Mashatu Tent Camp

Mashatu Tent Camp is the small camp in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve: eight tents tucked under enormous trees along meandering paths, each on a raised platform with its own private outdoor en-suite. It is the option for people who want Tuli’s game with canvas rather than air conditioning.

Tents at Mashatu Tent Camp

Eight completely private tents, each mounted on a raised platform with its own private outdoor en-suite facilities including WC and shower. The tents are large enough to stand and move around in.

Facilities at Mashatu Tent Camp

Meals shared in an open-air thatched gazebo or in the boma overlooking a floodlit, well-used waterhole.

Who it suits

Travellers who prefer a small camp and outdoor bathrooms to a lodge, and anyone who wants the waterhole at night. The camp describes instant camaraderie as the norm, which is honest — you will eat with the other guests.

Location and access

By road via the Pont Drift border with South Africa, or by air into the reserve.

A floodlit waterhole is a night drive without the vehicle

You do not need a vehicle to watch what comes to drink after dark. A camp built around a lit waterhole gives you leopard, hyena, elephant and porcupine from a chair with a drink, on nights when a game drive would have found nothing. It is one of the most underrated features a camp can have.

Outdoor bathrooms are not a hardship, but know what you are booking

Private outdoor en-suites are one of the pleasures of a small bush camp — showering under stars with elephant somewhere in the dark. They are also genuinely outdoors, which in a Tuli winter means cold mornings. It suits some travellers completely and others not at all; the camp is upfront about it and so are we.

Plan the rest of your trip

Read our guide to the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, or to Francistown.