Last Friday we did our yearly "pilgrammage" to Sun City to watch the Nedbank Challenge golf tournament - a selected handful of golf's biggest names playing for the largest winning cheque in golf today, $1,2 million! Well done to Jim Furyk for lifting the trophy for the second year in a row after some wonderful golf!Anyway, with Sun City - itself a good place for a weekend breakaway - being only 102 kilometers from the Madikwe Game Reserve, we thought it to be a good time to revisit one of our previous destinations again - Mosethla Bush Camp.
And what a good choice! Keeping in mind that this is definitely NOT another one of the myriad of luxury 5 star type of lodges. Oh no, this is the type of place you go to when you require a much more down to earth type of experience, less all the luxuries. So, if you want a little bit of adventure to mix in with your bush experience in order to go home with a feeling of having really achieved something worthwhile, then THIS is the place for you!
No electricity. No running water. No fences around the camp except a high one to keep the elephants from taking a shower with you. Purely an economic decision, according to Caroline Lucas, as apparently elephants use enourmous amounts of soap!
At night, parrafin lamps will light the way and lends an almost fairyland feeling to the camp. To shower, you heat your own water in a very nifty little "donkey" boiler before using the bush shower. Be honest, when last have you had an INTERESTING shower?! And they are totally effective! If you don't want a cold shower, then you won't have one. Oh, and we have been told in confidence that no donkeys were harmed in the making of these boilers.
Of course, any experience can be spoiled if the people are not with the program. Well, we can now - again - assure you that at Mosethla, the people are very much WITH the program. Friendly, efficient, good food, good gamedrives, and really good service. You really go home feeling pretty good about your weekend.
We saw lions, elephants - one actually came right up to the vehicle! Let me tell you something about elephants - they ALL can do with a good couple of botox injections! You have never seen so many wrinkles in your life! But they are so beautiful.
We also saw cheetah, giraffe, kudu, impala and a leopard tortoise which ran away from us. Half an hour and he was just GONE. For bird lovers - be warned, you are going to be mighty busy! All in all, very rewarding drives.
An interesting bit of information about Impala. They have babies during late November, maybe early December every year. As such, they got their name from a Tshwana word - Phala - which means November.
So, if ever you feel the need to really get the dust of Africa under your feet, break away to Mosethla bush Camp in the Madikwe Game Reserve. You will WANT to go back.
We love this place.
