Joined for a Drink

This year has been a whirlwind thus far and my photo processing has taken a serious back seat between a new role at work, continuous family commitments and other random things.

I found time tonight to take a quick peek at some of my photos from our safari to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in December last year. This photo was taken at first light from the walkways between the cabins at the Urikaruus Wilderness Camp. This specific pride of lions had spoiled us by lounging around the camp waterhole all day that day!

It started when I randomly awoke at around 2am, and as usual when staying in these camps I stepped out on to the balcony to see if something was visiting the waterhole. "Something" was - a pride of about 9 lions were all drinking from the waterhole! It was deathly quiet, and all you could hear was their tongues lapping up the water. I woke my wife and we enjoyed this moment for a few minutes. I figured they would hang around a bit, so we lied down again. At around 3am the roaring started...3-4 of them would roar in turns, and it didn't stop until sunrise around 05h30! So much for shut-eye haha...

As the first rays of sunlight kissed the desert sand, the big male and one of the females rose (they had been plonked down behind the waterhole) and proceeded to drink again. I used the elevated position of the walkway between the chalets to get their reflection in the frame as well...

After they drank their fill, they got lazy again, and we headed north in our vehicle and found lots more lions - but that is a story for another day...

The pride lounged around all day, roared again at sunset, and moved off into the dunes as darkness fell. A special treat dished up by a special place!

Techs:
Nikon D810
Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VR
1.4x teleconverter
f5.6  |  1/1000 SS  |  ISO-720

click on the photo to view at optimal sharpness and resolution

I miss the place already...

Have a blessed week, folks!

Morkel Erasmus