This post is a quick look back through some of the wonderful photographic opportunities I have been privileged to have in 2015. I hope you enjoy the images.

“A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.”

~ Moslih Eddin Saadi

Avocet taking off in Marievale Bird Sanctuary in late December.

Sunset over the Zambezi near Kalizo in the Caprivi Strip in October.

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”

~ Samuel Johnson

The sandbanks in the Zambezi river opposite the Kalizo Lodge in the Caprivi Strip in Namibia in October. This was early in the morning looking east.

A look west at the iconic trio of Jackalberry trees on Sedudu island in the Chobe river bathed in soft warm African sunset colours.

A small family of Elephants crossing the Chobe river from Botswana to Namibia as the sun was setting.

“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.”

~ D. H. Lawrence

One of the 5000 plus Carmine Bee-eaters in the colony just upriver from the Kalizo Lodge along the Zambezi river in Namibia.

A young bull Elephant walking along the sandy river bank having just crossed the Chobe river.

A small herd of young Sable antelope had come down to Elephant Valley just upstream from Chobe Game Lodge along the Chobe river.

I think Sable are perhaps the most majestic looking antelope we have in southern Africa.

A pair of Skimmers in an aerial courtship display above the Chobe river in October.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” 

~ Jawaharial Nehru

It is not often you get a Fish Eagle flying directly towards you. A unique opportunity along the Chobe river in October.

One of the four surviving cubs in the Cheetah family in Mashatu in September.

A pensive look from one of the Cheetah cubs in September in Mashatu.

Daily, the Elephant herds would come down to the river to feed and drink having been in the higher areas at night in September in Mashatu.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” 

~ Lao Tzu

One of two young male Lions which had returned to Mashatu sometime after having been chased out by two male lions that had crossed from Zimbabwe.

We got to meet film maker Kim Wolhuter in front of a Spotted Hyaena den with many cubs playing at its entrance in Mashatu in September.

A white Lion in the Timbavati Reserve in South Africa in June

A lone Cheetah female drinking from the river early one icy winter morning just in front of Walker’s River Lodge in the Timbavati in June.

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” 

~ Benjamin Disraeli

A winter sunset over one of the small dams in the Timbavati in June.

One of two large adult male Lions we came across in the Timbavati early one morning in June.

Golden ivory in Etosha in May.

Two young male Giraffe in a tangle in Etosha in May.

Blacksmith Lapwing dive bombing a Kori Bustard at Chudob waterhole in Etosha in May.

Two Spotted Hyaena having a bath in the icy water at Chudob waterhole in May.

Two young male Lions playing at dawn in the dust at Klein Namutoni waterhole in Etosha.

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” 

~ Seneca

Predators’ dawn dance in May in Etosha.

A Martial Eagle protecting the Guinea Fowl it had just killed in Mashatu in April.

A male Swainson’s Spurfowl declaring his territorial rights first thing in the morning in Mashatu in April.

My brother Jerry holding the moon in the palm of his hand as the night sets in over Mashatu in March.

A trio of Blue Waxbills drinking from a natural bird bath at Rock Camp in Mashatu in March.

One of the four young Cheetah cubs tucking into an Impala which its mother had killed in Mashatu in March.

Two of the Cheetah cubs having fun and chasing each other in Mashatu in March.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

~ Saint Augustine

A young female leopard stopped for a few minutes in her wanderings along the river late one afternoon in Mashatu in March.

We followed this adult female Leopard as she walked along the Majale river for about an hour in Mashatu in March.

A male Cheetah on an outlook mound looking down over the Masai Mara plains in January.

The spotted plains that are the Masai Mara at sunset in January.

This young Lion was walking away from the rest of the pride with this Leopard cub which the adult females had just killed in the Kitchwa Tembo Conservancy in the Masai Mara.

After her cub had been killed and the Lion pride had moved away, this Leopardess cautiously came down from the safety of a high tree to look for her cub in the Kitchwa Tembo Conservancy in the Masai Mara in January.

“Take only memories, leave only footprints.” 

~ Chief Seattle

One of the four males which ruled the Marsh Pride in the Masai Mara.

Incredible strength of this female Hyaena in the Masai Mara as she carried away the skull and part of the spine of a young Hippo killed by Lions the night before.

This female cub wanted her share of this live Warthog piglet and was hanging on tenaciously in the Masai Mara in January.

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”

~ Mark Jenkins

The wonderful experiences in 2015 have only stirred greater excitement in me to travel more, marvel at our natural world  and take bigger strides in my quest for wildlife images that have greater impact and show what a wonderful interconnected world we live in.

I wish you an inspired 2016 where your journey and experiences turn out to be far better than you plan for.

Have fun,

Mike