Adventure Bike Trip to Tuli Wilderness in Botswana

The 1st Trip to Tuli Wilderness: I'd spoken to my mates about doing the Tuli Wilderness trip for a few months and we'd finally decided to pull the trigger and give it a go, our apprehension came from the fear of sand riding, as most of us had just started our journey on adventure bikes and the thought of deep sand was rather daunting for us all. I was on my KTM 1190 Adventure S for this trip. Loaded and ready to rumble we headed out from Centurion towards the small bushveld town of Alldays, we stayed at Chinaka Game Lodge the 1st night and after breakfast, the following day, we headed to meet the rest of the Proudly Meerkat group, this was the 1st time that we were joining one of their tours. After a quick fuel stop in Alldays we headed towards the meeting place and onwards to the Pontdrift Border post. Once through the border post, it took awhile as there were 26 bikes on this trip, we gathered at the Mashatu Tree to regroup and have the rider briefing. From there on it was dirt towards Molema Camp, our base in the Tuli Block, for the next 2 nights, whic is situated on an exclusive concession in the vast Northern Tuli Game Reserve in eastern Botswana, Tuli Wilderness is owner-managed by Stuart and Julie Quinn, who have a wealth of experience in the southern African wildlife tourism, hospitality and training industry. But before we could get to the camp and unpack and grab a beer, we had to get across Solomons Wall, now this is a special place with the massive rock structure rising from the sandy river bed and to make things better our timing was perfect, as a loan elephant crossed right in front of us. This was the 1st taste of deep sand and by the end of the trip we would be a lot more comfortable on it, well most of us that is, the trip ended with our one riding mate coming off and breaking his foot - not a great situation to be in in a foreign country. The setting of the camp is incredible, with it nesteling on the banks of the Limpopo River, the official border between South Africa and Botswana. We were all greeted with much fanfare, as Julie and her team extended a warm African welcome to the group. After a good nights rest we were ready to tackle the African bush and sand and we headed towards Eagles Nest, definitely some of the most incredible views over the bush. We had to leave our bikes in the bush and get onto the vehicles for a few km's and then the final stretch was a walk of around 2km's, but the breathtaking views were worth every step. Next on the itinerary was to walk back to the vehicle and the on to the Mohave Bush camp for brunch, this is a wild and rustic camp and without a doubt the most serene part of the trip, with opportunity to sit and enjoy the surroundings, after enjoying a hearty breakfast. We were greeted by a herd of elephant, while heading back towards the bikes. Back at camp we had a quick shower and changed out of the bike gear to head out on the game viewing vehicles to look for the Hyena den and see if we were lucky enough to see the little ones, as luck would have it we were in for a treat. An absolute privilege to experience seeing the hyena den, from there we headed to a dinner under the African stars, in the heart of the bush. How the team pulls this off is a miracle, as they setup an entire kitchen and facilities in the middle of nowhere, this was definitely the highlight of the trip. The final day we headed to the Motloutse Dam for a snack and to scale the rock face for an epic view of the dam, Video overview of the trip: https://youtu.be/5sdwM6xHyFQ?si=jbeNNibecGD_M2gR