Lion - Buffalo Adrenaline, Okavanga Delta, Botswana - April 2007

Back to Botswana!

This is a short trip report on our second expedition to Botswana. We first went there over Christmas 2006.
This gave us fantastic shots of Lion on Buffalo action and was so good that we organised another trip in April 2007.

Botswana is an incredibly diverse country. Land-locked, it is bordered by South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia. Despite being roughly the same size as France, its population is only 1.8 million.

What makes it so special is the range of habitats that are accessible to visitors. From the deserts of the Kalahari to the plains of Savuti and the rich, lush and very green habitat of the famous Okavango Delta.

The seasons in Botswana are somewhat confusing. December is the hot season, but there’s a great deal of rain. From May through to August is the winter, but there is little rain! Over the months of February through to August, the rains that fell over the hot season in Angola in the North West drift down to the Okavango Delta causing the water levels to rise.

April is a great time to plan a trip. Little rain is likely to fall, clear skies make photography a dream, good water levels in the Delta give great colours and lots of game make it a great destination.

We visited four camps. The first, for two nights, was right in the centre of the desert. The key objective was to photograph the Meerkats. As you can see from the wide angle shot above, we were able to get within two feet of these delightful creatures.

We spent time at two camps in the Okavango Delta. The first was on an island where there is a herd of about 1,000 Cape Buffalo and a couple of prides of Lions. This is possibly the best place in Africa to see Lions hunting in the day. The second camp close by featured more varied game, as well as the opportunity of photographing from a helicopter.

Finally we spent time at a more remote camp north of the Delta where we were determined to see wild dogs.

Fantastic … we will be going back!

Julie and Adam, May 2007

The Kalahari

We spent two nights in the Kalahari. Early the first morning we drove to the Meerkats’ den. As we arrived, the Meekats were sunning themselves and we were able to creep up and get within two feet of these delightful creatures. Later we followed them on foot as they ran as a pack looking for grubs and insects. We were able to get some good shots in fantastic early morning light!

Later in the morning our guide asked Julie to lay down and keep still! Within a minute one of the Meerkats clambered up on Julie’s head to keep watch for Eagles and other dangers! The next day we were lucky enough to come across a Brown Hyena. This is extremely rare and as the light faded we spent perhaps one hour in again splendid light watching and shooting as it woke up, stretched and prepared for hunting.

Action, action, action!

We spent five days following the lions as they hunted Buffalo and saw the pride killing Buffalo seven times. As you can see from these shots, the Buffalo are very capable of chasing the lions away. We were also privileged to see a pack of wild dogs over the course of 3 days. One fond memory was sitting with them
at a waterhole for six hours over the course of a day, just to see what they got up to.

Shooting from a helicopter

We were very lucky at the last camp to spend time in a helicopter shooting at anything that moved. Highlights were the herd of Buffalo (left), the Hippo swimming underwater (middle), and the
Lechwe running through the water (right). A unique perspective from the air.

KIT!

Two new pieces to kit to report on. First, increased airport security has a major impact on photographers. Flying out of Heathrow is particularly difficult. You are allowed only one piece of hand luggage with a maximum size of 56cm by 45cm by 25cm. So we tried Peli cases for the first time. We went for the
1510 model and packed all our camera gear inside. The 1510 has wheels and an extendable handle. Taking all the padding out, Adam could fit his 600mm F4, two camera bodies, binos, converter, two JOBO storage devices and all the chargers inside. Even if the check-in luggage had been lost, Adam would have been self sufficient for the trip … although he may have smelled somewhat! With all this kit, these cases weighted in at about 19 kilos each. The nice people at BA and the nice security people did not question their suitability
as hand luggage! Problem solved.

Secondly, storage devices. How quickly technology moves on. When we went to Uganda/Rwanda in January 2005 and switched to digital, Adam purchased a Jobo Giga Vu Pro storage device. This had capacity of 40 Gb. A good device, but slow to download from cards compared to Julie’s Epson. For Botswana Adam acquired an updated 120 Gb Jobo Giga Vu Pro Evolution (the names get longer and longer). This is
much faster and a really impressive piece of kit. A field test (using the same 2 Gb card and the same photos) showed how much faster. The old Jobo took 26 minutes plus another 28 minutes to verify. Julie’s Epson reader took 11 minutes and the new Jobo under 8 minutes. This is fantastic and like the Epson, really does allow you to download photos while out in the vehicle. A really excellent device.