This was our third visit to Mashatu all expertly organized and hosted by C4, but the first time seeing it during the summer green emerald season we visited Jan 27-Feb 2, 2022. As expected, it was not quite as productive as the dry season e.g., July to September, but we still had many great sightings and photographic opportunities. I was also happy that I had booked 6 nights instead of our usual 3-4 nights, as the first couple of days were very wet due to the remnants of tropical storm Ana that were passing through. Despite the heavy rain on those days, we still managed to get out on most game drives during that time. A big plus with all of that rain is that it made the grass greener and the yellow flowers all come out and bloom during the last few days of our visit. We had several great sightings of leopards, lions, cheetahs including a chase hunt!, elephants, elands, and even bat-eared foxes including with the surrounding yellow flowers!. We had Kaizer again as our Mashatu ranger and he is a super nice and knowledgeable guy with great spoken English. He takes direction from others well e.g., about vehicle positioning for best photography and he understands some of the important nuances regarding photography e.g., position for best backgrounds in images. We booked the C4 photo vehicle again and Aubrey was our C4 photo host and this was our first time meeting him. He was great – very knowledgeable about the reserve and its animals, good suggestions regarding photography, and we experimented with some creative photography e.g., rimback-lighting, panning, high-key. He was a joy to have on the vehicle and interact with in camp. The Mashatu Lodge main camp staff e.g., Lobs, Nancy, Cecilia were all fantastic and the food has improved dramatically over the years. Overall it was a great and worthwhile visit, and we hope to visit Mashatu again soon! Thanks again C4!

Mark and Holly Needham