Mana Pools National Park 2015

It is now five months since I left Zimbabwe. This was the second time I have visited the park and I hope to go there many more times.

This year was completely different from previous and this was mostly due to being there a month and a half later. The reasoning behind this was simple. I wanted a better chance of meeting the endangered Painted Dog.

That meant the temperature had risen and there was certainly no need for an extra blanket during the night. More animals had come down to the floodplain and sadly more dust blanketing out the great light at times.

If I look at the pictures from the two different years, then I must say that I am more pleased with this year’s even if we missed out on Boswell. This has mainly to do we us being out of the vehicle more times working with the subjects we found. It is really about quality and not quantity as Mana Pools National Park isn’t suited for a formula one safari.

You must love the African Elephant

This is a short video from one of our Elephant encounters and shows what you can do in Mana Pools National Park.

You need to understand that you intrude when you approach an animal. You need to stay as a single unit and not try to get that special shot. This elephant was relaxed when we stopped the vehicle. Still we couldn’t say how it would react if we broke the shape of the vehicle. That meant we had to take turns to photo this magnificent bull. We also had to be sensible to not break the silouette of the vehicle.

We had more action in camp during the nights this year. An elephant wandered into camp during the safari siesta one day. I had watched a herd of elephants for 20 minutes, but once I moved off one of the females walked straight into camp. She was a little cheeky making a mock charge when she got spooked.

The nights are also interesting on safari

Each night we had Spotted Hyenas in camp. I suppose we even had that last year, but this time they were calling and I had to record the sound one night.

I really like their call and often lied in bed waiting for the choir to start before going to sleep. It surely is a great feeling to be under canvas when you are at a wild place like Mana Pools National Park.

I hope you will find some inspiration in this my second photo album from Mana Pools National Park, even if the first couple of picture in the album is taken outside the park.

Please enjoy the pictures.

Photo Album: Mana Pools National Park 2015