Sagole Big Tree

The Sagole baobab is the biggest in the country: figures vary with how it is measured, but the trunk circumference is generally given as over twenty metres and the crown spread is wide enough that the tree reads as a small building. Baobabs are hard to age because they lack normal growth rings and the wood is fibrous, so estimates in the many hundreds to over a thousand years are offered with appropriate caution. It stands in open bush near Sagole village in Venda country, without fencing or a visitor centre - you drive to it on gravel, and people from the village will usually appear and show you around for a small amount. Baobabs across southern Africa have been dying in unusual numbers over the past decade, with heat and drought discussed as causes, which has made the surviving giants more closely watched.

What you actually see

• The largest baobab - a trunk over twenty metres in circumference, the biggest in the country.
• The uncertain age - hundreds of years at least, but baobabs cannot be ring-counted.
• The village setting - no fence or centre, standing in open bush near homes.
• The wider die-off - large baobabs failing across the region in recent years.

When to go

April to September - summer here is extremely hot. One hour.

Honest expectations

Roads in are gravel and signage is poor; asking locally is normal and expected. There are no facilities. Summer temperatures in this corner of Limpopo are severe. A small payment to whoever shows you the tree is the local custom.

Nearby

Tshipise hot springs are west; Musina and the Limpopo are north.