Pieter Uys is one of Peace Parks’ filmmakers and, a little while ago, he was sent on a mission to Banhine National Park to film the 7-year flood. The brief was to capture bird and wildlife imagery. Sounds simple enough. As the flooded landscape attracts flocks of migratory birds, the Peace Parks crew back at Head Office imagined images of thousands of African birds against a backdrop of sparkling water.
But when the 7-year flood arrives it starts a chain reaction that makes filming a lot more complicated. In the dry season, the 700,000 ha Banhine National Park is pretty easy to get around if you have the right vehicles. However, during the flood, the extensive plains and flood areas in the park are transformed into vast, crystal-clear lagoons, bringing the renewal of the ‘green season’. As the rains fill the shallow pans and spread out over the landscape, they transform the usually arid and brown winter savannah into an abundance of bright, fresh greens. Water meadows fill with aquatic plants that spring up having lain dormant for years in the earth. Flowers spring up unexpectedly from the sand, and marshes turn into shimmering wetlands filled with abundant flora.
As much as the light at this time of year makes this verdant landscape a photographer’s dream, moving around in this watery world is extremely difficult. Pieter and Nuno spend hours pushing their way slowly through the meadows to reach the places where the migratory birds have come to rest, but the roots of lilies and other plants catch around the outboard propellor. Not to be beaten, the crew turns to wading, adapting their behaviour to suit the conditions but this time nature gets the better of them.
Although the seasoned Peace Parks filmmakers did not bring back the shots they set out for, they were rewarded with some incredible footage of Banhine’s remarkable, watery landscape during the flood. This will be appearing in a film soon, so keep watching peaceparkstv.com and see if you can spot it.
