Khutse Game Reserve

Khutse Game Reserve is one of Botswana’s best-kept secrets, a wild and remote pocket of the Kalahari that lies just a few hours from the bustle of Gaborone. Established in 1971, it was the second reserve in Botswana to be set aside on tribal land, following Moremi in the Okavango. Its name, “the place where one kneels to drink,” speaks to its history as a vital water source for the San and Bakgalagadi peoples who have called this arid landscape home for generations, and whose villages still dot the reserve’s edges today.

Sharing an unfenced boundary with the vast Central Kalahari Game Reserve to the north, Khutse forms part of an unbroken wilderness where animals move freely across ancient, fossilised river valleys and pans. This ever-changing terrain of rolling grasslands, dry riverbeds and sculpted dunes is the remnant of a river system that once fed the prehistoric Lake Makgadikgadi, and it lends Khutse a raw, untamed beauty quite unlike anywhere else in the country.

Despite its arid surrounds, Khutse rewards patient visitors with impressive sightings. Lion prides are often heard roaring through the night, while leopard, cheetah and brown hyena move quietly between the pans. Herds of gemsbok, springbok, wildebeest and kudu graze the grasslands, and the reserve’s skies come alive with kori bustard, secretary bird and pale chanting goshawk. With no lodges within its boundaries, Khutse is a true wilderness experience built around self-drive game viewing, birdwatching, guided walks with local San trackers, and simply sitting quietly at camp as wildlife wanders past in the fading light. On clear nights, free from any light pollution, the reserve also offers some of the finest stargazing and astrophotography in Botswana.