Mosetlha Bush Camp Madikwe Game Reserve

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Email Mosetlha Bush Camp Reservations: booksa@madbookings.com

Mosetlha Bush Camp & Eco Lodge Accommodation

Authentic Bush Camp and Eco Lodge Accommodation.....
Mosetlha is family owned and run, a rustic and intimate, unfenced bush camp nestling at the very heart of the magnificent Madikwe Game Reserve. We are this Reserve’s only authentic bush camp – the unpolished gem in Madikwe’s crown!

It is our mission to provide you with an exclusive and unique wilderness experience. In order to ensure guests our best possible attention, we accommodate a maximum of 16 people in nine double cabins. The camp is unfenced and our guests are accommodated in true safari style in raised wooden cabins set amongst the natural vegetation around a central camp fire and lapa area.

Cabins have partly open sides and are arranged in adjoining or detached double rooms with twin beds and simple amenities. Duvets, pillows, blankets and towels are provided by us.

Whilst bathrooms are not en suite, they are essentially private – fenced toilet/shower complexes are discreetly situated amongst the cabins. We pride ourselves in our bushveld simplicity and do not have mod cons such as electrical power or running water - our showers are safari showers and water is heated through a donkey boiler … so you only have a cold shower if you want one!

We believe our catering is of a high standard – we prepare all meals in the traditional bush style on the open fire. Included, too, are tea, coffee, fruit juice, rusks, fruit and snacks throughout the day and on your daily walks and drives. Drinks are sold at a nominal mark up and not at usual "hotel" prices.

It has always been our mission to provide an exclusive and unique wilderness experience for our guests, with minimal ecological impact on our surroundings. We were very excited to discover the following, written by Hitesh Mehta (who has, incidentally, been a guest of ours at Mosetlha) and are so proud to see that we successfully fulfil not only the required five, but ALL TEN of his suggested criteria for an “eco lodge”.

In International Eco Lodge Guide Lines, Hitesh Mehta writes that an eco lodge is an "accommodation facility that satisfies at least five of the criteria listed below, three of which must embody the main principles of ecotourism."

The main principles of ecotourism are:
* conservation of neighbouring lands
* benefits to local communities
* interpretation to both local populations and guests.

THE TEN ECO LODGE CRITERIA:
· Helps conserve the surrounding flora and fauna.
· Tries to work with the local community.
· Offers educational interpretive programs to both its employees and tourists about the surrounding natural and cultural environments.
· Uses alternative, sustainable means of water acquisition and reduces water consumption.
· Provides for careful handling and disposal of solid waste and sewage.
· Meets its energy needs through passive design and renewable energy resources.
· Uses traditional building technology and materials wherever possible and combines these with their modern counterparts.
· During construction has minimal impact on the natural environment.
· Blends with local physical and cultural environment through careful attention to form, landscaping and colour, as well as the use of local traditional architecture.
· Contributes to sustainable local community development through education programs and research.

Your Mosetlha Experience...
Check in time at the Gate is 12.30 and you will be directed from there to the NWPTB Administration Offices where you will park your car and one of our guides will meet you and bring you back to the Camp to start your Mosetlha Experience!

On arrival at the Camp you will find lunch ready for you and you can unpack and settle in. That afternoon you'll be taken on your first game drive. (Leaving time varies depending on the time of year – from about between 3.00 in mid winter to 4.30 in the heat of summer.)

Our professional, qualified field guides will take you out into the Reserve in our open 4x4 vehicles where you will have the chance to see the Big Five, the endangered wild dog, cheetah, a multitude of plains game and over 340 species of birds.
You’ll be out for about 4 hours and half way through you'll stop at a picturesque spot for drinks and snacks at sunset.

After dark, spot lights are used to ensure that you are able to witness our more secretive, nocturnal animal and bird life.
Upon your return, a wholesome and traditionally cooked dinner will be waiting for you. After this, you can take your drinks or coffee to the camp fire and share your experiences of the day before collapsing into bed, to sleep as you can only do in the silence of the bush, under the stars.

