Day 20 –Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa

Today was the last day of my second safari, and I was very sad to leave Mala Mala. Mala Mala is a very special place, and I plan on spending more time in the Sabi Sands in future years. For me the Sabi Sands area is all about high value photographic subjects in a short amount of time, and it makes for an excellent photographic destination for predators. For that reason I will be back in a few months to run my Leopards of the Sabi Sands trip in early November. I cannot wait to get back.

This morning’s game drive needed to be short, primarily due to the timing of our plane flight back to Johannesburg. We were out by 6:30am, and were back in camp by 8:45. In that short period of time we watched a herd of 36 elephants cross the airstrip, as well as watch the largest male leopard on the reserve, Emsagwen Male, go out on a patrol of his territory. What an awesome way to end the safari. Between our safari group we had 9 sightings of leopards in 4 days. That averages to more than 1 leopard per game drive. What surprised me was that a cold front blew in a few days ago, bringing along high winds, and that typically makes for difficult game viewing. When we have high winds it makes it difficult to hear bird calls, and those calls are one of the things that we rely on to identify and track predators. Additionally, the high winds and cold temperatures cause grazers and browsers to hunker down in the dense woodland, and your prey species are also difficult to locate. It is like somebody stole all of the wildlife. On this safari we relied on good old fashioned visual sightings, as well as using paw prints in the dirt and sand to locate our predators. Even looking for paw prints is difficult, as it is problematic to be able to tell the age of a print when the granules of sand have been swept into the paw print area in a short amount of time.

After our time with Emsagwen Male, we drove quickly back to camp for brunch. On the way back we followed a mother rhino with her baby that couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3 weeks old. A nice parting gift for us! But wait, there is more. It started to rain ever so slightly, and a rainbow appeared over the camp in the distance. And then it happened: a double rainbow. A double rainbow, but not the kind where I sound like I am going to cry and then ask “what does this mean?” as if I were stoned as in the YouTube video.

We departed camp by 11 and headed to the airstrip. We said goodbye to our ranger friends and boarded our plane for Johannesburg. The flight only took 1 hour, and after we arrived the whole group split off into different directions. I have to say that I am honored and privileged to have a business where my customers also turn out to be my friends. I am doing what I believe I was put on this earth to do, which is to share my love of photography, Africa and adventure with other people. I couldn’t be in a better profession for my skill sets, as well as my passions.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes only.

A herd of 36 elephants crossed the airstrip this morning. What a sight, but challenging to photograph

The Emsagwen Male leopard

Double Rainbow all the way. What does this mean?

Day 19 –Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa

Ok, today was the day of all days. Leopards, leopards and more leopards. I am overwhelmed, to say the least, and here is how my day went in the paragraphs below.

We left Rattray’s by 6:30am and worked the road that borders Londolozi to the west. Within 1km of camp we heard a commotion of francolins, and it was clear we had a leopard in our midst. We stopped the vehicle and noticed not one but two leopards in a tree: the Dudley Female and her subadult cub. The cub was working an imapala carcass, and the Dudley Female was too busy paying attention to the young hyaena on the ground. We didn’t have a clear view, unfortunately, and we couldn’t go any closer than about 125 feet. Londolozi and Mala Mala are different properties, and none shall go between them. It’s just how it is, unfortunately. We watched as the Dudley Female jumped down out of the tree towards the hyaena, which totally freaked me out. Typically you will never see a leopard do such a thing, however this time the hyaena was too young to be much of a threat, so she obviously felt comfortable enough to get near it.

2 leopards by 6:45am.

We left the Dudley Female and her cub, and worked our way north and east towards the Sand River. We tracked and intercepted the Bicycle Crossing Male leopard by the river, and we had multiple attempts at photographing him as he walked down a game path. Our approach was to drive around and forward of him, turn around and photograph him as he walked towards us. We did this about 5 times, and I was happy with the photos from this session with him. I last saw him in 2008, and it was great to be near this great leopard again. His size and stature remind me of the late Tjololo, who made it to the cover of National Geographic a few years back. Kim Wolhuter photographed and shot video of Tjololo, and one should seek out some of Kim’s work if interested in beautiful leopard photography.

We followed the Bicycle Crossing Male offroad, and he came upon a skeleton of a wildebeest. He absolutely snuggled and caressed the bones, which was one of the more unusual acts I have seen a leopard engage in. After his intimacy with the dried remains, he then scent marked it as his own and then moved on. We lost track of him in the dense bush, and we had to backtrack to get back to the road.

3 leopards by 7:28am.

Above one of the picnic sites we found the Daughter of Ngoboswan Female, and boy was she a gorgeous leopard. She had a new impala carcass in the tree, and was happily munching away with an adult hyaena at the base of the tree. We were able to move the vehicle around to find some good vantage points, which explains some of the images down below.

4 leopards by 9:45am.

