Wild campsites have the ability to make you feel a million miles away from the tedium of your daily routine, but they’re not for the faint-hearted.
Lesholoago Pan Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana
GPS: S24.94049°, E22.03115°
Mabuasehube is a little block on the eastern tip of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and consists of a series of pans, along the edge of which most of the game-viewing in this region takes place. Each pan is surrounded by a number of unfenced campsites. Currently water is being pumped for animals at only two pans, Mpayathutlwa and Lesholoago. There are two campsites at Lesholoago, on opposite sides of the pan. No. 2 is most popular, because it’s located just a few hundred metres from a waterhole, which attracts large numbers of game throughout the day. It also has a working tap in the campsite itself; as a result you’ll have to put up with other visitors stopping by to fill up with water. Each campsite has a wooden A-frame that provides welcome shade during the heat of the day (and sometimes serves as a jungle gym for rambunctious lion cubs) and a neat long-drop toilet and shower cubicle where you can hang your own bucket shower. The resident lion pride makes a habit of keeping Lesholoago’s campers awake, so look twice before answering nature’s call at night – the king of the Kalahari might just be waiting in the doorway of your tent.
Mahurushele Khutse Game Reserve, Botswana
GPS: S23.28445°, E24.38987°
Of Khutse’s five camping areas (each with three to 10 private stands), Mahurushele No. 3 is the most comfortable and secluded. It has a neat and clean long-drop toilet, bucket shower and braai area, as well as a huge camelthorn tree under which to pitch your tent.
It’s impossible not to keep an extra close eye on the golden Kalahari grasses that line the campsite, especially if you hear lions roaring close by during the night (three roads lead in different directions from Mahurushele No. 3, so you have a good chance of picking up the pride on an early-morning game drive if you know where they were calling from). Quiet and very isolated, it’s quintessential Kalahari camping – the kind of place where you can switch off easily.
Masuma Dam Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
GPS: S18.73057°, E26.28093°
In the heart of Hwange National Park, Masuma is a picnic site by day and a very popular exclusive campsite by night. Complete with flush toilets and donkey boiler shower, the comfortable thatched hide overlooks a shallow dam and manmade trough, which attract large numbers of game between June and October when the surrounding mopane veld is a dusty wasteland. Sitting inside the hide, it feels as if you’re in an arena, watching a late-afternoon procession of elephants come down to quench their thirst, often walking within touching distance of you, before they lull you to sleep at night with their deep rumbles.
Namuskluft Rosh Pinah, Namibia
GPS: S27.86714°, E16.86666°
Tucked away in a narrow valley and surrounded by mountains, you’ll find this tidy little campsite. The four spacious stands, each with green grass and a shady tree, are maintained with the kind of personal touch you often see on the privately owned farms on Namibia’s quiet back roads.
The attention to detail is obvious in well-designed, sheltered braai areas; immaculate communal ablutions (with flush toilets and hot showers) and the meticulously packed rocks that line the pathways and mark out the campsites. A generator provides power in the early mornings and evenings. It’s the perfect little kuier camp, where groups of friends can enjoy one another’s company around a roaring campfire.
UmThombe Kei River Lodge Wild Coast, South Africa
GPS: S32.63304°, E28.35115°
With its large lawns and plenty of shade, this jungle-like campsite on the banks of the Kei River has a Garden of Eden feel to it, making it easy for you to forget about tar roads and shopping malls. Since there are no demarcated stands, campers simply choose their favourite spot under a tree. The communal bathrooms have two flush toilets and hot showers (one of each for men and women) and the campsite has no power. umThombe is set in a lush valley only a ferry ride away from the southern tip of the Wild Coast, making it the perfect place from which to explore the rolling hills of one of South Africa’s most underdeveloped stretches of coastline. A 4×4 is essential if you want to tackle the eight-kilometre dirt road to the lodge during the rainy season from September to March.
For more Information please contact
Namibia Reservations at:
info@namibiareservations.com or visit www.namibiareservations.com
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