Mabuasehube NP - Day 1

Sunset in Mabuasehube

We like to get up and get going as soon as possible when traveling to a destination but 2025 has started slowly. Normally we pack the night before but the thunderstorm that hit Gaborone on New Year’s Eve evening stopped us from getting anything done, so we had to pack first thing in the morning.

Luckily we’re pretty well practiced and it only ate 30 min into our morning and we were off around 6.30am. And fortunately Dru was feeling well enough to get going; the flu at bay with still just a sore throat but medication to help out in case it got worse.

Turning off to the cutline

The roads were quiet all the way from Gabs to Sekoma, probably because most were still celebrating or recovering from their New Years parties. Our biggest concern was rain. It had rained around jwaneng and then we had constant rain from Sekoma to the cut line turnoff in Kokotsho. We were worried about the cutline road if it had lots of water on it, but we didn’t need to worry - it looked like hardly any rain had fallen over the last 24 hours on the cutline and the rod was fairly smooth sailing, or as smooth as a corrugated, unmaintained sand track can be. 

Dropping the tyres for the cutline

And the clouds started to break up as well, raising the temperature and making us wish for a bit more cloud - you just can’t keep us happy! We did see plenty of tracks though - there was definitely hyena patrolling the area and we found cheetah tracks on the road which was exciting, with the highlight being a honey badger that ran across the road in front of us. 

Cheetah tracks on the way to the park

Seven hours later and we were pulling into the Mabuasehube gate. And once again, there was no one to pay the park fees. Apparently he was in Tsabong, presumably to celebrate the new year, so with promises that he’d either come to our campsite or we’d pay on the way out, we headed into the park. They’d definitely had plenty of rain around the monamodi pans, with 2 natural waterholes in the pan and plenty of water in the road. 

More tracks on the cutline to Mabua

But animals were scarce and with the exception of a few steenbok in the grass and some batuleurs in the air we didn’t see anything until we arrived at the main Mabuasehube pan, our home for the next 2 days. The resident springbok herd was there to greet us and we found a few wildebeest on the other side of the pan. We got to our camp and set out our chairs and table along with a few other things like our water and lamp. 

Our campsite for the night

This camp has a closed in long drop toilet, which is not our favorite, we would rather opt for the open air one - less smell and chance of something dodgy living in it. At first we couldn’t even get it as there was no handle to open the door but thanks to some jimmying with a corkscrew we got a open for our stay. The afternoon drive was a trip around the pan and a drive to the next pan Losoloago. With it being dry there wasn’t much going on so we headed back to Mabua pan with the idea of being in camp for what could be a promising sunset. 

At camp in time for sunset

It also gave us time to put up our new rooftent for the first time in the light. The same setup as our previous one, this one has more zips and clips, so it took us a while to work out how to do it most efficiently. But it is bigger so we were looking forward to the extra space at night. There was some good lighting up of the sky as the sun went down but the cloud cover was too heavy too be truly spectacular. Showers in the wind was cold but doable, before we settled down with a glass of wine and our chicken rolls before heading to be to the sound of owls calling and geckos barking.