The quick and the less adventurous

[Atravelynn]

Great portraits of people too. The motorcycle shot is unexpected. Magnificent skies. You'd likely not get those in July. I can see already this was a most successful trip just 3 days in.

[Safaridude]

Just catching up to this one. Twaffle, you've outdone yourself. Dare I say your photographs keep getting even better?

 

I think the Mara is most beautiful this time of year (and of course much less crowded).

[Mosquito]

All been said. Excellent. Looking for more to come

 

 

[SafariChick]

Gorgeous photos, I wish I could learn to take photos half as lovely. Love the hyena cubs and the skies and sunsets! More, more please!

[twaffle]

Thank you all for your encouragement. I do think my photos are getting better which I put down to staying focussed and allowing situations to develop. Perhaps I missed some action, but I felt that each drive gave me more than I could have hoped for.

 

I only had one chance at skies like this, but it is a great time of year to be in the Mara, no doubt.

[Tusker]

Thank you all for your encouragement. I do think my photos are getting better which I put down to staying focussed and allowing situations to develop. Perhaps I missed some action, but I felt that each drive gave me more than I could have hoped for.

 

I only had one chance at skies like this, but it is a great time of year to be in the Mara, no doubt.

 

You really have excellent photos. I think you should run a photography workshop for some of us ST members who could use the help!!

[twaffle]

Tusker, thanks for the compliment but I am a rubbish teacher I'm afraid.

[Mosquito]

I am the rubbish she is teaching. She is excellent mentor

[twaffle]

I am the rubbish she is teaching. She is excellent mentor

 

Hahahaha, you are very funny!

 

I just did a terrible thing, I re-read my Tanzanian TR (unfinished!) and realised that my writing here is quite dull. But I was being so very serious every day about my photography that I ended up not having enough time to write each day and if you forget to do that, then your memories become dulled by time. Or perhaps I am just dulled by age.

[twaffle]

I don't have much time but I have a few images ready so will post those.

 

Day 4 (but the 3rd morning). For the first time the alarm woke me up at 5am this morning. I must have slept soundly as I feel quite tired. Despite yesterday's rain and clouds the stars are out in force. I'd like to take some star photography but I've left my tripod in the vehicle so my laziness will not only haunt me today but every other morning that I leave it in the 4x4.

 

Rain always makes the wilderness feel crisp, fresh and clean and despite the drowsiness it doesn't take long to feel the anticipation rising. As I'm the only guest in camp still, everything is very quiet and dark and there is no bustling about by guides at the other vehicles. Quite different when all the tents are occupied and then it is a bit of guess work as you peer into the gloomy car park trying to find your guide. Everyone looks the same in the darkness!

 

We head up the camp road, rockin and rollin as James likes to say and out onto the plains above the Mara Reserve.

 

 

Our first bit of success for the morning is finding a dead tree (leafless anyway) covered in White Storks.

 

 

 

I asked James if it would be alright to set up my tripod outside the vehicle and stand next to it, remembering his request when we first met. He and James looked around and although it was pretty hard to see much, I stayed close to the car and we just waited for things to happen.

 

Some days nothing much does happen but the storks decided to fly away and I managed a few shots before all that was left was a dead tree.

 

 

Last trip to the Mara it was in this approximate spot that I saw an aardwolf. There was no such excitement this morning but my storky tree filled my artistic soul with great pleasure.

 

We took a side road down onto the flatter ground where the trees gave way to the Mara plains, outside the Musiara gate.

 

 

Where we saw elands browsing on the hillside and dikdiks and lots of tommies. A rather handsome Secretary Bird wandered towards us.

 

 

The Musiara Gate loomed up and I took a deep breath remembering all the times I'd been hassled to buy 'stuff'. I put on a foreboding "I have a long, white lens and am not friendly" face and looked straight ahead as we sat there waiting for James to sign us in. The rather nice, friendly man who runs the little shop is from the same tribe as Kimansi who drove me the last two times to Serian and I started to feel a little embarrassed by my unfriendliness. Fortunately, Master Twaffle engaged in conversation in a wonderfully young way and because and so we moved through without buying anything and without metaphorical daggers in our backs.

 

The grass was noticeably longer in the Reserve but we headed hopefully down towards the Marshes where we found a couple of interesting things. Daniel was there with his entourage who I have to say were some of the most friendly guests I've met in another vehicle. Not sure what Daniel had told them, but they seemed very well disposed towards us despite my yelling incident by the evening lion.

 

We also found two nice big male lions, James did tell me who they were but I prefer to think of my lions as wild enough not to have human names so they remain nameless. One was sleeping and one gave us a couple of poses before assuming the flat cat position.

 

 

 

Lots more to come ........

 

 

[Game Warden]

Lovely portrait there. Any chance of a how to article when you get time?

[twaffle]

Sure Matt, but you might have to remind me. Very absent minded at present.

[Mosquito]

Sure is nice because of the time differences to wake up in the morning, get a cup of coffee and open the trip reports to start my day The sports page can wait! Twaffle please keep it up!

[Mosquito]

sure love the silohuette shots....especially the ones with the animals on the horizon....of course, I love all your shots....

 

You must teach "Rubbish" how to do them!

[twaffle]

So many great trip reports being posted now that I feel quite intimidated, makes you realise that no matter how wonderful your own sightings, someone else will be possibly getting better. Of course, the reality is that whatever you see it is great and being thankful is a state of mind.

 

Back in the Marsh area we left Daniel and the lions and wandered down to a usually productive area for birds, especially water birds but the Jacanas were too far away from my lens to make decent photos and everything else just seemed a bit uncooperative. We (actually my sighting for once) found a nesting Crowned crane and as we watched the partner crane flew down and we watched some nice interaction as they changed the guard.

