Zimanga August 2027

If you're going to travel as far as South Africa, it's a waste to skimp on days. That's why we have a longer trip than others do.

All inclusive, now including all extra drinks and more, except for more expensive wines and the like. In addition, the use of four Landcruisers where you can lie down and photograph from a low angle. Jeeps with lie-down capability for low angles apply to all game drives. There are two lie-down positions in each jeep. Normally there are 2-3 photographers per jeep. And you never have to crowd in with a lot of other jeeps.

Zimanga is a reserve entirely dedicated to photographers, with photographically exciting game drives and with completely unique photo hides originally designed by the Hungarian photographer Bence Máté. By 2026, new small-bird hides and perhaps a bat "hide" will be built within the fenced lodge area. Construction of a third night hide began in 2025.

NEWS THIS YEAR, 2026: Over ten to fifteen years, Zimanga has contributed to the reintroduction of wild dogs into African parks and reserves where they were previously found. No fewer than 13 packs could be formed thanks to Zimanga's efforts. The African wild dogs disappeared from Zimanga for a number of years. But now they are back from the spring of 2026.

NEWS no. 2 2026: New lighting has been created in the Tamboti night hide. Now you can photograph both in front lighting (as before) and in creative backlighting. See the first images at the very bottom of the gallery below. This is going to be very exciting. New creative photo opportunities open up.

That Zimanga means world-class photography opportunities is one thing, but the stay here also means a pure luxury holiday. The accommodation, like the food, is first class. The lodge with the detached houses is located in the middle of the reserve; it is close to both the hides and the game drives. And we have chosen the luxurious, fantastic lodge, for the feeling of a holiday, plenty of space—we stay in our own houses, not in cramped rooms! Yet it doesn't cost more per photo day.

Two of the hides are night hides, with room for up to four photographers. We photograph through glass at the level of the water surface; we ourselves sit "below the water surface". The hides are built so that several elephants could "jump" on the roof without any risk to us. Behind the "photography ditch" each person has their own bed, and in a couple of additional rear rooms there is a kitchen and bathroom.

Several hides are dedicated to birdlife, and here too you photograph along the water level, or ground level in the case of the vulture hide. The latter holds four photographers, and it is visited daily by up to twenty to thirty vultures and birds of prey. The background lies a kilometre or so away. Visits by warthog or spotted hyena are common, sometimes also by porcupine. Unique opportunities to isolate the vultures or the mammals against a softened background far away.

Zimanga's night hides have over a few years gained more and more species as more or less regular visitors. In the beginning it was mostly African buffalo, white rhinos and warthogs and sometimes lions or elephants. Among the irregular but recurring guests are now also more species of antelope, giraffes, zebras, spotted hyenas and leopards, and more recently sometimes also serval and, though very rarely, brown hyena and caracal. In 2023 we even had vervet monkeys on a nightly visit to drink water three metres in front of us.

Zimanga was created by Charl Senekal, manager, photographer and doctoral student in zoology. He was tired of all the private reserves that wanted to make money from hunters who buy in to shoot big game in a small fenced area, in other words what is usually called trophy hunting. Zimanga was therefore created for photographers and nature enthusiasts.

Since the reserve works to save rhinos and elephants, it has fourteen armed guards who, both by day and above all at night, protect the reserve's coveted animals against poachers. As visitors we help finance this work.

Zimanga is located in the south-western part of Zululand. The reserve is about 13 kilometres long and has recently been expanded when land that previously belonged to the sugar plantation was incorporated (it is Charl's brothers who run the sugar plantation).

Brutus Östling has visited the reserve fifteen times since 2015 and brought groups nine times. Nowadays Zimanga is good for photography even during other seasons, but we have taken exclusive reserve use during perhaps the best season, July–August. In South Africa it is winter during July–August and therefore the dry season. And for photography at the hide and also for game drives, the dry season is the best period, since many more animals come to drink at the waterholes.

But it is not only the photography that is first class. The same applies to the accommodation and the food. The lodge with the detached houses is located in the middle of the reserve, and it is, in other words, close to all the hides and we can also start the safari trips without long driving distances.

We stay in our own houses. Each house has its own terrace with a view over the reserve. The interior is designed entirely with photographers in mind; there are plenty of power outlets and two work desks in each double house. Since Charl is himself a photographer, he knows what is appreciated, and he has been extremely involved in the design of both the accommodation and the communal areas. Next to the open dining room with a terrace and an impressive view over the reserve there is a projector room, unusually with a first-class projector that does the images justice. Here, during the ten days, we hold one or two smaller workshops, in addition to looking at each other's images.

The reserve today has a number of lions, many white but also the occasional black rhino, cheetahs, leopards, spotted but also the occasional brown hyena, black-backed jackals, serval, wildebeest, a large number of African buffalo, zebras, a multitude of antelope and other mammal species, and of course plenty of warthogs. But the area also has a relatively large group of elephants, just under thirty, and in addition giraffes. Several hundred species of exciting birds visit or breed in the reserve. For the birds there are several hides, from bird baths (which are sometimes also visited by mongooses) to two simple bee-eater hides. And of course one must mention the vulture hide at the top of a hillside, probably the best-suited for photography in all of Africa.

Zimanga offers fantastic photo opportunities of many of the South African mammals. For more than ten years a pack of African wild dogs lived in the reserve, but the hope is to resume, within a year or so, the work of saving this endangered species. During these ten years, Zimanga contributed to at least ten new packs being formed in other reserves and national parks even outside South Africa.

Many of the reserve's animals we can photograph on "classic" game drives; the guides and management, together with the reserve's fourteen armed guards, help keep track of where many animals are, and they help each other. This means that we usually know where to go, though sometimes the choices can instead be difficult.

The hides are located at waterholes with a couple of exceptions. Two of these hides are night hides with artificial lighting. In the night hides there is room for four photographers, and behind the "photography ditch" there is a bed for each person (so you can take turns resting while one or two keep watch). And behind that room there is also a kitchen and a bathroom with a flush toilet. The night hides of course have electricity; in the kitchens there is a microwave so you can heat up the food, a kettle, a fridge and whatever you might need. The waterholes are visited by everything from warthogs, white rhinos, African buffalo, antelope to lions, leopards, elephants and sometimes also serval and hyena. While it is light, giraffes sometimes come and drink. The photo opportunities that are offered, I usually say, many times correspond to images I might only have dreamed of.

The night hides are also visited by many birds when it is light, in the afternoon and in the morning, and at night by, for example, spotted eagle-owl.

In the lagoon hide we photograph masses of different waders, larger and smaller; it is constantly visited by malachite kingfisher, herons of various kinds and a range of other exciting birds such as water dikkop, white-faced whistling duck, glossy ibis, blacksmith lapwing, greater painted-snipe and hamerkop. In addition, crocodiles that we can thus also photograph from water level.

The hippos and crocodiles largely stay in the reserve's large dam, where the river flows out.

The ten days contain a varied combination of hides and game drives. The jeeps have four rows; each photographer usually has their own row. Off-road driving is permitted throughout the reserve, as long as it does not mean we disturb the animals in a way we don't want to. In some places dense thickets and mud can make it difficult and risky to leave the "road".

Besides our own photographer on site to help anyone who wishes, the guides are themselves very skilled photographers who make sure to position the jeep in the best way in relation to the animals and light. Hendri Venter, for example, is one of South Africa's best safari photographers.

Subject to minor writing/calculation errors and any not-extensive changed conditions.

We take a private reserve takeover just for ourselves. No other photographers crowding for the subjects, and we avoid experiencing a lot of safari vehicles queuing up.

If you're going to travel as far as South Africa, it's a waste to skimp on days. That's why we have a longer trip than others do.

And we have chosen the luxurious, fantastic lodge, for the feeling of a holiday, plenty of space—we stay in our own houses, not in cramped rooms! Yet it doesn't cost more per photo day.

We have chosen August because the middle of July–August is the best time, but also because August means we can more easily photograph the Milky Way at night.

The hides are absolutely world class. They are built so that you photograph both birds and mammals from water or ground level.

Off-road safari is possible everywhere in the reserve, as long as we do not risk disturbing the animals.

Because we are alone in the reserve, at least three hide nights are included for each participant.

When it comes to certain animals we sometimes go on foot; this can apply, for example, to the cheetahs, which we can then photograph from ground level.

Zimanga also has plenty of big game, antelope, wildebeest, buffalo, which is interesting in itself, but it is not uncommon for us to also get to follow hunts where lions or cheetahs try to bring down prey.

From 2024 we can also use Landcruisers where you can lie down and photograph from a low angle. During 2025-2026 further converted jeeps will be added.

The hippos and crocodiles stay in the reserve's large dam, where the river flows out. We get out of the jeeps and photograph from ground level, which essentially becomes water level if you lie down.

The accommodation, like the food, is first class. The lodge with the detached houses is located in the middle of the reserve; it is close to both the hides and the game drives.

The vulture hide holds four photographers and is visited daily by up to twenty to thirty vultures and often also birds of prey. But also by warthog, jackal or spotted hyena, on some days also by porcupine. Unique opportunities to isolate the vultures and the mammals against a softened background far away.