The Makgadikgadi Pan, a salt pan situated in north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland, but dried up tens of thousands of years ago.
Botswana: Khama Rhino Sanctuary
🦏 Botswana: Khama Rhino Sanctuary
We didn’t reach the Khama Rhino Sanctuary until around 4 pm, which was when we checked in at the gate. It had been a long drive and we were ready for a sit-down, but there was still daylight left and we weren’t going to waste it. We’d been booked into one of their cabins, and to be honest, looking around the site when we arrived, we could quite easily have camped here — the grounds were perfectly pleasant. The cabins themselves were on the basic side of things, let’s be clear about that: a bedroom, an ensuite bathroom, and not a great deal else to write home about. Very rustic, as they say. But it did have electricity and a fridge, which, when you’ve been on the road in Botswana for any length of time, feels like the height of luxury. We weren’t complaining.
🌅 The First Evening Game Drive
It was already getting towards sunset by the time we’d sorted ourselves out, so we decided to turn around sharply and head out on a self-drive game drive around the sanctuary. There were a couple of pans not too far away from the entrance, so we pointed the car in that general direction and set off to see what we could see. The trails were very rutted and absolutely full of soft Kalahari sand, which made the going a little rough and required a degree of concentration if you didn’t want to get thoroughly bogged in — but it was great fun to drive in, the kind of track that makes you feel like a proper explorer rather than someone doing a car park manoeuvre. When we reached the first pan — a shallow, flat depression in the landscape that in the wet season would fill with water and attract vast numbers of animals but was now dry and dusty — there were two huge white rhinos just standing there, quietly munching on the sparse dry grass as though they hadn’t a care in the world. They didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence, even though we were only a few feet away. White rhinos, it turns out, are considerably more relaxed about vehicles than their much rarer black cousins, which are notoriously more temperamental. The southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) is actually the largest of the five surviving rhino species, with adult males capable of weighing up to 2,300 kilograms — which is a lot of animal to have standing three feet from your car window, however unbothered they might look.
🚗 Another Rhino Around Every Corner
As more cars began turning up at the first pan, we decided it was time to move on and find a bit more peace and quiet. As it turned out, we didn’t have to go far at all before we came across another huge white rhino, this one lying down contentedly right next to the road, looking for all the world like it was having a Sunday afternoon nap and couldn’t care less about the tourists rubbernecking from their vehicles. It really was amazing. There is something deeply affecting about being that close to an animal that, not so very long ago, was teetering on the edge of total extinction in this part of Africa. By the early 1990s, the white rhino had been virtually eliminated from Botswana entirely, and the fact that they were now lounging about next to dirt tracks in the Kalahari was entirely down to the conservation work that the Khama Rhino Sanctuary and its community partners had been doing since 1992.
📸 The Horn That Defied Belief
The sun was starting to set in earnest now, turning the sky all manner of extraordinary oranges and pinks, and we could see up ahead that there was a larger group of rhinos gathered close to one of the other tracks running across the pan, along with a small herd of zebras who seemed entirely untroubled by the proximity of several tonnes of armoured prehistoric megafauna. We raced over — and by “raced” we mean trundled carefully through the sand at about 15 miles an hour — and got right up to one particular group. Among them was a rhino with the longest horn either of us had ever seen in our lives. It must have been a good metre and a half long, possibly more, curving forward from the animal’s nose like something out of a natural history museum exhibit. It was genuinely extraordinary to look at. I would absolutely not like to get poked by this particular beast — and given that white rhinos can reach speeds of up to 40 kilometres per hour when they feel like it, running away from one is not necessarily the foolproof plan it might appear. Rhino horn, incidentally, is made entirely of keratin — the same protein that makes up human fingernails and hair — which makes the fact that people are prepared to kill these magnificent animals for it all the more tragic and frankly baffling.
