Helen and I took the opportunity to visit Shompole in August 2025 with CNP Safaris. The Shompole Conservancy is a large privately operated conservation area in the south of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. The Shompole Conservancy is nestled between the towering Nguruman & Loita Escarpments, with Lake Magadi to the north and Lake Natron to the south. Both are alkaline lakes which reveal a remarkable vista of red, pink, green and yellow colours.

“Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Shompole Conservancy is located between Maasai Mara National Reserve and Amboseli National Park. It is part of a vital migratory corridor between the two iconic reserves. The Conservancy connects the Loita Hills, Nguruman, and the greater southern Rift ecosystem. The Maasai tribe have pooled their land to ensure unrestricted grazing for their livestock and in the process created a vital migratory corridor which has immense conservation value for wildlife.

Shompole Wilderness Camp is situated on the banks of the Ewaso Ng’iro River, on Shompole Community Land in south western Kenya. The du Toit family (third generation Kenyan) and their local Maasai team manage the camp together. It is an intimate camp with just six tents. The Conservancy is home to over 400 bird species and a surprising diversity of iconic wildlife, including lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, zebra, waterbuck and yellow baboons. The night delivers nocturnally active creatures such as Spotted and Side striped hyaenas, Black-backed jackals, caracals, civets, honey badgers, White-tailed mongooses and wild cats.

The Conservancy has a dry climate. It is hottest in October and November and usually wet in April and May. The flora is adapted to semi-arid conditions so you can see umbrella thorn trees and colourful toothbrush trees. The main source of water is the Ewaso Ng’iro (Brown River) which originates in the Mau forest to the north and flows into Lake Natron. 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ~ Mark Twain

The Shompole Hides are some of the best ground level wildlife hides in sub Saharan Africa. The hides were conceived and built by Johann du Toit in conjunction with renowned wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas. There are two hides, the Plains hide and Kichaka. The Plains Hide has a large open area surrounding the hide making it ideal for ground level wildlife photography where you can see wildlife approaching from a distance. The second and newest hide is called Kichaka. It is set in more bushy area with thick grass beyond its 30 metre perimeter. This dictates different wildlife behaviour.

“All good things are wild and free.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

The front windows of the hides are open directly onto the waterhole. Each hide can comfortably seat four photographers and a Maasai guide who controls the lights. Each hide had four sets of lights, a bank of lights behind the hide and a bank of lights either side of the hide and a sunken series of lights about 15 metres behind the waterhole for backlighting. The colour and intensity of the lights can also be controlled. The water hole in front of the hides was slightly wider than the hide and stretched about 12 metres in front of the hide. Its depth appeared to be about 25 to 30 cm. With the water lapping the edge of the hide, birds and animals would come within metres of the front of the hide. This created some up close and personal wildlife photography.

A giraffe bull approached the Kichaka hide early in the evening as the last light in the sky was fading creating a wonderful blue cast.

The giraffe were very wary because of the proximity of the grass and bush cover around the hide. Nevertheless after assessment of the safety they eventually bent down to drink.

The wonderful thing about the hides at night is that there is almost no sign that an animal is approaching the waterhole until the lights illuminate it. Each animal approaches very quietly and if you are distracted or snoozing you will miss the shot. This civet came to drink a few times during the evening. Each time it did not make a sound while drinking.

The animals are clearly aware of people inside the hide but electric fans create constant white noise which muffles the sound of people moving inside the hide. In addition, the back lights shine directly into their eyes so they cannot see people or movement inside the hide which is blacked out with no internal light.

“Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.” ~ Peter Adams

A waterbuck bull approached the waterhole and stood and watched and listened for about five minutes before deciding it was safe to come and drink. Kichaka is a new hide so the wildlife was still getting used to it. One of the features of night time hide wildlife photography was the stillness of the water in the waterhole which provided some wonderful reflections.

A small group of Spotted hyaenas hung around the hide on several occasions for about half an hour each time. This hyaena was highly visible so it was not hunting but just thirsty. It was sniffing the breeze for information, picking up on tiny chemical clues of potential food. In the bone structure of the nose of a hyena is a honeycomb structure about the size of a large marble. It is made of tiny thin platelets. Together they have a huge surface area. As the hyena sniffs air in, the air travels over those platelets, and over the huge number of odour detectors that can fit on their surfaces. The more detectors there are, the greater the chance that an odour molecule will come to rest on one. So the hyena can sift the breeze for information, pick up on tiny chemical clues and use that information to find dinner. (Source: UCL -Animals and their super senses. Dr. Helen Czerski)

I have tried on several occasions in Mashatu and even Zakouma to get good nocturnal shots of a White-tailed mongoose. On the first night at the Kichaka hide a lone White-tailed mongoose came on two occasions to drink from the waterhole in front of the hide and slated its thirst for a few minutes.

“Taking pictures is savouring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” ~ Marc Riboud

We had several visits from Bat-eared foxes. They were on high alert and every time those radar-like ears picked up a sound they would step back and assess what it was and whether it was a threat.

Once in the hide we were there from 16h00 until 10h00 the next day. We were afforded our preferred drinks and the hide dinners were simplified to reduce noise and clutter. The hide had a toilet and three bunk beds for photographers to sleep. After a busy night and as it got light, a lone spotted hyaena visited the waterhole one last time for a drink and to see if there were any hunting opportunities.

Once it was light and the sun came up the birds came down to drink in large numbers. The morning ritual revealed squadrons of sandgrouse coming in to drink and load their belly feathers with water for their chicks tens of kilometres away.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” ~ Dorothea Lange

 Yellow-necked spurfowl regularly appeared from the grass surrounds to drink.

Namaqua doves were frequent visitors to the waterhole.

First thing in the morning once the sun began to light up the waterhole many Red-billed firefinches and Cut-throat finches came down to drink. Often they drank on the side of the waterhole only two to three metres from the front of the hide.

A pair of Black-faced sandgrouse also frequently visited the waterhole. They arrived around 8h30 in the morning.

Unlike the other species of sandgrouse the Black-faced sandgrouse would often sit quietly close to the water’s edge and just watch what was going on for five minutes before venturing down to drink.

Small flocks of Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse flying in to drink and fill their belly feathers with water for their chicks many kilometres away.

Plenty of African mourning doves came down to drink at the waterhole first thing in the morning. The grey head and red eye ring and yellow eyes are characteristic.

There is an interesting dynamic that develops in an overnight hide. The first night everyone stays awake for almost all of the night for the fear-of-missing out (FOMO). All the photographers have to be dead quiet as the animals can hear you. Giraffe will pick up the sound of your clothes rustling which will cause them to stand up and walk away from the waterhole to assess whether the noise signalled a threat.

“Photography helps people to see.” ~ Berenice Abbott

This was the first time I had spent overnight in a wildlife photographic hide. It is a unique experience and one in which you can photograph wildlife, especially nocturnally active wildlife, very close. On occasions bull elephants were 12 metres away and a pride of lions drank six metres from the front of the hide.

“Wildlife photography is more than just taking pictures. It is about connecting with nature and understanding the beauty of the natural world.” ~ Biju Karakkonam

The next two posts will show a variety of mammal and bird images taken from the Plain’s hide.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike