I had about a five hour drive from Mashatu northwest to my next stop, the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. I checked into my little chalet and rested up for the next days activities. The Khama Rhino Sanctuary was started in the 1990’s in an attempt to save the near extinct rhino population. It’s been a pretty good success too. They currently have around 35 white rhinos (I’ve heard different numbers from different sources) and 4 black rhinos, all guarded by round the clock, heavily armed Botswanan anti-poaching military.

My first day started out at 6am with my guide, Sydney, for some good old fashioned rhino tracking. We drove clear to the far end of the park while Sydney scoured the ground for tracks. Finally he stopped, got out of the truck looked around for a minute and said, “Ok, we’ll follow these.” Now on foot, we wandered into the forest, me with my spotting scope and camera and Sydney with a very, very big rifle. After a long walk through the sandy terrain, Sydney suddenly started violently waving his hand motioning me to come closer and to keep quiet and pointed out two giant white rhinos in the not so distance. There was so much vegetation and it all happened so fast I couldn’t get any pictures, but holy crap it was exhilarating! The rhinos moved a little, so did we and at one point I could see a perfect view of one of their heads with the horns sticking straight up in the misty air. Wow, I will never forget that sight! Sydney was a bit nervous, though. He said we were upwind and they could smell us and they knew we were there. We moved a bit and got another quick view and then Sydney nervously says, “we’re too close.” Houston, we have a problem! So we backed away slowly and quietly, and then made our way back to the truck. Whew! Standing in the middle of a forest next to two rhinos with nothing but this dude I just met with a rifle for protection was definitely one of the quickest and most exciting things I’ve ever experienced. My heart was pounding!

Sydney took me back to my chalet where I rested a bit more and tried to come down from the high before heading out solo around 11am to hang out at one of the watering holes, Malemas Pan. Sydney told me the rhinos tend to come out mid day to drink, so I decided to go out there and just wait. At first it was alot of impalas, springboks, elands, and zebras. At one point, four separate herds of zebras showed up at the same time. Mostly, I sat in the car and read my book, patiently waiting for some shy rhinos to get thirsty.

After three hours of waiting, my patience finally paid off. All of a sudden a mom and baby rhino came out of the trees and slowly made their way to the water.

It doesn’t matter what species they are, the young ones are always playing around, leopards, lions, cheetahs, impalas, zebras, and yes, even baby rhinos.

Right behind them was this absolute behemoth of a male rhino that I dubbed, Big Papa. He… was… BIG!!! He drank pretty quick and then went directly back to the trees while mom and baby lingered for a while. They even dropped to roll around in the dirt together for a minute.

I saw one rhino years ago when I was in Tanzania, but he was miles away and all I got was a pic of a small blurry something in the distance. So, the rhinos were my second priority for this trip after the cheetahs, and I got to see five rhinos in one day! But I wasn’t done yet. I stayed at Malemas Pan, while a few others came and left, and after patiently waiting another couple of hours BOOM! A freaking rhino walked casually just a few feet from my car! In my excited panic I hurriedly grabbed a couple of pics out the windows with my camera when I suddenly realized the opportunity I had. Unfortunately, I was a bit late with the selfie, ugh, I wish I had thought of it one minute sooner, but I did get it, sort of. What a rush of excitement that was!

He wasn’t as big as Big Papa, but he was a very big boy. The size and power of these rhinos is just astonishing! Big Boy had his drink and then quickly went back to the trees like the others. That brings my tally up to SIX rhinos in one day. Yowza!

There’s another watering hole further out from Malemas Pan, but I decided to play it smart since I wasn’t totally sure my rented Toyota Urban Cruiser would make it in the sand, and so I only ventured to the closer of the two. When I told the staff where I was headed, they all looked at me kind of sideways, but they didn’t stop me and I made it out to Malemas with no problems and had an amazing day with the rhinos. Coming back, however, I got stuck in that damn sand not once, not twice, but three times!

The pic above is courtesy of Tam and Drew, the nice, patient American couple who had the bad luck of being behind me when I got stuck. They were kind enough to send me the few pics they took of the ordeal. The South African couple behind them (seen in the pic) were not so patient and copped a lot of attitude. Whatever! Here’s a shout out to Tam and Drews own travel blog, oopswrongturn.com. And a shout out to that dude on the tractor that had to come pull my embarrassed arse out, he was a lifesaver. Ha!

I didn’t have very far to go after leaving the Khama Rhino Sanctuary the next morning so I spent the day visiting some local sites. First up was the King Khama III Museum in nearby Serowe. That’s him in the pic above. Khama III was the Bangwato King who travelled to England in 1895 to pave the way for Botswanan independence along with two other local tribal kings, Sebele I and Bathoen I. He’s kind of a big deal around here. His capital was originally in Palapye to the east, but he moved his people here to Serowe in 1902. After the move, he sent men to torch the old village. The only part that’s still somewhat standing is the old Palapye Church, which is about fifteen miles east of modern day Palapye, where I’m staying for the next two nights.

Official Botswanan independence didn’t come until 1966, but interestingly, the grandson of Khama III, Seretse Khama, was elected as Botswanas first president that year.

There’s really nothing to see in Palapye, but there are some pretty decent hotels and a few restaurants making it a convenient place to rest your head. About 25 miles or so east of Palapye is the Goo Moremi Gorge, which is the main reason I stopped here. I was expecting a full day of hiking. It turned out to be a very short and very easy hike, but it was pretty. And there’s some history. Locals say when a big boulder falls from the cliffs it signifies that someone important has died. The boulder in the pic above fell here on the night that president Seretse Khama died in 1980.

There’s also three really pretty waterfalls in the canyon called simply, one, two, and three. The water is supplied from a spring and is miraculously here all year round, even in years of severe draught, like this year.

Hikes in the gorge are guided only. After it was over I felt like I needed another ten miles and a couple thousand feet of elevation, but the six local Botswanas that were part of my group, on the other hand, looked like they had just climbed Kilimanjaro. Ha!

That’s gonna wrap it up for Central Botswana. Next, I get to drive back to Gaborone for one night, turn in my very dirty rental car, and then board a plane to see another side of this southern African country. Stay tuned…