Tag: Sunsets

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Okavango Photo Safari: Day 9: Variety at 4 Rivers

Setting out early, as usual, we soon found leopard tracks. While searching for the leopard, we accidentally surprised a family of elephants, who then decided to chase us off. Clifford had to know his driving to get away from them. They stood staring after us through the dust, checking that we were not going to return and bother them again.

Some promising clouds were on the horizon, but unfortunately soon disappeared, resulting in another scorching hot day

With the riches of predators to photograph, one can easily forget the beauty of the “ordinary and common” like Kudu, Impala and Tsessebe

We saw a beautiful Lappet-faced vulture, another species unfortunately listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, sitting at the water

Soon we spotted a leopard, fast asleep in a tree.

We spent the rest of the morning waiting for him to come down from the tree. He did wake up a few times to change position and look at the Zebra, Red Lechwe and Impala, but after waiting more than 2 hours, we had to accept that he was not interested in coming down. The Zebras seemed oblivious to his presence.

In the afternoon, we set of for one last search for Painted Wolves, not finding any, but seeing the most beautiful landscapes with green flood plains interspersed with woodlands. Waterbuck, Elephants and many other animals were grazing on the flood plains

We were fascinated, watching Kestrels hunt, hovering and then swooping down on their prey in the grass, flying up and eating in flight. Their main prey on this day seemed to be some juicy caterpillars

Finally, we stopped to have our sundowners, watched by a Kingfisher

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Okavango Photo Safari: Looking for Painted Wolves and an elusive Leopard: Day 8 : 4 Rivers

After our usual light breakfast, we headed out to the west, soon encountering fresh leopard tracks, apparently belonging to a young male, usually still seen in the company of his mother. This led to a prolonged search for him, with a second vehicle eventually joining in the search, but with no success.

We tried photographing birds, but also with limited success, since the wind direction was not favourable. I did manage to get a nice shot of a Broad-billed Roller in flight.

Eventually we decided to head back to camp a little earlier than usual. Along the way, James spotted the elusive young male leopard lying at the base of a tree. The leopard was quite curious, giving us ample opportunity to photograph him and eventually approaching and inspecting the vehicle, before moving into a bush where we could no longer see him well enough to photograph.

Back at camp we went through our usual routine of brunch, followed by downloading photos and videos, backing up, clearing memory cards and charging camera batteries. By this time we were exhausted from lack of sleep and extreme daytime heat and tried to get a brief afternoon nap, before setting out for our afternoon drive. I did find that the advice given to us, to lie under the fan under a wet kikoi, was quite an effective way of cooling down in the extreme heat.

In the afternoon we headed out in the direction where a group of lionesses had been spotted the previous day, two of them with cubs. We had been informed that they had left their cubs somewhere they considered safe, in order to go hunting. This was also the direction where we could possibly expect to find Wild Dogs, but these had not been seen at 4 Rivers for quite some time.

Along the way, we spotted two Red Lechwe males, having a bit of a tussle, but soon deciding to go their different ways.

A lone lioness was seen approaching in our direction. Clifford was of the opinion that she was part of the group previously seen, but this was obviously not one of those with cubs.

She was clearly feeling the heat, since she was walking from one shady spot to the next, eventually approaching our vehicle and lying down in the shade, looking quite aggrieved when we decided to drive off, taking our shade with us.

One of the other vehicles had found the cubs and we drove to their location, where we found some forlorn looking cubs, clearly pining for their mothers to return.

The sun was setting and we left the cubs to drive back to camp, the end of another stunning day in the Okavango.

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Okavango Photography Safari: Day 7: Splash to 4 Rivers

With a feeling of great satisfaction and gratitude, after spending two full days with the Painted Wolves, we departed Splash, taking a short game drive on our way to the airstrip. At the airstrip, while waiting in the “VIP lounge”, we saw two Wild Dogs running across the runway just as the plane came in to land.

