Africa is in our dreams

Africa is considered not only the primordial continent, but also the cradle of humanity—in other words, the birthplace of our species—and the land where some of the most influential civilizations flourished. Few places on Earth can rival Africa’s unique diversity of peoples, languages, traditions, and spiritual beliefs. Along with such cultural richness, incredible ecosystems and extraordinary wildlife make it one of the most longed-for destinations for all kinds of travellers.

For many people all over the world, Africa has always been the quintessential image of wilderness and adventure. After years of being involved in nature photography associations, conferences, exhibitions, workshops, and innumerable photo gear freak talks, which for obvious reasons brought me a lot of good friends, I ended up agreeing to participate in the ultimate adventure. The excitement soon overshadowed logistical and financial considerations and, before I realized it, I was all in.

Far from civilization

We chose Botswana, a remote country in the southern part of the continent with no crowds and very little infrastructure, since we knew would offer the best opportunities to remain far from what we understand as civilization for weeks. Our plans included the Central Kalahari, the Okavango Delta, and Chobe National Park. The three areas differ greatly in their ecosystems and most commonly found species, but each of them exceeded our expectations in every sense. 

The story of this image took place in the Okavango. After a very fruitful photography day, we were driving back to our campsite—a designated space among a group of trees, marked with a numbered plate—looking forward to building a campfire and enjoying a well-deserved dinner. Then Carlos noticed that he had lost his beloved baseball-style cap. Many years have passed, and I still don’t know why it was so important to him, but the fact is that he could think of nothing better to do the following morning than return to our last photography location. On that occasion, we had been following a group of lions for quite a while, and Carlos thought that, in the excitement of the moment, he might have accidentally dropped the cap out of the vehicle’s window without even realizing it.

Solving the mystery of the trip

So, the next morning we followed through: we crawled out of our sleeping bags, grabbed something quick for breakfast, gathered our photography gear, and headed towards the area where we hoped we might be able to find the cap. Well, that’s just one way to put it, since nobody but Carlos really thought so. Anyway, that’s what nature photography buddies are for. The lions didn’t seem to be in the area. We drove around for much longer than might seem normal, considering that the prize was just an old cap. We even had to convince Carlos to remain in the vehicle, since he insisted on walking and checking the bushes. People who lack experience, or who have not properly learnt about the dangers that African wildlife poses to humans, may think, “No wildlife, no danger”. But that is a completely distorted vision of reality. Predators evolved to hide and hunt by surprise, and let’s face it, we humans are not very fast. Still, I like to think that we were well aware of the importance of safe behaviour at all times, and of how rapidly and unexpectedly a dangerous situation could develop.

We were a little discouraged and finally decided to abandon such a difficult enterprise. Besides, it was getting boring, if a day in the African wilderness can be described that way. For Carlos, this was a “catastrophic loss” from which he would probably need one more day of photographing the most exciting scenes he had ever witnessed to recover. But little did we know that this story would have a happy ending. I suddenly saw a lioness and her cubs walking along in the distance. Since we were in the Okavango to photograph animals that we might never see again in the wild, I stopped paying attention to the cap search and grabbed my camera with the telephoto lens attached. During those seconds that it usually takes to find, frame, and focus on your subject, I was just thinking I could capture a few more interesting images of that mother and her playful cubs. But the reality is that I could not believe my eyes when I realized I had inadvertently solved the mystery of Carlos’ cap. I guess the image speaks for itself.