this point but unusually they told us to pay on the way out, could we be on for a mates rate we wondered? From the gate it is only another 20 or so miles to Deception Valley so we arrived there in good time and more importantly in fine weather.

There are two sets of camp sites in and around Deception Valley, one set of four sites is called the Kori camps and the other are the Deception sites, of which there are six. The Kori sites are down in the valley whereas the Deception sites are higher up in the wooded hills that surround it.

When we were here in 2000 we were booked to camp at one of the Deception sites but on arrival we found they were so overgrown that we went on one of the Kori ones instead, it didn't matter as for nearly 4 days we saw not a living soul.

This time we were booked again on one of the Deception sites but decided to check out the Kori's first to see how they looked. This time with it being the dry season the situation was reversed as we felt the Kori sites were too open and close to the tracks so we carried on to what we thought was our Deception site although it was difficult to say as half of them were missing their sign with their number on. 

One of the great attractions about a safari in Botswana is the fact that, especially in the Southern parks, the campsites are nearly always placed some distance away from each other so you don't see or hear your fellow campers unless you bump into each other on a game drive.

Having gone around all of the Kori sites and found them empty we checked out most of the Deception ones which were also empty so we knew we were they only people for miles. That night there was a full moon and as we sat around the fire eating sweet & sour chicken and drinking cold Gin & Tonic's, listening to the sounds of the bush and looking out for shooting star's, we thought it don't come much better than this.

Unlike the campsites in the Northern circuit of Botswana (Moremi, Chobe etc) the sites in the Southern circuit (CKGR, Kutse, Mabuashube etc) now have their own long drop loo and a separate shower behind wooden palisades. There is still no water so you need to bring al you need with you but providing you have enough then there is no reason why you cannot enjoy nice hot showers in privacy every night.

Next morning we went on a game drive to Sunday Pan and Leopard Pan. We still had not seen a soul since entering the park so it really was like having Africa to yourself. About five miles from camp we came across a pride of Lions under a tree island, they were hard to see in the long grass but it looked like one large male and four Lionesses. Whilst the male and two of the Lionesses snoozed the two other Lionesses were very alert, intently watching a herd of Gemsbok and Tsessbe for any opportunity that might present itself, but the antelope must have sensed they were there as they kept a safe distance away.

Sunday and Leopard Pans lie to the North of Deception, Leopard being the closer. There are campsites at both although the Leopard pan site is called Lengau, it has a nice position overlooking the pan but we found it full of rubbish from previous campers including broken bottles, some people should not be allowed into these places, there is even a bit that says maybe the whole CKGR should remain closed to everyone and given back to the bushmen as Seretse Khama decreed.  

At Sunday Pan we came on three more Bat Eared Fox's resting on the track, like buses once you see one they come along in droves. Returning to camp at about midday it was lovely hot so we didn't feel like going too far in the afternoon, so chilled out and just went for a late drive to check out the Lions who were still lying under their tree.

We stayed with them through a lovely sunset then headed back to camp in the gloom, we had been in the reserve for more than 24 hours and had still not encountered a soul, this is why we love about Africa, the only problem is this level of solitude is becoming harder to find every year.

That night was the eve of our wedding anniversary so we celebrated with a few noggins. Around 10pm a Lion started roaring and continued to call throughout the night getting very close to our camp in the early hours so we didn't get much sleep. Eventually Sue was desperate for a pee so at around 3.30am when all seemed quiet I got up to keep Dixie while Sue went to the loo but no sooner had we got back in the tent than the Lion started roaring again, an unusual start to our anniversary to say the least.

Some wives get taken shopping or for a nice lunch at an expensive restaurant on their anniversary, I took Sue to Piper  Pan!

Piper Pan is as far South in the CKGR as your allowed to go these days, beyond Piper the track leads eventually to Kutse. In 2000 we had driven all the way through but they have now stopped you doing this route due to problems with the bushman. Its a shame cos there are some lovely spots out that way, even so it would take us all day to go to Piper and back so despite the lack of sleep we left camp just after 8am.

On the way we saw the usual assortment of desert game such Gemsbok, Springbok, Ostrich, Secretary Birds and Kori Bustards with the odd Jackal thrown in for good measure but nothing too exciting, so two hours into the journey we very surprised to suddenly come across a family of Cheetah sitting in the shade of a tree.

It looked like a Mother and four pretty full grown cubs which again was quite unusual, she had obviously done a marvellous job in successfully rearing so many. It was a bit frustrating as we would have normally stayed with them for a while but we still had such a long way to go that after half an hour we marked their spot and continued on our way to Piper Pan - with a bit of luck they would sit out the hottest part of the day and we would catch them on the way back.

