Tanzania safari report - Day 10

Well, I had to say goodbye to my first safari group this morning, and I just want to say thank you to all of my travelers for such a wonderful time. I truly believe that I have the best job on the planet, as I am able to call my participants both customers as we'll as friends. With sadness also comes joy, as the plane that picked up my safari group also dropped off my next safari group.

On this next safari we will do the same itinerary as my past safari, however we will work the itinerary backwards. We will be here in the Serengeti fo 5 nights and then Ngorongoro and ending with Tarangire National Park.

We packed up the Land Rovers at the Seronera airstrip and drove the road behind the Seronera Wildlife Lodge. There we spent time photographing a family of 7 giraffes, and I am glad that my new vehicle mates took the time to really work a scene. It paid off, because the walked near the vehicle and then gave us a great side view.

Without getting into too many details which are difficult to write on a Blackberry phone, we saw excellent game every 5 minutes for the rest of the afternoon. I know my travelers are extremely happy to have such an amazing first day in Africa!

We are camping near Makoma hill, just on the western side. The sunset from here is one of the best locations in the park, as many of the central Serengeti camp sites face towards the east, and our site faces west.

There was a messup today and my main duffle bag has made its way back to Arusha with one of the guides from my first safari. Uh oh. I do have a permanent duffle bag which I leave here in Tanzania, which luckily has some basic toiletries and a few shirts. Whew. I suspect I won't see my main bag for a few days, as it takes a few days to drive back to Arusha, and then the bag will have to be put on a bush plane back to me. I can frustrated about it, but it is a lifelong goal to not let the small things bother me. Why die young with stress? I will have a nice shower, sit by the fire and enjoy a gin and tonic, and wake up to the most amazing place on this planet.

With all of this high brow opinions coming from my keyboard, now I will try to put this all to practice. Until tomorrow.......

Tanzania safari report - Day 9

Today is the last full day for my first safari group, and we decided that we needed to fill up on photographs that weren't as plentiful earlier on. We were up at 5:30, had breakfast and headed out before first light. We went to my favorite location for hippos, and spent at least an hour and a half photographing yawning, sparring and sleeping hippos. This was a great opportunity to illustrate manual exposure techniques, as well as light direction, quality of light, depth of field and animal behavior.

As the sun started to get high in the sky, we headed back out for general game viewing. We stopped multiple times to grab some impala behavior, as the area was richwith them. In my opinion, sparring male impalas are excellent subjects to photograph near the end of a safari, as one typically doesn't appreciate them early in a safari. A typical safari traveler prefers big cats on their first few days, then loves on to smaller game.

For some reason we saw a black and white colobus monkey in the central Serengeti, which was quite a sight. Normally we will see them in the Ngorongoro highlands or the western corridor of the Serengeti, so this guy was very far from home. The central Serengeti does have permanent water, however the area isn't part of the home range for the colobus. Weird. Maybe scientists will blame it on climate change. :-)

After lunch we spent time in and around the Maasai kopjes, and came across a few gorgeous lions up at the top of an outcropping. The light wasn't the best, however we did sit and watch them move around a few times. I envisioned a kind of Thomas Mangelson type shot with a magestic male on top with his mane flailing in the wind. It wasn't to be.

After leaving the kopjes to intercept a nice her of elephants, we finally ran out of luck with the mud. We got stuck. Big time. Kileo and Abraham worked hard to get us out, and we all watched the lions on the kopje in the meantime. I wonder why the lions readjusted their bodies in our direction? Hmmmmm.

On the way back to camp, we saw yet another pride of lions. This time we had 3 cubs and 3 adult females. They were casually hunting an adult male warthog, but not with much gusto. Back at camp around sunset, and I am totally pooped. I am saying goodbye to my travelers tomorrow, and will be welcoming new guests to my "office". :-)

Tanzania safari report - Day 8

Today we explored the absolutely stunning Moru kopjes, situated just south of our camp site. The Moru kopjes are the oldest of all the rock outcroppings in the Serengeti, and I always look forward to my game drives there. I rarely see other vehicles when visiting Moru, and it feelsike my own private Serengeti.

