November 2022 and it was time to take our trip to Mashatu in Botswana – finally. Delayed initially due to the pandemic, things were open again, so we boosted our Covid-19 vaccinations, packed our cameras and took off. Mashatu Game Reserve is located in the Tuli Block of eastern Botswana, and it is home to a diverse range of wildlife. There are a number of ways to reach it, depending on your route and budget. We flew into Johannesburg, and onwards to Polokwane. There we met our professional photographer tour leaders, Ann & Steve Toon, for our road trip up to the border with Botswana. Cue the jeopardy. The original…
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Memories of Sleeping Under The Stars in Beautiful South Africa
It is fair to say we are no strangers to an African safari. Drifting off to sleep to the grunts of a hippo, and waking to the soft roar of a lion calling her cubs, is the most incredible feeling. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Yet the thoughts of actually sleeping under the stars had never appealed to us. Africa Gets Under Your Skin Our first-ever holiday to Africa was back in 2005. It came about as a result of one of those conversations which go something like ‘if you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday where would you go?’ An African safari came the…
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How We Fell In Love With Africa On Our First Safari Experience
I think one of the strongest memories of our first safari experience was landing on a sandy airstrip convinced we were going to kill an Impala. Our two-hour flight into the Masai Mara had taken us over an amazing landscape, with views of the top of Kilimanjaro. I was literally glued to the window, desperate to spot my first ever elephant – from the sky. The excitement was making my heart thump right out of my chest. Even today, 16 years on, I still get butterflies whenever we fly over Africa, with views of the game reserves and national parks below. As we touched down, wheels skidding in the dust,…
