It’s always an exciting sight when you come in to land at Kasane airport in Botswana and suddenly, after flying high over mile upon mile of Chobe National Park bushland, you’re met with the snaking curves of that mighty blue African river.  Flying in again with our first photo safari guests of 2018 at the end of May the scene was even more breath-taking than usual…

African fish eagle overlooking Chobe river

The pulsing blue vein of the Chobe river that always welcomes us back to Botswana appeared to have burst; its contents seeping out into the vast surrounding body of land, submerging familiar landmarks and islands. It looked stunning. But what effect would the significantly higher water levels, the highest at this time for seven years, have on the photographic safari we were about to begin?  How would all this water, the result of good rain further upstream in Angola, affect our photo opportunities?  And would Chobe’s famous elephants still be obliging us with river crossings in conditions such as these?

As it turned out we needn’t have worried and the early nerves were quickly steadied the next day by a great ‘spot’ by Dan our boatman (afterwards dubbed Captain Dan/Dan the Man) on our first morning on the river. We’d only just finished securing our lenses onto the specially-adapted tripod mounts when he began gesticulating excitedly towards the bank. None of us could see what he was pointing at in the half-light, but as he expertly piloted the boat towards the bank we soon got our first, glorious glimpse of her.

Female leopard coming to drink at Chobe river’s edge

A female leopard. She was sitting upright, completely alert, in the shadow of a large tree. The sun was about to come up. At this point there was no light on her, but we silently and hopefully coasted in, quickly preparing to grab some ‘insurance’ shots in case she evaporated as if in a dream, which is what we all expected. She got up as we approached but wasn’t at all fazed by our presence. Instead she began prowling up and down the bank looking for a good place to drink, the light getting better and better. Eventually she found the spot she was looking for and drank, lifting her gaze to meet our lenses briefly before she did so.  Magic. She couldn’t have selected a better position with tall grasses immediately to the right and left that would have obscured our sighting and killed our images. The golden light and a beautiful, spotted big cat – not bad for starters.

Elephant feeding on ‘hippo grass’

The higher than normal river levels didn’t affect that much in the end. Crocodiles yawning and fighting hippos, hyperactive baboon troops, puku, impala, kudu, buffalo herds, monitor lizards, gangs of banded mongoose and assorted photogenic waterbirds went about their business along the river banks as usual, although there were no African skimmers this time and it was a little trickier to get shots of pied kingfishers in action with so many of their perches under water. Instead we saw a host of bee-eaters (little and white-fronted) and quite a few unexpected carmine bee-eaters, as well as the tiniest African jacana chicks  that caused a fair few ‘aaaghs’  from the boat. And as always the beautiful malachite kingfishers led us a merry dance among the inlets and papyrus reeds.

Elephant splash

Although the characteristic sight of mega-fauna grazing on the islands was off the menu with so much land submerged, photographing hippos and elephants in the water happily feeding on the spaghetti-like tangles of hippo grass more than made up. This fascinating, and at times action-packed, behaviour was a real feature of our boat trips and we spent quite a bit of time just a couple metres from almost fully-submerged bull elephants frantically twirling their tyre-black wet trunks high in the air in a frantic attempt to get the grit off their ‘salad greens’.

Hippo yawning

On our two ‘taster’ drives into the Chobe National Park itself we were rewarded with a rare sighting of a honey badger – our second since starting these trips in 2016 – and not one but two close encounters with lions. The first was a lioness we met jealously guarding a fresh young buffalo carcass; the blood still wet on her muzzle. This was followed by two ‘young guns’ at dusk  – swaggering males with manes just forming; clearly getting in character for their nightly walkabout.

Young elephant bulls playing in the big dam at Zimanga

All too soon it was time for the journey onwards to KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and our first visit to Zimanga private game reserve of 2018. The reserve was looking lush and green – a sight for sore eyes after the very severe drought conditions of recent years.  Photographing elephants cooling off playfully in the full dam made for an almost seamless switch from the Chobe river while the Zimanga lions, the two males now proudly brandishing thick gingery manes, were certainly enjoying Zimanga in the green with a mating pair performing unselfconsciously before our guests’ clicking cameras.

Zimanga lions mating

On this particular visit we were keen to see how subtle changes to the lagoon hide were going to help us photograph some of the smaller, photogenic wading birds following a new design tweak for 2018 from owner/photographer Charl Senekal.

African jacana at lagoon hide

Shallow spurs of earth under the water at perfect range are working really well; already attracting hard to shoot African jacana, African black crake and the pretty, but diminutive three-banded plover. Photographed from the lagoon’s low angle, and with foreground and background colours almost merging, this makes a great new addition to the lagoon’s hide’s photographic possibilities, whether front-lit or backlit, and without affecting the numerous large waterbirds that fly in to pose (and hunt).

Tawny eagle watching marabou at scavenger hide

The scavenger hide was also a big hit on this short visit to Zimanga with continuous action and aggression-packed battles between vultures, marabou storks and some impressive tawny eagles throughout both morning sessions. Feathers always seem to fly here; keeping trigger fingers busy.

Yellowbilled stork hunting in the lagoon hide

The good, but unexpectedly late rain, desperately needed as our guests who have witnessed the reserve at the end of the dry in recent years can attest to, did come at a price however. The bird-bath/reflection pool hides were slightly impacted as there was plenty of seasonal water on the reserve nearby to draw some of the regular subjects away.  The conditions also affected the night hide traffic which was down compared to previous visits at this time. Our guests in both groups were excited to photograph impressive buffalo bulls up close at that wonderful drinking edge in the darkness of the night, but sadly there were to be no encores, as previously, from elephants or rhino, nor any special visits from the big cats on this occasion (too busy mating perhaps?).

Grey heron at lagoon hide

A huge thank-you to the brilliant gang of photographers who all contributed to making this trip a success, thanks too to Captain Dan and the Pangolin ground-crew including Charl and Sabine at HQ who kept everything running smoothly. Thanks on Zimanga to Jono Warburton for ace guiding, great off-road driving and the daily ‘Uber’ service between lodges which was much appreciated by Steve and myself. A big thanks also to Dudu and the Doornhoek team for fattening us up (more lemon layer pudding please!), to the Main Lodge crew and, last but not least, to Charl and Mariska for making it possible for us all to play out in the family backyard!

Zimanga lions after dark