PORTFOLIO

Mark Dumbleton’s ode to Kubu Island in Botswana – a place of otherworldly landscapes, magical baobabs and starry skies.

Lekhubu Island in Botswana, commonly referred to as Kubu Island, is a mystical place: a rock outcrop full of baobab and chestnut trees, lost in the expanse of the Makgadikgadi Pans. Getting there is no easy task: The road is rough and can be hazardous after rain. But that just makes you appreciate it even more. For a landscape photographer like Mark Dumbleton, Kubu is a kind of Shangri-La: clear skies filled with stars, a horizon with no end in sight, those trees… “Kubu Island is so remote and beautiful, when you’re there it feels like nothing else exists in the world,” Mark says. “It’s an escape in so many ways. Standing on the edge, looking into the distance and seeing absolutely nothing… It’s magical.” The best spots for photography are on the eastern and northern sides of the island, where the baobabs stand apart from each other and some wonderful rock formations occur. If you want to shoot at night, make sure you do a recce during the day first because it can get disorientating once the sun goes down.