Tsavo East, Kenya – Photographic safari

Having always concentrated my photography and my safaris on the Mara during the dry months of July to October, I had missed out on many other wonderful sightings in this country. This year we decided to do a short one-week trip to one of the widest and wildest parks in Africa, Tsavo East NP. What I wanted to photograph in particular were the famous red Elephants concentrating at the few waterholes scattered in the park, which in the dry season are the only source of water for the wild animals. Tsavo hosts sizeable populations of all the big cats, and we were lucky to find a small pride of two Lionesses and six cubs on a rocky boulder overlooking the plains.

I spent most of the time around water holes watching Elephants and other animals come and go. Arriving at one water hole in particular we had the most amazing sight stretching in front of us, that of approximately 300 Elephants gathered together, bulls and matriarchs with their families waiting for their turn to access the water. I started taking images, trying to figure out how to portray the grandiosity of the scene given thehan limited freedom of movement. With three more days ahead of us, I was ready to spend them all in this magic place. But the next day we woke up with dark rain clouds in the distance which attracted the Elephants away from the area, leaving the water hole almost empty. The following day it started pouring and the Elephants were gone completely.