Before 2015 gets underway, it might be a good time to hand out some more Beat About the Bush Trip Awards (BATBAs) – the ‘gongs’ given out when we’re back in the office reliving our exploits. The official awards season is almost upon us and we don’t want our humble blog to get eclipsed by the Oscars.

As a way to round up a bunch of disparate stuff after a photo trip before attention turns to the next project, trip awards seemed an okay idea when we did the first lot (see our blog of April 29, 2014). With barely a week’s gap between our most recent Thailand and South Africa trips however, and a nasty and lingering ‘lurgy’ plaguing our return home, we’ve not had time to repeat this contrived excuse for a blog subject until today.

So enough with the apologies already. Let the drum rolls begin…

BATBA Award for the Wettest Photographers

A bigger splash! More embarrassing than refreshing for us…

And the BATBA for raging bull elephant goes to …. This one might alternatively be headlined ‘Elephant gets its revenge on wildlife paparazzi’. We’re still rather shamefaced about it now when our lost pride’s been regained and our camera lenses have been well and truly dried out. We definitely got what we deserved when our boatman drifted a little too close to this big guy for comfort one afternoon on the Chobe river in Botswana late last year. We’ve certainly got a sneaking admiration for this elephant who put us firmly in our place by dumping a full trunk of river water over our heads. We’ve spent years reminding people to respect these massive mammals and warning them not to get too near. Pity we couldn’t heed our own advice on this occasion. What’s even more annoying than the dousing, however, is that while one of us did have the presence of mind to press the shutter button we didn’t get the end of his dripping trunk in the frame!

BATBA Award for Best Wildlife Drama

On a more serious note the Chobe river was also the location for the wildlife highlight of our second visit to Africa in 2014. Once again we were really lucky to have more than our fair share of highlights last year. In 2014 our list of would-you-believe-it encounters was topped by the sight of a huge herd of cape buffalo huddling together, and looking more than a little stressed out, as they paddled purposefully across the river. We were led to understand the swimming herd had been pursued by a pride of a lions the previous night and was keen to cross for refuge, but we’re really not sure why they seemed so intent on crossing at that moment.

River wild – the buffalo crossing was our Chobe trip highlight

Being on a small boat (with a more experienced guide than the infamous ellie incident above) we were able to get reasonably close, without disturbing them, and certainly close enough to see the panic in their eyes as they struggled in the water with just the whites of their rolling eyes and a tangle of horns bobbing above the choppy waters. It looked for all the world like a huge, heavy oil-black rope was being dragged laboriously through the water. We felt really lucky to be close by just when it happened and, selfish as it sounds, to have this special sighting all to ourselves. It was fascinating to see how these tough guy, Big Five beasts, so dangerous on terra firma, looked completely vulnerable and out of their element in the water.

BATBA Gold Award for Best Day Off

The Grand Palace in all its glorious detail had us glued to the viewfinder

Some days it’s quite refreshing to point our cameras at something other than the wildlife when we visit a place. Quite often when we we’re away we’ll try to tack on a little bit of time for some touristy stuff. Inevitably the cameras end up coming out even though we’re meant to be enjoying a bit of downtime from ‘work’. Back in late 2014, in Bangkok, after an intense week in the Thai forest reporting on the Siam rosewood poaching story, we became so immersed in photographing the glittering Grand Palace we hardly noticed the intense heat, the thronging crowds or the passing hours. We spent ages snapping away, soaking it all in. Sometimes with no pressure to get a particular shot, or any shot at all, no deadline, no shooting list, or commission it’s nice to rediscover the joy of photography for its own sake.

BATBA Award for the Recession

Tranquil in late afternoon, the Thai forest seemed quite alien compared to the African bush

Nothing to do with austerity measures this was all about getting a handle on the haunting beauty of Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park. One evening, towards the end of our time in the forest, when travelling just outside the park at dusk we noticed this wonderful recession in the forested hills as if a series of coloured cards had been carefully arranged by someone to create the tranquil effect. Not the best landscape shot we’ve ever taken, it nevertheless enabled us at last to make our peace with a landscape that had swallowed us up when we were bang in the middle of it struggling to make sense of it on camera. Dwarfed by the wall of huge trees, roofed over by the thick, dark canopy, our ears ringing with the shrill whoops and shrieks of unseen birds and gibbons it seemed such a forbidding and claustrophobic place. Seen with a sunset glow from a distance and in silhouette Khao Yai was a sleeping giant – softened and tame, at least, for a while.

BATBA Award for Best Book

We did a ‘book of the trip’ award last time in April 2014, but had to do it again for ‘Leopard in My Lap’ (published 1955). We stumbled across it in Barter Books, the treasure trove of a second hand book emporium in Alnwick, near our home in Northumberland. Go there if you ever have the chance. The book’s by another, much more famous, but now pretty much forgotten husband and wife duo specialising in African wildlife, called Armand and Michaela Dennis. She did the text he did the pictures. The forerunners of today’s celebrity wildlife film-makers and TV presenters, their adventures make for an interesting, often hilarious, sometimes concerning read. When we tell you it’s illustrated with lots of plates of peroxide blonde Michaela in the bush looking as glamorous as a Hollywood starlet while cuddling a series of African mammals as the title suggests, you’ll begin to get the idea. Thankfully wildlife photography’s come a long way in the last 50 years…