April must be one of my favourite months as far as photography is concerned.
The natural light glows strongest as most of the humidity, typical of the rainy season has left, vegetation is lush and green, and there is no dust or smoke in the air.
The wind is pretty absent too as we only have soft breezes around midday.
The cumulus clouds seem to congregate like the european storks, ready to fly off somewhere else to drop their load of rain, and they no longer threaten us with imminent downpours.
They do however provide us with some of the more spectacular sunsets anyone will witness.
Easter was just such a day.
I was fortunate enough to get out on the river in the afternoon and escape camp with a few friends that chose to stay at our bushcamp on Kanyemba Island. Getting out of camp is always a lucky strike as i manage to stay away for a couple of hours from the admin and problems that come with owning a lodge in a remote part of Africa.
The Pinot Grigio was flowing and so was the Zambezi, taking us on its current and drifting about 5 kms on the river, only the chatter of the beeters on some of vertical enbankments, and the odd grunt of hippos.
And then the sky exploded....
Enjoy.
Photos courtesy of Andrew and Claudia Hosking
Well, its been about a week since the last rains and it seems, they might indeed be over!
The nights are starting to turn cool (not hot water bottle season yet) and the days are a lot less humid.
Not that much rain - around 450 mm, for the whole season, but then the Lower Zambezi Valley is blessed with almost half of the waters of Southern Africa flowing through it....the mighty Zambezi....
It is one of the best times of the year for photoghraphy. The sky is clear, the colours are crisp, the vegetation green and thick.
The inter-african and eurasian migrant birds are gathering for their winter travels, whilst the more resident ones seem to be a lot more gregarious.
Below are a couple of photos taken on a couple of hours off on the river
White fronted bee-eaters at their breeding site (it gets occupied by carmine bee-eaters in late september), and a hippo watching the boat drift by at sunset.
Enjoy.
As you might all know as of the 1st of March, the annual ban on fishing in Zambia (including the zambezi river) has been lifted.
The river is low and the water very clear, and tigers are very aggressive.
Here below are the first and last fish of the 2011 season.
A 13 kg Vundu caught by Lauren Penny, and a 6.5 kg Tiger caught by our own Brent Walker.
Keep checking this post, for the first catches of this season.
I've been looking through some photographs from a year ago...
The rain in the upper Zambezi had been heavy, and Kariba dam, about 80 kms upriver from Kanyemba was full. The operators of Kariba dam decided to open four of the six gates to release water, as levels were getting dangerously high... forgot to warn us...and well, here are the images... we had an infinity pool!
Seems like this year the water is rather low, so we are safe..
Cheers.
Riccardo
It is not unusual later on in the season to have lion sightings from a Kanyemba lodge. Prey has no choice but to get closer to the river as food source becomes more scarce inland, and predators follow, sometimes using the Zambezi river as a trap.
At the end of October we consistently observed this single female, a couple of kilometres downriver on the Zimbabwean bank, obviously very pregnant and desperately hot, trying to cool down at the the waters edge. Very relaxed.
Photos Courtesy of Jill Penny
Whilst some think we are on holiday whilst the lodge is closed, we are busy maintaining boats, vehicles, equipment, varnishing, painting, fixing etc.
We are redoing a couple of verandahs, and still getting on with the new vanity tables. Washbasins are still on our snaglist...
Latest Post!
April must be one of my favourite months as far as photography is concerned. The natural light glows strongest as most of the humidity, typical of the rainy season has left, vegetation is lush and green, and there is no dust or smoke in the air. The wind is pretty absent too as we only [...]
