They say it’s about buffalo and lions, but really, it is so much more.
The Mababe Depression (which I have taken the liberty of renaming ‘The Mababe Kingdom’) is a place of rhythms and patterns. It’s a record of times gone by and a vision of times to come. This wild space, though not exempt from historic human impact, has recently reclaimed its natural heritage. The earthquake of 2017-18 brought water back to this ancient lake bed, called the Mababe depression today.
It has endured severe drought, but its people and wildlife held onto their roots. Sure, some things changed, and there was much suffering, but visiting today, I found a desert transformed. A force of nature altered Botswana’s flat landscape just enough to bring back the water.
As the water fills the parched depression, it brings waves of animals—elephants, frogs, squirrels, sable, eland, rhône, leopards, cheetahs, birds, and yes, the buffalo and lions. The quelea grace the skies once again after a period of absence—millions of tiny birds rolling like bait balls of sardines, creating elaborate shapes as they try to outsmart the falcons and hawks hunting them. Watching their art fill the sky transports your imagination as far as you allow. These tiny creatures leave miniature art in circles on the ground too. In the fallen grass where they forage for seeds, they create equidistant and perfect circles the size of their circumference as they hurriedly feed before taking off simultaneously in a cloud, never still for long.
Mababe boasts the largest herd of buffalo in Africa. As a photographer you eagerly try to be ‘THE Communicator’ of this spectacular scene, only to surrender to their rhythmic procession and simply sit and watch them roll past you in a perfectly ordered seemingly endless movement- In to drink from feeding beyond the tree line and back out of the depression. They lose lives to the lions regularly, but the rhythm continues as if the earth commands it.
The lions have their rhythm too—males patrol, mothers hunt to feed their young. Lions face their own challenges; hunting success is low, prey is plentiful but strong in numbers. These golden boys, brothers, occupy prime territory, however, just as they took it from the previous dominant male lions, they can lose it too. They face competition from a northern pride—young sub-adults, fierce and full of pride.
I’ve been to many places that have moved me to share their incredible natural beauty. One might feel that they will run out of new magic, but here, between the Chobe and Savuti parks, is a concession proudly guarded by the Mababe villagers for its magical, life-sustaining water.
Flying over the Mababe Kingdom reveals its unique value. All around the ancient lake bed, now blessed with water once again, is a desert-like landscape. Across the new marsh, the earth is tattooed with patterns created by the animals—each with its own unique effect. Large, visible elephant trails and a thousand buffalo hooves flatten the common reed in their passage to water. Witnessing a wild dog hunt from the helicopter was perhaps the most insane sighting. The dogs have a well-oiled strategy of running prey into the marsh to exhaust them quicker. Being wild dogs, they feed on their prey in the water—mud and all. My images from this trip include some of the dirtiest animals ever!
Still, the buffalo leave the most marked effect on a visitor. They command your attention. Just as water brings life, light glorifies the natural world, and in the soft evening light of sunset, one loses oneself to the most prominent rhythm of the kingdom.
To me, the buffalo are the resilient ones, the epitome of endurance. Perhaps we don’t have to be the strongest, the loudest, or the most beautiful to endure and live a wonderful life.
Until I return, I thank the generations who have loved this place.”
Lower Zambezi National park again!
The Lower Zambezi jungle opened her arms and sucked me into her intoxicating mix of heat, sunsets, dust, blood, sweat and raw animal behavior.
Dogs. The painted wolf of Africa. Wild wild scenes. Crocodiles, hippos, elephants and leopards.
We stayed in very comfortable tent structures beneath the canopy of a vast forest of Anna trees. The season had moved to a full spring. Mornings greeting you with a superficial chill, just for a minute as the mist on the low channels running this year, trying to counter the heat fast approaching. The grass is strong and tall now, it grows in strong bushels separate from each other creating pathways between them – perfect leopard ambush paths!
A perfect morning led us to two leopard cubs, stashed in a safe place waiting for Mom to find food. The sun was still low, illuminating the tall grass. The two leopards, not quite adults but not cubs any more, were very playful amongst large termite mounds and tall grass. Try to imagine the low feathery leaves of the winterthorn trees, in front of the lowest red red sunrise light. The grasses shining with an orange-green luminance.
There is no exiting the vehicle anywhere near these sugarcane like grass fields, commonly called suicide grass, since there is no way of telling what animal could be in-between the 2m high clumps. I wanted to get down low to capture the grass in the foreground of the leopard on the mound. Lying on the floor of the vehicle with the door open, I was able to angle the camera and get the shot. We luckily spent at least an hour with these two leopards as we did not encounter them again all of the time we were there.
In this way, nature is the giver, and respecting what nature provides within the boundaries of preservation and protection of the wilderness and all her inhabitants, will bring you the best she has to show.
The photographic material I was imagining capturing on this trip, as with so many plans we try to make, turned out to simply not present itself. Growing up visiting wild parks and living in the semi-bush itself, one learns, there are no guarantees of what you will see, but there are also always surprises you couldn’t have planned for if you tried.
The evenings at this time of year in the valley, are as said, painted in a rich red light. There is an area, a large open plain between forests of winterthorns, where one can often find the wild dogs. Patience in pursuit delivered an elephant bull crossing the plain only to disturb the dogs and reveal them to us. We witness the power struggle between to two species but the dogs know their place and retreat.
We were to encounter these dogs on a hunt the following red dusty evening. Have I described a dog hunt before, I wonder? Well I have yet to witness one quite like this was… the hunt began in the cool dark of the forests. The forests, although deep and lush, have ample space between the trees where grasses and mosses grow, being lower vegetation than the tough sugarcane like bushels of suicide grass, visibility is good and one can see deep between the trees. The haze of blue light created by the mixture of yellow sunlight between the feathery green leaves of the trees covers the forest with a very peaceful, cool aura.
The pack of 23 dogs trots purposefully between the trees in the low vegetation, sniffing, scanning and working as a very experienced unit. We have an elevated view from the vehicle and follow their movements with our eyes. There are two other vehicles around and we wait on an indication of direction from the movements of the pack.
The dogs act on instinct and practice I guess. Within seconds they have split into groups and are chasing impala. The hunt is on but all we know is the antelope are scattering and it seems like there are dogs all over the place -we were watching them but once they move, we are just clumbsy fools in our big vehicles.
Each vehicle picks a direction. We head to an open clearing where the red dust is illumated into a deeper orange as it seems something is going down .. we are in luck .. 5 dogs are trying to bring down a very large impala ram. They attack its back inner legs and try to disable it, the antelope falls in the attack and the dogs have it down on its belly in the dust and they feast on the live ram ferociously as if it could disappear somehow at any second. They communicate with the rest of the pack and more dogs join within minutes and they feed well that night.
This feeding frenzy seems savage to us by human terms but the noise and sounds of the kill can attrack bigger predators and the smaller pack ( the 5 on this Ram ) have no surety of the distance of the rest of the pack from them, should a lion or leopard or pack of hyena arrive on the scene, they could loose their kill.
The social structure of the pack, is also such that they take care of each other as a whole, meaning, they share food amongst them. They risk losing the meal if they try to drag it somewhere safer or wait for the other members to arrive and eat, so whomever is at the site, eats as much as possible as fast as possible, and should the rest of the pack not find food or not be able to join them, they will regurgitate some of their meal on meeting up again, so everyone keeps their strength to enable them to hunt and move with the pack still.
Witnessing the skill and power of the five dogs in this hunt was a real lesson in the meticulous workings of nature. These painted wolves of africa are an incredible species.
The wild dog has been a very big loser in the human wildlife conflict. Often, in fenced parks, the dogs are thriving but the packs outgrow the protected land available needed to sustain them. Sadly, there are not enough areas big enough or void of humans to run dogs and they often must be culled. In an unfenced eco system, nature balances the dog population. The lower Zambezi valley is close to the most open / unfenced uninhabited wildlife are but to the far western side, humans are encroaching in the game management areas where they can own private land for recreation and fishing.
I was travelling with Escape Safari co at the Classic Zambia camps of Kutali and Chula island. This area of the zambezi river has many islands across the river all the way to the Zimbabwean side. There are also long channels that flow inland toward the escarpment and back out to the Zambezi river again. One such channel is a fairly well known and permanent channel, called the Discovery channel. This channel has some real risks of crocodile and hippo attacks and many camps do not canoe along it with guests anymore.
My guides, from Classic Zambia, had lived on and traversed this channel most of their lives and I felt the risk was worth it, not to mention it is said to be one of the most beautiful to canoe. Viewing wildlife from the water was also fast becoming my new favourite thing.
Chula island, is surrounded by the Discovery channel. My tent looked out at the main Zambezi river on the southern side of the island. A most tranquil place to find myself. My shower was a fenced open outside area under the winterthorn trees.
Canoeing the discovery channel, I was a little apprehensive, but I said my prayers and settled with the knowledge that if I was to die in this channel, what a way to go! Hee hee and then prayed for the hand of God over his creatures so I could live to glorify His creation. Well clearly, I lived and how unbelievably glorious it was. Perhaps the notorious nature of the channel added some drama to the experience but there was almost no drama, in fact our guide explained that he had never experienced the discovery channel this peaceful before.
Famous last words were barely uttered when, as we were exiting the channel, my guide remembered there was often a waterbuck that liked to cross the gap… true to his word, the buck started to jump across but at a much more urgent pace. My canoe was well positioned, and I shot the buck with a wide lens in hand to capture the scene, only to discover there was a massive crocodile chasing after the waterbuck and it launched into the air behind the buck and in my frame – whoo-hoo! I got it, and the waterbuck survived but I doubt he crossed the gap for a long while afterward.
Again I say, you need to be ready for anything in the wild. One reason I find wild spaces so interesting is simply because you can never have seen it all. We passed many hippo pods in the water on our canoes. They are super scary right next to you and we did have to have a stern word with a couple of territorial bulls but mostly, being low on the water looking up at ebony and winterthorn trees, lush grass banks with amazing birdlife from Kingfishers, bee eaters, goliath herons, storks, ibis, little black crakes, and many other birds that you could not approach on foot, just go about their business around you. Most animals move nervously away but if you are calm and unthreatening, you can sit right alongside a mother elephant and a new baby playing in the water or a giraffe drinking , with a whole new perspective.
It seems animals are really quite comfortable with us in the boats, especially canoes. The canoe is virtually silent and we are at a lower level than the animals I guess. This silent slide through the wilderness is also an absolute treat for your ears, the sound of the wild is a very real calm, something I was desperate for on this trip.
Lower Zambezi valley was fast becoming a big favorite on my list of places in the wild. Being able to go this far east in the valley meant there was very little human traffic anywhere near me, giving you the real feeling of escape into the wild.
This is the story of my first visit to a very northern part of our globe. A place called Svalbard. To get there from my home on the southern tip of Africa, I needed to fly via Norway. I have since been back, and I would like to say it was less emotional or fantastical as I seem to go on about below but it is all this and more.
Norway from the air on the morning of August 1 st 2023 is a rich landscape of greens covering mountains and hills, a wealth in water and space, orderly and kept. Peaceful to the eye and the soul. The afternoon in the city of Oslo matched what I had observed from the air and I felt quite at ease. Then, remembering the final destination, almost pain at having to spend 24 hours on the mainland before I reach the islands of Svalbard.
Finally flying out of Oslo, North over Norway to Svalbard, words failed me for the expanse and beauty I was experiencing. At a point on this journey, I considered whether I should actually write and share my experience at all because, really, who am I to convey to anyone exactly what this is like- seeing the Arctic Ocean and these incredible islands? More than this, I felt it unfair that I should have this privilege above another.
So overwhelmingly unique in every way and that was just the landscape. I was yet to breathe the air, feel the crisp fresh cold of summer in this Arctic desert.
I concede that the world is beautiful and ordinary at the same time and sharing our different life experiences, is a way of bringing us closer as humans, in that …when we speak of what we treasure, we honour those who count it as ordinary/home.
In sharing my experiences I aim to honour this place that welcomed me to visit and reveal the treasure it is to me. I hope that it becomes treasured to all and not just because it sustains one’s livelihood but because it sustains all our livelihoods, as one giant organism – our incredible earth!
So, Svalbard to me..
“I am sailing on the MS Virgo. It is half passed midnight and I am alone in the lounge where we all usually gather. Crew manning the bridge no doubt, but I feel alone. I am halfway through my trip as I write, I simply don’t know how I am going to say goodbye to this incredible part of the world. “
MS Virgo is an elegant hardworking gal, I would say. She has a path and a mission and she diligently applies herself to it. At 551 gross tons she is a reinforced ice breaker. Just 41 odd meters long, perfectly equipped inside and out for the expedition to sail around the Svalbard islands.
Climbing aboard the ship was my most nervous moment since I am not not the best traveler on water.
Initially I didn’t worry too much about this since I assumed one simply closes the light out to go to sleep, and one can and does but… I didn’t want to sleep for a minute, I wanted to stay awake and not miss an inch of this unique place.
As I talked to locals, before I left the town on our exploration of the islands, I pondered over wether living here permanently was perhaps not worth enduring the long dark days and nights of the winters. How wrong I was.
Crew and passengers were about 20. Living on a ship is an ordered existence in cosy, small spaces but the vastness on the outside seems never ending.
