“Rules are made to be broken…”
The most exciting thing you’ll ever see with a camera in your hand…
“There’s a lion fighting with a buffalo!” cried our driver, holding his binoculars and looking round in my direction.
“Okay, let’s go!”
He tore off into the Serengeti, bouncing around like crazy as we headed towards the action - ignoring the park rules by going off-road! He was driving so fast that my bean bag flew up into the air.
Thank goodness I was holding on to my cameras, or I might’ve lost them both!
I couldn’t see what was going on, but our driver kept up a running commentary until we eventually got close. He asked me where he should position the car, but it didn’t matter as we could plainly see a lion grabbing the haunches of a buffalo only 10 yards away!
My heart racing, I immediately started taking pictures. I took so many, in fact, that my camera couldn’t cope and started to slow down! I had to stop every now and then to allow it to write the files to the memory card.
I was with a couple of guests, Patrick and Yvonne, and I suggested to Yvonne that she take a video.
Thanks, Yvonne…!
For five or 10 minutes, the lion hung on with its claws and teeth as the buffalo desperately tried to escape. Eventually, two more male lions arrived to help out and managed to take down their prey, but the buffalo somehow managed to get to its feet again, and the struggle continued.
We drove around a bit to get the best view until, finally, one more lion joined in, and the buffalo sank to the ground for the last time.
One of the lions clamped his jaws around the animal’s neck and then its mouth to suffocate it, and all four began to feed on their kill. We were in the prime position, with the sun at our backs and all four lions lined up behind the carcase. What a sight!
Sadly, we couldn’t stay long as our driver was worried we’d be spotted by a park ranger, but that was definitely the highlight of my stay at Klein’s Camp.
And it was all down to our driver and his ability to spot the action from all of 300 yards away…and break the rules! You’re not supposed to go off-road in the Serengeti National Park, and you run the risk of being fined or even banned from the park if you do, but rules are made to be broken - especially in Africa!
I generally adopted a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy: I didn’t ask if we were breaking any rules, and I certainly didn’t tell any of the park rangers about it!
Seeing a kill is what it’s all about when it comes to wildlife photography.
I realise some people might be a little squeamish about it, but there really is nothing to match the excitement. The guests and I were on a high after the lion kill, and we kept replaying it over and over in our minds and talking about it for the rest of the day.
The only other time I saw a ‘proper’ kill from start to finish was in the Klein’s Camp concession.
We were looking for cheetah all morning out towards the old airstrip, and we finally saw a pair of brothers walking across a broad, grassy plain. It was ideal cheetah country, and there were quite a few blue wildebeest for them to choose from.
We drove along, trying to keep ahead of the cheetah but level with their prey to give us the best chance of spotting the action.
I saw five cheetah kills in as many days at Kicheche Bush Camp last year, so I know just how fast the action can take place and how far they can run!
In this case, there were a couple of false starts as one or other of the cheetah lay down in the shade of a tree, but one of the brothers was clearly in the lead and ready to hunt.
Finally, he started trotting towards a group of wildebeest with his head down in that very typical way they have that shows they’re about to chase down their prey.
He ran at full speed for about 100 yards as I took pictures until he finally caught a wildebeest. He didn’t manage to take it down first time, though, and it took the help of his brother to wrestle the animal to the ground.
We were a bit far behind by that stage, but I switched to my 800mm lens and managed to get a few shots.
One of the cheetahs clamped his jaws around the wildebeest’s neck and suffocated it while the other lay next to him, holding it down with his paws.
Once it was dead, they started feeding on the carcase, scanning the horizon every few seconds to check for other predators that might steal their prey.
After a few minutes’ feasting on the carcase, one of the cheetah walked over and lay down in the shade of a tree, and the other dragged the kill over to him.
They both continued eating greedily as one or two vultures arrived to join the party. This carried on for about half an hour, and I took pictures of the cheetah feeding and the vultures landing one after another.
By the time we left, I counted 82 white-backed vultures standing in a neat line - just like they were waiting for the bus!
Apart from those kills, I had a few other good days in the bush.
