Hilton Kotze Safari Blog

My first photographic for this year takes me to Sabi Sabi  bush Lodge, nestled in the heat of the Sabi Sand Game reserve this is a perfect spot to start my 2010 photographic trips.

We have booked a private vehicle specially  kitted for photographers and we have out specialist ranger Mike  Karantonis who is excellent on animal behavior prediction( important when we need to be in the right position for action shots)

We went out for our first drive yesterday afternoon and bumbeled around the bush to see what we could find .We found lovely birds at a water hole  and decided to spend some time there getting our camera settings  and eyes adujsted to fast moving objects.

Phios our tracker

The next morning we headed out early  to follow up on a pride of lions that were found late the previous evening, after some time of following tracks and some skillful tracking by

Mike and our Tracker Phios we found them just as the sun was breaking through the african bush. This made for some lovely photos in that golden hour time frame of good light.

One of the lionesses found a baby tortoise (life in africa is tough ) and was carrying it around , the others wanting some action too made for good action/playful shots. Later that afternoon we went out looking for the elusive leopard, and what a magnificent animal he was when we found him.

Here are some of the photos of our photographic trip

Lilac breasted roller

carmine bee-eater

Leopard

lioness with tortoise

It was a wonderful trip , now looking forward to the next one

cheers for now

Tags: african Safari, photographic, photography, Safari Lodge, wildlife

Busanga plains of Northern Kafue

Our next stop was The Busanga plains of northern Kafue. What a place ,it’s a very scenic drive from Lufupa up north all along the Kafue and lufupa rivers, saw lots of game and swatted many tsetse flies.

I must say that the tsetse flies only live in the woodland areas ,once we hit the bottom part of the busanga plains there were no more flies.

The plains are roughly the size of the Sabi sand reserve ,about ,70 000 hectares of open grass land with dotted islands ranging form the size of large termite mounds to islands of 1 km x 800m wide. It floods for 6months of the year then from about June starts dying up and leaves these open grass lands were you can see for miles and miles.

The open plains with small islands of Busanga

Busanga is truly a photographers paradise. The place is teeming with game , as the plains dry up little rivers and streams are left and all the game congregates around it.

Herds of Rhone ,sable puku and letchwe were all over the place and of course the predators literally falling out the trees.

Rhone antelope on the Plains

The predators have learned to climb trees in the wet season to get out of the water,so it is not uncommon to see lions in trees here.

Busanga pride male

The Busanga plains is a definite must for any photographer, tons of birds and wild life, the sad thing is that you only really have a 4 – 5 month window period to go ,July through to Nov ,the plains are totally inaccessible in the wet season.

spur winged duck

I must say that the Busanga plains is a very special place if you are a birder, nature lover or wildlife photographer it is a must

Sunrise on the Busanga Plains

Tags: Busanga plains, Kafue national park, photographic, photography, safari, wildlife, Zambia

Zambia ,Kafue national park

The next leg of our trip takes us to  kafue national park some 225000 square km big ,it is an hour and a half’s flight from Livingston into central Africa , you literally fly the hole time over bush veld, not one town just un-spoilt bush.

Vic falls leaving Livingston

We landed at Lufupa camp , our first stop in Kafue. It’s a lovely semi luxury tented bush camp situated on the confluence of the lufupa and Kafue rivers, more or less in the central part of Kafue. I say semi luxury as there is no electricity , there is however lights and hot water powered by solar pannels and camera and laptops can be charged at the office from the generator which runs while guests are our on drive. Although there are no air cons the evenings were not hot as there is a constant breeze off the water that blows through the tent ,I found it very comfortable even though we were there in the hottest time of the year (oct)

The mighty Kafue river at sunset

The activities are mixed between game drives and boat cruises .The size of the Kafue and Lufupa rivers is mind blowing ,this is definitely an undiscovered secret of Africa. A great advantage in Kafue is that you can follow animals off road, some thing not often possible in national parks.

The rivers are at times 80 -100m wide and teeming with game ,  from the boat there is brilliant birding with tons of African fin foot, malachite kingfishers ,half collared kingfishers ,African skimmers ,western banded snake eagles just to mention a few, there is also the lovely senic images of sunset that get imprinted in your brain.

sunset silhouette on the Kafue river

Game viewing from the boat was also good with leopard elephant hippos crocs and various antelope sightings.

dominant male lion in Lufupa area

The game drives were interesting from the point that you had to fight off the tsetse flies for most part of the drive, this can be some what annoying, but we had good game viewing , saw Rhone antelope eland elephants and lion.

