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The Kingfisher Story

Once upon a time in Africa...

In 1994 we travelled with our good friends Janette and Kevin to Kenya for a safari.  We had a wonderful guide and driver and the vehicle to ourselves. 

After only three days we had seen almost everything and we were teasing our guide that we needed to see some polar bears!.

Early one morning we were down by a river and stopped some 10 feet from a beautiful kingfisher.  Laurie went mad with the camera and long lens, Kevin took a few shots too.  Laurie was ecstatic with the pictures he had taken.

A few minutes later we were witnessing a kill by some lions, with all the excitement of the chase through the bush at breakneck speeds on rough ground.  Pausing to grab photos as the chase continued.  Laurie's camera came to the end of the film and rewound.  'Knowing his equipment well' he knew it took less than 7 seconds to rewind the whole film as it was set to rewind at high speed.  Deftly flipping open a new canister of film he released the camera back to exclaim in horror at the sight of the film still rewinding into the safety of it's cassette.  In the heat of the chase the rewind speed had been set to slow and most of his film was now ruined.  Inconsolable, he was distraught at the loss of the fabulous kingfisher pictures.

On return to the UK, Kevin being such a good friend, had his kingfisher pictures enlarged and mounted, forming a wonderful display in his hallway as a constant reminder to Laurie of what he had missed! ....B*stard!

Part two......

In 2002 we travelled to New Zealand.  Laurie still hadn't bagged a photo of a wild kingfisher.  He'd carried his long lens around New Zealand in hope and when we visited a memorial to the signing of a treaty he said that he'd had enough of carrying the heavy lens around and it wasn't worth it her so he would leave it in the car on this occasion. 

As we walked down the path from the car park, Laurie said "I suppose that this is where I see a kingfisher".  Kairen replied "you mean like that one on that post"  indicating a kingfisher sat on a signpost some 10 feet away.  Aaaaagh!

Over the years several friends have picked up on this quest.  Birthday cards feature endless photos of kingfishers.  Badges are given to pin on his camera bag.  Steve and Glenda even enticed one into their back garden and invited Laurie to come and photograph it, but it left before he could get there.  We even considered a stain-glass kingfisher in the conservatory windows.

The quest has lasted 11 years and finally in Australia the mission is over....or is it?

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