Pete Redgrave, one of our own members stood in at the last minute at the October meeting as the scheduled speaker was ill. Pete, who is an excellent photographer, had recently returned from a trip to Africa and was able to give an illustrated talk about his ‘African Adventure’.
Pete flew to Kinsana in The Republic of the Congo, where he was part of a group of 6 photographers on a guided expedition to the Chobe River and the Okavango Delta areas in Botswana. The Chobe River flows into the Zambezi River whilst The Okavango Delta is a unique dry area which feeds into the sands of the Kalahari Desert rather than the sea. Both these areas are rich in wildlife, enabling Pete to enjoy his favourite pastime of photography.
Pete said that overall, he took about 25,000 photographs. Many of them were taken during the ‘golden hour’ which is the short period just before sunset or just after sunrise when the sun sits low in the sky producing soft, warm, and golden light, enabling some beautiful photo shots.
Pete referred to the Darwinian imperative of survival and displayed photographs showing how camouflage, body maintenance, skin care, rest, reproduction, fighting, and mating for instance, play an important part in determining the features and behavior of animals. He showed a leopard hidden in a tree, hippos submerged in the river, elephants in the mud, crocodiles with their jaws wide open, giraffes eating leaves in high branches, and many birds including the Chobe darter, like our cormorant.
He described the frequency of observing different wildlife during the expedition. Elephants, giraffes and impalas were frequently seen, cheetahs and hyenas only once, lots of baboons, several warthogs, one monitor lizard on the last day, lots of Okavango doves, together with half collared and striped kingfishers, carmine bee eaters and rock pratincoles.
Pete finished with his favourite pictures, including a cheetah in long grass, a hippo breaking the water surface, giraffes silhouetted against the fading evening sun and the last one being a beautiful photograph of a huge elephant with baby under a full moon.
Pete was also able to include much humour in his presentation.
Report by Ian Reid