I don’t know if I can convey just how oppressing the islands landscapes are. Maybe a good comparison is the way a giants shadow would loom over you in the late afternoon, long and 10 times your size like a giant is actually behind you making the shadow beyond what yours could ever reach.
Well, in the ship, low on the water level of the sea, the landscapes are a little like that. At first they just seem really far away but as you get closer, your own tiny insignificance in size, makes you want to laugh out loud.
We ( okay, I ) quickly learned that what I thought would be a big bear, obviously visible on the desert-like black land, is really a little white speck that you are trying to spot with binoculars and a very trained eye.
Sailing between the fjords was like being in a dream you don’t want to wake from, discovery around each turn like a never-ending treasure hunt.
On the first night, we sailed to a glacier front open onto the sea, Nordenskiöld. To our delight, the guides saw a polar bear and we were dressing for the night cold, with the light still high at 10:30pm.
Day one, heck, night one, zodiacs and bears! Who could ask for more?
“We’re going in Zodiacs!” became my favorite phrase.
We were dressed in waterproof everything with our camera gear in dry bags and super eager.
From the zodiac on the calm water of the fjord, the glacier seemed big, okay but I had underestimated the distance to get to it… this is when scale really got real. Forget the giant shadow, the glacier is more like an elephant is to and ant in relation to us. The bear was only becoming a visible dot once we were halfway across the ocean to the face of the glacier … I found my occupied space on earth to be so very insignificant all of a sudden. This, for me was enlightenment at its best. I just wanted to learn more and more!
My brain literally had to recalibrate big and small!
In this first day on the ship, we also encountered beluga whales. A very large pod off them feeding along the coastline, glistening white humps bobbing in and out of the water. They are super shy so approaching them in zodiacs was not advisable but to witness the wide turquoise ocean lined by the summer green and reds of the dark rich mountains of Billedjorden, decorated with white shining whales like fairy lights all along the edge was more than breathtaking.
Our journey took us north from there, searching for pack ice. Pack ice, is large flows of collected bodies of ice or ice-lands together and the hope is, to find wildlife in and amongst this landscape of floating white islands.
The route was north-east in open waters around the islands of Svalbard.
The world amongst the ice-lands on the ocean is fascinating. It kept some of us awake till all hours of the morning, or the day-lit morning/night. Easily the most beautiful and peaceful place I have experienced at midnight: on the front deck of MS Virgo in the glow of the midnight sun, one feels like you are heading for neverland, and you will encounter Peter pan anytime now, and then you will disappear into the suns illuminated bliss.
Photographers are obsessed with light, their equipment being designed to work the light into a still image. Man has yet to succeed in creating light close to the beauty of natural low evening and early morning glows that our sun breathes over our planet.
The natural light at latitude +-80 degrees North is magical, in summer there is no sunrise or sunset but a hardening and softening of light as the earth turns. The midnight glow being most beautiful time of day for me.
She, MS Virgo, my new best friend, reached the pack ice late on the second night of our voyage. I had seen video footage of this very experience but nothing came close to leaning over her bow and watching the formidable sheets of ice severe from her determined forgery north.
Up to now we had seen the odd walrus and tried to capture birds in flight and almost anything that moved really.
Ice breaking was next level in so many ways. The thrill of the risk added to the potential of encountering a bear on ice was ..was.. l am at a loss here, I guess for me like you most fantastic dream! I started to fade though, and I conceded that there were many more nights and I should build some rest in just incase we encounter the bear in a few hours time … that would be around 3 am.
Rest I do, but the call for the bear does not come. We awake to the sensible notice that the Captain aborted pushing further into the pack ice due to the risk of being trapped in the massive flows.
I would be lying if I said I was not sad. Ever the optimist, I set my attention to enjoying what was guaranteed, this wonderland, and put my trust in the powers that be for anything further.
We were abundantly blessed with the most beautiful sightings, sounds and vistas. 7 different personal sightings of bears, the incredible Alkefjet (bird mountains) of thousands of breeding guillemots, fantasy-like ice bergs and glaciers, puffins on summer cliffs, reindeer on foot in the lush mosses of summer.
And Hamilton bay … a morning that will not leave my soul if I can help it. Historically, many of these bays were sights of carnage where whales were slaughtered for human use. The enigma of the bay translates the sadness and peace since gained, all at the same time.
Hamilton bay was especially picturesque in that it is small in comparison to other bays we explored yet has its own glacier and at the same time opposing bird mountain. In between the two giants is a rocky outcrop inhabited by terns and other land nesting Arctic birds. In the few hours we explored the bay, we became enveloped in a heavy fog almost in protection of the bay, like, I imagined, a gentle suggestion that the bay was enforcing its boundary…. ‘Only so much exposure to humans was tolerated.’
My thoughts went to a further imagined world where nature could really do so, tell us when to back off basically. In some ways I think nature is doing exactly that in many ways, only it seems she let us have a way too long leash and harsh realities have now to be faced.
On this voyage, I heard the music of an artist called Thomas Bergersen for the first time. Specifically, the song Star sky. The Orchestral version of this song for me optimizes the fantasy ones heart, soul and mind go on in visiting Svalbard. Mine anyway…. Like a flight to a place that can only exist in your imagination as a result of its tranquility.
Yes, I am booked to go back, in the winter, not two months after I arrived back home.
I have spent my life convincing myself that less is more and trying to commit to being happy whatever my circumstance. Then my world changed, what I had put my security in was gone, but the learning and growth that came with it will forever be mine. My renewed mind and understanding, mine to unwrap and accept, like a gift at Christmas. My experiences are all mine. Mine to share.
It is in sharing that we re-live and correctly “file” our blessings and win-falls.
J
Looking ourselves in the eye.
June 2023.…. In planning to trek with Chimps and see Uganda , I had imaginatively created a tour of just about all of the country’s 8 national parks. I was to discover that I was perhaps a little ambitious in terms of time and money .. so, I decided on (with the expert advice of the @oryxphototours tour team) :Kibale forest for trekking chimps and Bwindi impenetrable reserve forest for trekking Gorillas.
I don’t have an extensive knowledge of evolution at all, in fact I have little thought around it and never read to far into it. I believe in a creator, my God, who I believe to be almighty and all powerful beyond the boundaries of human understanding.
Then, looking into the eyes of a chimpanzee, is something that will definitely get anyone thinking twice about the human connection to them. They have some very blatant similarities and one feels you can almost communicate. A blueprint seemingly applied to us and them comes to mind.
If there is one animal that could move us humans to save our natural spaces, I think the chimpanzee is it. You find yourself feeling comfortable, connected and empathetic in their presence.
