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About Andy

 

I am an avid adventurer, conservationist, teacher, and outdoor photographer whose photography celebrates the African landscape and its rich wildlife, people, and culture. My photographic safaris allow my travelers to not only enhance their understanding of photography, lighting, and wildlife, but to develop a life-long admiration for Africa ‘s beauty and culture.

Banana Republic recently used my photographs as the cornerstone of their Urban Safari campaign, and my images were seen in all 750 stores around the globe, as well as in their billboards, catalogs and annual report. I was also the winner of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the ‘Wild Places’ category in 2008 and a highly commended in the ‘Creative Visions of Nature’ category in 2007.

I launched Gura Gear in 2008, in an attempt to deliver lightweight camera bags to the market. I was looking for a lightweight camera bag to hold all of my photographic gear, and there was nothing desirable on the market that suited my needs. After spending 2 years with many prototypes, the Gura Gear Kiboko bag was born. More products are now available on the Gura Gear web site.

 

 

 

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« Day 22 – Tuningi Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa | Main | Galapagos Islands trip announcement »
Wednesday
Sep082010

Day 21 – Tuningi Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa

Leslie and I flew this morning to Gabarone, Botswana, and my friends Gerry and Adele van der Walt picked us up from the airport and drove us into Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. It is kind of ironic that I had to fly to another country in order to get to the reserve, but it was the fastest and most efficient way of getting here. There is a charter service from Johannesburg directly into Madikwe, but it sure is nice to take a big bird every now and then. We could have rented a car and driven the 3+ hours, but I would have not needed the car upon my arrival in Madikwe. It was actually less expensive and more efficient to just fly on a major airline instead. Oh, and I accumulated some more Star Alliance points. :-)

We stayed at Tuningi Safari Lodge, which is in the western side of Madikwe Game Reserve. Madikwe is a very interesting place, as it was once heavily grazed with cattle. In 1991 it was converted into a wildlife game reserve, and has all of the big 5 within its boundaries. The wildlife was relocated to Madikwe through Operation Phoenix, which was one of the largest wildlife translocation projects in the world. More than 8,000 animals from 28 species were released into Madikwe, which included elephant, rhino, lion, cheetah, wild dog, buffalo, hyena, giraffe and impala. The project was completed in 1997, and today there are more than 100 lions in the included 75,000 hectare property. Madikwe is a malaria-free area, which makes it a wonderful area for family safaris.

Tuningi Safari Lodge has 8 villas, and can accommodate a maximum of 16 people. Leslie and I absolutely loved the accommodations, and felt right at home during our 4 nights there. I would love to bring our sons there when they are older, but 2 years and 4 years old doesn’t work at this time.

After getting settled into the lodge, we headed out for the afternoon game drive. We pretty much spent our afternoon with elephants and rhinos (not a bad thing!) and watched some interesting and funny behavior. We were at one of the water holes and watch 2 family groups of white rhinos drink at the water’s edge. One large male spent the better part of a half an hour scratching his, uh, underside on a dead tree stump. After looking at the stump it was obvious that it has been used quite a bit for similar activities.

This afternoon was such a relaxing afternoon that I didn’t take too many photographs. I sat back, enjoyed my time with Leslie, and chatted with Grant Marcus, our awesome guide. Grant is also a great photographer, and one should visit Grant’s web site to see some of what he sees in and around Madikwe.

We headed back to camp after sunset, and we washed up and had a wonderful dinner around the fireplace in the lodge.

 

 

Our room at Tuningi

 

 

White rhino at the water's edge

 

..now time to scratch, uh, the 'underside'

 

..and time to try another position

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Reader Comments (1)

Hi Andy

Great article Thank you ! Hope we will see you guys again soon !

September 13, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterGrant

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