A 10 minute flight to 4 Rivers with a 20 minute drive to camp, saw us arrive just in time for brunch, after which we settled into our luxury tents. In the afternoon, our guide, Clifford and tracker James picked us up for a game drive. Soon they spotted two male lions, fast asleep in the shade of a tree.

Moving along, we saw a beautiful Bateleur, which unfortunately turned away from us when taking off, as a result we could not get any in-flight photos of it.

A kite flew up out of the long grass with a snake clutched in its talons

A small herd of Roan Antelope, unusually, stayed still long enough for us to get some nice photos.

By this time the sun was low above the horizon

We decided to return to the sleeping lion brothers, finding them waking up and starting to move around

Look at the video with sound on. These guys roared ferociously.

With the lions’ roaring shaking the ground, Liana still getting great video of them, but the light becoming too low for photographing them, I turned to the sunset for one last photo of the day.

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Okavango Photo Safari: Looking for the Painted Wolves: Day 4: Pom Pom to Splash

On this morning we again went out early, looking for the Painted Dogs in the region where another guide had told Ryder that he had seen their tracks recently. I had stopped taking malaria prophylaxis and was starting to recover from the side effects.

Although I am not a true “birder”, more of an occasional opportunistic bird photographer, I did enjoy photographing this beautiful African Hawk Eagle in flight.

Soon we came upon two beautiful cheetahs, who were rather shy and not overly keen to be photographed. We managed to get some long range photos of them, but when we tried to approach closer, they moved away and we decided not to disturb them further.

Moving further in our search of the Wild Dogs, we found a leopard cub in a tree, happily eating a young impala. The cub’s mother was nearby, eyeing an adult impala for the kill, possibly even the mother of the one being eaten by her cub. One is reminded that nature, in all its beauty, can be harsh.

We returned to camp, still not having found the Wild Dogs. After brunch, it was time to depart Pom Pom, on our way to Splash camp. We flew across Moremi Game Reserve, from South-west to North-east, landing at Kwara landing strip. Flying across the Okavango delta, one cannot help but to be impressed by the beauty of the flood plains below. At this time of year, there is very little water and the areas which are covered by water in the flood season, are seen as large green, grass covered plains.

Landing at Kwara, we saw an elephant next to the landing strip and were later told that the guides had to chase it away from the landing strip just before our arrival.

We were met by our guide ST (who jokingly told me that ST stands for “Serious Trouble”) and tracker SB.

After settling in to our accommodation, we went for an afternoon drive. ST told us that the large pack of Wild Dogs had moved to neighboring Khwai around 4 or 5 days earlier, but could be expected back in the Kwara concession soon. We explored in the direction of Khwai, up to the boundary between the concessions, without finding their tracks. ST indicated that he thought they could be on an island, to which the only vehicle access was a crossing in the Kwara concession, close to the Khwai boundary. Due to the distance from our camp, we could not explore this in the late afternoon, but would return in the morning.

On our way back to camp, we stopped for sundowners and to appreciate another beautiful sunset.

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Okavango Photography Safari: Looking for Painted Wolves: Day 2: Pom Pom Leopards, Lions and more.

Our first full day at Pom Pom started with a thunderstorm and rain, which passed quickly and did not delay our planned early start, with a 5am wake-up call, quick light breakfast and out on our game drive by 5:45am.

Very soon our excellent guiding team found a male leopard, who seemed to be sniffing around for something. He had a deformed tail, possibly previously injured and healed with a deformity, but this did not seem to bother him too much. He did interrupt his sniffing to pose for a few quick photos.

We followed him until he eventually reached a tree in which there was a half eaten impala, possibly a kill left behind by another leopard. This one may have been sniffing around because he had gotten the scent and was looking for it. He proceeded to jump into the tree and enjoy the leftovers.

We received information that lions had killed a wildebeest nearby and proceeded to that site, where we found two lions, shortly joined by a third. The beautiful morning light after the rain, offered more opportunity for low angle photos.