We were so chuffed when we got back to camp, that we decided to eat a quick brunch and head back to the Daughter of Ngoboswan Female to see what else we could yield photographically. Our other vehicles stayed with her when we ate, and when we got back to her the other vehicles moved on for brunch. Rotating vehicles is the only way to make sure that everybody gets good photographs, and I am a fan of this method.

After an amazing set of leopard sightings, we returned back to our mating pair of lions for some more ‘action shots’. J

Dinner was indoors, due to the high winds and cold temperature. It has really turned cold in the past 24 hours, and this morning was 40F with a colder morning forecasted for tomorrow. Time for winter gloves and a winter hat, for sure. It should be around 3C tomorrow morning. BRRRRRRRRR.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

The Dudley Female barely makes it into the open

The Dudley Female jumps from her tree in front of a hyaena

The Dudley Female

Bicycle Crossing Male

Bicycle Crossing Male

Bicycle Crossing Male

Bicycle Crossing Male

Daughter of Ngoboswan Female

Daughter of Ngoboswan Female

Daughter of Ngoboswan Female

Lone hyaena, looking for some scraps

Daughter of Ngoboswan Female

Dean, James, Filemon, LaWayne and George

Day 18 –Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa

I haven’t been spending much time with my diary in recent days, primarily because of the limited amount of time to keep on top of it all. My apologies if today’s dairy on the shorter end, but I will try to do a better job in future days.

Today we focused on mating lions, sub adult male lions, kudu, birds and a nice sunset. Not bad!

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Day 17 –Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa

Gosh, where do I begin? We had such a jam-packed day with so many rich photographic subjects. To put it bluntly, we had lions, lion cubs, leopards and rhino. Ok, so I said it. Now on to the day’s sightings.

We stumbled upon two adult females of the Styx pride, and one of the adult females is quite the legend in the area at 14 years old. She is a different looking lion, in that her nose rides high on her face, and you always know who she is when you see her. She has a young cub at the moment, and it may be the last she will have due to her ‘old’ age. We sat and watched the two lionesses in the open grass opposite Mala Mala Main Camp on the other side of the Sand River, and after an hour we noticed the younger female was interested in a bush buck on the river’s edge. She stalked and eventually took off running after the bush buck, only to end in failure. I could see the excitement in the other photographers’ eyes, as any chase is a great thing to see.

We were back at camp at 10:30 for brunch, and then back out by 3:00. In the wintertime many camps offer breakfast before the morning game drive, however for the next few days were are going to eat brunch after the game drive. This will allow us to get a few more minutes of sleep, without foregoing the good light in the morning. It also helps out the camp staff.

We left camp by 3pm, and photographed more lions in and around the Sand River. We had 3 cubs and 2 adult females, and we had a very difficult time getting clear shots of the cubs in the tall reeds in the river. The mothers felt comfortable enough with us, and the cubs were heard growling for their mothers to provide milk for the hungry little guys. So we had intimate experiences with these gorgeous cats during their nursing activities. I just couldn’t get a clear photograph, due to the tall grass, but it was a great moment indeed. After their feeding, the cubs played in the sand on the water’s edge. We left them and headed towards the west street bridge to photograph white rhinos that had been seen.

Rhinos are funny creatures, and I get a good chuckle when I spend time with them. They are difficult to photograph past the obvious types of shots, so I always have to find new ways of interpreting gestures, moods and behavior. After my obligatory head shots, I noticed that some of them had good gatherings of oxpeckers on their backs, so I tried my best to get these emotional birds in my viewfinder. My biggest challenge was getting a good angle, good light and a good background, but the best I could muster was a background with the bridge in the background. GRRRR. Oh well.

On the way back to camp, we tracked down the son of Ngoboswan, one of my favorite male leopards in the reserve. There are only two others that I enjoy more, and that is the Bicycle Crossing Male and the massive Emsagwen Male, and it was good to see this beautiful guy before the sun went down. He was obviously hunting, so we kept our distance and watched as he tried to sneak up on a nyala in the forest. The nyala had already figured out what was going on, but it was fun to watch the game of cat and mouse until we could barely see in the moon’s light.

At dinner we all laughed about our good fortune, and added up that we had collectively kept Sandisk in business due to our appetite for flash memory.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

El Grupo

Oxpeckers on the back of a white rhino

Day 16 –Mashatu Main Camp / Rattray’s on Mala Mala, South Africa

This morning’s game drive was a short one, because we needed to get back to camp, pack, eat breakfast, drive to the airstrip and head for Mala Mala. I primarily photographed adult baboons with their young, and I have to be honest that it was a challenging task. I wanted to take advantage of a unique lighting situation, where the baboons were in the bright daylight and just behind them there was complete shadow. This was a great lighting situation, as it made it easier to highlight what the actual subject of the scene was. It was a near miss for me, as I could never seem to get all of the 3 adults and 3 young to look towards the camera, or at least near the camera.

