Mosetlha Bush Camp & Eco Lodge
Mosetlha is family owned and run. It’s a small, rustic, unfenced bush camp, located right in the middle of the magnificent Madikwe Game Reserve.
Mosetlha is the reserve’s second oldest lodge and only authentic bush camp and genuine eco lodge – the unpolished gem in Madikwe’s crown!
It was set up by Chris Lucas, originally as a location for guide training. It takes its name from the Weeping Wattle tree, called Mosetlha in the local Setswana language. There is a large Mosetlha tree around which the original cabins are built.
It is our mission to provide you with a unique wilderness experience, while also allowing you to travel responsibly and to tread gently through our beautiful land.
In order to ensure each visitor our best possible attention, we accommodate a maximum of 16 people in 10 twin cabins.
Our guests are accommodated in true safari style, in raised wooden cabins set among the natural vegetation around a central camp fire, lapa and dining area.
Our pride and joy is our stunning new deck! A beautiful space ideal for a yoga or wellness, dance, or meditation retreat; secluded enough for quiet moments; for a large group celebration, or an intimate drink or romantic, candlelit dinner for two. Sun bathing, star gazing, reading a book, having a nap, watching the sunset and the animals walking by - just being in the middle of the bush.
Thatched wooden cabins have partly open sides and are arranged in adjoining family or detached double rooms with twin beds and simple amenities. Duvets, pillows, blankets and towels are provided by us. (And hot water bottles for those winter nights!)
Bathrooms are discreetly situated just behind the cabins - the standalone cabins each have their own private toilet and shower - and the adjoining cabins share a toilet and shower between the two of them. We pride ourselves on our bushveld simplicity and do not have mod cons such as electrical power or running water – our showers are safari showers and water is heated through an old-fashioned “donkey boiler”. Bottles of body wash and conditioning shampoo are provided in the showers.
We provide simple, tasty meals, prepared in traditional bush style on the open fire. Included, too, are tea, coffee, fruit juice, rusks, fruit and snacks throughout the day and on your daily drives. Drinks are sold at a nominal mark-up and not at usual “hotel” prices. We have a good wine selection sourced from local South African vineyards. Guests help themselves to drinks and we use an honesty bar system.
It has always been our mission to provide an exclusive, unique wilderness experience for our guests, with minimal ecological impact on our surroundings.
... an eco lodge is an accommodation facility that satisfies at least five of the criteria listed below, three of which must embody the main principles of ecotourism.
We are so proud to feature in a beautiful coffee table book written by Hitesh Mehta – who has twice been a guest at Mosetlha – titled Authentic EcoLodges which is a look at 33 of the most forward thinking ecolodges in the world's most exotic destinations. Under International Ecolodge Guidelines he writes that “an eco lodge is an accommodation facility that satisfies at least five of the criteria listed below, three of which must embody the main principles of ecotourism”.
The 10 eco lodge criteria:
- Helps conserve the surrounding flora and fauna
- Tries to work with the local community
- Offers educational interpretive programmes to both its employees and tourists about the surrounding natural and cultural environments
- Uses alternative, sustainable means of water acquisition and reduces water consumption
- Provides for careful handling and disposal of solid waste and sewage
- Meets its energy needs through passive design and renewable energy resources
- Uses traditional building technology and materials wherever possible and combines these with their modern counterparts
- During construction has minimal impact on the natural environment
- Blends with local physical and cultural environment through careful attention to form, landscaping and colour, as well as the use of local traditional architecture
- Contributes to sustainable local community development through education programmes and research
