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Mobirise

SUNLIT BUSH ADVENTURES

The information site for campers and outdoor enthusiasts.

This site caters for campers and off-road adventurers who feel they want to share their special trips and places with others. We do not encourage a complaints forum but rather good possitive experiences. Good short stories with photos will be published on the site and everyone is welcome to e-mail their story to us for consideration. If you do not feel liberal enough to write to us please leave a short comment on our Facebook page. Places that regularly appears on the forum will be investigated and reported on by us.

Featured Site - Hogs Hunt

Birding at Hogs Hunt 


Article under construction!
In December 2016 I was privileged to have been granted permission to camp for ten days at Hogs hunt in Limpopo province close to the Botswana border. At the time Hogs hunt was not advertised and there was only one camp with 4 chalets for accommodation definitely no camping. There is a communal kithen, lapa, swimming pool and TV room at the camp. I had two objectives. First I wanted to begin to compile a bird list for the farm and secondly use the opportunity as preparation for my next trip to Makgadigadi the following year by camping ten days solo in the bush.
Birding was great but being an amateur I only manage to record about a 124 birds (bird list compiled for the 10 day period) out of a possible 500. The experience though was out of this world. Apart from birdlife and witnessing a Gabar Goshawk robbing a kalahari Robin’s nest from its chicks there are many antelope to feast on. Kudu, Rowan, Gemsbok, black Impala, golden Blue wildebeest, Buffalo, Nyala, Giraffe, and Zebra to name a few. I was fascinated by all the small creatures and plants find in the field especially since it rained without stop for about four days. See link on the Red Velvet mite. If it is peace and quiet your after you should not visit Hogs hunt during the hunting season as hunting do take place here (May to August).
As from 2017 one off the old camps called “Die Houtkamp” was revamped and are now ready for occupation.
 

George Breitenbach (12/2016)

Do you know a special place that you feel should be featured? Write a short write-up of your favoured special place, add some photos and send it to review@sunlit.co.za. Should your review get published you will receive a free Sunlit Bush Adventures mousepad and license disk holder. Owners of special places are welcome to request a evaluation and feedback report on their sites. If your site is really special it will be featured. Featured sites will benefit from 6 months free advertising in our Commercial section. 

Featured Site - Nxai pan

The Nxai Pan experience - April 2017
Twenty four years ago, on my way to the Okovango delta for the first time I camped somewhere in the Gansi district in Botswana where I had a chat with a fellow camper. As we communicate our route plans he mentioned a place called Nxai pan which he visited the previous year and came across a scene were a Phython and an eagle of some sort where entangled in a fight for who is going to eat whom (apparently his video was shown on the popular TV program 50/50). I knew at that moment that I had to visit Nxai pan. So it was that on this same trip, on my way back home that I visited Nxai pan for the first time and what a special place I found without fences and abounded wildlife where elephants frequently stroll through the camp, lions raw at night and where I witnessed my first (and last) lion kill at a waterhole on Christmas morning 1993.
This article is about my latest visit (April 2017) to Nxai pan with my colleague and friend Peet Kruger and his family and some notable changes in Nxai pan over the years. First of all Nxai pan the reserve itself did not changed a bit in the past twenty four years! It is still a majestically special place with vast open planes, large herds of springbuck, lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe and many other species equally impressive – where else will you capture lion, elephant and giraffe in one photo (see slider photo captured by Peet Kruger during a morning drive)? Bird life is also great.
So what have changed?
Bookings
First of all you cannot pay your fees at the entrance gate anymore! You will have to pay your park fees at one of BWD (Botswana Wildlife Department) offices after you have booked a campsite through Xomae Group (xomaesites@btcmail.co.bw) who currently holds the Nxai pan consession.  


For more information about bookings road conditions and the law not in Botswana and Nxai pan click here.
Ablution facilities
In the old days there was a “long drop” and a shower or two that was always damaged by elephants and if it did work there would have been no hot water. That has changed dramatically. South camp (the only camp) now has fantastic ablution facilities that is kept super clean (cleaned every morning) by friendly park personnel. There is also hot water thanks to sufficient solar instillations (also see Peet K’s comment).
Entrance gates
The only other change to Nxai pan is the entrance gates (yes gates) for there are now two gates. Your first entrance is at a control gate next to the Maun/Nata tar road where your reservation and park fees documents are checked. From here it is a fairly tough drive on the 30 km sand road to te entrance of the park. You enter Nxai pan through the entrance gate where your paperwork received at the control gate is checked and you are given directions to South camp where the camp sites are clearly marked. There is also a tuckshop at this gate.

George Breitenbach


On your way back from Nxai pan you should visit the Nata Bird Sanctuary. Vast pans with Flamingo's everywhere you look. We were unfortunate that the pans was flooded on our return. They reacon it can take up to three years for the pans to dry enough to be visited. 2020?

Mobirise


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