🍸 Sundowners in the Kalahari
The sun by now was setting fast — as it does in southern Africa, dropping below the horizon with almost indecent speed compared to the long, lingering sunsets we’re used to back home in England. We took up a prime position to watch it go down, gin and tonic in hand, sitting on the bonnet of the car like a pair of proper old Africa hands. It’s difficult to think of many better ways to end an evening, frankly.
🌄 Dawn and Armed Escorts
The next morning we were up at dawn — proper crack-of-dawn stuff, the sort of early that doesn’t feel entirely civilised — so that we could get out on an early morning game drive before the day warmed up and the animals retreated into the shade. It was a genuinely beautiful morning. As the sun came up it cast a deep red glow across the whole sanctuary, lighting up the thornbushes and turning the sandy tracks a warm amber colour. Because we’d hauled ourselves out of bed at such an ungodly hour, we ended up having the sanctuary more or less entirely to ourselves, which was an absolute treat. The only other vehicle we came across was a fairly intimidating 4×4 absolutely stuffed with heavily armed men, sporting automatic rifles and full body armour. Rather alarming at first glance, we can tell you. It turned out that, in the community’s considerable wisdom, they had established the rhino sanctuary directly adjacent to a Botswana Defence Force army base, which now provided a dedicated armed security detail for the rhinos on a permanent basis. The soldiers conduct regular anti-poaching patrols throughout the sanctuary and act as a serious deterrent to would-be poachers. Botswana has, in fact, taken one of the toughest stances on poaching of any African nation; its shoot-to-kill policy for poachers — officially described as allowing rangers to shoot in self-defence — has been both widely praised by conservationists and heavily criticised by human rights organisations. It is, as you can imagine, a thoroughly complicated ethical debate. Sadly, however scary these particular soldiers might look when they roll up next to your vehicle at half past six in the morning, the extraordinarily high value of rhino horn in Asian markets — it has reportedly traded at prices exceeding $60,000 per kilogram in some markets, making it weight-for-weight more valuable than gold — means there are still poachers who are very much prepared to take the risk for the very substantial financial rewards on offer. Of course, the ones actually doing the risky business of entering armed sanctuaries in the middle of the night are right at the bottom of the food chain. It is those at the very top of the criminal networks who make the most money and take the least risk, sitting comfortably in offices far away from anything dangerous. Same as it ever was.
🦒 A Morning of Plenty
We initially followed the same tracks we’d driven the previous evening, but there were no rhinos to be seen anywhere. During the night, it turns out, they disappear off into the denser bush for safety — an instinct for concealment that has presumably kept them alive for 50 million years of evolution, even if it provides precious little protection against a poacher with a high-powered rifle and a helicopter. Instead of rhinos we found ourselves watching plenty of other wildlife, which was absolutely no hardship: zebras in small family groups, elegant giraffes picking their way along the treeline, springboks bouncing about with that extraordinary vertical leap they do — known as “pronking,” which is a word that sounds like it was invented by a children’s author — and red hartebeest standing on the higher ground looking puzzled, which seems to be their default expression. To my personal delight, there were also a great many birds about, all of which I attempted to photograph with varying degrees of success. Botswana, with its extraordinary range of habitats, is a superb destination for birding: the sanctuary’s 230-plus species include everything from the massive kori bustard — the world’s heaviest flying bird — to lilac-breasted rollers and southern yellow-billed hornbills. We had a good deal more time to explore than we’d had the previous evening, so we headed deeper into the sanctuary towards the more densely wooded areas. After about half an hour of steady driving, we struck lucky: the small group of rhinos we’d spotted the previous evening emerged from the treeline and came out into the open in front of us. We were the only vehicle there, and we had them entirely to ourselves, which felt like a genuine privilege. As luck would have it, they decided to hang about right on the track itself, which meant we weren’t going anywhere in a hurry. We weren’t exactly devastated about that.