We passed by Lake Magadi and made what I call a serious water crossing, which means we had water above the hood our Land Rover. After crossing we came across a very muddy road around the kopjes. Moru always is a muddy place when compared to other roads in the park, as the area is primarily made up of black cotton soil. If I get stuck somewhere, you can count that it will be in the Moru area.

It was a fairly quiet morning, except for a group of 18 giraffe. We spent around 45 minutes composing our shots in different ways, and I cannot wait to see if some of my pano shots turned out the way I enviosned. I am having a difficult time figuring out the framing of my shots, because the Fotoman rangefinder does not have clearly defined edges. This makes composing quite difficult, especially with a longer lens like my 300mm.

I haven't used the Fuji 6x17 camera before, however I do knw that the viewfinder does have clear lines around the edges. I may try that format if this doesn't work out for me.

We had a relaxing lunch back at camp, and said goodbye to the camp staff around 2:30. We fueled up at Seronera, and took in a few sightings of lion and leopard (with an impala up in a tree). Then we were off for our camp near Robanda.

It didn't rain today, however the roads are still quite wet. We will have to spend some time near Mawe ya Maasai (Masai kopjes) to try and finish off this safari with some more lions on a rock.

I finshed my last Cuban cigar tonight, and have another 12 days before retuning home. Uh oh.

Tanzania safari report - Day 7

Today we split into two groups: hot air ballooners and non ballooners. The ballooners were up at 4:45 for their second flight attempt. The day before we had to cancel our flight due to rains, so today was attempt #2. Sometimes the balloon company allows to to join without a fee, however on this occasion there were no available slots.

We headed down towards the Gol kopjes in search of cheetah and lion activity, as well as migratory herds of zebra and wildbeest. We certainly found all of the above.

The Gol kopjes are rock outcroppings out the southeastern plains of the Serengeti. The area has very short grass, which wildebeest love to eat. This grass is nutritionally high, so it will yield good milk for their newborn early in the year. There are also resident thompson gazelle, which means cheetah will not be far away.

We checked in at Naabi hill with the rangers there, then we were on our way. We spent the morning driving in and around the kopjes, and came across a lion sleeping on a nice rock and then a female cheetah in an open field. After some persistence, we arrived at a large kopje which appeared to have 3 female and 1 male lions. The male was splitting his time 'servicing' two of the females, and every 10 minutes was a Barry White moment with cameras clicking away. We sat for 2 hours watching the interaction between the lions, and as we were leaving to go have a picnic a second male lion came out of hiding to join into the action. It was a virtual orgy of lions, acting out in front of our vehicles. I took something like 18 exposures with my pano camera, which wasn't the easiest. With only 3 exposures per roll, I was chaning rolls quite often.

The afternnon brought more rains, and on ourt liesurely game drive we came in and out of the rain quite often. I am glad that it didn't rain at camp, because I was waiting for the camp staff to wash and dry my laundry.

The plains are so green right now, many roads are challenging and the wildlife spread out. We are having great photo ops nonetheless, and some stunning images are coming out of this group of travelers.

Tanzania safari report - Day 6

What a very very wet day. Some of us were up early for a drive to the hot air balloon launch site, and the minute we jumped in the Land Rover we had a wall of rain. We did drive to the site anyway, however after waiting for 45 minutes the pilot came over and told us the flight was called off due to the rain.

We headed back to camp and nearly got stuck every 5 minutes. A 30 minute drive quickly turned into 90. Ugh.

After lunch our luck turned around, and we had multiple leopard and lion sightings. Four lions in a tree here, two lions in the grass over there, a leopard in a tree there, etc etc. Excellent afternoon by any standard.

The rains are challenging from a driving standpoint, because there is mud everywhere. I am sure the local farmers are quite happy right now.

I am doing a Lightroom processing lecture tonight, and I will process raw files from some of the guests. One of the challenges from these safaris is processing through thousands and thousands of raw files. Which to select? Why? I like to help out as much as I can, as I have processed a few photos before. :-) I am shooting film and video on this safari, so I cannot show my own images from each day.

Tanzania safari report - day 5

Wow. What a day. Where do I begin? We left camp this morning, drove around the edge of Ngorongoro Crater and gradually lost elevation on our way to the Serengeti plains. We had some amazing giraffe sightings at the Malanja depression, as a family of 15 walked along side us for quite some time. Giraffe are my favorite animal to photograph, and this was one of those better sightings.