Next we are off to the Busanga plains of northern Kafue

Tags: Add new tag, Kafue national park, Kafue river, Lufupa camp, photographic, photography, safari, wildlife, Zambia

Zambia photographic trip

My Zambia trip starts at Livingston ,more specifically Toka leya a wilderness safari camp on the Zambezi

This is camp is well suited for those looking for comfort and style in the bush

The camp is on raised decks overlooking the Zambezi river ,a perfect setting for an African safari experience.

Boat cruise on the Zambezi

The afternoon activity was a boat cruise on the Zambezi, were we are expecting to find the African fin foot and the African skimmers( two big ticks for birders a must for any photographers portfolio).

We had a wonderful time here and saw some awesome sightings, a special one for me was an elephant swimming across the Zambezi river .

Elephant swimming the Zambezi

The river was a hive of activity but sadly on the Zimbabwe side all was quiet,our guide mentioned that is apparently because of no fuel for boats to go out. Its such a shame the someone can cause such a beautiful country to almost come to a standstill.

My next stop is Kafue national park

Tags: Add new tag, photographic, photography, Toka Leya, wildlife, Zambia

Khwai Photographic

Unfortunately we have come to the end of the Khwai photographic , it has been a wonderful experience for all who went . I think its safe to say that we all learnt something about photography ,(I even learnt some new things), we not only learnt about photography but also learnt something about ourselves .

It was a very diverse group, from Adri and Rassie from Pholikwane ,regular bush fanatics who love camping frequently to Ali from the UK , who landed 3weeks ago for the first time in Africa and landed on a totally self sufficient camping photographic in Botswana.

Ali from the UK shooting up african wildlife

We were fortunate enough to have lions close to camp and we could experiment with some night photography form the game viewers.

we were shooting manual at 800 ISO ,between 1/50 -1/100 s  at f/4

male lion at Khwai

Some other high lights were the 17 sable we found , as well as the mating leopard and wild dogs

group of sable antelope at Khwai

Some pics from the trip

ODP members on game viewers at Khwai

The group taking memory shots

ODP members taking memory pics

Michael and Evert in action

Michael and Evert in action

AS the Group heads back to SA after a very successful trip ,thanks to ODP and Bernie from 4×4 mega world for supplying the logistics and chef Godfey

I head on to Explore the photo graphic possibilities in Zambia , so I will keep you posted

Tags: Botswana, camping, photographic, photography, safari

Khwai River Camping

Getting to the Khwai river was an exciting expedition , with all the rain there were a couple of water crossing but the most exciting one was the actual crossing of the Khwai river from Mababe side.

Here are a couple of ODP members crossing the Khwai river.

Michael Bossman crossing the Khwai

More river crossings

Hilton crossing the Khwai

We got to the camp site at Khwai and set up camp, and got ready for game drive.

We went out and photographed some sunsets ,and scouted the area for morning and evening shooting spots.

The photographic is going well , seen loads of elephants ,lion and a high light was a group of 16 sable antelope .

Elephants playing in the river Khwai

The group are getting great shots and having a ball.

Khumaga

We left Kwa Nokeng and headed north for the Makgadigadi pans were we set up camp at Khumaga. Khumaga is a lovely camp site on the Boteti river on the western side of the pans.

Due to the good rains in June July the once arid and dry river bed was now flowing for the first time in sixty years ,its remarkable to see the metamorphosis that takes place when  the rains have fallen.

Boteri River flowing for the first time in 60 years

We took a drive a drive onto the pans ,saw lots of game along the way ,unfortunately all the zebra’s that we were expecting to see at the river were now on the pans, still a wonderful sight.

It was ausume to be on such a vast expanse of africa, some of our group took the opportunity to express their excitement.

Ali from the UK having fun on the Makgadigadi pans

Evert Nel getting dirty

Evert Nel on the Pans

We are off now on the third day to pick up supplies in Maun and then we head off to Khwai.  

Tags: Botswana, Makgadigadi Pans, photographic, safari

Botswana Photographic 2009

Hi all , well we are off on our next photographic ,this time we are venturing into Botswana to photograph the beauty of this wonderful country.

