Through the dry months, elephants come down to the sandy Majale riverbed below Euphorbia Mashatu to dig. They work the sand with feet and trunks until clean water seeps up. The camp’s villas look straight down on them from a cliff wooded with candelabra euphorbia, on the Mashatu Game Reserve in eastern Botswana’s Tuli Block, where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers meet.
They work the sand with feet and trunks until clean water seeps up.
Only sixteen guests stay at a time, all of them sixteen or older, and the game vehicles take four at most, so every seat is a window seat. Each morning and afternoon brings a drive or a guided walk. On each day of a stay, one adventure activity can be added, such as a horseback ride or a mountain-bike safari. Or the time can be spent in a sunken photographic hide at the water’s edge.
Euphorbia Mashatu opened in April 2023. Its eight villas each follow the curved outline of a mopane seed pod, with walls of local stone, and they sit along the cliff among candelabra euphorbias that are lit from below after dark, so the cliff glows long after the sun has gone. Inside, the indoor shower is joined by a ‘loo with a view’, and every villa has air conditioning and Wi-Fi.
Beyond the gorge, open plains run out to distant sandstone ridges.
Outside, each villa opens onto a large veranda with a second shower and a private plunge pool, a place to cool off between drives in the heat of the day. Up on the hilltop, guests first arrive at the Nest, the camp’s lookout deck, which looks out over the Majale River and the ravine below. Far below, in the dry months, the elephants dig in the riverbed for water. Beyond the gorge, open plains run out to distant sandstone ridges.
The Mashatu Game Reserve covers 42,000 hectares of private land where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers meet, with Zimbabwe and South Africa across the water. Its elephants, the old relic herds of the Shashe, gather in some of the largest concentrations on private land in southern Africa. Lion prides are resident and cheetahs hunt the open savanna, while leopards lie up in the riverine Mashatu trees or along rocky drainage lines. On private land, guides may leave the track to follow the big predators, and no more than three vehicles are allowed at any one sighting.
The days here are not spent only in the vehicle. The sunken Matebole hide brings cameras down to ground level at a busy waterhole, close enough to watch the elephants crowd in to drink. Walks go out on the same ground with experienced guides, and riders with experience can cover it on horseback. Not every outing is about wildlife, either: village visits lead to neighbouring communities such as Motlhabaneng. Even the meals move around, with dinner and brunch set up in different spots across the reserve. Then, after dinner, a night drive goes out with a spotlight, looking for owls and other night creatures, and for leopards on the hunt.
After dark, the rasp of a leopard and the rumble of elephants carry up from the gorge.
Back at camp, dinner is served outdoors or in the boma, and the kitchen cooks dishes with an African twist. Lit from below, the euphorbias stand out against a night sky without light pollution. After dark, the rasp of a leopard and the rumble of elephants carry up from the gorge. Owls call through the night, under the scrape of the herds digging at the sand. At dawn, the baboons take over, chattering along the rocks.
The journey in is short. A scheduled flight from Johannesburg lands at Limpopo Valley Airfield, the reserve’s own airstrip, where customs and immigration are cleared on arrival. From there, camp is about thirty minutes away by road, across country with a human story far older than the reserve, marked by hundreds of Stone Age and Iron Age sites. The camp is built to sit lightly on that ground. It runs on solar power and treats its own water, and nearly all of the team are from Botswana.
accommodation
Eight stone villas, each for two guests. Each has an indoor shower and a 'loo with a view'. Outside are a second shower and a private plunge pool, and the camp's lookout deck, the Nest, looks over the reserve and the Majale ravine below.
activities
Drives or guided walks run morning and afternoon in vehicles seating four. Each day, a horseback ride, a mountain-bike safari, an after-dinner night drive, a session in the sunken Matebole hide or a village visit can be added. On private land, guides go off-road for predators, and bush meals move about the reserve.
conservation
The reserve lies within the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, whose landowners founded the Tuli Conservation Trust in 1993. The trust's priorities are a reserve-wide anti-poaching unit, a backline wildlife fence that helps curb human-wildlife conflict, and community outreach. Part of a nightly conservation levy goes to the Mashatu Health Care Fund.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
Most guests fly. A scheduled light aircraft leaves Lanseria in Johannesburg in the morning and lands at Limpopo Valley Airfield, inside the reserve, about an hour and a half later. The airfield is an international port of entry, so Botswana customs is cleared on landing, and from there it is about thirty minutes' drive to the villas, game viewing on the way.
For your own timings, we can arrange a private charter, a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, straight to Limpopo Valley Airfield and its tarred runway. By road, Johannesburg is about six hours from the Pont Drift border post on the Limpopo, Polokwane about two. When the river is up, the crossing is made by cable car, and a guide meets you on the Botswana side.
Not under sixteen. The villas take guests of sixteen and over only, which keeps the eight villas quiet and suits couples and older teenagers travelling with their parents. Each villa is built for two, so a family of four takes two villas side by side.
With younger children we would look at Mashatu Lodge, on the same reserve, which welcomes all ages, or at one of the reserve's exclusive-use safari homes. Mashatu Tent Camp, also on the reserve, takes children from twelve.
The rate covers all meals, snacks and drinks, laundry and wifi, and two guided outings for each night: a game drive and a guided walk, or two drives. Each night's stay also includes one adventure activity, which the other camps on the reserve charge for. Transfers to Limpopo Valley Airfield or the Pont Drift border post are included, and so is the cable car across the Limpopo.
Extra are premium imported wines and spirits, spa treatments, the full-day walking safaris, hire of the photographic vehicle and camera kit, and the flights in. The reserve's conservation levy is charged per person per night and part of it goes to the Mashatu Health Care Fund.
A good deal. The one adventure activity included each night is chosen from a list: a mountain-bike safari at dawn or late afternoon, paced to your fitness; a horseback safari for riders who pass a short riding test; an after-dinner night drive; or a visit to Motlhabaneng, a nearby village whose committee shares in what each visit brings in.
Photographers can book time in the reserve's sunken photographic hide, and the bold can spend a night from dusk to dawn in a sleep-out hide by the Limpopo. You never walk alone: every walk goes out with one of the reserve's guides. Some evenings the kitchen moves dinner or brunch to a new spot in the bush, and in-villa massages can be booked.
Yes. The American CDC lists the Bobirwa sub-district, which takes in Mashatu and the Tuli Block, among the parts of Botswana where it recommends prescription medicine to prevent malaria. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates the risk in Botswana as highest during the rains, from October to May, and lower for the rest of the year. Low risk is not no risk.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so we make no recommendation about tablets. Whether to take them is a decision for you and your doctor or a travel clinic, with your dates in front of you. The practical part is simple: long sleeves and repellent from late afternoon, especially on night drives.
The dry months, from May to October, are the strongest for game. The bush thins, water shrinks to a few pools and the sandy riverbeds, and elephant herds dig for water and gather to drink, while lion, leopard and cheetah are easier to follow. July and August bring crisp mornings and cold nights; by October the heat builds towards forty degrees and the waterholes are at their busiest.
The green season, from December to February, has its own case: storms, flowering plains and dramatic light for photographers, impala, wildebeest and zebra dropping their young, and migrant birds arriving to add to more than 350 species. It is hot, often near forty degrees, so the plunge pool earns its place in the middle of the day.
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
