Back from Southern Africa – Hwange NP, Zimbabwe

After an awfully long absence I am finally back from my travels in Southern Africa. As much as I love Kenya’s parks and wildlife, I am starting to feel the need to explore new places, new landscapes, new backgrounds, new light. As a photographer I am realizing more and more how important it is to maintain a fresh perspective on my photography. Staying too long in one place certainly provides good opportunities, but many times I have the feeling of taking always the same image, over and over again. So I decided to take a break from guiding and from the Masai Mara. I am deeply in love with African animals so I didn’t go too far though. The first part of my trip was to Zimbabwe. It’s a wonderful country, slowly recovering from more than ten years of political unrest and mismanagement. Wildlife in the National Parks has fortunately been safeguarded, but the animals living outside of the parks have been decimated. My first stop was in Hwange NP, with its huge population of resident Elephants. In mid October the park is very dry, animals rely on the artificial permanent waterholes, and huge concentration of Elephants can be seen there. During my stay there the first rains came, darkening the sky and scattering the animals.