The next morning we'll wake you up for a quick cup of coffee and an early morning start. (Here again, times vary between a 5am wake up call on the hot summer mornings and as late as 7.30 when it’s colder.)

In the summer when you get back you'll have a quick breakfast (toast, cereals and muesli, yoghurt, fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs and cheese) and time for a shower and a rest before lunch, then some more chill out time – read your book, do some bird spotting at the little water holes we have around the camp, or have an afternoon nap. Then it's time for the afternoon drive.

During the winter months, we do a big cooked brunch and lighter afternoon high tea of soup, sandwiches and muffins just before your game drive.

On your day of departure, after your morning game activity, you come home to the camp for breakfast. We then take you back to your car at around midday for your return trip home (where it's back to real life after a few days of fabulous game viewing and serious relaxation, taking with you lots of photographs and some wonderful memories!

How To Get To Us
Madikwe Game Reserve is located in South Africa’s North West Province with Botswana as our northern border. It is about a 3½ to 4 hour drive from Johannesburg or Pretoria, either via Zeerust or via Sun City.

Direction via Zeerust
(Please note there is a tollgate on this route.)
The route from Pretoria/Johannesburg goes via Rustenburg, Swartruggens and Zeerust and is tarmac all the way. Allow at least 3½ to 4 hours travelling time from Johannesburg e.g. the intersection of the Buccleuch interchange.

In more detail, it is as follows:
From the Buccleuch Interchange follow the N1 South, sign posted “Roodepoort”.
Take the R511 turn off from the N1 sign posted “William Nicol” – turn right over the motorway and follow the R511 towards “Hartebeespoort”.

Go through the Hartebeespoort Tunnel and the Market (on either side of the road).
Turn right at the “Rustenburg R512 (N4)” sign. Then, almost immediately (600 metres later) turn left onto the Rustenburg N4.

Stay on this road – going through Rustenburg, Swartruggens (at + 192 km) and through Zeerust (at + 265 km).
In Zeerust, turn right at the fourth stop street, into President Street, following the signpost "R47 Gaborone - Madikwe Game Reserve".

Follow the R47 (now newly signposted also as the R49) north towards Gaborone for 85km and look out for the Abjaterskop Gate into Madikwe which is on your right hand side.

You should be at the gate at 12h30 on check in day. (Please don't arrive before 12h30, as we are unable to accommodate you before then – also, please let us know if you are going to be much later than 12h30 – phone us.)

On your arrival the gate guard should give you a sheet with directions to the Meeting Point. He will also fill in a Park Entrance Permit with your details and will radio us to tell us of your arrival. (You do not need to pay the entrance fees at the gate – we will collect the R50 from you at Mosetlha on behalf of Parks Board.) You will be given two copies of the Entrance Permit; please hand the pink copy to your Field Guide when he meets you and retain the white original for when you exit the Reserve.

In order to get to the place where you will leave your own vehicle and be met by your Mosetlha Field Guide, please continue on this main road from Abjaterskop Gate for 11 kilometres until you reach a T-junction with a signpost pointing left to “Derdepoort Gate, Molatedi Gate” etc.

Turn left here and follow this road for approximately another 2 kilometres and, at the top of the hill, just after passing under the power lines, turn right following the sign saying “Park Administration”.

Just four hundred metres further on you will come to a sliding gate in an electrified fence on your right hand side and a sign saying “Admin Office”. Enter this gate, (please close it behind you), swing left and park at the back of the building next to the tower with the three green water tanks. Here you will be met by your Field Guide from Mosetlha.
Whilst driving in the Park, please observe the 40 kph speed limit, for your safety and that of the animals

Dircetions via Sun City
(Please note there is a 33km dirt road on this route)
0km With the Sun City gates to your right, set your clock to zero.
5.5 Turn right at the 4-way stop onto the R565
13.1 Turn left to follow the "Bapong" sign then stay straight along this road. This turning has a few Madikwe Game Reserve lodge signs here as well.