I remember following three cheetah on another day with a guest called Martina, and it was a pretty long wait for any action, but we finally got our reward when they climbed a tree and started posing for us.
Eventually, the cheetah jumped down from the tree, and I managed to capture him in the act…
On another occasion, I managed to find a spot where I could take shots of animals silhouetted against the sunset.
Normally, that’s not possible at Klein’s due to the Kuka hills that run north-south between the concession and the Serengeti National Park, blocking the sunset in the west. However, there’s a little gully in one of the broad plains near the old airstrip that allowed me to capture this wildebeest against a gloriously fiery sky.
The other real highlights were leopard sightings.
Martina wanted a few photography lessons while she was at Klein’s, and we went out on every game drive with a guide called Seleu, who managed to spot three leopards in as many days! One of them was even in the concession, which was a very rare event.
I’d seen a leopard with Seleu in my first week at Klein’s, but that was the only other time I’d seen one.
When our tracker Leboo spotted the animal sitting in a tree, Seleu got very excited - almost as excited as when he’d shouted, “Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake!” when a spitting cobra slither across the road! - and we were treated to a good half an hour of posing before it eventually climbed down and slunk off into a drainage gully.
The second sighting was only a few yards away from the ranger post at the entrance to the park. Seleu saw a kill lying on the bank of the river, and he then managed to spot the leopard nearby.
Unfortunately, it was very shy, and it was also very dark, so we only got off a few shots before it disappeared into the undergrowth.
The third and final leopard was by far the best.
We were on our way back from a long game drive in the Serengeti when Leboo spotted it sitting by the river on an open plain.
We reversed to the nearest junction and took a different road that led right to the spot.
By this stage, the animal had moved away from the river and sat down in the grass, but we still had an excellent view. The light was also excellent as it was getting towards the ‘golden hour’ just before sunset, and Martina and I were able to take some great portraits.
As you can see from the pictures I’ve chosen, going on safari is really all about the big cats: lion, leopard and cheetah. I didn’t see many leopard or cheetah at Klein’s, but the five male lion were a constant presence.
When they arrived in November last year, they killed all the cubs they could find from the previous dominant males, and that forced all the lionesses into oestrus. My time here coincided with a frenzy of intercourse, and I must have seen more than 25 matings in the last two months. I also went down to Serengeti Under Canvas for a few days when there weren’t any guests at Klein’s, and I had some good sightings there, too.
When I finally left Klein’s Camp, I walked out of my door and stood on the porch, looking for one last time at the view up the valley towards Kenya. I had tears in my eyes.
It’s been a great two months or so, and I hope to be back at some stage in the future. I’ve had some great sightings, taken some great pictures and met some great people, both among the staff and among the guests.
I hope I’ve helped the guests learn more about photography. I’ve had some nice feedback on Tripadvisor, and one guest even started calling me ‘Master’ - i felt like Mr Miyagi in The Karate Kid: “Lens cap on, lens cap off.”
All in all, I have to thank Claire Evans at &Beyond and everyone else involved for giving me such a great opportunity and making my stay so enjoyable.
Let’s hope it’s the start of a beautiful friendship!
