My first Africa images are up in the archive. I decided to split the photos from my 2014 Southern Africa tour into two galleries, one for the South Africa leg of the tour and one for the Botswana tour extension.
The Botswana 2014 gallery features photos from our three day visit to Mashatu Game Reserve, a private reserve located on 72,000 acres near the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers. This region is more arid than the Greater Kruger Area in South Africa (where I’ve spent a lot of time), so it featured a different landscape and several new species of wildlife.
The highlight of the visit–and our main reason for coming to Mashatu–was two sessions in the world-famous underground photography hide. This hide, literally made from a shipping container buried in the ground, sits on the edge of a small watering hole. This allows for extremely close, ground level views of animals as they come to drink. The main highlight for most visitors is seeing African elephants at this extreme angle. It’s an incredible experience, and we were fortunate to see and photograph numerous herds of elephants, often only a few meters away, on both mornings.
Elephants weren’t the only visitors to the hide. Eland, impala, kudu and other mammals also made an appearance.
The hide was also an excellent spot for bird photography, with numerous colorful species flying in to get a drink.
The hide was not Mashatu’s only attraction. We still fit in several game drives, and had what is probably my best-ever session with cheetahs, while also spotting leopards, lions and African wildcats.
View the full Botswana 2014 gallery here. And remember, you can now order prints of nearly any image in the archive.
If you are interested in joining me for my return visit to Mashatu (during which we’ll have three hide sessions), please check out my 2016 Southern Africa tour site.