Now Africa beats to her own kind of rhythm in a nature of adaptation in response to all she has endured over the centuries. Each country has had its own challenges and in my opinion where they/Africans are today ( ‘they’ meaning the communities, the real people not the politicians or leaders or economies), is largely representative of their unity and solidarity as a people. I would be proud to be Ugandan, is what I’m getting at! A beautiful people in my opinion, from the guide who collected us at 2 am in Entebbe to the lady that braided my hair in Buhoma village. Means do not dictate manners or dignity. The civilians are super respectable, whether in a Toyota Landcruiser or riding side-seat on the public transport of choice, a boxer dirt motorbike, whether city or country. For me, the people complete the safari – always!
Meeting a new culture in the Ugandans, brothers and sisters from another African mother, seeing the struggles of humanity in each other eyes and then looking into a chimps eyes and seeing a similar cognisance to mine, I was reminded we are of one maker.
It is fascinating to see the chimps behave similarly to us humans in so many ways. Grooming, comforting, relaxing, eating and sleeping. Some seeking solitude and others a play mate. Speaking of mates, they have structures and rules for this too. They have a main Chimp or Chief and he has rights and privileges. He has his ladies and his buddies. He has threats to his position and he even grows old and weak like we do.
Watching their everyday routines and interactions, you could forget their primal posture.
Quickly though, we dismiss them as animals when they begin to shriek and cavort in an “undisciplined “ manner, but ‘are WE really that much more disciplined or ‘cultured’?’ I think to myself.
Starting to track chimps, you have no map of the direction or distance this could cover. A sense of nervous anticipation arises, not of chimps so much, but the wider unknown forest creatures like fire ants in your pants …and for possibly missing the shot you want, and also just how strenuous this is going to be (should I have hired the 6 porters to carry me and my gear back out of the forest once we’ve found the chimps?)
Humility and anxiety grow into fascination and of-course excitement, when you have finally located the troop and you’re on foot in their world. Girded with gaiters and gloves, you blindly follow your trusted guide into the thick uncut (no neat trails cut for you) forest to find your closest primate being.
No-idea-Jen over here, totally underestimated the strength and fitness of a chimp… they are some very powerful animals. Respect quickly grows over blind bravery and I heed the guides instructions to keep up and stay aware of the Chimps movements in relation to me.
We followed a troop of angry males chasing after a female in estrous, up and down the uncut slopes of the forest. The males shrieking and beating the base of the forest trees like drums in a chant. A spectator in the wings of a Broadway show, that’s how it feels climbing around on the forest floor watching and listening to the family of chimpanzees, as they “admonish this senior female for mating out of line,” the guide explained.
The punishment is vicious but she finally escapes into the top canopy of a tree. All her assailants surrounding her in the same and nearby trees. Now distracted by two other females in season, they let her be. We rested below the chimps on the forest floor, checking carefully not to disturb the feared fire ants as we sat down!
As we catch our breath and find a drink of water, it sinks in what a privilege it was to witness this intimate part of their lives!
Not all chimp tracking excursions have this kind of action. We were very fortunate to share their world at that moment. Every encounter with a chimp however, is electric.
Each individual is just that, an individual, like we too are all unique. Mom chimps have their tiny baby clinging to their bellies and are super protective, just like us. They definitely fuss a lot less over the little ones and growing up chimp is just a little more ruthless than growing up human I think. The moms are very astute at removing themselves from the “crazies” in the troop though, so, to have a little time with a mom and a baby was very special.
Another very special encounter was with an older male chimp, a grandad I thought. He was minding his own business in the forest undergrowth. He allowed us to sit near him and observe him ponder his world. What we are to them, I am not sure of, perhaps just another forest inhabitant, a non competitive species. They certainly behave like we are just a part of their forest.
I am so much more aware of ours and the animals’ interdependence in this fast changing world. The uncertain climates of today highlight the effect our choices in living on the planet have on the chimpanzees world.
Their forest home, Kibale, is so very beautiful and largely untouched by our human impact since its preservation. I can’t help think how much richer we would all be if we’d started to preserve these spaces sooner. I am positive though, if there is enough understanding and will in the human race, we will rebuild the balance. Will! Do we have the will to change?
Hoping my little window on the chimps, more so through my images, will inspire your choices everyday towards a better balance for our planet.
For no matter category, creed or colour, we breathe the same air and there is only so much to share!
Tswalu.
This trip was unguided, being recreational and not of a specifically photographic nature.
I confess that I could not leave my camera gear behind however!
What a luxurious treat – execujet might as well have been my own private lounge and jet parked on the runway. They say dreams are never too far from reality :))
We landed on the rich red soil of the Kalahari looking out over a very green semi desert landscape.
Tswalu had us comfortably on our game vehicle and at the Motse lodge in no time.
We were very spoilt with a beautiful luxuriously fitted family size room and readied for our Kalahari experience.
Let me take you there…
The air has a distinct dry grassy feel. The harsh conditions meet your skin subtly at first and then, as you take in your surroundings… steel-like deceivingly silky bushman grass, red iron laden sand, spike protected acacia tree varietals and the hardy Shepards tree varietals including the white-trunked Boscia tree. A little tinge of vulnerability creeps over you in the vast stillness. The stillness starts to melt the outer layer of worldly protection you carried in on yourself and you just begin to connect.
The season is the very beginning of the autumn, with cooler evenings and quite warm days but rainfall has been heavy over the summer and still continues a little late this year. The multitude of different grasses have burst from their dormant state in the hot red earth and boldly brandish their wavy curves across the usually rolling red dunes.
We had to work hard to find desert adapted tiny creatures like battered foxes, aardvark, pangolin, and even snakes, while the general game stood beaming at us with full bellies. Stunning colours of the Oryx, Rhone antelope, Zebra and springbok contrasted with the bright blue sky and the greens of the late summer.
Walking was glorious in this environment. Absolutely highlighted by our tracker, a bushman, the original ethnic bushman, born and bred in the Kalahari veld. Hans, was my highlight. Yes I know I was there for the animals one would think but actually, I am there for the WILD- erness, and this bushman is part of this wild place as much as any animal inhabitant. Tracking was next level. We got to even witness his skill in comparison to a telemetry unit in finding a coloured cheetah. We did not scientifically measure the performance of either and called the exercise a tie, but in my opinion, Hans on foot was the bomb. We spent a fascinating time on walks examining the story left by tracks in the sand. One special encounter was finding the sand markings where an ostrich had been dust bathing -it honestly looked like a sand angel.
After a day, my photographic addition was too strong to resist and we managed to commandeer the photographic vehicle, it being roofless and providing 360 degree views of the reserve. The days were stunning in the open vehicle, the nights as mesmerising..but for the two massive Kalahari storms we managed to get caught in! Easier done than one may think, these storms roll in in minutes from absolutely no where. Nothing a good whiskey and a fire can’t remedy though – even if we had life threatening lightening crashing around us and our most recent wills running through our minds :))
Surviving the storms, we felt very priviledged to dine at Kleinjan at Boscia house – a journey in itself, disappearing down into the gloriously cool earth under the semi desert, only to arrive at a table set on the edge of an amphitheatre directed at the majestic Kalahari sky.
