Quick day-trip to Khama Rhino Sanctuary, Botswana

My wife and I went to a friend's wedding in Palapye at the beginning of January 2016 and since the Khama Rhino Sanctuary is just an hour's drive away, we decided to go for a day-visit the following day.

The Sanctuary is easy to find, literally just off the A14 from Serowe. At the reception we were given suggestions where to go look for rhino but had to take a photo of the map at the reception, as that was the only one they had.

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Entrance to KRS, just off the A14 to/from Serowe.

There's a small shop near the reception with snacks and cold drinks as well as some shirts and African souvenirs. We had our own coolbox so we headed off to look for rhino.

There are a number of Pans in the sanctuary that are vast and flat without many bushes or trees and each has a viewing area from where you can look out onto the pan (from your car, of course). We saw many animals throughout the reserve, mainly on the pans (where the water is) - from zebra and wildebeest to vultures and ostriches to springbok and oryx. There were of course quite a few rhinos out and about that day as we saw 8 in total, in 3 different locations.

The pan was small but attracted a lot of wildlife, from zebra and wildebeest to oryxes and impala.

During the hot day the rhinos tend to spend most of the time in the shade, so don't rush through the park, drive slowly and look for large trees with lots of shade underneath. Most of the tracks in the sanctuary are quite sandy, so a family sedan probably isn't the car of choice but a compact SUV like our Toyota RAV4 (and anything larger) will be fine.

The sanctuary also has campsites (which we plan to visit once we buy some camping gear) as well as a few chalets, located near the restaurant/bar which has a small pool and lots of shade around as well. We stopped at the restaurant for a coke and a beer, enjoyed the shade outside (there is a large, but rather plain inside area as well) but left soon after because the family of 6-7 that were in the chalets were having a shouting match while splashing loudly inside the pool. People tend to forget they are in the wild with animals around and not breaking sound barriers is kind of what is expected in such places...

The restaurant has a nice shaded area outside to relax and unwind.

On our way out we stopped at the shop for a couple of cold drinks and perhaps a "Khama Rhino Sanctuary" sticker as a small souvenir...of which they had none.

All in all, the Khama Rhino Sanctuary is a great place to visit and see a lot of animals (at least we did) even if it's just for the day. The have a bird hide as well, which we didn't visit, so that we could leave something else for next time :)
The sanctuary is definitely too big to explore all in one day, so we will be heading back there soon either to camp or stay in the chalets (I just hope the noise levels won't be so harsh on the ears next time).
Room Tip: Probably choose the chalet furthest from the swimming pool.

See the gallery below for more photos from our short, one-day trip to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary.

Location of the Khama Rhino Sanctuary: