Tswalu Kalahari - My Experiences

At the end of my 2010 Predators of the Sabi Sands safari, I took some time to go and visit a property that I have wanted to visit for quite some time. The property is called Tswalu Kalahari, and is in the Kalahari Desert in the Northern Cape of South Africa. Tswalu is a very large reserve, made up of more than 106,000 hectares, with excellent wildlife for the wildlife photographer and nature lover. Tswalu’s habitat and wildlife are quite amazing: a semi-arid environment of red earth and sand dunes, wide open skies, 230+ species of birds, 90 species of mammals and some of the most breathtaking scenery as a backdrop. Let’s go over some of the mammal species: sable antelope, roan antelope, giraffe, black rhino, Kalahari desert lion (awesome manes!), meerkat, brown hyaena, aardwolf, aardvark, ground squirrel, and tons more to keep one’s attention.

Background and Accommodations

The name Kalahari derives from the Tswana word “Kgala” which means “great thirst”. But the southern Kalahari, where Tswalu is located, is really a “green desert” as the Korannaberg Mountains attract precious rainfall in the summer months. The Kalahari has been the ancestral home of the San people, or Bushmen, for thousands of years. As hunter-gatherers, the Bushmen survived by tracking and hunting wild game with bows and arrow, gathering berries or desert melons and storing scarce water in the blown-out shells of ostrich eggs. The San culture and beliefs are rich and rooted in this land.

Tswalu is located in the southern area of the Kalahari Desert, on the South African side of the border

Historically the area has been both ranch land and hunting land. In 1999 Nicky Oppenheimer purchased Tswalu, extended the amount of land, and began restoring the land back to its original state. Tswalu has two different accommodation options: The Motse and Tarkuni. The Motse is the main location, which means “village” in Tswana, and consists of just eight spacious and secluded suites. Tarkuni is the Oppenheimer’s private home, and can accommodate up to 10 guests. I stayed at The Motse during my visit, and did take the opportunity to visit Tarkuni during some down time. Both are excellent and very comfortable, and I would love to stay at Tarkuni if I bring a handful of travelers with me, due to the more private setting. Regarding The Motse, 2 of their suites have 2 rooms, and myself and one of my guests used one of these rooms during our stay. The 2-bedroom suites have 2 bathrooms and a common area, and would work well for a small family of 2 to 4 people. It should be said that Tswalu is a member of the Relais & Châteaux collection of worldwide properties, which means you know you will receive excellent service, dining and accommodations. Tswalu has their own private airplane, a Pilatus PC-12, which only takes about 90 minutes of flight time to get to and from Johannesburg, and they also have service in and out of Capetown. There are other planes available, depending on need and availability.

The lounge are at Motse

Wildlife Wildlife Wildlife

Well, I am an African wildlife photographer, and I am driven primarily by photography than anything else. Tswalu’s wildlife is not what I would call a ‘big five’ experience, and is more appropriate for people who have been on safari before or who would like to experience species that are not easily seen in other places. I went to Tswalu to photograph meerkats, desert adapted Kalahari lions, black rhino and sable antelope. I did come away with wonderful images and experiences with all of these species, as well as with some other things that I did not expect. Here are just some wildlife experiences we encountered:

• A crash of 5 white rhinos running a few feet from the side of the vehicle (was difficult to photograph, for sure).
• Mating Kalahari desert adapted lions, and the male had a huge dark mane that is the most magnificent of any male I have ever seen.
• Tracking black rhino and finding both mother and young calf together, only 10 meters from us.
• Numerous visits to meerkat mobs (yes, they are called ‘mobs’ or ‘gangs’) to photograph them from many different angles and lighting situations.
• Numerous sightings of both sable and roan antelope.
• Dozens of bird species, and I especially am fond of all of the weaver species on the reserve.

Big Boy, my nickname for one of their magnificent Kalahari desert adapted male lions

 

Meerkat sunning himself in the morning light

Additional Information and Wrap-up

I visited in mid November, and based on what I know about the area I should plan on coming back during some of the warm(er) months. I am not sure that I will visit during the wintertime, as would like to have the big, puffy clouds on the horizon to contrast the red sand on the ground, and that needs to happen when the days are warm.

My experience at Tswalu was extraordinary, and one of the best combinations of service, dining, accommodations, wildlife and overall experience that I have ever experienced in Africa. This says quite a bit about how I feel about Tswalu, and how much I desire to return in future years.

Sunset over the Kalahari Desert, Tswalu

Setting up for dinner-under-the-stars in the Boma

A crash of five white rhinos, who took a few seconds to stop while I took a photograph. We drove next to them for a few minutes, watching them run parallel to our vehicle. What a blast.

Yawning lioness in the late afternoon light

Meerkats, all sunning themselves in the morning light

Day 21 – Tuningi Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

Leslie and I flew this morning to Gabarone, Botswana, and my friends Gerry and Adele van der Walt picked us up from the airport and drove us into Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. It is kind of ironic that I had to fly to another country in order to get to the reserve, but it was the fastest and most efficient way of getting here. There is a charter service from Johannesburg directly into Madikwe, but it sure is nice to take a big bird every now and then. We could have rented a car and driven the 3+ hours, but I would have not needed the car upon my arrival in Madikwe. It was actually less expensive and more efficient to just fly on a major airline instead. Oh, and I accumulated some more Star Alliance points. :-)

We stayed at Tuningi Safari Lodge, which is in the western side of Madikwe Game Reserve. Madikwe is a very interesting place, as it was once heavily grazed with cattle. In 1991 it was converted into a wildlife game reserve, and has all of the big 5 within its boundaries. The wildlife was relocated to Madikwe through Operation Phoenix, which was one of the largest wildlife translocation projects in the world. More than 8,000 animals from 28 species were released into Madikwe, which included elephant, rhino, lion, cheetah, wild dog, buffalo, hyena, giraffe and impala. The project was completed in 1997, and today there are more than 100 lions in the included 75,000 hectare property. Madikwe is a malaria-free area, which makes it a wonderful area for family safaris.

Tuningi Safari Lodge has 8 villas, and can accommodate a maximum of 16 people. Leslie and I absolutely loved the accommodations, and felt right at home during our 4 nights there. I would love to bring our sons there when they are older, but 2 years and 4 years old doesn’t work at this time.

After getting settled into the lodge, we headed out for the afternoon game drive. We pretty much spent our afternoon with elephants and rhinos (not a bad thing!) and watched some interesting and funny behavior. We were at one of the water holes and watch 2 family groups of white rhinos drink at the water’s edge. One large male spent the better part of a half an hour scratching his, uh, underside on a dead tree stump. After looking at the stump it was obvious that it has been used quite a bit for similar activities.

This afternoon was such a relaxing afternoon that I didn’t take too many photographs. I sat back, enjoyed my time with Leslie, and chatted with Grant Marcus, our awesome guide. Grant is also a great photographer, and one should visit Grant’s web site to see some of what he sees in and around Madikwe.

We headed back to camp after sunset, and we washed up and had a wonderful dinner around the fireplace in the lodge.

Our room at Tuningi

 

White rhino at the water's edge

..now time to scratch, uh, the 'underside'

..and time to try another position

Day 20 –Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa

Today was the last day of my second safari, and I was very sad to leave Mala Mala. Mala Mala is a very special place, and I plan on spending more time in the Sabi Sands in future years. For me the Sabi Sands area is all about high value photographic subjects in a short amount of time, and it makes for an excellent photographic destination for predators. For that reason I will be back in a few months to run my Leopards of the Sabi Sands trip in early November. I cannot wait to get back.

This morning’s game drive needed to be short, primarily due to the timing of our plane flight back to Johannesburg. We were out by 6:30am, and were back in camp by 8:45. In that short period of time we watched a herd of 36 elephants cross the airstrip, as well as watch the largest male leopard on the reserve, Emsagwen Male, go out on a patrol of his territory. What an awesome way to end the safari. Between our safari group we had 9 sightings of leopards in 4 days. That averages to more than 1 leopard per game drive. What surprised me was that a cold front blew in a few days ago, bringing along high winds, and that typically makes for difficult game viewing. When we have high winds it makes it difficult to hear bird calls, and those calls are one of the things that we rely on to identify and track predators. Additionally, the high winds and cold temperatures cause grazers and browsers to hunker down in the dense woodland, and your prey species are also difficult to locate. It is like somebody stole all of the wildlife. On this safari we relied on good old fashioned visual sightings, as well as using paw prints in the dirt and sand to locate our predators. Even looking for paw prints is difficult, as it is problematic to be able to tell the age of a print when the granules of sand have been swept into the paw print area in a short amount of time.

After our time with Emsagwen Male, we drove quickly back to camp for brunch. On the way back we followed a mother rhino with her baby that couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3 weeks old. A nice parting gift for us! But wait, there is more. It started to rain ever so slightly, and a rainbow appeared over the camp in the distance. And then it happened: a double rainbow. A double rainbow, but not the kind where I sound like I am going to cry and then ask “what does this mean?” as if I were stoned as in the YouTube video.

We departed camp by 11 and headed to the airstrip. We said goodbye to our ranger friends and boarded our plane for Johannesburg. The flight only took 1 hour, and after we arrived the whole group split off into different directions. I have to say that I am honored and privileged to have a business where my customers also turn out to be my friends. I am doing what I believe I was put on this earth to do, which is to share my love of photography, Africa and adventure with other people. I couldn’t be in a better profession for my skill sets, as well as my passions.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes only.

A herd of 36 elephants crossed the airstrip this morning. What a sight, but challenging to photograph

The Emsagwen Male leopard

Double Rainbow all the way. What does this mean?

Day 18 –Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa

I haven’t been spending much time with my diary in recent days, primarily because of the limited amount of time to keep on top of it all. My apologies if today’s dairy on the shorter end, but I will try to do a better job in future days.

Today we focused on mating lions, sub adult male lions, kudu, birds and a nice sunset. Not bad!

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Day 16 –Mashatu Main Camp / Rattray’s on Mala Mala, South Africa

This morning’s game drive was a short one, because we needed to get back to camp, pack, eat breakfast, drive to the airstrip and head for Mala Mala. I primarily photographed adult baboons with their young, and I have to be honest that it was a challenging task. I wanted to take advantage of a unique lighting situation, where the baboons were in the bright daylight and just behind them there was complete shadow. This was a great lighting situation, as it made it easier to highlight what the actual subject of the scene was. It was a near miss for me, as I could never seem to get all of the 3 adults and 3 young to look towards the camera, or at least near the camera.

We made our 12pm plane flights to Mala Mala, via Polokwane for immigration, and the flights and immigration took about 2.5 hours. When we arrived at Mala Mala, my friend and ranger Matt Meyer was waiting for us on the airstrip. Mala Mala has a wonderful airstrip that is paved, so light jets to bush planes can all service the camps here.

We drove the short drive to Rattray’s on Mala Mala, our camp for the next 4 nights, and quickly checked in. We were assigned our rooms, dropped off our bags and met back in the common area. Food was ready for us, but we had to respectfully pass and get into the Land Rovers for some wildlife. Mala Mala is one of my favorite locations in all of Africa for predators, specifically leopards and lions. Mala Mala is a well-run game reserve, and offroading is a necessary part of the experience here. The rangers are extremely professional, and many of them are avid photographers themselves. We are working with Matt, Donald, Gordon and Dean for the next 4 days, and all of them are great guys and photographers.

Upon leaving camp, we heard of an adult female leopard near Mala Mala Main Camp, so we knew exactly where to go. We met up with her and only had 10 minutes of shooting before we snapped something underneath our vehicle. It was our tie rod, which wasn’t a big deal at all, but we were disabled nonetheless.   We had driven over a really nasty iron wood stump, and we had to have another vehicle brought out to us. John loaned us his Rover for the afternoon, and by the time we moved our belongings the leopard had pretty much moved on into the dense brush. It wasn’t a big deal, because I knew that we would have more opportunities over the next 4 days.

On our way back to camp, we stopped for sparring giraffes and a pair of white rhino. Not bad for a 2 hour game drive, eh? J

Dinner was in the outdoor boma, and the fire tonight was absolutely stellar. Tonights’ dinner was made up of kudu, roasted veggies, roasted tomato & basil soup with ice cream for desert. Not exactly diet material, but I think I can cope.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Overlook with the Sand River

Our first leopard at Mala Mala

Sparring Giraffes

..and our first rhino

Day 15 –Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

This morning’s game drive was mostly filled with trying to focus on the more elusive subjects, such as red-billed quelea, eland and kudu. On the surface these subjects seem quite easy to photograph, however it is quite difficult to get unique and creative photos of them. My attempts didn’t really work, but good photographs with unique behavior takes time.

I often see safari vehicles passing by subjects that can yield excellent images, and all too often these vehicles move along in search of big cats. Heck, I love leopards, lions and cheetahs just like anybody else, however looking over plains game, birds and everything in between is a huge mistake. Another huge mistake is to be impatient at a sighting and wanting to move on. Good photographs are created, not captured by doing quick drive-by type shooting. One needs to take the time to capture images that stir the soul, and that is the biggest secret that will help any nature photographer.

After our mid-day lecture and critique session, we headed out of camp towards the river system that flows through Mashatu. As we arrived at the river, we immediately noticed a large elephant herd filling up their bellies with fresh water. Cha-ching! Each member of the herd made its way down towards the water, and after finishing you could see the happiness in all of them as they played and sparred along the water’s edge. We didn’t need to move the vehicle for a while, and just enjoyed watching all of the fun going on down below. We positioned the vehicle on a ridge above the river, which had a great view of the action down below.

