Southern Africa’s Photographic Highlights

Article and Images by Lars Sevensson, M.D., PhD

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Television and media remorselessly depict Southern Africa’s problems of humanity and disease yet the private and public game park jewels have lately received scant coverage. To survive, these gardens of Eden need ecotourism’s support to save the animals for extinction so they will be there for future generations. How to visit the best sties at a reasonable cost and the equipment needed will be revealed below. And, as the Zulu saying goes, “Once you have tasted the waters of Africa, you’ll always return.”

Travel: Daily direct flights to Johannesburg leave from New York or Atlanta at a cost between $800–$1,200 and, if a night flight is selected, a good night’s sleep can be obtained prior to catching a connecting flight to the game parks, usually to Mpumalanga at the Kruger National Park or to Maun in Botswana or Windhoek in Namibia. Connections to the cities of Durbin or Cape Town are also best done the same day as arrival. The best times to visit are the winter months between July and October. During these months, the weather is cooler, carnivores are more active, raptors are frequent, the vegetation is less dense and malaria is a minimal risk in the eastern parts.

In Mpumalanga, Avis Toyota Ventures or VW Combis (Vanagons) can be rented for self-guided tours of the Kruger Park, an unforgettable motoring experience looking for animals in wild Africa. Give right of way to the elephants! Famous local private luxury game reserves such as Londolozi, Singida, Sable-Sands and Mala-Mala also meet visitors right at the airports.

Meanwhile in Maun, Botswana, prearranged four-wheel drive vehicles and camping equipment can be rented, typically for driving from Maun through Moremi Game Reserve and Savuti to Chobe Game Reserve and through Kasane or Victoria Falls. For better fame viewing and “water” experiences of riding Makoro dugout canoes and photographing from the waterways in the Okavango Delta, the private luxury game concessions are an option, although expensive (more than $400/day fully inclusive of game drives, food and drinks). Photographic favorites include Chitabe, Chobe, Duba, Plains, Jao, Linyanti, Mombo, Savuti, Sandibe, and Vumbura.

From Windhoek, Namibia, cars can be rented to drive to the remote Namib-Naukluft or Etosha Game Reserves. This is a long drive on the left-hand side of the road, but the roads are good. Neither has good direct flights. The Namib-Naukluft lodge is within reasonable driving distance to the Sossusvlei Gate (partly on gravel roads) where four-wheel drive vehicles can be rented for driving into the world’s highest sand dunes. The only other alternative to the camps within Etosha is a chartered flight into Wilderness Safari’s Ongava Lodge, outside the southern gate.

The Drakensberg Mountain Parks, such as Giant’s Castle or Mont-Aux-Sources can be explored by renting a car from Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg or Durban. The northern Kwazulu-Natal Game Parks can also be accessed by paved roads with the last few miles on gravel roads.

Cape Town, the unique flora of the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Table Mountain and Karoo National Botanical Gardens or succulents in Worcester and the wine farms can best be explored by rental car, although coach tours are available from the major hotels. The most scenic drive is the road following the cliffs of the Twelve Apostles from Clifton and on the Cape Point, where the mighty warm Agulhas and cold Benguela ocean currents meet at the Cape of Good Hope Game Park, often creating violent storms. Not far away is False Bay where great white sharks can be photographed from a boat or underwater cages.

Equipment: I pack a Lowepro Omni attaché–style camera bag with a 500 mm lens, two 1.4 teleconverters, two Nikon camera bodies, an 80–200 mm and a 24–85 mm zoom, 20 mm wide angle lens and a 105 mm micro lens. I also take two flashes (useful for night drives), a Fresno screen flash adaptor (Lepp), flash extension cord and a flash bounce attachment for close-up flash photography. Because most of the photography is from motor vehicles, leave tripods at home and, instead, bring a Bogen-type clamp that can be clamped to car windows, open-vehicle game drive vehicles, saplings or rocks for low-light photography. Wrapping a telephoto lens with padding (orthopedic felt) or a bean bag works well for daytime photography. I suggest you budget on at least 5 rolls of film a day. I use Fuji Velvia 50 ASA in the camera body for landscape and zoom photography, Kodak 100 ASA EVS for telephoto photography and Fuji 400 ASA Professional Provia for push processing. While I use a Nikon D1X digital camera, I still prefer film for African photography and scan the slides onto Kodak Photo CDs.

The best light for animal viewing is from thirty minutes before sunrise to three hours after sunrise (look for carnivore kills from during the night, often with surrounding vultures in the trees and two hours before sunset to an hour after sunset (check watering holes for herbivore activity). The midday period is best spent for friends, family, siesta, and travel.

When photographing elephants, hippos, rhinos, or buffalo close-up, close down the lens by one-half to one and one half stops. Cover the camera and bags in open vehicles to protect them from the sun and dust. Bring a lens cleaning kit. Keep your equipment with you at all times. Once you have photographed in southern Africa, you will always “return to the waters.”

