Almost everyone admittedly needs a place to hide and escape from the heavy demands of hectic city life, at least for a couple of hours during the weekend.
For many years, the game reserve has not only been the nearest place, with roaming wild animals, but it also has tranquil picnic spots for private outdoor recreations.
Upon arrival, the game reserve has a sense of abandon in its environment that is combined with a calmness of life, which melts away the tough and solid edges of city life, leaving you with a vibrant feeling of utmost restoration.
Due to its proximity to the city, the game reserve doesn’t keep any of the big five animals, like lions, but it has natural surroundings with tall grass, shrubby trees and a dusty track, which stretches as far as your eye can see and the open fields loom with roaming zebras.
Being mindful of the reserve’s quiet surroundings, we are fortunate enough in this city to still have free range game reserves alive with warthogs and duikers. Amusingly, it’s fun to go to the game reserve and spot excited foreign visitors admiring porky warthogs.
There is nothing like a view of a vanishing natural horizon to free your soul, and make your biggest problems seem realistically insignificant in comparison with those of nature.
When we got to our picnic spot, I decidedly took my sneakers off voluntarily and deliberately walked barefoot. The whole time I did not step on even a single thorn. Walking barefoot on the natural grass, was not the only chance to connect with the earth’s energies and to inhale the undiluted air, at the same time it felt good twisting my toes in the grass to feel it’s rough texture. From walking along the grass, I had fun with every step, and it permitted me to sense the sounds of my inner heart’s voice.
I was at peace with myself and that was the whole idea. Those who enjoy meditating, a nature walk can be mood lifting and a happiness enticing afternoon activity.
In an effort to reconnect with life’s natural rhythm, taking a barefoot walk at the Gaborone Game Reserve will give you a feeling of pleasure of being outdoors and enjoying infinite natural surroundings.
Happiness is a mood that’s contagious. If you gather your friends, Gaborone game reserve is the best place to spend time in peace and indeed undisturbed joy, since it has tables, good benches and braai stands, which are situated conveniently beneath cool and shady acacia trees. The sites have also got reliable ablution buildings.
There are also trash cans for easy cleaning and tidying up before leaving.
Dramatically, towards the end of our afternoon, we had an encounter with a group of delinquent monkeys, which ambushed and completely terrorized our picnic spot.
I then spoke to Tshidiso, our rescuer, a regular visitor at the game reserve, to find out why monkeys behave in the manner they do.
“It is a very normal situation that the monkeys behave in that manner,” he said. “People who frequent here have a tendency to hand feed them, especially children, which then gets them used to looking forward to having treats every time people visit the picnic spots; and yet again these monkeys are spoilt because if anybody ever gets to feed them anything, it’s a sign to the clever monkeys that they can help themselves to whatever’s available on the table.”
After the fun that everyone had, the monkeys left. Realistically, they just wanted to prove a territorial matter- we weren’t alone in their backyard, it was time for us to leave.
Despite our ordeal with monkeys, we ran out of time as the game reserve closes at six in the evening, and like they say all good things always have to come to an end.