The acacias slowly turned into lush, green grasses as we passed Oldupai Gorge. There are tons of thompson gazelle and wildebeest as far as the eyes can see. We stopped for a herd of wildebeest to cross the road, and it took 30 minutes for them to cross the road one-by-one. Excellent video opportunity.

After Naabi Hill, we detoured off the main road towards vilima saba (7 hills). It is usually excellent territory for cheetahs, however today it was quite void of game. After getting close to Seronera, the central part of Serengeti NP, we came across a gorgeous female leopard crossing the road. She didn't stick around for long, but I am glad that my guests have already seen a leopard up close. Now I want one in a tree only a few feet away from my vehicle. :-)

We ended the day with 5 bat-eared foxes just outside of camp. Talk about playful and fearless. Typically they are very skiddish, however today was just the opposite. We have 4 giraffes here at camp, and we are taking photos from our tent porches. How lame, I know, but it has been a very long day. Tomorrow we are hot air ballooning, so we are up at 4:30. Time for bed. Until tomorrow.....

Tanzania safari report - day 4

Up at 5am, breakfast at 5:30 and off we went into crater at 5:59am. The gate opens at 6am, and the gate is just outside of camp. I prefer to camp at Ngorongoro because of a few reasons:

1) Fastest access to the crater floor. The lodges on the other side of the rim have a minimum of 45 minutes to drive around the rim and then down the descent road (which sucks). We are down in 10 minutes.

2) Privacy. 'Nuff said.

3) Sights and sounds of the bush. Yes, the lodges hear the same, but not from your insulated room!

4) I get to control the dining schedule. This means I get a warm meal at 5:30am, instead of 6am at best. If you are at a lodge, you are in the crater at 7am at best. Early bird gets the worm in my book.

Ok, back to our day today.

We arrived at the crater floor and quicly intercepted the majority of the pride that works an area we know very well. The pride has 12 lions, and we saw all but the large, dark-maned male. We had to shoot at ISO 6400 due to the low light, however we stayed until the light was ample and the lions moved up a hill and away. What a great way to start the day. The rest of the morning and afternoon were filled with plains game, and I took the opportunity to teach blurred panning shots. A heavy rain came around lunchtime, and we waited it out for a while near Ngoitokitok Springs.

The crater is green and lush these days, as the long rains seem to have arrived early. In a typical year it would start in mid March, however rains have been plentiful for at least the past month. Some sightings have been challenging due to the high grass, however there are enough opportunities that it hasn't been an issue. Serengeti may be a different story, but I doubt it.

We ended the day watching and photographing the same pride that we saw in the morning. Boy, were they active. With four young males that were about 2 years old, they were playing jumping all over each other. It was a very rich opportunity for some behavior shots. Oh, and I shot it all on video, but I did wish that I had my Nikon equipment with me. My only camera is a 6x24cm panorama film camera. I have shot 9 exposures so far (3 rolls of film). Crazy, I know.

Tanzania safari report - day 3

We left Tarangire National Park this morning, and drove across the Maasai Steppe and up to our camp on the Ngorongoro Crater rim. The weather was windy, chilly and slightly overcast. We ate a nice lunch at camp and then headed down into the crater for the afternoon.

Afternoons in Ngorongoro are typically much less active than the mornings, however today had some nice action in store for us. We saw a lioness stalk and run after a young wildebeest, which was quite the sight. Then we watched a large female hyaena pull a zebra carcass out from the water. And the end of the afternoon can only be described as the largest concentration of large bull elephants I have ever seen. I typically see between 10 and 20 bulls in the crater, but today there must have been 50 bulls within sight of each other. And most of these guys had *huge* tusks. My 2006 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year winning image was of a bull with acacia thorns in his mouth, and on that safari I didn't see many elephants in the crater. Today was insane.

We just finished a nice meal, and we will be up at 5am tomorrow. A full day in the crater is in store, and I hope that we run into the large lion pride that works the Munge River, as they are over 20 strong.

Time to close the tent flaps, as it is getting chilly right now. I hear our Maasai guide outside tending the fire, so he should be warm and comfy tonight.