💭 A Prehistoric Splendour
The rhinos have an almost prehistoric look about them — which is not surprising, given that the rhinoceros family, Rhinocerotidae, has been around in various forms for approximately 50 million years, making them one of the oldest surviving large mammal lineages on earth. They are, in our opinion, quite beautiful animals, in a rough-hewn, armoured, somewhat ungainly sort of way, with their small, piggy eyes that somehow manage to look both ancient and soulful at the same time. It would be entirely understandable to assume that an animal this large and armoured-looking would be aggressive, but white rhinos are generally fairly placid creatures, spending most of their time grazing quietly and minding their own business. All the rhinos at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, bar one black rhino which the sanctuary has been working to introduce as part of broader genetic diversity efforts, were southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum), which are classed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, largely as a direct result of poaching. It is one of conservation’s great bittersweet success stories: southern white rhino numbers were reduced to fewer than 50 animals by the early twentieth century, before an intensive protection programme in South Africa’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park brought them back from the very edge of extinction, and numbers now stand at around 20,000 worldwide. Left to their own devices, white rhinos breed reasonably well in protected environments — females typically give birth to a single calf every two and a half to three years — and given adequate protection from poaching, herds can rebuild themselves relatively quickly. The problem, as ever, is that protecting large tracts of land in Africa from the determined and well-funded activities of organised poaching networks is extremely expensive, logistically demanding, and often politically fraught.
🌇 Back to the Pans: Evening Round Two
Our perfect, private spell with the rhinos didn’t last forever, of course. Before long, other game-drive vehicles began to arrive — the early-morning advantage doesn’t last past about eight o’clock — and with our wonderfully peaceful interlude well and truly broken, we headed off back towards our chalet for breakfast. In the late afternoon, once the heat had started to ease off, we set out again on our early evening game drive.
We found the rhinos back out on the pans, which is where they tend to spend the cooler parts of the day, grazing on whatever dry vegetation the Kalahari sandveld has to offer. This time, there were two mothers with young calves in tow — boisterous, rumbunctious little creatures who seemed absolutely set on pestering their considerably larger and more patient elders. Young rhinos, it has to be said, are wonderfully entertaining to watch: they have absolutely none of the dignity of the adults and spend a great deal of their time charging around, spinning in circles and generally making nuisances of themselves. One of the youngsters, clearly not getting any meaningful response from the other rhinos in the group — who were pointedly ignoring it with the weary air of adults everywhere — decided that what the situation really called for was confronting a nearby wildebeest. The wildebeest, to its considerable credit, was not having any of it and showed a bit of aggression back, which sent the young rhino trotting back to refuge behind its mother looking thoroughly put out. For the next thirty minutes or so we stayed put and watched the herd go about their evening business — grazing, occasionally shoving each other, and generally existing in that wonderfully unhurried way that large African mammals seem to have mastered — before they eventually drifted off into the bush for the evening. This gave us time to watch some of the other wildlife making the most of the cooler hour, including a giraffe doing that extraordinary leggy gymnastic manoeuvre they have to perform just to get their heads down to water level — all splayed front legs and wobbling neck — before we settled in once more to watch another quite glorious African sunset, gin and tonic back in hand, right where it belonged.
About Kharma Rhino Sanctuary
The Khama Rhino Sanctuary (KRS) is a community-based wildlife project, established in 1992 to assist in saving the vanishing rhinoceros, to restore an area formerly teeming with wildlife to its previous natural state, and to provide genuine economic benefits to the local Botswana community through tourism and the sustainable use of natural resources. The name honours Sir Seretse Khama, Botswana’s first democratically elected president, who served from independence in 1966 until his death in 1980. Born in Serowe in 1921, Seretse Khama was educated at Oxford and the Inner Temple in London, and his marriage to a white English woman, Ruth Williams, in 1948 caused a substantial diplomatic incident during the apartheid era — both the South African government and the newly installed apartheid regime put pressure on the British to prevent the marriage, and Seretse was actually exiled from Bechuanaland (as Botswana was then known) by the British government for several years as a direct result. He eventually renounced his chieftainship, returned to Botswana, entered politics, and led his country to independence with considerable distinction. Naming a sanctuary dedicated to restoring what colonialism and its aftermath had damaged seems entirely fitting.
