Madikwe Game Reserve

The Madikwe Game Reserve is located in Northwest Province in South Africa.  It is West-Northwest of Pretoria and is located on the Botswana border, very close to Gabarone, the capital city of Botswana.

Good roads lead to Madikwe but there are some interesting things to see on the way!  Like this cart!  These pictures also show the typical state of the roads outside of the cities.  There are usually paved roads with dirt shoulders.

Entrance to the park is very typical of the entrance to all South African Parks.

Madikwe does not allow day visitors but does have accommodations at a variety of lodges within the park.  These lodges range from the most luxurious you will find in Africa to the Mosethla Bush Camp (where we stayed).

The bush camp was one step higher that camping and was very clean and very nice.  The camp has no fence surrounding it and the cabins are partially open.   Elephants, lions, and other dangerous animals have been known to visit the camp at night.   We heard several spotted hyenas close to camp one night.  This is Miguel inside one of the cabins.

The camp has no electricity but does have a hot water system.  Cold water is poured into the top of this small tank which is heated by a wood fire.  Hot water, which is already in the tank comes out a spigot into a receiving bucket. 

It is also important to note that Madikwe is a malaria free area.

Madikwe is about 70 hectares, which makes it the third or fourth largest game reserve in South Africa.  It is just large enough to make a 3-4 day trip worthwhile, that is, you can just about see the entire park in 3-4 days.  The reserve has hills, plains, a river, and dense bush making a variety of wild game possible.

Four hour day and evening drives are provided by all of the lodges.

There are several breeding herds of elephants at Madikwe.  This one consisted of about twenty elephants.  One of the first elephants to cross the road was this young (probably less than 6 months old) but brave one.   The third picture has a couple of elephants that are less than a month old.

After crossing the road, the elephants stopped at this water hole.

This is a large waterhole that always seems to have activity.

This dung beetle loves elephant dung.  A single male dung beetle forms a softball sized ball of elephant dung and rolls it to a safe place where the female injects her eggs.

An African sunset, set in Madikwe, is beautiful.

More pictures (including fighting giraffes) can be found at Madikwe Page 2

and page 3

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