Where Elephant Sands sits
Elephant Sands Adventure Lodge stands 50 kilometres north of Nata on a 16,000-hectare private unfenced conservancy in north-eastern Botswana. Animals move freely through the property, and the lodge is on the main road route between Nata and Kasane, which makes it a natural break on a long drive.
The waterhole and its history
The lodge exists because of water. Ben and Marie Moller dug the first waterhole for elephants at the main lodge in the early 1980s. When hunting was prohibited in Botswana in 2014 and borehole pumping stopped, elephants began occupying the remaining waterholes and displacing other animals; in this arid country water is the limiting factor.
Elephants for Water Trust
The Mollers were later joined by son-in-law Mike and daughter Saskia Toth, who are part of the Elephants for Water Trust. The trust restores and maintains boreholes to provide water for elephants, allowing them to survive dry periods and follow their traditional migratory routes, which spreads pressure across the environment rather than concentrating it.
The tents
There are twelve spacious en-suite tents, taking a maximum of twenty guests. It is a small camp, and the cap on numbers is deliberate.
Solar power, and what the camp does not have
The lodge is solar powered. It has no air conditioning and no wifi. That is stated plainly by the operator and is worth knowing before booking: this is a bush camp rather than a hotel, and the trade-off is the setting.
The restaurant
There is a restaurant on site, which matters given the distance from Nata and the lack of alternatives on this stretch of road.
Game drives
The lodge runs its own game drive vehicles on the conservancy. The unfenced 16,000 hectares and the waterhole mean much of the game viewing also happens from camp.
Elephants at close range
The defining experience is elephants coming to the waterhole in front of camp, often at very close range and without a vehicle involved. In the dry season the traffic is heavy.
Who it suits
Self-drive travellers on the Nata to Kasane road, elephant enthusiasts and photographers, and anyone content to trade air conditioning and wifi for a genuine unfenced bush camp built around a working waterhole.
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