Covering approximately 8,585 hectares of Kalahari Sandveld, the sanctuary provides prime habitat for both white and black rhino, as well as over 30 other animal species and more than 230 species of birds. The sanctuary is managed by the Khama Rhino Sanctuary Trust, a community trust with representatives from the surrounding villages, and it operates on a model that ensures local people benefit directly and tangibly from the conservation work being done on their doorstep.
Planning Your Visit to Kharma Sanctuary
| 📍 Location | Serowe, Central District, Botswana | 🕖 Opening Times | Daily, 6:30 AM – 6:30 PM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🌐 Website | www.khamarhinosanctuary.org | ||
| 📞 Phone | +267 463 0713 | info@khamarhinosanctuary.org | |
| ℹ️ Notes | Guided game drives available. Self-drive permitted on designated tracks. Book accommodation in advance during peak season. |
🎟️ Entry Fees
| Adults | Children (under 12) | Vehicle Fee | Camera Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| P50 | P25 | P20 | P10 |
🚗 Getting There
Khama Rhino Sanctuary is located on the outskirts of Serowe, approximately 100 km north of Palapye and around 250 km north of Gaborone. The most straightforward route from Gaborone is to take the A1 highway north towards Mahalapye and then Palapye, before turning onto the A14 towards Serowe. The sanctuary entrance is clearly signposted on the western edge of town.
Serowe is accessible by bus and combi from Gaborone and Francistown, with services running regularly via Palapye. From Serowe town centre the sanctuary is a short taxi or tuk-tuk ride away. There is no scheduled public transport directly to the gate, so visitors arriving by public transport should arrange a local taxi for the final stretch. A 4×4 is not required for the main access road, though one is advisable if you plan to explore the full trail network within the sanctuary.
Best Time to Visit Botswana
Botswana is a year-round destination, but the timing of your visit dramatically shapes your experience. From the lush, flood-filled Okavango Delta in the wet season to the parched, wildlife-rich landscapes of the dry season, each period offers something distinct. Understanding the seasons — and what they deliver — helps you match your trip to your priorities.
🌞 Dry Season: May to October
The dry season is widely regarded as the classic safari season in Botswana, and with good reason. As waterholes shrink and vegetation thins, wildlife concentrates around permanent water sources, making sightings dramatic and reliable. The Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve all deliver exceptional game viewing during these months.
May and June are transitional months — still pleasantly warm during the day but noticeably cool at night, particularly in the Kalahari. By July and August, temperatures settle into a comfortable mid-20s Celsius range during the day, though nights can dip close to freezing in some areas. September and October mark the late dry season: the landscape becomes increasingly arid, game viewing reaches its peak intensity, but daytime heat begins to build, often exceeding 35°C in October.
Birdlife is less prolific than in the wet season, but raptors and resident species are plentiful. Predator activity is high, with lions, leopards, and wild dogs often spotted hunting in open terrain. This is also the best time for mokoro (dugout canoe) trips on the Okavango and for walking safaris, as the bush is open and the risk of insects and thick vegetation is minimal.
What to pack: Lightweight, neutral-coloured clothing for daytime (khaki, olive, beige), a warm fleece or insulated jacket for early morning and evening game drives (essential May–August), sturdy walking boots, a wide-brimmed hat, high-factor sunscreen (SPF 50+), polarised sunglasses, insect repellent (DEET-based), a headtorch, binoculars, and a dust bag for camera equipment. Layers are critical — mornings and evenings can be bitterly cold even when afternoons are warm.
