Wilderness Living

This is how I used to work until I was offered a permanent position as a photographer in a remote wildlife reserve in Botswana.  Accepting this position would mean living far from the luxuries and conveniences of towns and cities.  It would be an adjustment, but after years of working as a freelancer, I was excited for the opportunity to work and live in the wilderness.

I have now been at Mashatu Game reserve, in the South Eastern corner of Botswana, for over three years.  The nearest town to where I live is 60 miles away. This is a very small town with only a few shops selling basic amenities. If I need more, I travel 120 miles to the nearest city.  

But living on a beautiful game reserve with wild animals including lions, leopards and many large herds of elephants more than makes up for the lack of shops nearby. I stay in a staff village where all the staff that work at the lodge where I’m based live.

Being part of a small community, living and working so closely together, it is very important to have good relations with your colleagues. Team work and respect are vital for surviving in the wilderness.  Here, when something goes wrong you rely on each for help.  If your car breaks down you can’t call the AA, if you’re out of supplies and can’t get to town you’ll need to ask your neighbors. 

Many people think our life is a vacation – it’s not.  It’s a good life but it is hard work and as a woman perhaps more so.  I was fortunate to have been trained to work in this industry and part of my training covered the essential skills required like 4×4 driving on all terrains, how to change a tyre and emergency repairs on a vehicle.  I am often out alone on the reserve and these skills are imperative if I don’t want to be stuck out there.

The great thing about working on one reserve for such a lengthy period of time is that I have come to know the area very well and also some of the individual animals and their specific behavior.  This is a great advantage when photographing animals as I am better able to anticipate what they will do and get into the right position to get the photo.

This is part of what my job is – assisting visiting photographers to get into the right place and position for photographing wildlife. I’ll try anticipate behavior of animals and ensure guests are ready when the action happens – perhaps as the leopard pounces after its prey, or the elephant squirts water from his trunk. 

At Mashatu we have a hide (blind), that has been specially adapted for photography. This is a container sunk underground in front of a waterhole. Here we can take photos of animals at eye level as they drink.  This is my favorite place on the entire reserve but also comes with its own work.  The animals, especially the elephants, roll around in the mud and make the waterhole bigger and that needs to be contained or they dig up the water pipes which needs fixing.  For this we bring in heavy machinery to help us. I have to keep the hide clean, dust free and free of critters such as scorpions and frogs so that our guests are comfortable when in the hide.

My average day starts at about 4:30 am so that I can meet the guests before the sun rises.  We need to be out in time to catch the good morning light.  We’ll spend the morning looking for good photo opportunities or going to the hide and waiting for animals to come in.  By late morning when the sun is too bright and the animals move to shady areas , we head back to camp for breakfast with plans to meet again in the afternoon.

I spend these few hours between drives to download and edit photos, keep up to date with admin work and social media which has become a big part of a wildlife photographer’s life.  I also use this time to go out and clean the hide, fuel my vehicles and deal with any maintenance issues I may have.  

In the afternoon we head out again, hoping to catch some more action, hopefully during golden hour when the light is best.  By the time we get back to camp it’s dark already.  Most nights after dinner and before heading to bed I like to take a few minutes quiet time where I sit outside on the porch and just take it all in.  It’s these quiet times that are my best-loved.  I think about the incredible sightings I’ve seen during the day and listen for the sounds of the nocturnal animals.  If I’m lucky I hear a leopard rasping in the distance or some lions calling as they head out for the night, leaving me wondering what natural wonder awaits me the following day.