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In early February Panthera Photo Safaris lead a photographic workshop to Kambaku River Lodge. The goal of this safari was to spend four nights in the eye level photography hide that we helped them build back in 2021.
The hide is perfect for photographers who want to get a beautiful low perspective when they photograph the birds and mammals that visit. The layout of the hide can be found here.
When I arrived the day before the workshop started, myself and Leanne, the owner of Kambaku River Lodge, sat in the hide and discussed the terrible weather that was approaching. A huge storm system which ended up flooding the whole of the lowveld for weeks! We were greeted by a very strange elephant, who ran past the hide telling off everything in his way, including us!
After he left and we finished laughing, we headed in for the night to prepare for the safari.
Upon arrival guests were greeted to the last bit of dry weather we saw for those four nights. Not exactly what you want when you are hoping elephants and birds will have a great thirst! We entered the hide for the first afternoon session and were treated to a handful of species coming down to visit, including swallows, pin-tailed whydahs, a handful of weavers and some waterbuck with their young babies.
Waking up on day two we were met with very thick cloud and cold temperatures. This is normally not productive at all for hide photography as the birds typically do not come if they are not hot and thirsty. We were very lucky being able to photograph the weavers, whydahs and waterbuck once again, before having very special visits from both the woodland kingfisher, dusky widow-bird and white fronted bee eaters.
The afternoon session was also a success, with some flash photography on our “sunset” perches producing some really nice results.
Day three was a very wet one, with the nation wide storm now in full swing. We were shocked to see that the river had risen a few metres! The level of the water was so high it was almost at the lip of the hides waterhole. We weren’t expecting to photograph anything at all in such heavy rain, but I was pleasantly surprised when the birds kept coming! The very dark conditions made it difficult, however by making the most of the low light we were able to capture some fantastic creative slow shutter images.
Day four started off with a light drizzle which quickly burnt off. The activity early wasn’t very busy, but we had some fantastic weavers, cut throat finches and the highlight of the morning, a pair of fighting bronze manikins.
By lunchtime the sun was out, and whilst alone in the hide during a cleaning session I managed to photograph a new bird species for this hide, a wood sandpiper.
The afternoon session was a tad quiet, but we got two new species…. white-faced whistling ducks, a fresh water crab and a crocodile.
The last day arrived with more rain. Lots of it. Many of the guests decided to skip the hide and get home early, as the floods were getting increasingly bad and many roads were closed. My routes home were all closed due to flooding so I decided to stay. The session was very quiet with the rain clapping down. After thinking we would see nothing at all, we got a fleeting glimpse of a malachite kingfisher. We then got news reports that one road was open so we called it quits and made a run for home.
All in all this was a very successful hide safari, all things considered. I have been in many hides during cold and wet weather and seen absolutely nothing at all.
We have three more safaris in 2023 to this amazing location, these being a mixture of game drives and hide sessions. To view our future Kambaku River Lodge workshops, click the link below.