This is a joint initiative between Outdoorphoto,   4×4 mega world ,and  digital-africa

We will spend the night at  Kwa Nokeng lodge just on the Botswana side of the Martins drift border post, this is the perfect meeting place for the various parties going.

From here our trip takes us to the western side of the Makgadigadi pans were we will hopefully photograph the zebra and wildebeest that migrate down to the Boteti river from the Savuti marsh at this time of the year. Usually the Boteti is dry at this time year with selected water point the are pumped , but this year it will be very interesting as it is the first year in about 50 years that the Boteti river is flowing and is apparently 30- 40 meters wide in certain areas.

Our next stop will be the unique town of Maun , the gateway to the delta, where there is a indescribable excitement in the air as the safari vehicles wiz up and down on their way to or from the Delta, and a small censer planes take of and land just about every minute carrying guest to and fro from the lodges in the Delta. It is so contagious you can almost not sit still and you have this urge to get out there and discover the mighty Okavango Delta .

After picking up last supplies we head north into the delta to the Khwai river were we will spend the next 5 days photographing the abundant and diverse wildlife.

Tags: Add new tag, Botswana, camping, photographic, photography, safari, wildlife

Sad day in the Masai mara

I thought long before I decided to tell this story so please for give me if it disturbs you but this is the harsh reality of nature .

The day started out with coffee and rusks and we jumped onto our game viewing vehicle at 645am and headed out with an unexplainable feeling ,something of a mixture of excitement ,expectation and adventure . As we drove out of the Lodge and entered the Mara reserve I wondered what this vast expanse of land would yield today.

With in a half an hour we picked up the jackal family ,mom, dad and the three pups.

Jackal family

Just in time as it appeared that they were moving den today . we followed at a safe distance and watched the cubs run and play as they followed mom and dad to there new home . Finally it looked as if they had reached a suitable termite mound and this was to be there new home . the pups stood on the mound and made loud yelping sounds (much to their determent as it turned out)

jackal pups on the mound

Although mom and dad were moving from their old den site to protect the young from other predators ,it turns out that the termite mound they had chosen was 50m away from a tree which happened to have a leopard in.

The yelping sound were a sure giveaway for the leopard who did not waist any time and climbed down the tree. the mom and dad went ballistic and tried to warn the pups to take cover in the mound they also tried to distract the leopard by running in its way but the leopard headed straight for the mound the pups had gone down a hole but sadly the leopard was to fast and dug into the hole and got one of the jackal pups .The leopard run off into the bush with mom and dad barking and yelping in the hope that they could get the leopard to drop the pup, but all was lost the pup was dead on impact .

leopard digging into the mound

leopard with jackal pup

The story has a sad ending but this is how nature balances numbers and controls itself it is the law of nature and is not affected or altered by our human emotions

The Migration

If you are a nature lover , I am sure you will feel the same as I do about the wildebeest migration. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world ,it has been said to be the greatest show on earth ,I have been looking forward to this event for years , but nothing can prepare you for something so spectacular ,you have to see and experience it.

I did not know it but there is quite an art to seeing the migration, here is how it goes:

The wildebeest come out of the woodlands and walk towards the Mara river.

Once a group of wildebeest have started gathering at the rivers edge , the vehicles (tourist) start lining up ,but the secret is to stand 500-800 meters away from the potential crossing.

This is so that the animals don’t feel boxed in and they can see an exit route out of the river.

Then in there own time (can be several hours between crossing attempts) the wildebeest wait for some brave companion to take the first step towards the water, inevitable the rest follow .

9/10 times they are spooked by something or some vehicle being to close to their exit point and they all rush up the embankment again and the whole process starts again . This can happen several times before the real thing, but when it happens all hell breaks lose , its something like a motocross hole shot , all the vehicle start and rush forward at the same time to the same spot.

The wildebeest come running down the dusty embankment in there numbers ,a cloud of dust towers into the air as the wildebeest plunge into the Mara river in the hope of finding fresh grazing on the other side, all this is happening at the same time.

Once you have your spot next to the river that’s were you stay. Depending on the size of the herd a crossing can last 10-15 min or sometimes 2-4 hours.

wildebeest run

dust run

the crossing

I will be posting some more photos soon