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Mashatu: Land of the Giants – A visual tribute to Botswana’s beauty

Mashatu Game Reserve. Botswana

16 Oct 2024

An extract from a new coffee table book set in magnificent Botswana. Created by South African photographers and writers Roger & Pat de la Harpe, it tells the story of the majestic people and wildlife that call this region home.

Mashatu: Land of the Giants, authored by South African photographers and writers Roger & Pat de la Harpe, is a linen-bound coffee table book that captures the heart of southern Africa. With more than 150 striking images and 25,000 words of captivating text, this extraordinary volume tells the story of the majestic people and wildlife that call this region home.

International bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith calls it “a book of rare beauty” and “a triumph”, bringing to life the landscapes and creatures of Mashatu in a way that’s both visually and emotionally powerful. Read an excerpt – all photographs by Roger & Pat de la Harpe.

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We are often asked in the course of our travels which African game reserve we enjoy the most. It has always been a tough question to answer. We can honestly say, however, that at this stage of our lives it is a toss-up between the Northern Tuli Game Reserve and the Okavango Delta, both as it so happens in Botswana. We have over the years become increasingly enamoured of arid areas, initiated perhaps by our journey into the Northern Tuli Game Reserve to work on our book Tuli – Land of Giants, some 20 years ago. With this in mind, when giving serious consideration to the two areas, we have to say that Tuli wins every time.

It feels just like yesterday that we first embarked on what was to be our favourite coffee table book. We have returned to the reserve on several occasions since then and each time have felt pretty emotional at our first glimpse of those dry khaki-coloured plains that stretch as far as the eye can see. Just a few minutes in the area and it becomes apparent that the name of this vast and amazing place could not be more fitting. Tuli is, after all, the Tswana word for dust, and there is plenty of that about, along with everything that is huge, large and giant — vistas, history, legend, trees, elephants, Africa’s big cats, plains game and birdlife.

It is beyond exciting, therefore, that Steve and Maggie Lansdown, the new owners of Mashatu Game Reserve, in the south-central part of Tuli, have agreed to be involved in a new edition of Tuli – Land of Giants, first published all those years ago.

And so it is that, once again, we find ourselves back in this legendary place, full of enthusiasm, fresh ideas, skills, state-of-the-art cameras and software, and with a superb publishing team, to shoot this new, updated, re-conceptualised book entitled Mashatu – Land of the Giants. The project is all the more rewarding because Steve and Maggie are totally committed to the ongoing conservation of the area — a whopping 42,000 hectares now in Mashatu’s care — while at the same time providing a premier tourism destination with a low carbon footprint.

Mashatu Game Reserve

Huge in every way, the Northern Tuli Game Reserve is not for the faint-hearted. It is a harsh and untamed land, baked by a remorseless sun, with searing summer temperatures reaching in excess of 40°C. During the dry season, the arid landscape stretches to a distant horizon and beyond, changing almost overnight into a gentler land of greens and yellows after the first summer rains.

Mashatu Game Reserve. Botswana

The Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana is situated at the confluence of the legendary Limpopo and Shashe rivers, where South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe meet. Some 72,000 hectares in extent, it is owned by an assortment of commercial lodges, syndicates and individuals who, in the early 1960s, banded together in a joint conservation effort and formed one of the world’s largest private game reserves.

It is a land of endless horizons and vast landscapes, with a sizeable elephant population, Africa’s big cats (lion, leopard and cheetah), a range of antelope — from the giant eland to the tiny steenbok — giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and the unusual aardvark and aardwolf are also present, as are spotted hyena and black-backed jackal. There is also a great diversity of birdlife, with over 350 species recorded to date.

This is an area rich in history and prehistory, part of an ancient landscape, which has seen a fascinating timeline of people dating back to the early Stone Age.

The reserve forms part of the core of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Park, a significant wildlife sanctuary of about 5,900 square kilometres. This massive park has a rich biodiversity, spectacular scenery and several Iron Age sites of great archaeological importance. These sites are spread across the modern political boundaries of all three countries, with the Mapungubwe site in South Africa being designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Shaped like the wing of a great bird, the Northern Tuli Game Reserve is cut by several rivers with intriguing-sounding names such as the Majale, Matabole, Motloutse, Njwala, Nyaswe and Pitsane. The Majale River is particularly prolific for sightings of game and is a favourite with rangers and trackers, who call it, rather appropriately, “the mother of Mashatu”.

The elephant herds of the central Limpopo Valley roam freely between Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. There are some 1,400 elephants in the valley, the population dividing into four subgroups that vary in size with the seasons and the availability of water. The herds in the reserve have come a long way. Threatened with extinction after a long history of abuse by man, they were for some time considered one of the most aggressive populations in southern Africa. These days, they have relaxed almost completely in man’s presence and it is possible to get close to big herds or even breeding herds without either side feeling threatened.

Mashatu Game Reserve. Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Botswana

Leopard (Panthera pardus) snarling while feeding on a common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus). Mashatu Game Reserve. Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Botswana

Mashatu Game Reserve. Botswana

Mashatu Game Reserve. Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Botswana.

Mashatu Game Reserve. Botswana

Mashatu Game Reserve. Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Botswana.

Mashatu Game Reserve. Botswana

Mashatu Game Reserve. Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Botswana.

Mashatu Game Reserve. Botswana

Largest ever tree species

The reserve has the distinction of having some of the largest examples ever recorded of certain tree species, many of which are estimated to be several hundreds or even thousands of years old. Huge and gracious, the large fever-berry, umbrella thorn, leadwood, sycamore fig, apple-ring acacia, baobab and Mashatu tree dominate the landscape, attracting birds, animals and insects and, as in the Garden of Eden, reptiles and people too.

Mashatu’s remote wilderness of open plains, rocky outcrops and riverine forests, together with its amazing diversity of wildlife, is an ideal setting for its six dramatically different guest lodges. All are havens of tranquillity and spectacularly positioned not only to showcase the splendour of their surrounds, but also to provide some of the most exciting game viewing in Africa.

Spectacular sunsets over this magnificent area are a regular feature and after a hot dusty day in the African bush, there is no more welcome sight than a great big orange sun setting over this fabled land of giants. DM

Mashatu: Land of the Giants is available online and in bookstores across the country at the retail price of R850.

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Mashatu Game Reserve

Largest ever tree species