Sometimes we face up to God and silently pray for atleast one single blessing, one chance, one opportunity for atleast one door to open. And when we least expect it, our prayers get answered in multiple folds. I took a chance in 2020 and entered the first-ever Botswana Photography Awards and my submission of the Martial Eagle became the first runner-up up under the Wildlife Photography category. It was the first tile to fall.
By virtue of being a first runner-up, the prize due to me was a year long subscription to the C4 Atelier website, with access to wildlife photography webinars, tutorials,blogs and an opportunity to book a professional photographer. I was more than excited about this.
In the months that followed after the awards, I engaged with Janet Kleyn and Aubrey Tseleng from Photo Mashatu. This led to me being invited to Mashatu Game Reserve and it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me as an aspiring photographer. The trip there was long but the more kilometers I covered, the happier I got. I was thrilled and honoured, by the idea of having been invited to a new place, by the idea of being able to be in the bushy wild after a long while.
On my first morning there, we went on a game drive and I couldn’t contain my excitement. There was a rich variety of birds and animals, the impalas, the zebras, the giraffes, some baboons, the elands that were my first time to see. The breeze was cool and the weather was beautiful. We got back to the house and as routine, we downloaded the pictures for editing and to create space, charged the camera batteries and freshened up while waiting for the afternoon drive.
In the afternoon, Aubrey, Janet and I took another drive, this time around, taking a different direction and I kept hoping to see the cats. I had heard that there were leopards, lions and cheetahs and I kept my fingers crossed the entire time. It wasn’t too long after, while I was still taking in all the beautiful views of Mashatu, that Aubrey stopped the car and reversed a bit. He had spotted some leopards in the Majale River,a female and its male cub. I almost leapt out of my seat because of excitement but I also had to calm myself down and make good use of the moment. As I was taking out my camera, I kept saying a silent prayer of gratitude. I had always wished to see a leopard and finding two at once was more than I had hoped for. The light was perfectly golden and every press to the shutter button felt a lot more like a vibration that travelled from my finger all the way down to my toes. Watching them walk so gracefully crossing the river was almost enchanting.
We followed them out of the river and also making sure that we got some shots before we lost the light. The mother had her sight on some impalas not too far from where we were as the cub walked away to the opposite direction. When I asked why, Aubrey said that the cub was probably giving its mother some space to go and hunt. It was getting dark and we headed back to the house. I couldn’t wait to arrive and see the pictures on a larger screen and boy, what a thrill it was to browse through each and every one, unsure of which one to delete and which one to edit for keeps.
The following morning we were back it again, the three bush musketeers, as I kept getting the best out of my hosts. They cradled me, at some point I felt like I was a child to wonderful parents. They shared the tips of what settings to use in various situations with me. They took me to where there was a potential for some interesting sights and they did that with so much patience and gentleness. Of course, there were also moments of some old tough love but I took it all on stride. As the drive went on, we saw some elephants taking a dust bath and we couldn’t miss an opportunity to capture them.
I had never known that there was a variety of eagles, I learnt that as we were on the drive. We also got to see the colorful European Roller and it was my first time seeing it.
When we got back to the house, we went back to the grind; downloaded pictures, took a shower, ate breakfast, charging the cameras batteries, took a nap and later went for an afternoon drive. The light was perfect but there was an overwhelming number of marabouk storks and right before we lost the golden light, we saw a blackbacked jackal. I almost jumped out the vehicle with excitement, but the jackal just gave us a wink and disappeared into the thick shrubs. I wished that I could have gotten enough chance to photograph it but Janet and Aubrey assured me that we would see more jackals before I left.
Just a promised, the next morning, my last day at Mashatu, Aubrey took me on a mini game drive and because it was still a bit dark, he had to use a flash light, incase there was some animals in the vicinity. Not too long after, with my fingers crossed for some interesting sights, of a lion or a cheetah hopefully, we heard some sound not too far from where we were. It was a jackal call. We rushed there because that alarm was supposed to mean that there was a predator closeby. We found the jackal, all jittery and still calling, but there was nothing to see out there.
The sun was coming up and I also had a pending long drive back. A few minutes after, we saw another jackal, a calmer one who wasn’t even bothered by the roaring engine of the Toyoya Landcruiser.
On our drive back, we saw a Woodland Kingfisher perched on a dead tree branch and it was an amazing conclusion sight to my drive and to my trip.
I left Mashatu feeling more content and grateful for every bit of the experience I had and mostly, thankful to my wonderful hosts. The domino effect continues.
VIXEN ON THE MOVE 