And then the gastronomic journey – absolutely first class and indescribable. Should I have to try to explain the culinary delight I would put it like this “ imagine walking through an old little town, but on every corner there is a wise old person with a taste of the past, wrapped in the present and when you taste what they feed you, you see the possibility that that corner opens for the future of the town” its that big – so much thought and detail in every step.
I continue ..Between exploring the historic bushman paintings and successfully tracking feeding lions, it was my birthday during this trip. Tswalu, I am sure with instruction from Oryx ie Daniel Bailey, spoilt me with surprise meals and gifts all day long and into the evening ending with a magnificent chocolate cake. I think the fuss set a new level of expectations for birthdays for me! Thank you for sending them all the little pieces of information about how I like to travel, they didn’t miss one!
The wild in this place is a new jewel in my collection of wildernesses. I am thankful to those who work to preserve this piece of nature – it is a mammoth private enterprise that needs support and awareness. The more I spend time in the wild and learn of the challenges in keeping it healthy and productive- not just for the economic assistance in maintaining quality livelihoods of humans but really for the livelihood of humanity as a whole, the more I respect and honour those who have made commitments to being part of the solution.
As a ceramic sculptor by expression, the Kalahari was very inspirational as well. I left with my tiny bottle of red Kalahari sand, excited to incorporate it on an aardvark sculpture…after I have actually seen one – I will have to return in the winter. Once is never enough in a place like this!
I look forward to my next Oryx adventure. Thank you again to all of you for your attention to every detail both on tour and behind the scenes.
South Luangwa in green.
The summer colour becomes her, the South Luangwa river, I mean.
The river is a bold, beautiful blue reflection in the morning and evening light. The heat of the day bares the rich brown content she carries from her source in Malawi.
It is a constant mass moving between the now inches of bank just containing the body of water, that were canyons in the dry season.
These banks seemingly coping with the volume are not the full story though, the river has found its path along familiar previous routes she took. Once being part of the main stream, now oxbows and channels relieve the pressure of the torrents flowing to the ocean, preventing bursting banks.
Visiting at this time of the year is very rewarding. The land between the water is rich with life of all forms. Access is gained mostly by boating through the incredible scenes created by the waterways of old that are revisited by the river. One significant channel runs along the Norman car memorial drive road and is actually called the “dead” Luangwa – in summer …it is all but dead. Besides the never ending forest of leadwood trees and lush grasslands in-between, we experienced and lazy leopard, a dog hunt, a leopard attempt to hunt a puku and many elephant in-between all of the above.
The waterways through the park provide for challenging survival for both predator and prey. We were very privileged to observe a large pack of dogs over some days, learning, in the time we were there, they lost the alpha female to a crocodile. Although we did not witness the attack, I think thankfully, it was a surreal experience to witness the packs behaviour after the loss – this was a time I could have cancelled my flight home and stayed to observe the dogs indefinitely.
Crocodiles and hippo move deeper into the park away from the river, no pool of water is a safe place to use. The general game is dispersed as well since water is widely available but instinctively very cautious of any water body.
We enjoyed beautiful walks in the lush bush, being able to observe animals more safely and sometimes closer than would be possible in open bush veld with no cover.
Water birdlife is very active this season naturally. We were able to access the yellow billed stork colony by boat, the boat offering a perspective and access to game viewing that is tolerated much easier by birds especially.
Safari out on the river in a speedboat is a unique wildlife experience in that you feel a lot closer to nature than being in a vehicle. The sounds on the water are amplified, like floating through the age old ebony forest was just an all together different level of magic on water. This channel literally only navigable for a few specific weeks a year where water levels rise high enough through the channel itself.
Photography and videography from a boat has its challenges and opportunities and provides an exciting new application of creativity.
It can be that we want to keep finding more or new challenges and places to explore, and I certainly fall into that temptation. Having just explored South Luangwa in the green season, has filled in the blanks left in my imagery by the dry season, and made the destination more whole. It feels more whole to me, like I can say she, the Luangwa river, is a closer friend than before… but what of her northern sister???
I laugh at myself, already imagining the next encounter and a possible new friend, but there is so much to learn! While I am writing, expecting someone will gain some of my experience from reading about it on a page, I acknowledge that I am a practical learner, I must see and feel to understand. I simply must go and see. The privilege of seeing and feeling is so overwhelming that it drives me to share.
I hope the images I capture can speak highly enough of that which I witnessed. Simply magnificent forces of nature, so very intricately balanced, that we can miss half the secrets they hold. Walking in the bush with an elder who calls this place home soon enlightens one to the gaps in understanding of one from another land.
My Oryx guide, Daniel Bailey, I think is never sure what strange idea I may have next but this one was a winner -even worth the tsetse flies and spiders. Thank you Dan for hitting the heat in the green season with me and to the Oryx team who just always make it happen with perfect symmetry.
Having travelled a few times to her neighbour, Kenya, I was especially intrigued with what I might find in Tanzania. The narrative for the two countries ito travel and wild spaces reads quite differently. My preconception of both was based on a combination of fantasy I created from romantic settings in movies and novels early in life, articles read more recently as research for travel and consultation with guides in the wildlife field. On my trips to Kenya, I had wanted to find the dream world I had imagined would complete me somehow.
I found the world is the dream you make it.
I was addicted from my first sight of the big open plains of the mara. It is so vast and mystical. I found rather, that no place will fill what you are searching for until you mould into one with its ways, and its rhythms become yours. I found myself really needing the rhythms of the mara at the time of the trips I did.
So my intrigue with Tanzania was a more mature attitude, if you like, of what is she going to teach me …
Southern Tanzania
Nyerere national park
Sand Rivers Selous lodge by Nomad
Wild. Big and wild. Big, wild and tropical, like island life in the bush.
Our selected camp was on the Rufiji river. I love the power of a river. It informs my mind that we are only in existence because someone more powerful than us lets us be.
I chose to visit in the summer so that I could see the land in its full glory.
The most enriching art history one can experience can be found in this park, in a baobab trunk that you can only stretch your arms one quarter of the way around. In the petrified wood found amongst the sandstone. In the old pathways long forgotten by the river and the depths of the summer growth, impenetrable without and elephant body or a machete. Most evident of the history of this part of Africa, 52000 m2, is the depth of life that surrounds you. The insect life makes you wonder what cave men did for bug repellent or fly nets?
We were treated to a butterfly opera. All the characters you would expect to see. The most beautiful being the sword tails in their clusters, mud pooling. We liked to make full use of the river from our camp as it was very easily accessible. Hoping on a boat and heading 15km or so upriver to a beautiful gorge displaying its towering chestnut trees. Every kilometer claimed by a fish eagle, indicating there was an abundance of fish to be eaten.