Moving along, almost unbelievably, we found a female leopard and her cub. We had been informed of their presence in the vicinity and that hyenas had stolen their food. Mom was resting on a tree stump and junior was lying in a nearby tree.

When the mom started stirring, she offered excellent photo opportunities with the partly cloudy skies in the background.

When she got up, she called her cub down from the tree and they strolled along to where a dead impala was lying under a bush, presumably another kill she had made after losing her first one to they hyenas. She looked like she had already eaten and the cub started to eat.

With the day just a few hours old, we had already had the most amazing sightings and in between, a few other photo opportunities with Warthog, Red-billed Oxpecker, Lilac-breasted Roller, Striped Kingfisher, Fish Eagle and others.

By 11am we returned to camp for brunch, then settling into the usual rhythm of these photography trips: download and backup photos and video, charge camera batteries and clear memory cards to get ready for the next session. “Siesta time” was spent processing photos instead of resting.

At 4pm we went for “high tea” before starting out at 4:30pm for our afternoon drive. We spent some time trying (wholly unsuccessfully in my case) to photograph Carmine Bee-eaters in flight. After spending a while watching Pied Kingfishers hover, fish and fight, we proceeded to find a beautiful male lion, lying in the grass, looking interested.

Soon, he got up and started walking with intent. When we looked around, we saw a lioness approaching enthusiastically from behind. They met up and he started following her.

She made him work hard for it, but eventually he caught up and the relationship was consummated.

Returning back to camp after sunset, we stopped briefly to watch hippo’s emerge from their pool.

Reflecting on the day, even though we did not find the Painted Wolves, it had been almost too good to be true, an amazing experience. Throughout the day, Ryder and Zuma had managed to get us the most amazing sightings and Grant had made the occasional invaluable comment, helping us to get great photos and video.

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Okavango Photography Safari: Looking for Painted Wolves and finding so much more. Day 1, Gqeberha to Pom Pom

This trip was almost two years in the planning. We first met Grant Atkinson at Pangolin Photo Safaris in Chobe in October 2022. In our conversations, I mentioned that I would like to photograph African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). His response was that the best place to do this, would be the private concessions in the Okavango region of Botswana. Almost a year later, and after a visit to Kruger National Park, where I was fortunate to see and photograph these magnificent animals twice, but in less than optimal circumstances for photography, I contacted Grant again. We started organising this trip with the help of Joanne from Biggestleaf Travel.

A lot of effort went into planning the trip in such a way that we had the best chance of finding the Wild Dogs, while keeping it somewhat affordable. We eventually decided on three Kwando camps: Pom Pom, Splash and Four Rivers.

At last the time arrived and we were on our way, taking an early flight from Gqeberha to Johannesburg, where we met Grant at the airport. From here we flew to Maun in Botswana, where we transferred to a 6 seater plane, piloted by a charming young lady, Ruby, for our short flight to Pom Pom.

At Pom Pom we were met by our guide, Ryder and tracker, Zuma and taken to camp. After settling in to our rooms and a quick snack, we were out on our first game drive. We started with a little warm-up at a pool filled with hippo’s, who were quite active.

A lioness, initially lying on short grass and then getting up and walking towards us, gave me my first opportunity to try out the technique of low angle photography, lowering the camera from the vehicle with a monopod and using a remote shutter release, both of which I had purchased on Grant’s advice, during the planning stage of the trip.

As the sun was setting, we encountered a Cheetah in the long grass, a difficult photo to take in low light.

The end of our first day, brought the first magnificent sunset.

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Flowers, Stars & More: Day 5: Southward

We made an early start from Hondeklipbaai, driving on a dirt road still muddy and slippery from the previous day’s rain, stopping in Garies at the Garies Toeriste Stal, for coffee and toasted sandwiches, before heading on to Clanwilliam.

