There’s nothing quite like the light in the forests at the eastern end of the safari area of Lower Zambezi National Park. I love it at any time of year, but the best light of all comes early in the dry season (May-Jul) when there is some dust in the air to give colour but the light is still strong and directional. There are about 30 minutes each morning and evening when there’s nowhere to compare with it.

I lead tours to Lower Zambezi at this time of year in search of this special light; we make sure that we locate a special sighting early in the morning, decide on the best position to photograph from…and then wait. We spent each morning of the 8 days trip in this pursuit. Sometimes it was elephants, sometimes lions; occasionally it was waterbuck or impala, but each time we found ourselves amazed by the landscape in front of us.

Lower Zambezi, like much of Zambia, is being discovered by many more photo safari operators. It’s great to see demand for tourism growing and helping to develop her economy. I’ve enjoyed a long-term perspective of Zambia, from more than 15 years living in her wild places, so I offer additional insights on a photo safari to this beautiful place.

This trip was based at Anabezi Camp for 8 nights. Increasingly I love to stay for extended periods in a camp; it always pays to invest heavily in good areas and then have time to wait for sightings to unfold. The best sightings don’t happen every day, so taking time to learn the rhythm of a place is well worth it.

Image from a photo safari in Africa with Edward Selfe

Anabezi Camp, Lower Zambezi

8 nights seems like a long time to spend in one camp; in reality it passed by in a flash. Each time we left the camp, there was something beautiful to enjoy and photograph. We spent most of the time in the safari vehicle, exploring the forests to the west of Anabezi Camp, and we also made 2 journeys further towards Jeki plains in search of wild dogs and a leopard who has a small cub. We were lucky with the wild dogs, but the leopard had lost her kill overnight so she and her cub were not there when we arrived early the next day. Such is the nature of safari. Closer to the camp, we spent multiple photographic sessions with the Kulefu pride, found three of the well-known resident leopards, and watched elephants, baboons, waterbuck, kudu, buffalo and birds in the beautiful forests.

Most remarkable was the light, as always. It has a perfect blend of being directional (creating incredible areas of light and dark) but also rich, warm and hazy (avoiding creating hard lines and deep shadows). The time of year was perfect. But there were special events too: the morning we spent with a male lion who had killed a crocodile with his brother; the elephant herds crossing the big plains for Chakwenga against the setting sun….

Thank you to Anabezi who took care of us, kept the meals and the experience fresh and interesting, and to my guests who kept up the pace and the energy right to the end. It paid off with portfolios of gorgeous images which are coming through to me as I write this. I’ll be glad to share them on my blog in due course.

Thank you for reading to the end!