Lars G. Svensson, Field Contributor grew up in an area next to the Kruger park while animals still roamed wild at its perimeter. In 1986, he moved to work in cardiovascular surgery at The Cleveland Clinic but returns to Southern Africa yearly for photographic safaris.

About the Game Parks

Kruger National Park: Located in the eastern part of South Africa and bordering Mozambique, this game reserve is the size of New Hampshire, with the addition of adjoining parks in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, this so-called GKG Game Reserve is the largest in the world. There are many self-catered and clean cottages for approximately $30 to $100 per day. Most camps have small grocery shops and cafes. Night drives can be prearranged with game rangers. Hikes on foot over a few days with a game ranger are also popular. The best game viewing is in the South along the Lower-Sabie River. The highest concentration in the world of leopards is along this river drive. The roads are excellent, although you do need to drive on the left-hand side of the road and look for animals yourself. The “big five” (elephants, rhino, buffalo, leopards, and lions) are usually seen during a three to five day stay.

Botswana: That untouched Edens can still exist in our modern world is hard to believe unless you experience the finest jewel: Botswana’s Okavango Delta. An ancient inland sea, the delta floods annually after June from summer rainfall (November–January) in the Angola Highlands. The unique vegetation, papyrus, hollow islands, crystal-clear waterways, diverse bird life and rich animal biodiversity make it a photographic paradise. Budget 5 to 10 rolls of film per day! Most camps offer either “water” experience with limited animal photography or land-based exploration by open four-wheel drive vehicles with a tracker and game guide. The luxury camps are of very high standard with excellent, clean permanent encampments and food. Both safari types should be experienced. Chobe is unique for its huge hers of hundreds of elephants drinking along the riverbank. Many camps offer night drives to observe unique nocturnal fauna and carnivores (leopard, cheetach, hyena, genets, and lions) hunting. Frans Lanting’s photographic books of Botswana are an excellent resource for studying the richness of Botswana’s photographic opportunities. In southern Botswana, bordering also the south African extension, is the Kalahari or Kgalagadi Transfrontier Game Reserve. The Kalahari giant black-maned lions roam this area. These are the largest lions ever, other than the ancient North American lions that roamed 10,000 years ago; the latter can be found in the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.

Namibia: The vast Etosha pan is a shallow lake that floods during the rain season but dries up during the winer months when animals survive on water from artesian springs at its perimeter. These oases concentrate huge herds of herbivores at the springs where carnivores lie in wait ready to pounce. During the dry season, animals migrate from west to east along the pan and then back west when the rain falls. The cottages with Etosha game reserve vary in standards. For example, Namutoni has an old German fort and overlooks a waterhole. Okaukuejo is the most popular site for watching animals coming to drink while you sit on park benches behind a stone wall. Night photography is excellent. Clamp your camera to the stone wall and use a shutter release cable.

The Namib-Naukluft red sand dunes with a morning fog bank above them provide a unique and ephemeral phenomenon. Sossusviei is a dry pan among the red dunes that rarely fills with water, although gemsbok and hyenas do live within this sublime barren moonscape. The desert elephants are much further north in the Skeleton coast region.

Kwazulu-Natal Mkuzi offers dense riverine forests of wild fig trees, allegedly haunted by Sanfomas (sorcerers with hyena emissaries to humans) and bright, yellow-green fever trees. Herds of wildebeest, the beautiful, rare and shy nyalas and zebras come to drink at waterholes where large hides overlooking the water allow for excellent photography. White rhinos are plentiful, thanks to the highly successful breeding program that brought them back from the brink of extinction. Prior to this, only some thirty rhinos were left in the wild. Bird-life is plentiful in the brush around the hides, but a flash is useful (stopped down by one to one and a half EV). Ndumo is famous for its 430 bird species and also has a luxury camp run by Wilderness Safaris. Carnivores are rarely seen. The flora is also spectacularly lush; the mature umbrella thorn trees are emblematic of Africa.

The best Drakensberg game reserves:

Giants Castle which offers great hiking trails, prehistoric bushmen shaman paintings (the Namibian Apollo petroglyphs are 25,000 years old) and a hide to photograph raptors and the rare and unique Lammergeier (bearded vulture)

Royal Natal National Game Reserve offering stunning and sublime landscapes. The Amphitheater Cliffs within the Royal National park drop 4,000 feet with the world’s second highest waterfall, the Tugela Falls, plunging over 3,000 feet down its face. On either side are popular technical climbing peaks. The most difficult and treacherous is the Dragon’s Tooth pinnacle on the eastern side. The most incredible view of the Amphitheater Cliffs, Devil’s Tooth, the Eastern buttress, the Natal Midlands 10,000 feet below and the Tugela waterfalls is from the western side of Sentinel peak. It is not a difficult technical climb, other than a thrity-foot ascent through a chimney. Helicopter rides are available.

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