Taking the boat upriver once is of course never enough. Time is never enough, I find, for everything to be taken in, and you are spent at the end of the day for trying to absorb it.
Over a few trips we discovered our favour in witnessing the swordtail soiré and that, like a game drive, no two boat trips are the same. I could have added a few weeks and hung around on the river a lot longer. The bird life was incredible, everyone busing themselves with nesting, building, feeding, calling and fishing. Beautiful giant herons, a pels fishing owl, palmnut vultures, purple turacos, Narina trogan and everything weaving in between.
The flip side to the abundance of butterflies was the feeding frenzy the bee eaters engaged in. They took to following our vehicle as we drove, to catch whatever flew up as we drove along. If you let yourself for a moment, you could imagine they were holding you on a magic carpet and flying you through a tropical wonderland of palms and lakes since the flight pattern that they follow, especially in numbers following a vehicle, felt like a rolling wave just as if you were riding the wind with them.
I lost myself as I always do in the tree canopies and found a new realm of imagination opened by the duma palms across the landscape.
The lakes were inhabited by a lot of crocodiles and hippo. These lakes added a stunning backdrop for herds of animals coming to drink. They also provided amazing stages for watching animal behavior. We watched around 25 crocodiles feeding on a hippo carcass with savage order. They definitely have a social structure that applied to who fed where and for how long. I also found it very interesting to see, eventually see (to my guide, Dan’s later amusement) these same crocodile closely piled on top of each other on the far side of the bank in a kind of family vibe. Just thinking about this now, as I write, I will look into the social structure of the crocodile world a little further I think.
On and evening at the lakeside, I observed an amusing relationship between a grey heron and a pod of hippo. An inspiration for a children’s wildlife story perhaps, to bring this amazing wild space that is Nyerere national park to life for the future generations. A book in Swahili and English…??
After travelling on a fair number of private safaris with Oryx, they have come to expect the odd challenging request on my itinerary as I dream up my adventures. The reality is sometimes a little out of reach, but I dream anyway. On this trip, I asked if it was possible to arrange a flight over the Nyerere park! This turned out to not be possible as scenic flights are banned due to poaching prevention practices in place. It is a massive park and having gone all the way down south, I was hoping to see as much as possible, it turned out, on the morning we left, feeling the dread of leaving, we boarded the plane on the rich red soil runway. our pilot informed us that we would be flying east / south east all the way along the Rufiji river to the sea… it was incredible to see this wilderness from the sky and follow the river to its mouth, across the Indian ocean to Mafia island, just happened to be our stop on the way to Lusaka!
I loved the Tanzanian people. They are busy and hardworking and full of fun. I could not survive without a sense of humour and I felt very at home with this nation, albeit they are actually made up of 127 different tribes, they feel like one happy family.
The Sand River Selous lodge, by Nomad Tanzania is a most enriching place to visit. Oryx photo tours have got to know what I am about in a very short time and choose my bush homes perfectly. I experienced a very positive and committed Nomad team that has left me looking for where else I can go to grow their reach and work in the world.
Conservation and looking after our planet involves many players. I hope to fulfill my part to be a conscious contributor to this cause by supporting those who have invested their lives in managing the wildlife resources on our planet responsibly.
Southern Serengeti plains and Ndutu.
I feel like this destination and park is very under rated. I had low expectations for some reason. I think perhaps because so much is made of the one aspect of the tree climbing lions, which are exceptionally unique to see, but there was a much deeper richness to this wilderness to me.
We stayed in a first-class migration camp of Olakira (shining star) by Alisia.
Set in the acacia thickets on a rise above lake Masek, adjacent to Lake Ndutu.
I had chosen to travel to Ndutu at this time of year to see the herds of plains game with their young, beginning their migration back north. I was not disappointed. It seemed an orderly almost automated occurrence whereby mothers and young followed an ingrained about turn once giving birth and feeding in Ndutu. Some would cross Ndutu lake as a matter of ‘this is just what we do’, while they could traverse around the edge.
In the urgency to meet natures call to stay as a group for survival, the young are often separated from their mothers and become distressed. Little ones calling to their Moms and vica versa is a common sound, yet fascinating that out of the hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, they can and do reunite. Then, some are also lost. Lost to their herd but gains for the wildlife they sustain like cheetah siblings we witnessed with a small calf.
And beyond this, the spectacle of countless wildebeest and zebra stretched across the plains at the very southern tip of the Serengeti and the intensity of witnessing something you can’t totally grasp or explain, this wilderness is home to so much more.
There are two beautiful marsh areas, dryer in this season but what they must bloom into tin the wet season, I can only imagine. They hold a rich green texture of criss-cross thatch grass, out of which a large male lion emerges. There are small bodies of water, still and flat like glass, reflecting the monochrome stripes of a zebra trotting through. Acacia woodlands and short grass surround the depressions that make up these marshes. A landscape that draws you immediately into its temper.
Reluctantly you leave the marsh, longing to come back before you have left it really.
And then the lakes, well, the lakes are just simply a spectacle on their own.
After passing them at all times of day, we chose to sit by the lakeside early one morning before our days adventures. I was more than content watching flocks of flamingoes, lesser and greater, wade for crustaceans and algae in the soda lake but it turned into a magical mix of hot air balloons floating just above thousands of airborne flamingoes with a the sun perfectly rising and tinting everything with its warmth…if I was not engrossed in capturing it on camera, I may have believed I was on my way to heaven.
How do I described the value of a place that is not tropical but not dry or baron, it is abundant but harsh, inviting but carry’s a reality of a wild warning. This is just the wild spaces of it. The hospitality and attention to detail by Asilia’s team is dreamy. It crossed my mind that they have a client service boot camp every quarter perhaps.. these guys don’t miss a beat and nothing is too much…if only I were more fussy.. I think I may have bored them a little in my plainness. Oryx, the underlying connector, makes the whole experience seamless.
Where to next…. There will always be a next, just wait and see.
I didn’t spell gorilla correctly ( how many r’s and l’s ) before I took this trip. Gorillas were not something often on my radar I guess. I never really thought about what they were like, you know up close and personal.
Always on the list of experiences to do, they were the focus of primate tracking in Uganda.
Why Uganda, well, the Bwindi impenetrable forest was a big yes in my book. I love a natural space having being subjected to very little human affect. That is, excluding the Batwa tribe for human affect, they were soft on the forest. This tribe has inhabited the forest for as long as we have knowledge of them and were as much a part of its origin as the mountain gorillas. Interestingly, the Batwa have been evicted from the forest in recent years in order to proclaim the forest a protected national park and protect the gorillas.