Shortly afterwards we came across a Leopard Tortoise on the track, we hadn't seen one of these since we left RSA so it was nice to come across one again, even though we were probably the only vehicle for mile we picked it up and moved it to the safety of the bush and watched as he slowly wandered off, hopefully we had faced him towards the general direction he wanted to go!

We still hadn't seen a soul since leaving the rangers at the gate two days before so it was hardly a surprise when we found Piper also deserted, we had camped here in 2000 before the rains had hit us so it was nice to look around even though there wasn't much game about. 

By mid afternoon we had returned to the spot where we had last seen the Cheetah but sods law they were now nowhere to be seen, they must have moved further into the bush. We slowly drove on and suddenly came upon them sitting on the track itself, the complete lack of traffic had clearly made them very relaxed. They looked interested in a small herd of Springbok up ahead so we stopped and waited to see what might happen.

Slowly they started to walk down the track towards the Springbok who gave no indication that they had seen them. It was tricky trying to follow whilst keeping a decent distance so as not to disturb the hunt plus take some photo's. Suddenly Mum went off the track into the bush as if to circle around the antelope with the cubs following close behind. The bush was thick here so we lost sight of them in the thick scrub and even though we knew roughly where they were it was almost impossible to see them apart from the odd flick of a head or tail every now and again.

By now they were all intently watching the Springbok who were slowly moving towards them, in this terrain where they could not get up to full speed they would need to shorten the gap if they were to have any chance of catching one. The Springbok must have sensed something was wrong as they slowly moved off in another direction so the Mother Cheetah deciding it was now or never suddenly broke cover racing towards them as fast as she could go. Unfortunately the scrub was not conducive to speed so even though it looked at one point she still had the element of surprise one Springbok saw her sounded the alarm and they were off scattering over the hill with the Cheetah in hot pursuit.

It was interesting that even though big enough none of the cubs joined in, maybe Mum didn't think they were up to the task? Eventually she slowly came back empty handed, Ce La Vie, still it was exciting while it lasted and we couldn't have wished for a better anniversary present than to see five Cheetah on the prowl.

We arrived back at camp in the dark so quickly lit a big fire, again it was a lovely starry night, sadly no Lion calls but we could hear Pearl Spotted Owls as we had dinner washed down with Bucks Fizz and Gin Riokeys, certainly an anniversary to remember.

At dawn we suddenly heard a Leopard calling close to camp so we jumped up but sadly couldn't see him, this was our last day in the reserve and we still hadn't seen anyone else. We decided to spend it by driving over  to take a look at Passarge Valley as we had not been there before. Passarge lies North West of Sunday Pan and although not as far as Piper would still entail a round trip of 50 miles or so.

Apart from the game drive and the chance to see the unknown we wanted to check out as many of the other camping sites in the reserve as possible in case we come back and wanted to try somewhere different, also we provide updates to Chris a friend who writes the Bradt travel guides for Botswana, Namibia and Zambia so we are always on the lookout for new information which he may be able to use in his books.

The drive to Passarge and back has to be said was pretty uneventful but it was a beautiful sunny day so we didn't mind. Returning to camp by mid afternoon we decided to chill for the rest of the day and start to get ready to leave in the morning as that promised to be another long drive.

As we were relaxing we heard another vehicle approaching, it seemed strange to hear other human activity after having the place to ourselves for so long. It was probably new campers but they would be on one of the other sites and hopefully far enough away not to bother us. However, the drone of their engines got closer and closer and then we were surprised to suddenly see two Landcruisers coming up the track to our camp!

They were driven by local guys but had loads of tourists in each vehicle. At first I thought they were trying to find their site but then they said our site was the one they had booked (No 2) and they were now claiming it so to speak! We thought our site was No 3 as the only one which had a number was 1 and there was another site between us and 1 which we assumed was 2, but it turns out they number the sites anti-clockwise so to speak.

They were definitely looking for us to move but we said it was too late and we had too much stuff plus we were leaving in the morning anyway so after a debate amongst the local guides  they reluctantly accepted the situation and got back in their vehicles, all this while not one of the tourists acknowledged our presence - they must have been Germans. Anyway they went back down the hill to site 1 it was just ironic that our first sight of humans for 4 days should result in a dispute over territory!

We had had a fantastic few days in Deception which we were very pleased about as our only other visit here in 2000 had been ruined by bad weather so we wanted to give it a second chance.

Next stop was a place we had always wanted to see but had never had the chance to visit - Kubo Island.