Down and Dirty

I had spent about an hour with this relaxed bull as it drank and played in the water. Guessing he might move towards the mud-hole nearby, I positioned myself accordingly and soon enough was delightedly watching as he rolled around in the mud just a few feet from my lens. Eventually he staggered to his feet and manoeuvred himself so that he faced me. "Excellent," I thought crouching on the ground with my recently infra-red converted body and wide-angle lens, hoping he may try to splash around a little. However I had underestimated quite how much splashing his tree-trunk legs were capable of (not to mention his mischievous trait as well). After a brief warm-up, his front leg began going hell-for-leather until both my camera and myself were completely splattered in rancid mud from head to toe. I kept shooting and managed to get a couple of images that were hopefully worth the cost of getting the lens professionally cleaned afterwards!

Stars and Elephants

With the flood not reaching the Savute marsh this year,  a couple of crowded, pumped waterholes are the only attraction keeping the wildlife in the area. I had wanted to capture a night-time shot with the  elephants but the window for doing so is remarkably short. The breeding elephant herds have all moved further north where there is more water and with the pumps barely able to keep up with their insatiable thirst, there is no guarantee that even the old bulls will wait around for long. After the rains are expected to arrive next month, both bachelors and breeding herds will disperse in search of better food. What's more, the centre of the milky way is no longer visible after October,making the whole effect much less spectacular. To top it off, I have a flurry of other commitments severely restricting my bush-time so in a (large) nut-shell, I realised this would probably be the only chance I would have to capture this shot.......so no pressure then.

The first night I tried, there were a couple of male lions in the vicinity. I thought nothing of it until I was crouching by my tripod next to my vehicle in the pitch darkness to hear an echo of roars emanating approximately from my exhaust-pipe. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, so I felt at a distinct disadvantage to a predator with excellent night vision. The second time the call came, I could feel my vehicle vibrating behind my back (or maybe that was just shivers up my spine); I needed no further encouragement and called it a night.

I had one more night left and fortunately the lions had moved on, leaving me with the simple task of dodging 13ft elephant bulls in the dark who were thirstily moving towards the only water source for miles around. I had to use my 14mm wide angle to capture the sky, so needed to be close to the ellies. They were remarkably relaxed though, occasionally approaching me to check out this new addition to the landscape but eventually diverting course at the last minute like a one-sided game of chicken. Occasionally a ruckus would break out at the waterhole as an old bull broke ranks and queue-barged his way to the front which caused much trumpeting, back-pedalling (and a rapidly pounding heart from the guy crouching on the ground a few feet away), but fortunately having done my research before-hand into the star positions and having taken note of my settings the previous night it didn't take much more than half an hour to get something that made it all worthwhile.

Curiouser and curiouser

Whilst watching some nearby elephants queuing to quench their thirst, I was pleasantly surprised when this jackal elected to share the same shady tree that I had chosen as protection from the 40+ degree heat. Although jackals are curious by nature, they are often wary of a vehicle getting really close, so I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity of this apparent desire for proximity. Gingerly opening my door I slowly extricated myself from my vehicle and lay down on the floor, only moving once I was convinced the jackal was relaxed with my new position. After 10 minutes I had crawled almost close enough to touch. In fact my only problem was that he was too relaxed! I ideally wanted him to be standing up looking down on me rather than snoozing at the same level as me. Eventually when half my body had gone to sleep, he got up and trotted off to a nearby carcass for a mid-afternoon snack, giving me this cursory glance before he disappeared.