Featured Safari Lodge: Serolo Camp, Tuli, Botswana.

Featured Safari Lodge: Serolo Camp, Botswana.

The Northern Tuli Game Reserve in south-eastern Botswana is an absolute gem. It's big, wild, has great birds and animals, and is just across the Limpopo River from South Africa, so is easy to get to. Now, you can pay quite a bit of money to stay at some of the more well-known safari lodges in the area, but if your budget is not unlimited, then Serolo Camp is the perfect alternative. 

Accommodation:

At the time of our last visit, in February 2025, they were busy upgrading the accommodation at Serolo Camp. We stayed in two of the new chalets. They have done away with the tented chalets in favor of solid walls and roof. They are spacious (much more roomy than the previous tents) and clean, and very comfortable overall. They are light and airy, which is good in a warm area, though personally I would have liked to have a screen door to be able to open up the big, glass sliding doors to let more air in. Overall, very good value for money.  

Dining and Communal Areas: 

Serolo Safari lodge scores once again with simplicity. There's a small lounge area for reading and relaxing, and an outdoor dining area in the shade of a giant Mashatu tree, as well as a small plunge pool, all looking out onto a small water hole. The waterhole is lit by night, allowing one to see what comes down to drink, and on our camera trap we recorded Elephant, Impala, Baboons and a solitary Spotted Hyena (good rains meant that there was plenty of surface water available, so the camp waterhole was not a big attraction). The food was good overall, simple and tasty with adequate portions. We certainly never went hungry, and indeed, no one has ever starved on a safari!

Game Drives: 

With three nights at the lodge we had 5 drives in total (we missed the first afternoon drive as we were bushed on arrival from the journey). Our field guide SK was top class, with exceptional spotting abilities. We also hit it on a good run, with some incredible sightings. Our second day in particular was very good, starting with a Leopard kill at dawn (we just missed it, but the dust was still hanging in the air), followed bu Brown Hyena and Honey Badger, and then 9 Lions on a fresh Zebra kill. And that was just for the morning! In the afternoon we saw a Pel's Fishing Owl and. just after sunset, another Leopard, this time with a Kudu calf kill up in a tree 9and we were visited by a Brown Hyena while watching him). With two Leopard kills in the area our sightings were 'locked in', and we saw both Leopards twice each. Other highlights included a massive herd of Eland, plenty of Zebra, Wildebeest, Elephants etc. But each visit is different, and this time we missed Cheetah and Bat-eared Fox, which were highlights of the previous visit.

On the birding side, highlights included Pel's Fishing Owl, Verreaux's Eagle, African Hawk Eagle, Temminck's Coursers (very plentiful!), Kori Bustard, Woodland Kingfisher, Southern Carmine Bee-eater, Double-banded Sandgrouse, Broad-billed Roller, Meyer's Parrot and many others. 

The roads in the rocky parts of the area can be rough, and it gets a bit uncomfortable at times, especially when sitting in the second and third rows of seats (though during our stay there was only a maximum of 5 guests on the vehicle at any one time, so we never had to sit in the third row, which can be brutal on rough roads). So, try and sit in the first row - your back will thank you for it! 

Location: 

The setting of the tented safari lodge on the Limpopo River floodplain is great, though you can't actually see the river, as the flood plain is pretty wide, and you don't want to be too close to a river that's prone to occasional flooding! And the flood plain is so densely treed with mature trees that you don't have much of a view, but the plus side is that there's good birding, and the trees help keep the area cool in summer. So, nothing wrong with the location, except that the game drive routes did get a bit repetitive, perhaps because most of the animals were holding in a certain area, so it was 'there and back' almost every drive. I did ask our guide if we could get into some new areas on the last drive (when it was just us on the vehicle), but we ran out of time. But the plus side is that we were close to the Limpopo River, meaning we didn't have far to drive to get to the Pel's Fishing Owl stakeout. Their other, exclusive-use camp, Mohave, is situated away from the river, in the center of the area in which we spent most of our time while on drives, but is then a long way away from the river... So, pro's and con's! 

The Lawson’s rating (out of 5):

Accommodation: 4 – perfect on terms of a more affordable safari lodge

Communal areas: 5 - again, just what one needs, nothing 'over the top'. 

Food: 4 – no complaints, except that there was only instant coffee available, which is ok for a pre-drive cup, but for breakfast 'proper' coffee is needed. Fortunately, we had a plunger and filter coffee with us! 

Location: 4 – great to be close to the river, but as mentioned, during our three nights there, the routes were a bit repetitive. 

Game Viewing & birding: 5 – our recent (February 2025) visit was outstanding in terms of game viewing. Leopards were the highlight, followed by the nine Lions on a Zebra kill, Brown Hyena, Honey Badger, and a terrific sighting of a herd of Eland running through the shallow water of the Motloutse River. Elephants, plains game etc filled in nicely between the main highlights. Of course, each visit is different and it's best to approach it with an open attitude, free of expectations (but you can expect to have a good time overall!).

The birding was good overall, with Pel's Fishing Owl as a major highlight. On one morning we recorded 73 species, not too bad for a few hours out in the field.

Overall: 4.5.

Suitable for: anyone. 

Recommended length of stay: 3 nights.

Special notes: the road from Platjan border post is quite bad, so it takes at least an hour to get to the camp from the border.  

Website: Tuli Wilderness Trails - Serolo and Mohave Camps. 

Visit Serolo Camp and the Northern Tuli Game Reserve on a Lawson's custom birding and wildlife safari.