Zimanga’s big beasts shine under the lights

The lightning is break-dancing across the Lebombo Hills and the rain that’s collected in the canopy above our heads is gushing down in a mean impersonation of Vic Falls. (Having seen the forecast we agreed flight shots weren’t going to be that likely so a roof made sense for once and we swapped vehicles accordingly.) As a result our camera gear remains dry, but everything else is sodden, including our butts. Just in front of us a large male lion is guarding a zebra kill. His ginger-gold mane is being flattened by the rain into a perfect Trump-style comb-over.

Spotlighting after dark – one of Zimanga’s magnificent male lions

The only thing keeping us out on the reserve in this weather is the slim chance we might capture this male shaking the raindrops from his locks. Rather than sit this unseasonal heavy storm out in the lodge (this is supposed to be the dry season for goodness sake) we want to get our photography started as soon as we can. It’s a big gamble. The only guarantee is getting a soaking, but at least we’re prepared for the coveted picture should the opportunity happen. Calvin our guide is armed with a spotlight so even if we lose the light completely we’re still going to be in with a chance of some photography. But talk about suffering for your art! Despite the perfect storm, and being drenched to the skin, we’re all still laughing. You certainly feel alive in the African bush with the elements raging all around, with the setting sun a rain-washed ring of fire and the king of beasts just metres away in the growing darkness.

Across the other side of the reserve our other group is dry inside the lagoon hide. They’re teeing up to take shots of the lightning, since the customary waterbird and wader photography is totally out of the question in these conditions. Suddenly a thunder-clap resounds across the whole place, cracking out an ear-splitting welcome to Zimanga. If any of us had any doubts beforehand, it’s being made totally clear right now. Mother nature holds the upper hand and whatever happens over the next 10 days is completely in her gift…

And so our final safari of 2018 began – not with a whimper but a bang, and a staggering 50 mm of rain in just one night. The only problem with a thunderstorm like that, dramatic as it was, is that the hide photography, for which Zimanga is rightly renowned, was most likely going be slow as a result. We would have to hope for good weather in the coming days to give the reserve a chance to dry out.

Permanent water at the hides brings our subjects in during the dry season when we visit, but when unexpected and unseasonal heavy rain leaves puddles everywhere birds and animals can slake their thirst anywhere on the reserve – not just at the photo hides. Luckily the long-term forecast was promising so if we held our nerve the odds would start to tip back in our favour.

Happy landings: tawny eagle action at the scavenger hide made for some awesome photography

Except, of course, that this wasn’t to be our only challenge. In addition to the storm was the fact that the female lions and cubs had been playing hard to get. Truth be told they hadn’t been seen for about a week – the longest time they’d ever gone under the radar on the reserve. Capping this the wild dogs, consummate escape artists, had been running around off the reserve for several weeks. There was nothing for it – we were just going to have to work very hard for pictures in the meanwhile, put the time in, maximise the good subjects we did come across and hope our patience and stoicism would eventually be rewarded with some of the reserve’s famed big ticket images.

Catch me if you can: Pied kingfishers, regulars at the lagoon hide, are adept at diving for fish in the pool.

Thankfully it was. Zimanga, which means ‘something amazing’, seldom disappoints and the balance of fortune eventually began to change. This was certainly the case when our guests were given a surprise bonus session photographing crocodiles after dark in the lagoon hide to help test the new LED lights there. These have just been put in place to extend photographic sessions in this special hide; hopefully giving people the opportunity to photography more nocturnal visitors, including night herons, during the summer months.

The unique chance to photograph massive Nile crocodiles silently cruising on the hunt after dark was an unexpected bonus.

Photographing big Nile crocs in the deep dark of night-time was a first for us all. This thrilling new photographic opportunity had our lenses trained tightly on the golden scales of these menacing reptiles at an extremely close range. Add a gleaming reflection, and the flash of those long rows of razor-sharp teeth and you can imagine how nervy we all felt just sitting there watching them patrolling the pool. Needless to say we all came away with some special images and a night to remember.

The unique view of these fearsome creatures through your viewfinder in the darkness begins to play tricks with the mind after a while. Had we travelled in time back to the dinosaur era? The whole experience was made even more surreal when we began snacking on spicy samosas, provided by the kitchen to make up for the fact that we’d had to forego our three course dinner back at the lodge in order to snap these toothy snappers hunting their own supper.

