We left Johannesburg and drove to the Botswana border, crossing at Martin’s Drift. Ann and Althea had joined us for the first week of our journey. The roads in Botswana are excellent – a testimony to the wealth derived from the country’s booming diamond mining – and our journey onwards to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary was uneventful. On arrival, however, Renee found that she must have dropped her binoculars and one of the prisms had shifted. A trip to Serowe allowed us to buy a new pair, but they were not that great!
Khama offers good birding and there were great views of the many White Rhinos, especially in the setting sun, when they were framed with the dust they kicked up. The camp is basic, but comfortable, and we spent two nights there, notching up another lifer, in the form of a Tinkling Cisticola.
We spent a night just outside Lethlakane in a comfortable guesthouse, having passed Lethlakane Mine on the way. We had lived there in 1973, when I was involved with the evaluation of what is now a mined out kimberlite, so it was of great interest to us to see how the area has changed. We visited the Orapa Game Reserve, a De Beers initiative, within the Orapa security area, and were most impressed. There was plenty of game and the large grass plain in the centre is like a mini-Serengeti, with game everywhere.
To be continued …..
roncorylus 
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