Our Olive Leaves Guesthouse provided us with a sumptuous breakfast and we were picked up by our African Geographic driver promptly at 1000. We left Gaborone and headed for the South African border some 85 km away.
The usual procedure followed at the border where you have documents checked by the country you’re leaving (Botswana) and then you walk across neutral territory to another check point that being for the country you are about to enter (South Africa).
Our driver, another Tendayi was an authority on southern African history and for the two hour’s journey he practically non-stop gave us a highly informative lesson on the post colonial history of Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.
The resort we are staying at within the Madikwe Nature Park is called The Leopard Rock Lodge and it is a magnificent establishment. The rooms are modern and spacious with a décor reflecting a safari concept with open air showers and jungle surroundings.
The shower in our unit, Leopard Lodge
Our hosts Nadia and Francois were so friendly and welcoming in their introductory chat about how the resort functions. We settled in to our accommodation and then enjoyed a light luncheon prepared for us on the terrace next to the garden area.
At 1500 we joined Francois for our first safari drive through part of the Madikwe Park. Animals seen included giraffe, elephant, buffalo and wildebeest.
Lilac roller
One large male elephant was in the ‘musth’ phase where his testosterone levels are up to three times normal and the elephant is unpredictably dangerous. This one apparently charged after one of the other vehicles in the park. Fortunately they left quickly without incident. The danger is that an elephant can upturn even a large 4WD vehicle with consummate ease.
Giraffe with blue tongue
Ox-peckers on giraffe
Buffalo
SUndowners
After a refreshments stop just before sunset we then drove to an area where two lions had been sighted earlier. In semi-darkness we watched and waited for these sedentary ‘kings of the jungle’ to move but they refused to budge even with us being only 10m away. They seemed oblivious to our presence but they did occasionally lift their weary heads just to give a wide open moth yawn which gave us a view of their impressive teeth.
Lion yawning
Lion
Eventually in near darkness they moved slowly to a new location and once again sat down and rested. We managed lots of photos but the low light meant that high ISO levels were the only option for us.
On our way home we encountered three white rhinoceroses and even in the darkness with Francois’ spotlight we managed to get some reasonable photos.
White rhinoceros
Back at Leopard Rock Lodge we had pre-dinner drinks and then a scrumptious meal in this idyllic setting.