PORTFOLIO
Willem van der Berg celebrates the unmatched wilderness of Botswana’s Kalahari.
Botswana offers some of the best wildlife experiences in the world. You can pitch your tent in pristine veld and there are seldom fences to separate you from the animals. Willem van der Berg will be familiar to regular readers of this magazine. He has written and photographed dozens of stories since 2012. However, this is the first time his photography on its own has taken centre stage. Willem grew up on various farms in the Northern Cape and the Free State. After school he joined his father on a farm between Van Zylsrus and Askham, but was lured back to Bloemfontein where he studied journalism. In summer last year, Willem travelled to the Mabuasehube section of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, and to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, on assignment for our Botswana guide. “At Piper Pan in the Central Kalahari, lions roaring kept me up for much of the night,” he says. “Just before sunrise, I drove towards the sound and found two males and two females walking across the pan, which was wet from rain. There was no one else around. I watched the pride stalk a herd of gemsbok for more than an hour.” When he’s not away looking for big cats, Willem lives in Bloemfontein with a smaller cat called Mielow and his wife Daleen.
Last light
Willem was the only person next to Khiding Pan in Mabuasehube. He noticed three male cheetahs under a shepherd’s tree, watching a herd of gemsbok. When they started walking down the road, he followed them. In the soft light, this male glanced over his shoulder to the other two. Willem pressed the shutter button – just in time, because his camera died seconds later!
HOW? Canon 7D Mark II, 70 – 200 mm lens, shutter speed 1/320 second, aperture f4.5, ISO 640.
All ears
In game reserves like Mabuasehube, where predators reign supreme, it’s easy to overlook smaller and more common animals like this humble steenbok. But it too deserves its moment in the limelight: What a magnificent achievement to survive and thrive in a wilderness where lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas lurk in every patch of long grass.
HOW? Canon 7D Mark II, 70 – 200 mm lens, shutter speed 1/2 500 second, aperture f4, ISO 250.
Breakfast buffet
Willem was up early one morning in Mabuasehube and got dressed next to his bakkie. As he knelt down to tie his shoelaces, something caught his eye. “Two lionesses were watching me from three metres away,” he says. “I scrambled into the cab and saw that there were four lions on the other side of the vehicle. Only 300 metres from my tent, this male was feasting on a gemsbok!”
HOW? Canon 7D Mark II, 70 – 200 mm lens, shutter speed 1/1 000 second, aperture f5, ISO 400.
Rough night
It had rained all night in the Central Kalahari. Deception Pan was flooded the next morning and the 90 km sandy track to Piper Pan was barely visible. Willem drove through mud and deep, dark pools. Along the way he saw this springbok in the veld. Clearly it had got caught up in the storm during the night – or a wild stag party!
HOW? Canon 7D Mark II, 70 – 200 mm lens, shutter speed 1/2 000 second, aperture f4, ISO 400.
Curiously cute
Piper Pan in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is one of Willem’s favourite places in Botswana. Few people visit the area because it’s so remote, but the animals on the open pans make for great photo opportunities. Every sunset and sunrise bathes the landscape in magic light. In this shot, a ground squirrel prepares for bed as a thunderstorm rolls in.
HOW? Canon 7D Mark I, 70 – 200 mm lens, shutter speed 1/1 000 second, aperture f5, ISO 500.