The way of civilization in our world dictates that a minority conform to the ways of the majority and sadly, many identities and cultures are lost, leaving a community like the Batwa, to figure out a new way of life entirely. Progress is what some might call it.
It is however progress for the mountain gorilla population and the survival of this incredible organism that is the Bwindi impenetrable rain forest. It seems a necessary cost, to exclude the Batwa, being people, to save the forest from human destruction.
I stayed at the Buhoma lodge, just inside the park. My room was at the top of what I called ‘hellish stairs to heaven’. A wooden bungalow in the tree tops looking directly into the forested mountain.
Each morning began with the song of a snowy capped robin chat, 6:38am, I guess he loved a routine as much as I do. This was our little routine for 7 mornings: he woke me, I put on my tracking gear and he sang me into breakfast.
Buhoma village alongside the park is a hive of gorilla tourism support and spin off ventures. The tourism interests that the Mountain Gorilla tracking has attracted now provides income for many that work to provide the experience of viewing a Mountain Gorilla in its beautiful natural rain forest.
The hikes take you over hills of tea plantations and down into the lush cool forest. The tree canopies of the forest tower over you at a 50 m height and every plant from the floor up seems to be reaching for the sky for light to grow. At times you hike up to a high point in the forest and the view across the expense of dense foliage is magnificent! Stretched out in front of you as you stand in part of this impenetrable landscape, you think it is huge and must be enough for the Gorillas, but over the time and the treks, four in total, you learn the devil is really in the details.
How much a Gorilla needs to eat, how big the families need to be to ensure longevity, the competition between families for food, the comparative size on the map of what has been persevered and what has been utilized.
The communities that support and are supported by the Gorilla tracking are very proud of their Ugandan heritage in the Mountain Gorillas. It takes a massive effort by all those living around the forest to keep the forest and Mountain Gorillas safe. Farmers plant tea upto and round the forest line
To create a barrier deterrent against the big Gs roaming beyond the forest for food.
Security monitoring who has access to the roads through the forest traditionally connecting villages is an extensive undertaking but proudly performed by Rangers.
The forest floor drips and ooses moisture, crystal streams gush down the mountain sides falling down waterfalls from the plateaux above where the rains collect. The rain in a rain forest is a daily cycle.
It starts with the rising moisture in the mornings and falls back down to the forest floor in the afternoon and evening. The forest seems to breathe like it has lungs, exhaling oxygen heavy with vapor from its canopy and inhaling miracle nutrients into the ground water. The dense green foliage, red shimmering soil, array of mosses, ferns and moulds are evidence of rich iron ore laden soil.
The sound of the forest cannot be replicated by man in my opinion, nothing comes close.
And then you reach the family of Mountain Gorillas. By this time of day, you have walked around 1 and a half hours through the forest, the gorillas are feeding but winding down to their midday nap in the cool shade. Twice we found them in tall vegetation in an open sunny meadow that appeared in the forest as if a secret land. The vegetation being food the Gorillas particularly liked, we experienced them sitting feeding in the meadow. The younger members of the family would disappear below the foliage and often even tumble through it down a slope as if rolling through snow.
A family of Gorillas is a most peaceful sight. Moms and infants together, sub adults, like teens hang together. The young men or black backs do their own thing unless it’s time to work out whose more dominant.
On our second hike tracking gorillas we found the family in one such meadow in a clearing in the forest. The sun was hot on their black coats and shortly after we arrived they moved into the shady depths of the forest. Being well within our visitation hour, we carefully followed them into the shade.
It was a most magical experience. The young males were testing each other’s authority. We had quietly sat a little distance from them when they started to engage with us. A black backed male came within meters of us showing us his strength and testing our resolve. Respectfully submissive, I dropped my gaze but after I had got the shot I might confess. They completely allowed our reasonably positioned presence in their space. I find it is always plainly evident when an animal is not comfortable to one who is alert for the signs. There is never any upside in overstepping the boundary.
Silverbacks. These are the main men of the clan. Usually one dominant Silverback per family. A successful Silverback, senior male who literally has silver hair and skin on his back, earns his title through dominance of other weaker males. It’s his family, his females.
They really are the epitome of gentle giants, until you cross them… butch then that sounds very human doesn’t it? Remarkably, I found that they seemed to know when our hour was up. The Silverback especially, would not entertain visitation beyond one hour, if you tried to get a few more shots, he would show you the back of his head – the end, game over!
No fools Gorillas, I found them fascinating, more so than chimpanzees I have to say.
I will definitely consider habituation tracking next in the hope of studying and coexisting just a few hours more with gorillas.
The moment your plane takes off from the dusty runaway to start your journey back home from the Lower Zambezi, your heart is aware of the void it is going to have to get used to bearing as a result of leaving this eden.
This 6-night stay began with seeing the mighty Zambezi from the air on the flight in. It is a magnificent path of glistening water between land masses that make up Zimbabwe and Zambia on opposite sides. The life-giving water supports vast green bushveld forests of most notebly Winterthorn, Mahogony and Apple leaf trees while the Baobabs stretch for the sky in between, like beacons to direct you through the wilderness.
The magic of exploring this wild space lies in the multitude of options you have for discovering its treasures.
We selected to begin with a cruise on the river on the first evening. The sunsets behind the escarpment on Zambian land, dimly illuminating hippos sailing in the current. This spectacle is beautifully photographed from the boat while floating downstream with your G&T at the ready.
Being a “bush nerd” I really needed my fix of dust mixed with morning dew and wild grasses, so the mornings were game drives. Here in the Lower Zambezi, every time you turn a corner is a magical discovery.
Lifting your head to look just a little ahead in the road and then a little more towards the sky, you take in a fabric of green lacey tree canopies above you.
The road seems to not exist because the forests create screens before the corners reveal what lies ahead. Whether it is a beautiful stretch of lilies and reeds that lead your gaze deeper into a magnificently Winterthorn-framed water source, storks fishing in an inlet from the river, hippos challenging and chatting in a deep pool, a crocodile sunbathing or African Jakanas trolling the lilly pads. There is a lot of life around you.
There were many new experiences for me, some being Elephant feeding on lilies, a proud Waterbuck bull gracing a Winterthorn grove with sunlight just catching his silhouette, an open-billed stork fishing and an egret catching a baby tiger fish.
One of my favourite new sightings had to be the elephants reaching for the pods on the high branches on the Winterthorn trees. While this is a very well know occurrence here and the image of this scene is familiar, to see them physically negotiate terrain and their own size and mass to reach what is a delicacy for them, is not only entertaining but impressive!!
Lillian love birds and Mayor’s parrots were more of the birding delights we experienced.
All through the terrain you will encounter lala palm groves too. Heavily laden with fruit, they are part of many inhabitants’ diets and are a playground for the abundantly occurring collared palm thrush, flitting in and around them. Baboons climbing up and sliding down these tall tree trunks is a comical sight.
