Travel Guide Northern Tuli Game Reserve

The reserve's huge, unfenced, wildlife-rich private concessions, located between the Motloutse, Limpopo, and Shashe rivers, were created in the late 1960s by white Tuli Block farmers who could no longer properly farm the land, which was constantly overrun by wildlife. The reserve is approximately 720 square kilometers in size and offers beautiful rugged landscapes of hills and valleys. It is distinguished from other reserves in Botswana by the extreme diversity and originality of its landforms. Thomas Baines, the famous artist and explorer, was inspired to paint his magnificent landscapes. In the vicinity of Mashatu, the traveler's gaze will be captured by the heaps of sandstone blocks or by the orange-pink mountains that detach their silhouettes from the luxuriant vegetation of the river banks. Further north, towards Jwala, long belts of mopane trees mark the dry riverbeds, while a little further north, mysterious piles of precariously balanced rocks remind us of the atypical Matopos formations (in Zimbabwe) of which they are a continuation. The presence of archaeological and historical sites, scattered here and there at the top of the hills, adds to the charm and mystery of the place and the traveler will alternate nature activities and cultural excursions. The Northern Tuli Game Reserve is well worth a visit of a few days, so much so that a stay entirely devoted to this cross-border region would not be incongruous. There are plans to create a 3,000 km² transboundary game reserve, which would include the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa and Tuli Circle in Zimbabwe.