Arriving in Clanwilliam, we went for a stroll in the Ramskop Wildflower Garden. This had apparently become quite run down under Municipal management, but is being revived by local enthusiasts. We spent an enjoyable hour walking around here, taking some photos and video.

Then it was on to Graafwater, where we had a thoroughly enjoyable visit and lunch with friends.

Carrying on with my theme of photographing church buildings, I walked around the church, looking for a good angle for a photo, eventually finding one with a sunburst.

Late afternoon, we returned to Clanwilliam to check in at our accommodation, where we were just in time to see the beautiful sunset over Clanwilliam dam, from the guesthouse pool deck.

After dark, we returned to Graafwater, to continue where we left off our visit with friends and to photograph the Milky Way over the church.

Returning to Clanwilliam, I just had to take another Milky Way shot over the Clanwilliam dam, even though a few clouds were starting to appear.

Another late night, this time with Liana deciding to postpone her video downloading and editing for a day in order to get some rest.

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Flowers, Stars and More: Day 4: Stars, at last

Day 4 arrived, cold, dreary, overcast, not what we had been hoping for, but true to the weather forecast, which had been accurate for once. We decided, nonetheless, to take the drive to the Skilpad section of Namaqua National Park. The locals in Hondeklipbaai advised us to take the detour, returning to the N7 the way we had come, due to road conditions.

We stopped in Kamieskroon to get fuel for the car and ourselves. Entering Kamieskroon, we saw a beautiful little church.

In Kamieskroon, I also saw a street carrying my name, but quite sure not named after me or any relation.

After fuelling the car, we drove towards the National Park, stopping along the way for breakfast at Die Murasie

Once in the Park, we decided to forego the planned hike, since it had started raining and we did not want to get drenched. Instead, we drove the two circle routes in the Park, one of which is new and labelled a 4×4 route, but really a very easily driveable route.

As expected, in the rain, most of the flowers were hiding their faces. However, this did not really detract too much from the spectacle and we still had a really good time.

Near the end of the 4×4 loop, we saw a few Springbok in a field of flowers, a very special sight.

Making our way back to Hondeklipbaai, we were quite pleased with ourselves about the lovely day we had and the fact that we would be able to get to bed early, but this was not to be. About 20km before our destination, we encountered a quartet of elderly people struggling to change a flat tyre. By the time we had finished assisting them, not only were we rain drenched, which we had avoided in the Park, but also covered in mud.

Eventually arriving at out accommodation at Dogstone Cottage, we took a quick shower and then went to the Rooi Spinnekop Restaurant for an early supper, which turned out to be an excellent choice. The reception was very friendly, the atmosphere relaxed and the food excellent. Liana had a marrow bone starter and I had prawns. For mains she had lobster and I had pan fried snoek and sweet potato.

Exiting the restaurant, we were just in time to catch the sunset, the clouds starting to clear.

With the clouds rapidly clearing, I was able to grab a few Milky Way photos as well.

Tomorrow we turn back south, heading towards Clanwilliam.

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Late afternoon at Cape Recife Lighthouse and Blue Supermoon

On 19 August 2024 we had a blue moon and supermoon occuring simultaneously, normally a rare occurrence, but this the second within a 12 month period.

A supermoon occurs when the full moon is closer than usual to earth, resulting in the moon appearing larger than normal.

A blue moon can be either a second full moon within a calendar month or the third of four full moons in a given season, since there are normally only three full moons in a season.

Since moon rise would be occurring within minutes of sunset, I decided that this would be a good occasion to visit Cape Recife Lighthouse for a few photos.

The sunset was beautiful and I managed to get a sunburst photo over the lighthouse, while a few African Black Oystercatchers were enjoying the last light on the beach.

Soon the moon started rising over the sea.

With the sky still tinted pink and orange, the moon completed the picture beautifully.

As darkness set in, the moon appeared progressively brighter.

Finally, all that was visible, was the supermoon.

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Chobe 2024: links

Click on the links below to be taken to the relevant day’s post

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

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