Butcher's bill
1 x Nikon 1.25 teleconverter - the screws kept falling out, and the lug that located it in the mount eventually froze in place…
Species list:
Animals
African civet
African hare
African bush elephant
African wild cat
Banded mongoose
Bat-eared fox
Black-backed jackal
Black-backed/silver-backed jackal
Blue wildebeest
Bohor reedbuck
Bushbuck
Cape buffalo
Chameleon
Cheetah
Coke’s hartebeest
Common warthog
Common/golden jackal
Defassa waterbuck
Dung beetle
Dwarf mongoose
Eland
Grant’s gazelle
Green turtle
Hippopotamus
Impala
Kirk’s dik-dik
Klipspringer
Leopard
Leopard tortoise
Lesser bush baby
Lion
Little antelope
Masai giraffe
Millipede
Monitor lizard
Mwanza flat-headed rock agama/Spider-Man agama
Nile crocodile
Olive baboon
Oribi
Plains zebra
Rock hyrax
Rock python
Scrub hare
Serval
Slender mongoose
Spitting cobra
Spotted hyena
Steenbok
Terrapin
Thomson’s gazelle
Topi
Tree hyrax
Tree lizard
Vervet monkey
White-tailed mongoose
Wild dog/painted wolf
Birds
Abdim’s stork
African crowned eagle
African cuckoo
African fish eagle
African golden weaver
African green-pigeon
African grey flycatcher
African grey hornbill
African hawk-eagle
African hoopoe
African paradise flycatcher
African pied wagtail
African wattled lapwing
African white-backed vulture
Arrow-marked babbler
Augur buzzard
Bare-faced go-away-bird
Bateleur eagle
Bearded woodpecker
Black stork
Black-bellied bustard
Black-chested snake-eagle
Black-headed heron
Black-lored babbler
Black-shouldered kite
Black-winged stilt
Blacksmith plover
Blue-naped mousebird
Bronze mannikin
Brown parrot
Brown snake-eagle
Burchell’s starling
Cape wheatear
Cardinal woodpecker
Cattle egret
Cinnamon-breasted rock bunting
Common buzzard
Common kestrel
Common ostrich
Common sandpiper
Coqui francolin
Croaking cisticola
Crowned plover
Dark chanting-goshawk
Eagle owl
Eastern chanting-goshawk
Egyptian goose
European bee-eater
European roller
European swallow
Fischer’s lovebird
Flappet lark
Fork-tailed drongo
Goliath heron
Grassland pipit
Great spotted cuckoo
Greater blue-eared starling
Greater flamingo
Greater striped swallow
Green wood-hoopoe
Grey crowned crane
Grey heron
Grey kestrel
Grey-backed fiscal
Grey-breasted spurfowl
Grey-crested helmetshrike
Hadada ibis
Hammerkop
Helmeted guineafowl
Hooded vulture
Klaas’s cuckoo
Kori bustard
Lappet-faced vulture
Lesser flamingo
Lesser kestrel
Lesser masked weaver
Lesser striped swallow
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little green bee-eater
Long-crested eagle
Long-tailed cisticola
Magpie shrike
Marigold sunbird
Marsh eagle
Martial eagle
Montagu’s harrier
Mountain buzzard
Northern anteater chat
Northern wheatear
Northern white-crowned shrike
Pale spotted owlet
Pallid harrier
Pin-tailed whydah
Plain-backed pipit
Purple grenadier
Pygmy falcon
Pygmy kingfisher
Rattling cisticola
Red-backed shrike
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
Red-fronted barbet
Red-headed weaver
Red-necked spurfowl
Red-rumped swallow
Red-winged starling
Ring-necked dove
Ruff
Rufous-naped lark
Rufous-tailed weaver
Ruppell’s griffon vulture
Ruppell’s long-tailed starling
Saddle-billed stork
Sand grouse
Scarlet-chested sunbird
Secretary bird
Senegal lapwing
Silverbird
Sooty falcon
Southern red bishop
Speckle-fronted weaver
Speckled mousebird
Speckled pigeon
Spot-flanked barbet
Spotted thick-knee
Steppe eagle
Striped kingfisher
Sunbird
Superb starling
Swamp nightjar
Taita fiscal
Tawny eagle
Tawny-flanked prinia
Temminck’s courser
Three-banded plover
Two-banded courser
Two-banded plover
Usambiro barbet
Variable sunbird
Verreaux’s (or black) eagle
Verreaux’s eagle-owl
Von Der Decken’s hornbill
Wattled starling
White stork
White-bellied bustard
White-bellied tit
White-browed coucal
White-browed robin-chat
White-browed scrub-robin
White-crowned shrike
White-headed buffalo weaver
White-headed saw-wing
White-headed vulture
White-winged widowbird
Wire-tailed swallow
Woodland kingfisher
Woolly-necked stork
Yellow-billed oxpecker
Yellow-billed stork
Yellow-fronted canary
Yellow-throated longclaw
Yellow-vented bulbul
Zitting cisticola
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
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