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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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Entries in Lake Manyara (1)

Sunday

Mar062011

Safari Udate - Lake Manyara

Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 02:14PM

I met my safari group this morning at Arusha Coffee Lodge, had a nice breakfast and loaded up the Land Rovers for the first leg of my second safari. Our destination was Gibbs Farm, in the Ngorongoro highlands outside of the village of Karatu.

The drive took a few hours, and in my vehicle I got up to speed on world politics and world events that have occurred over the past few weeks. For some reason I didn’t expect updates on Brad Womack, the current star of the tv show The Bachelor. Lol.

Our rooms weren’t ready when we arrived, so we took the oppportunity to have their wonderful coffee out on the veranda. The late morning breeze in the highlands is like no other, and it felt like coming back home. The staff at Gibbs Farm haven’t seen me in a few years, and it was great to be back.

Gibbs Farm is a quaint place to stay that has wonderful organic food for all of their meals, and I don’t lie when I say that the best, most fresh food in all of Tanzania is served there. I don’t know the current count, but I remember that they employ 100 to 150 peole from the surrounding area to help run the accommodation side of the business, as well as tend to the coffee and farming of food.

We went on our afternoon game drive in Lake Manyara National Park, and as usual the vervet monkeys and olive baboons were there to greet us when we arrived. Since the sun was getting low in the sky, we decided to leave the forest to see what was going on near the lake’s edge. Not much, actually. Just a bunch of Leopard Tours vehicles (yuck).

We did stop to shoot a few giraffes at the edge of the forest, and I was hapy to get something from the afternoon. I have to admit that it was fairly slow, as we saw few elephants or giraffes. I was in Tarangire a few days ago, and there were tons of both on the other side of Lake Manyara, so that must explain the lack of them over here.

We had a wonderful dinner at Gibbs Farm, and I could see the jetlag on my guests’ faces, and we turned in early for the night. Tomorrow is Ngorongoro!

Andy Biggs