Botswana - March 2006 I just returned from a wonderful trip to Botswana. The trip was sponsored by David Anderson Safaris and was part of his legendary "Focus on Africa" photographic trips. We had a wonderful group of eight participants, one of which was my wife Robin. Botswana manages its wilderness areas in a way that gives the visitor a very intimate and personal African experience. Our safari was held in two private concessions run by Kwando safaris. These concessions are huge tracts of land that the government leases to companies to run small, eco-friendly, game viewing operations. Our first two lodges were in the northern part of Botswana and our third was south in the Okavango Delta. All the Kwando lodges we stayed at were amazing! Private, spacious, safari tents with wonderful views, great food and staff that felt like family after a couple days. Our drivers and trackers throughout the entire trip were top notch. Each lodge had three to four vehicles, so you never had a crowd out game driving. I really love this small, intimate, style of safari. Being in a private concession also allows for unique experiences like walking among a herd of elephants, off road driving, night game drives, and early departures for sunrise, etc. We also hit the weather just right. March is the end of the rainy season for Botswana and sure enough, the day we arrived it was raining a bit and then it was clear and beautiful for the rest of the trip! Too perfect! Forget about those Africa pictures that everyone has with brown backgrounds, we were treated to tall yellow and green Turpentine Grass which made for great photos.
Ok... let’s talk photo ops. Elephants were a big highlight throughout the trip. Botswana has one of the healthiest Elephant populations in all of Africa. On two occasions we were guided by foot into large herds of elephants. There is nothing like being on foot and surrounded by these amazing animals... yes, it was just a little bit scary! We had all the regular antelope species to photograph Impala, Tsesbe, Wildebeest, Red Lechewe, Greater Kudu,Sable, and Waterbuck. Standout photo op for this group of animals was an afternoon at Kwara camp in the Okavango. The light was getting golden, we had some dark grey clouds in the sky and things were looking like magic might happen. At this time we also found our first group of Sable Antelope, several adults and babies. We followed the Sables around until the light was incredible... golden light, dark clouds, and a full rainbow... magic!
Birds were also great on this trip: Bee-eaters (five types), Rollers, Martial Eagle, Fishing Eagle, Saddle-billed Storks, Wattled Cranes, Kingfishers, Bustards, Franklins, Hornbills, and tons more. As most of you know, I love photographing birds so I have several highlights in this category: We all had a great opportunity to photograph a pair of Little Bee-eaters doing what bee-eaters do, hawking bees and returning to the same branch before smashing the helpless insects and eating them. Getting the chance to see and photograph my first Wattled Crane was also a highlight. We had all seen the family of Cranes one evening while we were having sundowners and photographing Hippos. Unfortunately they were two far away to photograph and it was getting close to dark. The next morning we were able to find the same Cranes and spend considerable time watching and photographing...what a morning. We also had great experiences with another one of my favorite birds...the Saddle-Billed Stork. One afternoon we had a pair of these spectacular, six foot tall birds in a marshy area near Lebala camp. While watching them we were surprised to see one of the storks catch a 2 foot long snake! It took about 5 minutes for the snake hunter to kill and eat his prey... we all burned some serious memory snapping away at that! Ok...one more bird story. One morning on a boat ride up a small river in the Delta, we came to a group of tall water plants called Papyrus. As we approached, dozens (seemed like hundreds) of Bluecheeked Bee-Eaters flew out and over our heads. The birds quickly swerved back around and began to land back on their favorite Papyrus perches...boy did we have fun photographing them! During this morning boat ride, I had been fantasizing out loud how awesome it would be to see and photograph a Malachite Kingfisher. Well, as we are photographing the Bee-Eaters we see a flash of turquoise and cinnamon land directly behind one of the Bee-Eaters... low and behold the magnificent little Malachite Kingfisher! We couldn't believe it. And yes, I got the shot!
What about predators? The first afternoon our trackers and drivers found a pair of male lions. We watched them sleep a while and then as night came they both got up and started moving through the grass and bushes. We were able to follow them with spotlights for nearly a full hour. Not a bad way to kick off the safari. The next day we found a group of 6 female lions as well as a lone, black-manned male. We watched the sleeping female lions for about an hour and then moved on to other things. We found out later that night, that an hour after we left the females a Wildebeest wondered into the area where the female had been sleeping and they easily took him for dinner. We were a bit upset that we missed the action. Other predators included several small wild cats, Serval, Genets, Leopard, Jackals, Hyena, and African Wild Hunting Dog. The last being my personal highlight for the trip. I had seen Wild Dog only once in Africa on a trip last year and was really praying that I would have my chance again on this trip. This earlier sighting was of a pair at long distance and short duration... I wanted more! Boy was I in for a treat.
African Wild Hunting Dogs are the second most endangered predator in Africa behind the Ethiopian Wolf. They have been trapped, killed, and displaced from much of their former habitat in Africa. Diseases like distemper and rabies have also taken there toll on these amazing animals. Botswana is probably the best place in Africa to still see and experience this top predator. We were lucky enough to spend two days watching and photographing two separate packs, one at Lagoon camp and the other at Lebala. The Lagoon camp pack had 7 individuals (three adults and 4 juveniles). We were able to fallow the pack as they went onto their hunt an hour before sunset. This was one of the most exciting things I have ever done. The dogs didn't care a bit about our two vehicles following close behind them as they trotted through the brush hoping to scare-up some prey. When they did find a group of impala the hunt was on...we quickly got up to 30 mph in tall grass as we followed the Alpha male and female on the chase. We missed seeing the kill due to a log that blocked our path, but were able to see the juveniles reunite with the successful parents and eagerly feed on the young impala that had been taken.
The following day we came upon dog tracks from the 21 member Lebala pack. After three hours of tracking, we nearly thought that we had lost the large group of dogs but ended up finding the entire pack resting around a large pond. Same as the last pack, the dogs woke around four thirty and after performing their elaborate greeting ceremony, were off on the hunt. Once again we followed. After a half hearted attempt at a large male Wildebeest the dogs finally ran down a small Steenbok antelope. We arrived seconds after the antelope was caught and the feeding frenzy lasted only a couple minutes. A number of Spotted Hyena arrived on the scene and that’s when things got very interesting. The Wild Dogs Hate Hyena! Within seconds we had groups of Wild Dog chasing and attacking Hyena. All this is accompanied by loud screams, yelps, growls, and noises that few people have ever heard. As we were in thick brush, much of this excitement was going on without any chance of photographing it. This was definitely one of those experiences were being there was the main thing...not the photos. I did manage to get a couple. In fact my favorite image of the whole trip.... "Wild Dog with Steenbok Head". After the feeding, several of the dogs started trotting off. I wanted to make some blur pan images of dogs running past me, so I set my shutter at 1/20th second and started panning at several dogs running by me. At this point someone said "the dog with the head is coming", without time to change to a safer shutter speed I panned and shot as the dog came by me with his trophy. Sometimes it all just seems to work out right....man I love that picture!
Alright... guess you can see that we all had a wonderful trip. I'm hoping to do this same safari again next year, so let me know if you are interested in joining me.
Happy travels
Roy Toft Other Recent TripsClick on the thumbnail image to view a short report of my recent trip.
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