A late afternoon drive through the Zimbabwean bush

On one of my last nights spent on Humani this past 2023 trip, Roger and I went out on a late afternoon drive. He had a place in mind that he suspected would be full of game, but as we drove through the trees, we saw…absolutely nothing. He reckoned that there were probably lions nearby, possible even right next to us in the deep underbrush, and that the game had been scared off.

No matter. We carried on, and finally, after about thirty minutes of driving, we found some wildebeest. They were standing just in front of the sun from where we were. The silhouettes made for some excellent lighting, and I thought it would make a stunning photo.

I tried various angles, but the trees were in the way and the wildebeest, feeling frisky, I suppose, were racing around. They raised a large cloud of dust during their frolicking. Nonetheless, here are some photos I managed to get:

Here is one racing around a tree, chasing another, just out of sight.

After watching them for a while, we turned around and drove back in the other direction, away from the sun. We found a large herd of eland, including this huge bull. Since we were driving into the dusk, the photos are a little blurry, but I will include them here anyway because I haven’t seen such a big bull before, and felt honored to get such a close photo.

There were quite a few babies as well, another thing I hadn’t seen before.

As we watched, a small group of zebra joined in, and they stood together for a moment before they all walked off, becoming hidden by the trees. Once they had disappeared, we drove home too, off to meet Anne for dinner.