Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) in the spectacular early morning light of Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @ 75mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 800. 1/100sec at f/7.1. Exposure set manually.

I called this blog “Sensational Tswalu”. Found it difficult to get an adjective that did justice to Tswalu. “Sensational” was used because in addition to the standard dictionary definition as highlighted in the excerpt for this blog, it also means oustanding, spectacular, startling or arousing intense interest and excitement.  It is a unique place in an extraordinary environment that defies easy description.

Where to start?  I suppose at the beginning.  How did we end up going to Tswalu which often prompts people to say “where’s that?”, when you tell them where you are going.  It really started at the beginning of the strict Covid lockdown time some two years ago when Tswalu was featured on the TV channel Wild Earth®.  It just looked an interesting and beautiful place of which I was not really aware of.  Not long after that there was a short TV series which tracked the building of the extraordinary “Klein Jan” restuarant in Tswalu. This was the brain child of Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen who has a Michelin star restuarant in the French Riviera.  I think this more than anything enthralled me about the place and its seemingly very South African atmosphere.  Our 50th wedding anniversary was going to be during May of this year so back in December 2021, we made the decision to spend a few days at Tswalu and celebrate our 50th with a dinner in “Klein Jan”.  One of the best decisions we have made!

This is not a travel blog but it rather attempts to highlight the beauty and unique environment of this famous private nature reserve.

Tracks (and vehicle-prints!) in the sand.  The Korannaberg mountains in the background.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens @ 70mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 400. 1/800 sec at f/11. Exposure set manually.

There are three things that immediately strike you about Tswalu.  Firstly, it is the vastness of the area, then the varied topography and most of all the unbelievable variation, intensity and beauty of the light.  The Reserve covers some 111 000 hectares and the landscape varies from the mountainous Korranaberg in the East and South with clear dune topography consisting of North-South running dunes in the central part and open plains towards the Western boundary.  Tswalu, which means “new beginning” in Tswana, was made up of numerous farms which were farmed with cattle, sheep and some crops. I took a photo of a picture of what the habitat looked like when the original farms were bought by Stephen Boler to form the area of Tswalu. Many of the farms were overgrazed and in very bad shape as can be seen by the image on the left below. On the right is what most of Tswalu looks like now.

It is difficult to visualise what the area of Tswalu looked like before Stephen Boler and, later on, the Oppenheimer family transformed this wilderness into what it is today.

Sunrises and sunsets at Tswalu are really special as the light just seems to take on the most beautiful colours and subtle hues that you can imagine.  Not sure what makes that difference, but the light is just different.  Also striking, is the intensity of the red colour of the sand.  It seems quite different from the Kgalagadi where the sand seems to have a more orange hue.  Hence the roads and tracks are distinctive in most images.

Pre-sunrise in Tswalu.

Canon EOS R5 with a Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM lens @16mm. ISO 800. 1/80 sec at f/8. Exposure set manually.

Sunsets were even better as there was longer “blue hour” time.  The light is always best just after sunset and for about 45 minutes afterwards. You get the beautiful blues and magentas rather than the yellow and reds at about sunset time.

The orange and yellows just as the sun sets

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @95mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 400. 1/100sec at f/11.  Exposure set manually.

A few minutes later as the reds and a bit of purple appears

Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM lens @ 35mm.  ISO 400.  1/60sec at f/13.  Exposure set manually.

Then even later the dark blues and magentas appear

Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM lens @ 35mm.  ISO 320.  1/25 sec at f/11. Exposure set manually.

But Tswalu is obviously not just about its magnificent landscape and environment. There is plenty of wildlife and other things to see.  Plains game is plentiful with many excellent sightings of Gemsbok,  Sable and Roan Antelope,  Red Hartebeest,  Eland,  Kudu,  Springbok, Steenbok,  Common Duiker,  Plains Zebra,  Blue Wildebeest and  Impala.

Roan Antelope (Hippotragus equinus). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @ 200mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 400. 1/2500 sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually.

One remarkable sighting was an Aardvark. In all the years I have been going to game reserves I had never seen one.  It was a quick but good sighting.  Never had a chance to photograph it.  However, the ranger soon had me traipsing through the bush tracking the Aardvark.  We did see it a few times but always in long grass.  Pangolin was on our wish list, but we never saw one.

We did see most of the cats/carnivores that are found in the reserve. The stand outs were the African Wild Dogs and the Brown Hyena. We saw the pack of Wild Dogs twice.  Once early one morning, when a few of them were contemplating whether they should try to catch a Gemsbok, but I think they were wise to leave it well alone. There were only a few dogs so it would have been difficult to bring the large Gemsbok down.

African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) being closely watched by a Gemsbok (Oryx gazella).

Canon EOS R5 with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @ 200mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter

ISO 1250.  1/640 sec @ f/5.6.  Exposure set manually.

Far more exciting, on the following evening we managed to watch the wild dogs chase a warthog through the long grass.  The alpha male followed them along the vehicle track so we got a good view of it trotting down the road.  The other dogs ran very quickly and for a few kilometers, before they seemed to lose the Warthog – probably scurried down a burrow.  The Alpha male soon caught up with the rest of the exhausted pack that had just collapsed in the grass and one on the road.  It was pretty dark at this stage and I though I may not get a good image because of the low light.  I was using the R3 with a RF 400mm f/2.8 lens. I increased the ISO to an incredible 12800 and with a slightly smaller aperture to ensure that the whole of the dog was in focus, captured a pretty good image considering the very low light.