🌧️ Green Season / Wet Season: November to April
The wet season transforms Botswana. Rains typically begin in November and intensify through December and January, tapering off by March or April. The landscape turns vivid green, wildflowers bloom across the Kalahari, and the Makgadikgadi Pans — usually a vast salt desert — become a shallow lake teeming with flamingos and migratory waterbirds.
This is Botswana’s most dramatic birding period. Well over 500 species have been recorded in the country, and during the rains, migratory birds from Europe and central Africa arrive in force. Raptors, storks, kingfishers, and bee-eaters are among the highlights.
Wildlife can be harder to spot — animals disperse across the now-lush landscape with water available everywhere — but this is precisely when the Kalahari lions and other desert-adapted species are at their most active and visible. It is also calving season for many antelope species, which in turn attracts predators. The Okavango receives its summer rainfall locally, but the famous flood, fed by rains far to the north in Angola, typically peaks between June and August.
Accommodation rates drop significantly during the green season, and many camps offer substantial discounts. The downside is that some roads become impassable, certain areas are accessible only by light aircraft, and the heat and humidity can be intense, particularly in December and January.
What to pack: Lightweight, breathable clothing in neutral colours, a lightweight waterproof jacket or packable poncho, quick-dry trousers and shirts, sandals for camp use, open-toed shoes are not advisable in the bush, a wide-brimmed sun hat, high-factor sunscreen, heavy-duty insect repellent (malaria risk is higher during the wet season — consult your GP about prophylaxis), long-sleeved shirts and trousers for evenings, a small dry bag for electronics, and binoculars for exceptional birding.
🌊 Okavango Flood Season: June to August
While the Okavango Delta receives some local rainfall in summer, its defining annual event is the arrival of floodwaters that have travelled hundreds of kilometres from the Angolan highlands. These waters, flowing down the Cubango and Cuito rivers and into the Okavango system, reach the delta between June and August — right in the heart of the dry season.
The result is extraordinary: a vast inland sea of papyrus channels, lily-covered lagoons, and palm-studded islands appears in an otherwise arid landscape. This is the time for mokoro excursions, motor-boat trips through the waterways, and wildlife watching from both land and water. Elephants, hippos, crocodiles, red lechwe, and sitatunga are all reliably seen. Fish eagles call overhead, and the air carries the scent of wild sage and water.
Camps and lodges within the Delta — particularly those on private concessions — offer some of the finest wildlife experiences in Africa during this period. Water levels vary by year, and some areas flood more extensively than others, but the combination of a peak dry season and a peak flood makes June to August the most iconic time to visit Botswana’s most celebrated ecosystem.
What to pack: All the dry-season essentials apply (warm layers, neutral clothing, sun protection, insect repellent), with the addition of a lightweight waterproof jacket for mokoro trips and boat excursions, water shoes or sandals with straps (for boarding and disembarking from mokoros), and a dry bag or waterproof case for your camera. Quick-dry fabrics are particularly useful here.
☀️ Shoulder Seasons: April–May and October–November
The shoulder periods bookending the main dry season offer a compelling balance of conditions, and experienced travellers often rate them among the best times to visit.
April and May see the tail end of the rains. The Delta and surrounding areas remain lush and green, wildlife is active, and migrant birds are still present before their departure. Temperatures are moderate, the humidity has dropped, and — crucially — the tourist crowds of peak season have yet to arrive. Accommodation is often available at lower rates than the July–September peak.
October is arguably the most dramatic single month for game viewing. As the dry season approaches its end, waterholes are at their lowest, and wildlife density around remaining water sources is extraordinary. Heat can be extreme — regularly above 35°C in Chobe and the Kalahari — but the reward is some of the most intense predator-prey interactions of the year. The first rains, when they come in late October or November, trigger an explosion of life: the air fills with insects, swallows return, impala begin giving birth, and the landscape shifts almost overnight from dusty brown to green.