 

 

 

By this time I seemed to have lost my focus and part of me wished that I were able to relax and observe instead of thinking about the photographic possibilities in everything I saw. The midway point is, for me, the hardest. I become very tired, forget much of what I was trying to capture, start shooting in all the bad light forgetting everything I've ever learned. I remember once questioning a wildlife photographer I know on why he never went out in the middle of the day. He said because no matter what you see, the photo won't be worth selling because of the light. I replied that wouldn't it be better to see "stuff" even if you didn't have saleable photos as I've seen some amazing things between 1 and 4 pm, but he didn't agree. For the very first time I didn't stay out over the midday period even once and I finally understood what he was saying. To maintain some energy for the job at hand, to have photos which you can use as against having photos you wished you could use, makes stopping for an hour or so quite valuable. Would I do this again? Possibly, depends on the time of the year and the location. In some parks you need every minute of every day just to cover enough ground to find interesting sightings. It also depends on how often I can get away on safari, the more you go the less insanely active you have to be.

 

Today, of all days, I felt that we just wouldn't see anything worthwhile and that the Mara would fail us. I was wrong, I'm nearly always wrong.

 

With breakfast calling us we began to meander down towards Little Governor's where we could see little groups of staff taking a minute to themselves as the guests would all have been out by this time. Finding a well eaten grass pan covered with a large number of baboons foraging for grass we stopped for a while. There were a few buffaloes nearby as well, and an elephant grazing behind, under the trees.

 

So many tiny baboon babies, some screeching at the unfairness of having to walk; one trying to climb aboard and falling off; two learning how to settle an argument and one trying to suckle as mum purposefully went about her business.

 

 

 

But even now we had lost the good quality light and it became sighting seeing worthy only. But still very enjoyable.

 

Just as we were about to move position our train of thought was interrupted by a loud and angry screaming and we turned to see a male baboon running from an younger, presumably female baboon who was not happy at all. No idea what the poor old male did, but something which baboon society believes is not at acceptable at all.

 

 

 

 

I added to my buffalo and yellow billed ox-peckers before we moved along the river some more.

 

 

 

 

"I'm telling you Mavis, I heard it from his own beak … I didn't believe it either!!"

 

 

 

 

 

James prepares breakfast.

 

 

Baboon foot and hand prints in the mud.

 

 

Cattle egret feather.

 

 

Fish eagles

 

 

 

 

The grasses of the Mara which make it such a delight for photographers and animals alike. Except when they get too long.

 

 

On topi plains, we found fighting topi.

 

 

 

 

 

I won, I won!!

 

 

 

We saw several lions along the way to camp and what looked like it would be some interesting buffalo - lion interaction as the buffalos went hunting through the reeds and flushed the lions, but it didn't eventuate into much.

 

Reaching Nkorombo camp after 2 years away was really like a homecoming. Moses was ready and waiting for us with a cold drink and camp cloth which we certainly needed. The tents have been upgraded since my last visit and everything looks very tidy and settled. Perhaps not as wild as before, but wild enough for the Mara Reserve given that it is on the river but off the beaten track and even in high migration season, vehicles from other camps rarely wander down to the area.

 

Looking from the sitting tent towards the river.

 

 

Tent details

 

 

With my important items on the table.

 

 

Looking out my tent window at the fairyland of shrubs surrounding Nkorombo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SafariChick]

Twaffle, you should not feel intimidated! Your pictures are so good, they make any sighting special! I love watching baboons too, there is always something going on with them. I really like the pix of the buffalo with the oxpeckers as well.

[Sangeeta]

All I can say is that you're an artist and you inevitably manage to make the most mundane things look special through your eyes.

 

But photos aside, I hear you on the time out from safari remark. My husband has the will power to do that for at least two full days on a 10 day trip and is always wonderfully refreshed by the down day in camp. But I can't seem to get rid of the devil in my head that drives me on and on, morning after morning, sometimes to the point of exhaustion.

 

Something to learn for sure. Especially if you happen to be there for professional reasons. But you got so many lovely images here - the burnished guides, the cloudscapes, the sparkly bushes at Nkorombo - the nesting crowned crane and the oxpecker shadow on the buff - all of them beautiful.

[Mosquito]

wonderful, wonderful, wonderful....amazing what you see and what you do with them..I look at one photo and am amazed..then I go to the next and am even more amazed...unbelievable....

 

Not sure which would be my favorite as they are all so good...right not the oxpecker shadow on the horn of the cape buffalo has left me speechless....can't imagine how you staged that!

[twaffle]

Thank you all, having a really bad day today and your nice comments have made me feel so much better. Sometimes the walls just come crashing in ......

[michael-ibk]

You really should publish a book with those pictures. I would buy it. At once.

[AKR1]

Magnificent pictures , Twaffle. I would buy the book as well.

[Pennyanne]

I am the rubbish she is teaching. She is excellent mentor

 

Hahahaha, you are very funny!

 

I just did a terrible thing, I re-read my Tanzanian TR (unfinished!) and realised that my writing here is quite dull. But I was being so very serious every day about my photography that I ended up not having enough time to write each day and if you forget to do that, then your memories become dulled by time. Or perhaps I am just dulled by age.

 

Not dull at all!! I am really enjoying your writing and the photos and have eagerly been looking forward to each instalment.

[Kavey]

<contented sigh>

 

:-)

[Sangeeta]

Off topic, but how's the dream job doing, Kavey? Hope you're having as much fun with it as you hoped.

[graceland]

Mavis cracked me up

 

The others made me smile; and yep, count me amongst the fans.

 

Loved seeing Nkorombo; our fav. part of our Serian adventure. Just brought a smile to my heart seeing it through your eyes.

 

Hope your day gets better; look at all the folks who you have cheered on today.

 

Hugs