Alpha male African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) with one of the beta females after a long unsuccessful chase.

Canon EOS R3 with Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens and a RF 1.4x extender. ISO 12800. 1/30 sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually.

When you think of animals at Tswalu, the first thing that comes to mind are the Meerkats. They were made famous on Wild Earth® by Dylan Smith, head of the Dedeben Research Cente. There are habituated Meerkat colonies that make viewing so good.  We went out late one afternoon to the area of the colonies and were favoured with exquisite golden light. Best way to photograph the Meerkats was to lie down flat on your stomach and capture images at their height.

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @ 200mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 400. 1/400 sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @ 140mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 400. 1/400sec at f/3.5. Exposure set manually

Both images taken with a Canon EOS R3 and a Canon RF 400 f/2.8L IS USM lens with a Canon RF 1.4x extender. Exposures set manually.

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R3 with Canon 400 mm f/2.8L IS USM lens and Canon RF 1.4x extender.

ISO 800. 1/2000 sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually.

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens @ 200mm attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter.

ISO 400. 1/400sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually.

I had lots of fun capturing images of the meerkats.  I could have just gone on and on.  They were very active but vigilant.  There was one of them in the top of a small tree next to the colony of burrows – keeping watch no doubt.  All of them kept looking left and right and sometimes upwards.  The meerkats would move around and change their pose as if they were professional models.  The youngsters would play and roll each other over and just seemed to be like any two young children having fun.  The wife of our very good tracker, Artist, is a graduate employee working on the habituation of the meerkats.  That must be a most fascinating job.

I started off using the R3 with a 400mm lens and a 1.4x extender but found that you could get much closer and only needed a 70-200mm lens and then sometimes even only at focal lengths of 100mm to 140mm.

The Meerkats were a real highlight but there was still much to come.  We did see a Bat-eared Fox, Cape and Scrub Hares and Cape Ground Squirrels.  There were lots of Black-backed Jackals, also Yellow and Slender Mongooses.

Our Guide did not seem too keen on stopping for birds, but we did sight a number of species  – mostly LBJ’s of the Karoo and Kalahari areas.  We did not see many raptors but Black-winged Kites and Pygmy Falcons were quite common.  At one waterhole there were both White-backed and Lappet-faced Vultures.  In the evenings we were fortunate to have good sightings of Spotted Eagle Owls.

Cape Ground Squirrel (Geosciurus inauris). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and Canon EF 1.4x extender.

ISO 400. 1/1600 sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually.

Female South African Shelduck (Tadorna cana), Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R3 with RF 400mmf/2.8L IS USM lens and Canon RF 1.4x extender.

ISO 400. 1/800 sec at f/5.6. Exposure set manually.

Unlike most bird species, the female Shelduck is more colourful and striking than the male.

We’d had a wonderful 5 days at Tswalu, although there was very heavy rain on the second day which carried on into the third morning which did curtail our drives. On the last evening, we decided to go to a good lookout spot and just enjoy the sunset and soak in the last of the atmosphere of Tswalu.  We were favoured with a gorgeous sunset  for what we thought was the grand finale.

Our last sunset at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM lens @ 15mm mounted on a Gitzo tripod  and RRS ballhead with the camera about 20cm off the ground. Shutter triggered remotely.

ISO 200. 1.3 sec at f/11. Exposure set manually.

But the show wasn’t over yet.  As we were driving back to the lodge, both our tracker and  guide glimpsed two cheetah in the grass. It was time to dial in 12800 ISO again and also with the widest aperture at f/2.8.  Artist, our tracker, did not want to shine the light too near the cheetah to avoid affecting its night vision.  It was really dim – actually dark!

They did see two cheetah that had killed a small Gemsbok calf. The next moment we saw a Brown Hyena in the grass. It had pinched the top part of the kill and the cheetah were wanting it back.  However they did not put up much of a fight and the Brown Hyena, picking up and dropping the upper part of the Gemsbok calf, was making its way off.

The following images were all taken with a Canon EOS R5 and a Canon EF 70-20omm f/2.8L IS III USM lens attached with a Canon EF/RF adapter. The ISO was set at 12800 and the maximum aperture of 2.8 was used.

Brown Hyena (Parahyaena brunnea). Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Canon EOS R5 with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2..8L IS III USM lens @ 200mm attached with an EF/RF adapter. Hand held.

 ISO 12800. 1/160 sec at f/2.8. Exposure set manually.

What an ending to the trip!  Brown Hyena are not that common, but to see it take a kill and get away with it was something else.  A great thanks to Juan, our Guide and Artist our Tracker.  While it was happenning it was wild  No time to think about changing camera settings.  The R5 and particularly the R3, both have excellent high ISO performance and with a fast lens like the 70-200mm f/2.8, made it possible to capture these images in the very low light. It also says something for the IS systems.

I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION KLEIN JAN.

We had a memorable evening at Klein Jan on our 50th wedding anniversary.  That is a story all on its own.  Almost impossible to describe, but I am going to leave you with a teaser, especially for those of you who may be fortunate enough to go there.  The image below, taken on the morning after our fantastic celebration is the entrance – no I’ll call it the Entrée – to Klein Jan.  Go fathom!