South Mobile Camp

We enjoyed our second visit just as much as the first. The ablutions are wonderfully clean, and the showers are hot. This is a must-visit when camping in Botswana. The campsite price plus the park fees are pretty high, though, which limits how long you can stay.

The sites are nice and easy to self-drive. We saw lots of great birdlife, jackals, a lion, tons of elephants, and an amazing ostrich mating display with crowds of over 20. A bull elephant we named "Timothy" walked through our camp a few times. He was almost a fixture, hanging around near the ablutions and drinking the runoff.

Of all the campsites we’ve visited in Botswana so far, this has been by far the best run. The sites are clean and well tended, the ablutions are spotless, and the water is hot. Thanks to the staff, too, for going above and beyond to get a message to us during a family emergency.

That view across the pan from site 02 is spectacular, though there isn’t much shade. The elephants are the real event here: they’re around day and night, and the bulls wander through camp, even sniffing at your table while you eat. Definitely not a place for the fainthearted. The camp itself is basic, but the toilets are very clean and sturdy, and there’s hot water. I’d come back if it weren’t for that awful deep-sand road, the worst in Botswana, maybe anywhere.