What to pack (April–May): Neutral, lightweight clothing, a light fleece for evenings, waterproof layer, sun protection, and insect repellent. What to pack (October–November): Focus on heat management — breathable, loose-fitting clothing, a hat with full brim, high-factor sunscreen, electrolyte tablets, a reusable water bottle, and cooling neck scarves. Insect repellent becomes increasingly important as the rains approach.
🦁 Best Time for Wildlife Viewing
For the most reliable and concentrated game viewing, visit between July and October. The dry season strips the landscape bare, forcing animals to gather at predictable locations — rivers, pans, and permanent waterholes — making dramatic sightings almost inevitable.
🐦 Best Time for Birdwatching
The wet season (November to April) is Botswana’s birding peak. Migratory species swell the resident population, and the greening landscape supports a staggering diversity of species. The Okavango Delta, the Chobe riverfront, and the Makgadikgadi Pans are all exceptional birding destinations at this time.
🌺 Best Time for the Okavango Delta
The flood season (June to August) combines peak water levels with peak dry-season conditions, making it uniquely spectacular. Wildlife retreats to islands within the Delta, concentrating sightings, while the waterways allow exploration by mokoro and motorboat.
💸 Best Time for Value
The green season (November to April) offers the lowest accommodation rates, sometimes 30–40% below peak prices, with some camps offering additional incentives to fill beds. For travellers with flexibility on timing, this period delivers genuine value — particularly if birding, Kalahari lions, or the Makgadikgadi flamingos are priorities.
🧳 General Packing Essentials for Botswana
Regardless of season, certain items belong in every bag: a valid passport and visa documentation, yellow fever certificate if travelling from an endemic country, malaria prophylaxis (consult your GP well in advance), comprehensive travel insurance including emergency medical evacuation cover, a photocopy of all key documents stored separately, US dollars or South African rand for smaller lodges and tips, a plug adaptor (Botswana uses the large three-pin South African plug, Type M), and a torch or headtorch for camp use. Safari vehicles in Botswana are generally open-sided, so even in warm months, the wind chill on an early morning drive is significant — never underestimate the value of a warm layer.
🗓️ Overall Best Time to Visit
If you can visit Botswana only once and want to see as much as possible, June to September is the optimal window. The dry season is in full effect, game viewing reaches its annual peak, the Okavango flood is at or near its height, temperatures are manageable, and access to most areas is straightforward. July and August represent the sweet spot: the flood is up, the animals are concentrated, the nights are cool and star-filled, and the safari experience is as close to flawless as Africa offers. That said, Botswana rewards visits at any time of year — the green season has its own profound beauty and energy, and the shoulder months offer a quieter, more intimate experience of one of the continent’s most extraordinary wild places.
Where to stay
Kharma Rhino Sanctuary
Khama Rhino Sanctuary has a variety of accommodation facilities.
here are 22 campsites, including sites for large groups. The central feature of each site is a large Mokongwa tree which provides both character and shade. There is also a fireplace, braai stands with a grill, and a tap with a birdbath. The campsites are served by two communal ablution blocks. All our campsites have no power points.
There are eight chalets to choose from located in different areas. Bedding &towels, braai facilities, bar fridge and electric kettle will be provided for all the chalets. Electric kettle and bar fridge is not available in the A-frame chalet since it does not have power. Basic cooking utensils are no longer provided. Clients can bring their own or use The Restaurant to buy meals. The chalets are A, B, C, D, E, F, G and A-frame.
A & B accommodate two people each. They each sleep one couple, holding one double bed.
C & D are located at Makongwa Camp, accommodates four people each and has two rooms and two beds in each room.
F & G chalets are next to the restaurant area. Each chalet has two rooms and two beds in each room.
A-Frame Chalet is situated on the edge of the Serwe pan. This is a two-storey chalet which sleeps up to six people. A- Frame has a separate bush toilet and a hot shower. This chalet was designed to give an African way of bush life. This chalet does not have electricity, but lantern lamps are available.
More to Explore
