I try not to repeat a photograph on this blog but this is one of my favourites and the context in which it was taken wasn't described during its earlier use here.
The picture was taken in the Selous reserve in Tanzania one evening in 2011 as we were returning to camp after a hot afternoon bumping around in a big four-wheel drive looking for game. I realised that a spectacular sunset was in prospect and I urged the driver to take us to a spot I had noticed before where, if we were smart about it, we could silhouette a giant, centuries-old baobab against the sunset sky.
The driver did a sterling job and got us in to position with moments to spare, and the pictures I took came out perfectly.
I like it not just for the spectacular colours and the structure of the baobab against the sky, but more because it reminds me of a thousand African evenings, when the wind drops, the heat of the day begins to die and a silence descends across the bush, when the animals of the sunlight give place to the night watch, a time when the great predators stretch and begin to think about dinner, a time which, for humans, is therefore a fearful one as the fast-falling dark descends upon us. Another day is dying. We have to survive a night to see the next.
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