As interesting as it is to experience the unique things of the landscape, being out there and seeing the usual pattern of bush life completing its intended circle of life is what you come to immerse yourself in.
Searching for lions you can hear roaring and finding the boys moving at pace across their territory is all there. Learning who they are, who and what they overcame to claim their territory and experiencing the comradery and love between brothers, brings a fullness to your trip. We were privileged to see a pride of moms with cubs in our area as well.
As the breeze blows, the sound from the palm fronds adds a new dimension to the game drive experience. The smells, new and familiar, wild basil in abundance and the pollen from the blossoms of the Winterthorns, fill the air as we search for a leopard in the early evening.
We not only found one but carried on encountering two more. In this part of Africa, leopards and baboons compete for territory and leopards can be hard to find because of the boldness of the baboons. As we register this, we find a young male leopard feeding on a kill he had just made … a baboon. Eat or be eaten, I guess! It was a unique sighting, and proved very interesting photographically, that night and the following morning when we caught up with our leopard again. Tummy full, he was not going to hang around long to bare the harassment of the troop he just affronted
The channels created in little valleys between the rise and fall of the land alongside the river give you the opportunity to float up close next to the animals inhabiting the land. Water in the wilderness is largely out of bounds in most reserves so this is a unique experience.
Meeting the canoe guide on the banks of the Zambezi gave me the opportunity to put my feet in these mighty waters (no dangling of limbs or anything else is allowed from inside the canoe or boat). Feeling better connected to this piece of earth, I happily climb into my canoe – something I wanted to experience but I must admit, I was concerned that it would be less than made out to be.
[Dan carefully kept suggesting the canoe activity, which I put down to him wanting to do it, and kept it in the once, maybe twice bracket! Sorry Dan, you were right, I should probably have done a canoe trip every afternoon!! We will have to go back and make that right!]
I was so wrong! The whole world goes quiet in that canoe. You can hear the the water ripple and the birds’ feathers flapping as they fly by.
Then you encounter an elephant matriarch and her family coming down the small rise towards you to drink. She need only feel a little threatened and she could hurt us.
This must be the animal I have the most respect for, the matriarch of a herd of elephants. I liken her challenges to those I have experienced in trying to grow two children into people that will better our world.
She looks you in the eye and there is no con you can execute that will convince her you are trustworthy if you have any negative intention, it is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth with elephants. Complete humility is what I try to communicate to her.
Being allowed to stay near her and her family while they drank and the tiny calf played and then having her trust us enough to cross the crocodile inhabiting waterway with us metres from her, was a privilege and a gift I will never forget! I was infinitely grateful in that moment for my guides, Nobby from Chiawa and Dan from Oryx, without whom, I would not be able to go on these adventures.
It is the passionate people in wildlife conservation, preservation and travel that will be the heros that save our planet. It is my mission to support their work and passion as much as possible.
We cannot be all things to all beings, but we can support each other in our separate talents and works to build a whole earth.
Thank you to Chiawa Safaris and Oryx Photo tours for your excellence in hospitality and wild travel.
She had less than a 25% chance of being born melanistic. With only one parent being melanistic, the math is said to work out to these odds and, there she was….born to a very habituated mum and so growing up in the vicinity of vehicles and humans.
The odds of being one of the humans in hér vicinity, I am not skilled enough to compute but I can tell you that to actually be there watching, photographing and existing in her space is as electric as the best day or moment of your life. I have never won anything so I can’t say it feels like you have won a lottery with the worst odds ever, but that must come close to what it feels like to find and spend time with this leopardess everyday for 7 days!
So you’re winning the lottery everyday and you’re in the wilderness that is northern Kenya, not far from Nanyuki and the Centre of our earth, literally, the equator.
The weather is moderate, promising rain that has not fallen in ernest in four years. You have come a long way to be here to be one of the lucky ones to experience this black leopardess that behaves like there should be no fuss over her.
You calm your excitement and start to observe her world, it’s dry and pretty harsh. The rocks are naturally black on the inside but wear a red-orange coat of oxides. Cliffs of basalt and sandstone outcrops date the landscape. The earth is tinged reddish with the iron content and the river runs with rains from its source. There is little other water. The grass seems to have disappeared, in fact if the local guide didn’t tell you there used to be grass, you would assume the rocky dry earth to be usual terrain. Actually the richness of the terrain is trapped for a while only, while it waits for rain. Evidence of its potential is held in the multitude of Boscia trees and small shrubs like prolific acacia mulliferra and euphorbia. There is a stillness you note as the general game has moved away temporarily with rains. Except those conditioned to the arid earth like the dik dik, gosh, a pair of them seem to inhabit every 10m2… okay maybe 50m2.
You count yourself extra lucky since visibility of this black lady masterpiece of creation would be impaired by rich undergrowth. You calculate that the leopardess has food and she must need to eat everyday, since it’s only a little mouthful of dik dik available (maybe a baby impala).
Yet, you express your sympathy for the land owner, inhabitants and defendants at the arid conditions. You internally genuinely wish for rain for them but just if you can reach your mission first, please.
You find the mystical creature and your expectations, plans or anticipated reactions fall to nothing as you fumble at your equipment not sure if you MUST record, photograph or if you MUST absorb and live in the moment… fear of this encounter being the only one wins and you shoot something anything, for as long as you have her! Your overwhelming emotion is gratitude.
Gratitude to God for this experience and this creature, to those who watch over the land and creature you are looking at, their custodian and struggle with her through the arid times. You feel ashamed at your selfish wish for just a little longer with no rain.
That night it pours with rain, you give thanks, she is going to survive and her land is going to flourish.
Now you want a photograph of her in the green lush land though that is to come …. Crying laughing emoji!! I know, humans, we are never satisfied are we?
All of the above is why I travel with Oryx photo tours and their guide Daniel Bailey. Together, their guidance and planning is comprehensive. Their experience extensive.
When to go, how to get there, what I need to take, what to focus on even when to stop shooting and just be and breathe.
Alone, and I am sure I would get better at it if I was doing the same trip over and over and all through the year, but I would take a lifetime to cover the experiences I have covered with Oryx in the last two years plus.
Collectively their team has so much covered.
My photography on tour with Daniel is a collaboration in which he directs/ creates a space for me to play and learn freely, that still gets me the shot I’m after in the style I work in. No prescription, but instruction and contemplation enabling growth and often many laughs.
I have collected a really diverse portfolio, thanks to affording the time and means to peruse a new passion and art, but also largely thanks to the Oryx team aligning their skills and product to my goals and aspirations, making my journey more like our journey. I hope to grow so much more in this field. Like any journey, collaboration with a valued partner makes the experience and outcomes so much more profitable.
Thank you Daniel and Oryx Photo tours, this was one of the most special experiences yet!
