By Written by Charlie Hugo (Images by Charlie & Fiona Hugo)

Wide open spaces, you can see tomorrow coming with gorgeous sunsets and fabulous sunrises. With clear skies and almost no other air traffic to be a concern, well other than your fellow racers one can enjoy the freedom of flight. This is the Sua Pans, part of the greater Makgadikgadi Pans in Central Northern Botswana. From the air it seems to almost go forever. This is the home of the acclaimed Race for Rhinos (R4R) air race event. Conceived as an event to highlight the scourge of Rhino poaching in Southern Africa, under the patronage of the then president of Botswana, His Excellency, Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama with his brother TK Khama, then minister of wildlife and Tourism. The 4 races are fondly remembered by those who attended and with regret by those who did not.

Unfortunately, due to changing priorities by Botswana Tourism this highly acclaimed event was cancelled, but not forgotten. During 2025 there were plans to resurrect the race with a greater emphasis on raising the awareness of eco-tourism of the general area.

His Excellency, along with his brother, TK Khama, is the patron of the resurrected R4R event, which eventually culminated in with the race being held in 2026. The venue was on the Sua pan near His Excellency’s ranch on the southern Sua pan near the town of Mosu.

The 2026 event, for various reasons, was a far cry from the heyday, with only 8 aircraft out of the initial 30 interested arriving to participate, and then only 5 actually raced. This was due to many reasons, rising fuel costs and the bane of aviation in South Africa, the 12-year engine rule. The interest shown in this event had two pilots, one from the UK and the second based in Hong Kong to participate in the race. The race was a pure exercise in accuracy flying to a pre nominated ground speed by the teams. The first day’s race was flown to confirm the contestants nominated handicap speed with any adjustments needed being applied for day twos speed.

Day two saw the contestants depart with appropriate intervals to allow all to arrive at the finish line simultaneously, that is if all flew accurately. And yes, they did. Line honours went to Patrick Dale although with 36 penalty points for arriving early put him out of the running. The next three to complete ran a very close race with 5 seconds between them. Not bad for having flown 221 nautical miles. Frederick Lombard and Morne Strauss (-03 seconds on allotted time) flying a Vans RV, ZU-FZJ were the winners with Kevin Cloete and Rehan van Tonder (-05 seconds) flying a Sling TSI, ZU-KDC second with father and son team, John and Andrew Herbert (-08 seconds) flying another Vans RV, ZU-IDP finishing third. Despite the organisational challenges all enjoyed the opportunity to view the raw beauty of wild Africa expanses.

Plans are already afoot for the 2027 event to be held at the same location. There are many issues the organisers need to address before next year’s event, which TK, in his address during the opening evenings activities, acknowledged. This has to be done to ensure the success of future events.