"It's Friday morning and preparation starts for our safari to Jaci's Lodges in Madikwe Game Reserve. Cameras have to be checked and cleaned, batteries charged, talks and lessons prepared and, oh, hell the car needs a service! Can they do us today? Yes! And so I am writing this in a cafe in Pietermaritzburg waiting for Pat to collect me after this rather unexpected addition to our preparation schedule.

"Jaci's lodges are situated on the eastern side of Madikwe Game Reserve right up against the Botswana border in North West Province and is where we did much of the photography for our book about wild dogs.

"We will spend four days on safari with some like-minded enthusiasts, going on early morning (brrrrrr, it's freezing up there) and late afternoon shoots, and then spending pretty much all of the remaining time doing image analysis and chatting photography. We will post photo tips and pictures to the blogs each day.

"We will be doing similar safaris in Sebtember, November and January.

"Pat and I are really looking forward to the safari, methinks it will be great fun."

Check in daily to see the latest pictures from the photo safari.