On a typical game drive you can travel for hours in search of animals. So how much more satisfying it can be to sit and wait by a waterhole for the wildlife to come to you. In the bush, water is the key to life, and sooner or later, everyone must come to drink. Some – leopard, cheetah, a nomadic lion with a scruffy mane – are solitary visitors. Elephant families come to wallow, while others turn up in hordes, like the thirsty zebras that have spent all night on the open plains, or the black-bellied sand grouse that pour in like an arrow storm at Kisima Hamsini in northern Kenya. But wherever you are, the photo opportunities are endless and the magic will stay with you forever.
By Brian Jackman