A rare night-time photo opportunity and trip highlight

Another show-stopper was when both groups were treated to some spectacular visits by some of the reserve’s tallest residents at the night hide. Gangly giraffes are not frequent visitors to drink at these hides, so to see them enjoying a sundowner just four metres from our lenses was pretty mind-blowing and frankly otherworldly. Framing their distinctive shapes as silhouettes at sunset, when they’re that close to you, was a fun challenge, testing our abilities to pull off extremely tight compositions even with our widest lenses. It’s impossible to convey here the strange sliced, truncated view we first had of them, sitting underneath them at water level. Seeing them like that makes you totally re-evaluate and appreciate their massive size. One group were lucky enough to get a giraffe drinking in the middle of the night – a feast of triangles popping out from the velvet black background – complete with reflection. The images are wonderful, the giraffe’s legs akimbo like an exotic dancer and its huge head bowed low for a quenching slurp. All in all, an unusual sighting and very rewarding photographically.

But perhaps the most entertaining, and endearing, of all our night-time visitors (the buffaloes were regulars and there were hyenas at the newer Tamboti hide) was the family of spotted eagle owls, one adult and two chicks, that allowed us into their secret nocturnal world by spending hours on end flying in and out of the light to delight us. We watched enthralled as they hunted and fed before our eyes. It really was a privilege to see the adult bringing in the mice it had caught for its offspring, to see the chicks nibbling crunchy beetles they’d caught, and to observe the fierce sibling rivalry over titbits of food. Even without the chance to photograph these beautiful birds and their gorgeous reflections this would have been magical – the only thing missing perhaps were the whispered tones of a David Attenborough commentary.

The return of the wild dogs to the reserve, after weeks away, was a nice surprise for us all and a chance to practise panning shots

And then, towards the close of our 10 nights on Zimanga the news came over the radio that the lionesses and cubs had finally been spotted, giving our guests the chance to catch up with the rest of the pride, as well as the two majestic males we’d enjoyed spotlighting a few nights earlier. What’s more, and even more of a surprise for everyone, was the return of the prodigal wild dogs, with their two new females in tow, pitching up totally out of the blue and once more running us ragged all over the reserve as they flushed out potential prey while we happily honed our panning shots.

An unexpected guest: African fish eagle drinking at ‘small’ bird hide

Oh, and did we mention the buffaloes squaring up like a line of heavyweight boxers silhouetted on the dam wall, or the tiny two week old elephant lost among the legs of a protective breeding herd, the two male cheetahs, or the fish eagle that got the wrong script and turned up at the small bird bath hide to drink, filling our frames? Or the yellow-billed kite’s aerial acrobatics at the scavenger hide, the tawny eagle who allowed us repeated flight shot practice, the monitor lizard hunting in the small pool of the lagoon hide, the awesome close encounters with the big tusker, the charging buffalo, the nine fluffy gosling chicks being shepherded across the lagoon hide water by concerned parents, sitting by the dam at sunset photographing yawning hippos and that teasing glimpse of a leopard…

Not too shabby in the end, given our slow start.

So a huge thanks is due to our brilliant guide, the rally driver the racing world missed, Mr Calvin Kotze and his lodge manager ‘co-driver’ and wife Ester; both of whom we drove to distraction (and finally to Mozambique, where they were last seen headed in search of a well-earned holiday). A round of applause too to Jono Warburton for stepping in seamlessly to do the last few sessions; your evocative videos of Zimanga melted our hearts. And of course to Charl Senekal for throwing us all to the crocodliles.

A huge thanks, and hugs, as well to all the Doornhoek lodge family for looking after us so well and making the place feel like our home. We’re missing you already and our diets have all started.

And finally to our band of guests who stuck in there patiently until the photos happened. Thanks, and a jar of kumquats in syrup to the ever-upbeat SV for including us briefly in her round the world trip, to GR for making us all spit feathers over that night hide shot of the owls we wish we’d got, to PT, the new brand manager for Zimanga, for laying on some side-splitting in-hide entertainment, to JS who set sandwiches in the night hide trending (Ollie’s still pining for you by the way), to MR for a cheery smile no matter what – you really ‘bowled’ us over – and finally to the evergreen AM. Messrs Lloyd Webber and Rice are currently writing a new part for you in ‘Cats’. Did you get that Andrew?

NB It’s expected that in future the nocturnal crocodile photography will be a summer-time activity on Zimanga, offered mainly in the months between November and February.