When the light started to fade, we worked some of the open fields in search of paw prints, and we located a single female lioness within a few minutes. She was out on her own, and the light was fading quickly when we located her. As like most lions in the daytime, she was lying down and napping. As the setting sun went over a hill, we were able to at least grab a few shots of the warm light on her face. I absolutely love the last minutes of light in the day, which can be very warm and direct. This warm light is something that I always try to use to my advantage, however it isn’t always there when I need it, or I don’t have a good subject to photograph in the warm light.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Our overlook for the elephants, before they arrived en masse

A more closeup view when the elephants arrived

Elephants drinking in the river

Elephants drinking in the river

Elephants drinking in the river

Frolicking and playing

A lioness to end the day...

Day 13 –Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

Ok, I must say it in advance that today was all about elephants. Yes, there is excellent general game here at Mashatu, but today was all about elephants. The elephants here are extremely relaxed, and this makes for excellent photography. We spent a great amount of time with one family of elephants, and they were so relaxed around us that they actually fell asleep. Half of the herd fell asleep while standing up, and the other half actually laid down on the ground and started to slumber. One male stood only 5 feet from my lens and started sleeping within minutes of our arrival. It was just amazing to witness such large animals in such a relaxed state.

I took the opportunity to use my 200-400mm and isolate parts of this male, and this was a fun exercise to try and compose intimate compositions. I am not confident that many of the photographs worked out, but it was fun to at least try to get out of my normal way of shooting. I am trying to photograph in a different way on this trip, as I need to get out my shell a bit. My photographs haven’t been up to my standards in a while, and I need to try and break out a bit. Jessica Mitford once wrote a book on writing, and she talked about how writers need to ‘murder their darlings’. Writers have pet phrases that they try and fit into their writings, and they actually hold writers back from growing in their craft. As a photographer I am trying to learn this approach, and I am trying to murder my own darlings on this safari. I may not be successful, but I am hoping that I will at least learn more about creativity in the process. Since I am here in Africa often, I have the luxury of being able to try new things. Let’s hope I both learn something as well as come home with some newer looking images.

This afternoon we tracked two leopards, a mother and her sub adult son. Only 1 vehicle had shots of the mother, however most everybody else was able to shoot the male up in a tree. I didn’t take any photographs this afternoon, and spent the time working with my vehicle mates on exposure and composition. I also took the time to just think about my own compositions, and have come up with some new ideas that I will put into practice on future game drives.

After a nice sundowner drink, we all headed back to camp, cleaned up and met at the bar before dinner. Dinner was under the stars in the boma, set amongst a roaring fire in the middle of the enclosure. The Mashatu staff sang a few joyous songs for us, and many in the group retired back to their rooms by 9:00. Jet lag really hits hard for the first few days, and I was tired for other reasons.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Day 12 – Johannesburg / Mashatu Main Camp, Botswana

We took a private charter from Joburg today, and we had one airplane for us and one for all of our luggage. This allowed us to bring more than 90 pounds of luggage per person, without all of the stress and headaches. The flight was only 1:15, and we were on the ground in the game reserve by the early afternoon. We met our guides, sorted our luggage, waved goodbye to the pilots and headed towards camp within minutes of our arrival. We checked into our rooms, freshened up and met back for high tea. Afterwards we headed out for our afternoon game drive.

Mashatu is all about elephants, and let me tell you we hit the mother load this afternoon. What a fantastic afternoon, filled with multiple families of elephants. The light was nice and warm, and we sat and watched families of elephants come up from the riverbed, towards our vehicles.

Walking elephants can be visually less than exciting, so I decided to work on some blurred panning shots a bit. Since the sun set at 5:30-ish, we didn’t do anything else other than spend time with the elephants this afternoon. After photographing the elephants, our vehicles met up at the top of a hill and watched the darkening sky get darker, at the same time laughing and talking over gin and tonics, wine and beer. For some on the trip it is their first time in Africa, and I can see that they are enjoying themselves right off the bat. Troy, who works for Gura Gear as well as myself, had a huge grin on his face. I think he is hooked, and perhaps he will be able to join me on future safaris. Troy is shooting video on this trip, but primarily for marketing purposes. We want to show potential travelers what it is like out on safari, from what we do, where we stay, what people are photographing and also to convey the overall feeling of an African photo safari with me or with one of the other photographers who also lead safaris with me.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.