We made our 12pm plane flights to Mala Mala, via Polokwane for immigration, and the flights and immigration took about 2.5 hours. When we arrived at Mala Mala, my friend and ranger Matt Meyer was waiting for us on the airstrip. Mala Mala has a wonderful airstrip that is paved, so light jets to bush planes can all service the camps here.

We drove the short drive to Rattray’s on Mala Mala, our camp for the next 4 nights, and quickly checked in. We were assigned our rooms, dropped off our bags and met back in the common area. Food was ready for us, but we had to respectfully pass and get into the Land Rovers for some wildlife. Mala Mala is one of my favorite locations in all of Africa for predators, specifically leopards and lions. Mala Mala is a well-run game reserve, and offroading is a necessary part of the experience here. The rangers are extremely professional, and many of them are avid photographers themselves. We are working with Matt, Donald, Gordon and Dean for the next 4 days, and all of them are great guys and photographers.

Upon leaving camp, we heard of an adult female leopard near Mala Mala Main Camp, so we knew exactly where to go. We met up with her and only had 10 minutes of shooting before we snapped something underneath our vehicle. It was our tie rod, which wasn’t a big deal at all, but we were disabled nonetheless.   We had driven over a really nasty iron wood stump, and we had to have another vehicle brought out to us. John loaned us his Rover for the afternoon, and by the time we moved our belongings the leopard had pretty much moved on into the dense brush. It wasn’t a big deal, because I knew that we would have more opportunities over the next 4 days.

On our way back to camp, we stopped for sparring giraffes and a pair of white rhino. Not bad for a 2 hour game drive, eh? J

Dinner was in the outdoor boma, and the fire tonight was absolutely stellar. Tonights’ dinner was made up of kudu, roasted veggies, roasted tomato & basil soup with ice cream for desert. Not exactly diet material, but I think I can cope.

Note: All images in these daily blog postings are very very rough edits of the things we have seen, and I often omit the photographs that take too much time to process. I don’t take much time off during the day, as I am working with people with their photographic needs. All of my images in these posts will have to be re-processed when I get back home, and they are only included in these blog entries for illustration purposes.

Overlook with the Sand River

Our first leopard at Mala Mala

Sparring Giraffes

..and our first rhino

Safari-time!

Ok, I am off for Africa soon, and I will be all over the place. Here are a few places where I will be:

• Chitabe Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana (1st camp on my first safari)
• Savuti Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana (2nd camp on my first safari)
• Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana (1st camp on my African Wildlife Photography Boot Camp)
• Rattray's on Mala Mala, South Africa (2nd camp on my African Wildlife Photography Boot Camp)
• Tuningi Safari Lodge, Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa (to spend some time with friend Gerry van der Walt)

Unlike like most of my past safaris, I will be taking a few days off in between my first and second safari, and it will be rest that will be well used. I will have a BGAN satellite system on my safaris, which means I intend to update this blog frequently (daily?) from the bush. I did this a few months ago from Tanzania, however technology was easier there as I could update the blog from my Blackberry Bold mobile phone. I didn't upload any photos, though, as I was shooting film on that safari (long story).

The BGAN satellite is a very nifty piece of technology, as I can surf the web and send emails at 492kbps, which is plenty fast. The kicker is that it costs around $6 per megabyte, so I will only be using the system to read and send emails via a web page. I am renting the system from a friend, and this is a good way of figuring out if I should invest in the technology going forward.

If anybody has called Gura Gear or have sent us an email, you will likely be familiar with who Troy Covey is. Troy is my right hand man, and he will be coming on my second safari to shoot video. I am a video dummy, so Troy is coming to gather footage that we can use for marketing purposes. We want to convey what it is like to be on one of my photo safaris, as well as how people use our Gura Gear Kiboko bag. I know he is going to have to do tons of audio editing, as I tend to laugh a little too much. It is a personality flaw of mine, and now that I have admitted it I only have 11 more steps to go. :-)

Leslie will be joining me near the end of my second safari, and this will be the first time since 2004 that Leslie has been able to join me. Why the long wait? Let's just say that our having 2 boys in the span of 28 months can alter one's adventures in life. Leslie will be at Mala Mala and Madikwe with me, and I cannot tell you how happy this makes me to have her back on another adventure with me. Shared experiences is a good thing.

While in Madikwe, we will be spending some time with friend and photographer Gerry van der Walt, who runs Photo-Africa.com. I am not sure what kind of trouble we will find, but I am sure it will be fun whatever we end up doing. I just think that all Leslie wants to do is to sleep late and to not have little boys climbing all over her. At the same time I don't even know how to relax, as it isn't in my vocabulary. Relaxing usually means being out on game drives by myself with a guide and perhaps another friend or two.

I have tons to do before I leave next week, and near the top of that list is to update my 2011 safaris on andybiggs.com. I have a few more safaris to add, such as a June 2011 Tanzania trip with Chris Gamel, and an August Tanzania safari with Randy Hanna. If you haven't met Chris or Randy before, you should know that they are excellent trip leaders, photographers, instructors and all around good guys. I couldn't be more happy to be working side by side with them.