Mokolodi Game Reserve is a government-run reserve that is located just 20 minutes south of Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. That’s one reason why I like Botswana – within 10 minutes from Gaborone you can be in the bush, and another 10 minutes takes you inside a game reserve featuring some big game. Although no elephants or lions are here (the story goes that an elephant that turned on a visitor many years ago), there are a number of rhino, a few hippo and almost all of the herbivores that are endemic to the region. Plus a couple of cheetah in one corner of the park.
Mokolodi, like almost all national parks and game reserves in Botswana, allows you to self-drive which is ideal for a picnic lunch and/or sundowners for the late afternoon. It also offers both rhino and giraffe tracking by foot, which in theory shouldn’t be too difficult given the relatively small size of the park (a glorified zoo to some). Mokolodi is full of off-road bike tracks that provide a very technical (read: difficult) contrast to cycling up-and-down sealed roads. Although as noted in one pre-race briefing: ‘Be careful of wildlife as we had three rhinos on the single track two days ago when we trialled it. You don't want to play chicken with those guys’. Sound advice.
Remember that beautiful Botswana sun that I keep harping on about? Yep, well that’s also what makes Mokolodi special. Although home to very few birds, the ‘Magic Hour’ glow on a rhino or kudu hide creates a photographer’s delight! You can sit on the aptly named World’s View lookout and gaze across the valleys to the dam that separates Botswana from South Africa. Depending on the season, it can be a desolate dry red and brown, or a rich green as only the minimum rain appears to bring the earth to life.
