One evening before dinner at the Mogotlho Lodge in Botswana I set my camera up on the deck for a long star trail exposure. Since the deck faces almost due south I thought it might make a nice shot. I used my portable flashlight to paint the tree for the first twenty seconds or so in the distance and then sat down for a wonderful dinner. Behind the camera was a fire pit which is providing the reddish orange illumination you see in the foreground.
Unfortunately my battery died during the exposure so the trails are not as long as I intended and the camera was not able to do it’s automatic noise reduction, nonetheless I believe it was a worthwhile exercise.

In the pans of Botswana there is a somewhat surreal place called Kudu Island. If there is a destination that is truly in the middle of nowhere, this is it. It’s as though your 5 hour drive in what absolutely must be a four wheel vehicle has transported you to another planet. From the top of this rock outcrop you look beyond the alien looking Baobob trees to see miles of pure white pans as flat as a slab. If you ever have the opportunity, it’s worth the trip.

I truly wish I had been taking copious notes of all the various wildlife we saw during our Botswana safari. In particular, I wish I had notes on what all the birds were. For the ornithologist among my readers, please feel free to post a comment as to the name of the birds. In case you are not aware, you can click on the image to go to my Flickr site & choose “All Sizes” to see a larger version.

Victoria Falls is a stunningly majestic place that I found virtually impossible to capture properly in a photograph. The good news is there are some great viewpoints, the bad news is it rains 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year around the falls. Due to an unusually long rainy season the falls were creating major rainstorms during my visit. Despite the photographic challenges, it was an amazing sensory experience to stand across from the falls & feel their thunder & be soaked through by the rain on a beautiful sunny day.