OUR HISTORY
PHOTO VEHICLE
EXPERIENCES
Join us for an extraordinary wildlife photography experience at Mashatu, where our expert resident photographers, exclusive hides, and fully customized photo vehicles offer unmatched opportunities to capture the breathtaking landscapes and diverse wildlife of Africa in their natural environment.
Photo Vehicle
Designed and built by the same wildlife photographers who built the world famous underground photographic hide at Mashatu. The PhotoMashatu vehicle is a fully customized vehicle built exclusively for Mashatu Game Reserve.
Matebole Hide
A groundbreaking first for photography in Southern Africa, the Matebole Hide opened in 2012, setting the benchmark for underground hides across Africa. Its unrivaled wildlife activity has earned it global fame among photographers.
Lala Limpopo Hide
Experience Mashatu at night with the Lala Limpopo Sleep-Out Hide, an innovative underground hide designed for night photography. From dusk till dawn, you'll observe nocturnal species in their natural habitat.
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What makes Mashatu an exceptional photographic destination?
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During the green season, Mashatu's landscape features short summer annual grasses, ensuring wildlife subjects remain fully visible. This contrasts with many other parts of Africa where thick vegetation or tall savannah grasses often obscure wildlife, making photography more challenging.
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Mashatu is a semi-arid area. This means animals are attracted to water in the dry season, making it an excellent location to allow animals to come to you when making use of one of the photographic hides.
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Stable, healthy predator population and sightings.
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Some of the best leopard photography in Africa.
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Excellent elephant sightings at the photographic hides and out in the reserve.
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Excellent birdlife for the bird photographs.
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Open landscape that makes for easy photographing of wildlife throughout the year.
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Relaxed animals.
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Riverbeds frame subjects well.
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The diverse landscape features wide open plains, grasslands, riverine forests, rocky hills, marshlands, and majestic sandstone ridges, all providing unique backdrops for a diverse range of species.
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An unfenced reserve, allowing the free movement of wildlife throughout the area.
TESTIMONIALS
Sally Hinton
My other favourite part of the workshop was watching the elephants from the hide - the babies were just so cute slipping and sliding in the mud around the waterhole and watching the interaction between the babies and the older elephants was very special!
Sue Goodman
Having been fortunate enough to have visited Mashatu on several occasions over the last ten years it was fascinating to experience it from a new angle, in particular hide photography. The intimacy with the animals added a new perspective to photography.
Glynnis Wood
This has to rate as one of the most exceptional experiences of my life. Mashatu offers the photographer absolutely everything in the way of wildlife - from the herds of elephants and other game, to the magnificent landscapes and the evening skies.