(After 15.6km there is a sign "Madikwe Hospital Bapong" pointing left. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS ROAD!)
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW THE GREEN “MADIKWE” SIGNS – THESE TAKE YOU TO MADIKWE VILLAGE. PLEASE ONLY FOLLOW BROWN MADIKWE GAME RESERVE SIGNS

49.9 At this 4 way crossing, turn right at the Derdepoort sign.
77.2 The tar road ends here and becomes gravel as you pass the Dwarsberg Trading Store on your left.
110.2 At the end of this road you will reach the Molatedi Gate of the Reserve.

You should be at the gate at 12h30 on check in day. (Please don't arrive before 12h30, as we are unable to accommodate you before then – also, please let us know if you are going to be much later than 12h30 – phone us.)

On your arrival the gate guard will give you a sheet with directions to the Meeting Point. He will also fill in a Park Entrance Permit with your details and will radio us to tell us of your arrival. (You do not need to pay the entrance fees at the gate – we will collect the R50 from you at Mosetlha on behalf of Parks Board.) You will be given two copies of the Entrance Permit; please hand the pink copy to your Field Guide when he meets you and retain the white original for when you exit the Reserve.

In order to get to the place where you will leave your own vehicle and be met by your Mosetlha Field Guide, please continue on the main road from Molatedi Gate for 11,6 km where, immediately after curving to the left underneath the telephone lines follow the sign saying "Park Administration".

Just seven hundred metres (i.e. 0,7 km) further on you will come to a sliding gate in an electrified fence on your left, and the last sign indicating "Park Administration”. Go through this gate, (please close it behind you), swing left and park at the back of the building next to the tower with the four green water tanks. Here you will be met by your Field Guide from Mosetlha.

Please observe the 40 kph speed limit, for your safety and that of the animals.

Directions to the Camp from the airport
Get on to the R21 heading towards Pretoria – After about 15 - 20 minutes you join the N1 Pretoria
You travel through Centurion and after about 10 - 15 minutes, you’ll see a sign N4 Rustenburg – follow this sign.
There are 2 toll roads over the next half hour..

Now you’re on the N4, you can either continue straight and follow the Rustenburg/Zeerust route, or you can take the Sun City/Pilanesburg turn off and go that way.

Directions from Gaberone
To get to the Abjaterskop Gate of Madikwe Game Reserve, leave Gaborone by Tlokweng Road and proceed to the Tlokweng Border Post, which is about 20 km from Gaborone. (This Border Post is known as Kopfontein on the South African side.)

After crossing through the border post, DO NOT TURN LEFT IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE BORDER - carry straight on along the same road towards Zeerust for a further 15 km where you will see the Abjaterskop Gate entrance on your left hand side.

The above route is about 35 km from Gaborone and is tarmac all the way.
You should be at the gate at 12h30 on check in day. (Please don't arrive before 12h30, as we are unable to accommodate you before then – also, please let us know if you are going to be much later than 12h30 – phone us.)

On your arrival the gate guard should give you a sheet with directions to the Meeting Point. He will also fill in a Park Entrance Permit with your details and will radio us to tell us of your arrival. (You do not need to pay the entrance fees at the gate – we will collect the R50 from you at Mosetlha on behalf of Parks Board.) You will be given two copies of the Entrance Permit; please hand the pink copy to your Field Guide when he meets you and retain the white original for when you exit the Reserve.

In order to get to the place where you will leave your own vehicle and be met by your Mosetlha Field Guide, please continue on this main road from Abjaterskop Gate for 11 kilometres until you reach a T-junction with a signpost pointing left to “Derdepoort Gate, Molatedi Gate” etc.

Turn left here and follow this road for approximately another 2 kilometres and, at the top of the hill, just after passing under the power lines, turn right following the sign saying “Park Administration”.

Just four hundred metres further on you will come to a sliding gate in an electrified fence on your right hand side and a sign saying “Admin Office”. Enter this gate, (please close it behind you), swing left and park at the back of the building next to the tower with the three green water tanks. Here you will be met by your Field Guide from Mosetlha.

Whilst driving in the Park, please observe the 40 kph speed limit, for your safety and that of the animals.

Email Mosetlha Bush Camp Reservations: booksa@madbookings.com