Early in June I had the enormous privilege of spending 9 days at and around Elephant Sands Lodge, located near Nata in north-eastern Botswana, participating in Gospel on Safari where I and eleven other believers spent time with our Creator and His Word in the most amazingly unspoiled natural surroundings. Without a question it was one of the most impactful experiences of my life and I am immensely grateful for and humbled by all that was revealed to us, both physically and spiritually.

Located just off the A33 main road linking Nata and Kasane, Elephant Sands offers accommodation and camping at the main lodge as well as a very comfortable bushcamp a few kilometers deeper into the bush. Both are unfenced and frequented by a wide range of wildlife day and night. The main lodge’s campsites and units, as well as the main building housing the swimming pool, restaurant, bar and curio shop, surrounds a waterhole that is supplied with pumped water and is a real magnet to elephants and a wide variety of birds. The bushcamp – Eco Lodge – has a plunge pool and 12 comfortable two-sleeper tents serviced from a large kitchen and open plan dining area that also overlooks a pump-fed waterhole.

Elephants drinking from the waterhole in Elephant Sands Lodge

Camping at Elephant Sands

Elephant Sands’ Eco Lodge

Elephant drinking from the pool at Elephant Sands’ Eco Lodge

Red-billed Spurfowl

Bradfield’s Hornbill

Bradfield’s Hornbill

Immature Shikra

Cape Turtle Doves drinking from the waterhole at Elephant Sands

Burchell’s Sandgrouse

Flocks of Sandgrouse drinking from the waterhole at Elephant Sands

Pied Crows

African Red-eyed Bulbul

Speckled Pigeon

Sunrise over the waterhole at Elephant Sands’ Eco Lodge

Red-billed Teal

Blacksmith Lapwing

Cape Teal in flight

White-crowned Shrike

Crimson-breasted Shrike

Tsamma fruit

Elephant Sands serves as an excellent base from which to explore the immense wilderness that surrounds it in all directions, and wildlife viewing is especially rewarding at and around many of the waterholes that are currently being provided with pumped water, seeing as Botswana is being hard hit by one of the worst droughts ever recorded in the country.

Early morning at a waterhole near Elephant Sands

Elephant and Leadwood

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Elephants abound in northern Botswana

Sandgrouse, doves and elephant sharing a waterhole

African Wild Cat

Black-backed Jackal

Kudus, impalas and ostriches sharing a waterhole

Mummified juvenile Boomslang found in a thorny shrub

Giraffe

Blacksmith Lapwing

Bradfield’s Hornbill

Cape Glossy Starling

Cape Teals

Cape Teals

Fork-tailed Drongo

Impala

White-backed Vulture

White-crowned Shrike

Pied Crow

Red-billed Spurfowl

Red-crested Korhaan

Burchell’s Sandgrouse in flight

Burchell’s Sandgrouse in formation

Female Burchell’s Sandgrouse

Yellow-billed Hornbill

Yellow-billed Hornbill

Our group spent three nights “wild camping” at one such waterhole, called Domtshetshu Pan, and I will tell you more about that experience in the next installment!