The concept was simple, perhaps criminally so: A full twelve hours, from 05h30 until sundown, planted at Shingi Dam. This was meant to be the ultimate test of observational guiding and mental endurance.
If you’re going to sit still for half a day, you’re counting on high drama to keep you paying attention. The dam certainly delivered that in the early hours. We had the classic start of a casual zebra breaking the ice, followed by our eagerly anticipated, towering, and highly vulnerable process of a giraffe coming down to drink. It’s a serene spectacle that.
Then came the true payoff, and the reason you commit to the stillness: two magnificent shifts of elephants. The noise alone, the resonant gargling and spraying, is the ultimate reward. That is the magic that happens when you sit and wait.
The remaining hours, however, were a masterclass in stillness. The waterhole decided to take a very long lunch break. The mid-day narrative became about the tiny details: the bird calls, the ripples, and the occasional scramble to shelter our gear under the legendary beach umbrella when the rain arrived. It was a firm reminder that the bush doesn’t care about your filming schedule.
The point was to witness the ecosystem’s full cycle, from sun-up vulnerability to the long afternoon lull, and take whatever story Shingi dam decided to offer.
Enjoy this Virtual Safari…
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The last surviving cub of a litter of three, he is on the cusp of independence.
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on 12 Hours at Shingi Dam | Virtual Safari #301