Just over 4 years ago a dear friend bought me my first DSLR camera for a birthday. Talk about being bowled over by the receipt of an unexpected gift. Of course he’d chosen the brand he’d always used, the camera I’d always wanted that came with a 18 – 55 mm lens. Later the same friend spoiled me with a telephoto 28 – 300mm and then a stunning macro.

Anyway, I loved this camera despite feeling it never lived up to what I’d researched its potential to be. I thought that perhaps I needed to practice more, learn the camera to its depths and that’s what I did for the next 4 or so years, but still the quality of my picture taking didn’t live up to my expectations.

I wanted to buy a new camera; however, since getting the property ladder rolling I thought I’d better disperse the desire, the desire as violent as a hurricane ripping up buildings, as far away from my heart as possible.

Whilst doing my best, my camera stopped working; the shutter did not release yet everything else appeared to be working fine or rather displaying correctly on the screen.

Of course everyone heard about my misfortune – feeling as though a vital part of my anatomy had been chopped off. And on top of all this I was about to visit Thanda Private Game Reserve – without camera spelled disaster. I asked my friend who was joining me if he had a spare camera I could use or purchase from him. As he was a pro and always took along 2 cameras with him where ever he explored, I thought it a reasonable request.

Once again a friend, not the same as the friend who bought me my first DSLR, shocked me to the core when he gave me a new, all singing and all dancing, machine of a camera; however, the brand changed.

Sacrilege, but I don’t care! What a sacrilegious thing to do! This I knew all too well, and I almost felt like a traitor. But I needed a camera, which was more than double the mega pixels better than my first one, and instantly the quality improved by 100% – imagine that; can you imagine the delight that surged mammothly through my veins, to the very marrow of my bones. Of course I was that happy!

I now have to re-visit every single place I’ve ever been to with my new beast of a camera. Of course that’s near impossible because I am no longer a gypsy and have taken responsibility with property buying and can no longer just up and leave whenever the wind turns wild…

Back to Thanda Private Game Reserve; here are a few pictures taken around the lodge at the tented camp section – we’d tried booking the villas; however, all were fully booked a whole month in advance. The tented camp may as well have been a villa – it had every luxury sought after, and quite a bit cheaper than the villas. We’d stayed at the villas previously and were so impressed returning was a compulsion experienced by the both of us. However, I’d definitely stay in Thanda’s tent again. If they, at Thanda, call this roughing it then I’d like to experience the recently renovated villas that they refer to as sheer luxury.