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Brian's Art for Animals
Posted (edited)

Back story: After taking 5 safaris to Kenya from 2003-2010, I wanted to try another African country.

I asked about gorilla tracking and also Tanzania here on Safari Talk. Through that I met Roberto from Savannah Explorers, and soon we were planning my next 10 days safari. I wanted a budget of less than 350 USD a day for everything, and it all worked out. Well, I had to put my gorilla dreams on hold until a future date.

I asked off from work (I work as a zookeeper in the Chicago area) and charged my cameras so I could go on this trip in Jan-Feb 2014.

That pretty much takes us into my first video (I am having problems with creating a link.so I will type the address and hope for the best here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyzl7jSvIJ4

 

We start from cold Chicago and soon are in Arusha town to spend the night. I once again flew with KLM and had no problems...well the vegetarian food dinner was bad on the plane, but you can't win them all.

Once in town, we met with our guide/driver Rama and took off to the Freedom Lodge. It was a very nice place (no other guests but my wife and I this night) and the food and room was excellent. All I wanted was a shower and a bed to rest for a few hours before driving out (approx. 2 hours) to our first park. Tarangire. As our guide was getting the paper work done to enter the park a woman screamed in the shop area. A black mamba had found its way into the shop and cleared it out. Soon the snake was on its way, and I was also on my way...

Our first drive is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eqeP8EVErI

 

What a way to start our trip with seeing a beautiful lioness and also some eles playing in the mud. For the most part (other than the lion sighting) we were the only jeep around. It took a while to get used to the jeep, as I was used to open air jeeps at Lewa, but since it was only my wife and I, I could easily manage myself between looking out from the top or my side window.

We spent the night at the Osupuko Loge which sits right on the park's boundary. It was an excellent place.

 

For those of you new to me.. I post a video every 10-14 days or so and this trip will take maybe 12 videos to go through to be complete.

Edited by Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

How wonderful that we have another trip to look forward to. I always enjoy your particular style of delivery.

Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

it's nice to be back :)

Atravelynn
Posted (edited)

That is one of the more exciting (and scary) ways to start a safari! How wonderful you were back in Africa! $350/day--you need to chime on on these threads.

 

http://safaritalk.net/topic/12658-for-repeat-safari-goers-how-do-you-afford-it/

http://safaritalk.net/topic/12670-please-help-with-tanzania-decisions/page-2#entry128459

Edited by Atravelynn
  • 3 weeks later...
Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=988_EtJTbpw

Our second drive we were up and out at 6am. We were the only jeep I saw in Tarangire National Park until we stopped for breakfast around 8:30 or so. (The video was taken on a Saturday Jan 25th.). I love being up and out early. (not sure if I can speak for my better half though) This was a fun video to make as always but it is alarming to do research on the current ivory trade and see that we are losing approx. 90-100 eles a day for their teeth. Humanity needs to change.

The park was beautiful that day and the woodland kingfisher sat about 2 feet from our jeep on a branch and I could have watched the sun reflect off of his feathers all morning.. well, not all morning as I was still searching for Chui!

The shots of my wife and I in the jeep were taken by my GoPro 2. It was a safari selfie if you will. The footage it gets is nice and full, but when I change it to fit the widescreen of the rest of the footage it lost a lot of the top and bottom areas..still I am glad I brought it.

  • 2 weeks later...
Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

 

Story of my life, I enter the scene a little too late. I have seen someone with a GoPro camera film an entire hunt and then eating of lion on buffalo, but on this drive I got there a little too late. But it still was amazing to watch thee young lions eat off of this dead buffalo. It was just outside the upscale Sopa Lodge in Tarangire. A lot of birds and eles also made up this second half of the day's drive.

Posted

Excellent. Where the lion kill was there appeared to be a large phone tower … were you near the park boundaries?

Posted

thoroughly enjoying your video trip ! you saw more cats than we did when we were in Tarangire almost a year ago.

Posted

As others, a very enjoyable safari report! Love riding along with you in the vehicle. :)

Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

Thanks for the nice comments. I try to include quick shots of the actual riding so you can get a sense of the whole experience, in the end it makes me want to go back into the jeep and do it all over again. We were very lucky for lions in our two days at Tarangire. Twaffle, the phone lines might be coming out of Sopa Lodge in Tarangire Park, as this kill was just outside their lodge area. It was funny as I had to make a pit stop after this viewing (we didn't stay long at the kill, only 10 minutes or so) and I walked into the beautiful lodge dining area to find the restrooms and saw all these well dressed people, and thought I wonder if they know what is going on just outside??

I just watched a homemade safari video on youtube shot with a gopro vide camera of a hunt, kill, and eating (lion on buffalo)..so it made my little video of just eating feel not so good, so I again thank you all for viewing and the nice comments.

Posted

Doesn't really matter what others produce, you bring a real sense of adventure and style to your videos and I'm always expecting something to happen. Great fun.

  • 4 weeks later...
Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

After a nice swim in the pool at the lodge, we took off with two Maasai guide for a 90 minute walk on the edge of the Tarangire Park. As we walked out of our cabin my wife noticed a green mamba that went away from her. She didn't know what it was, but I did, and was so glad it was going away from us :) The next day we drove to the Manyara Park. It is only an hour drive, but in that hour I talked with our guide Rama about the paved road they wanted to put in across the Serengeti. I am glad as well as he, that it didn't go through yet.

Posted

Thanks Brian, another fun episode. I hope to see a couple of new videos when I return from Tanzania in a couple of weeks.

Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

Have a great time in Tanz!

  • 2 weeks later...
Brian's Art for Animals
Posted (edited)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPvH3KwpF8w

Lake Manyara is often passed up for being a smaller park in route to the great Serengeti, but as you can see it is well worth a drive. Lots of birds and eles and hardly any other jeeps. I think in our 5 hours there we saw maybe 2 other jeeps. not bad at all. And the near by Country Lodge was amazing.

Edited by Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

Just catching up with your TR @@Brian's Art for Animals. Great fun. Lovely to see the Blue Monkey,; so obliging for the video and images. Fingers crossed that you got your Chui eventually. Time will tell. :)

 

Thanks for the chapters so far.

Posted

Wow Brian, a lot of work has gone into making this trip report but it's greatly appreciated!! Very well done, truly an enjoyable read, thank you.

Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

Thanks. I think each 4-6 minute video takes me about 4-5 hours worth of editing and the such. Obviously the best part is filming, but making the videos and posting them allows me to re live the trip which is also fun.

  • 2 weeks later...
Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

 

We drove through the crater area to get down to Ndutu. I was blown away at the amount of wildebeest walking around. The noise they make was fun to listen to...all those grunts. We came across hyena, cheetah, and a lion pride all in one drive so I was very happy. My wife was also happy as I seldom eat in the morning so she got almost all of my packed food.

Posted

Thanks. I think each 4-6 minute video takes me about 4-5 hours worth of editing and the such. Obviously the best part is filming, but making the videos and posting them allows me to re live the trip which is also fun.

This just caught my eye....(AND I do love your videos....thank you for sharing... :) )

 

But 4-5 hours for editing? You must love it...I have not caught that "bug" yet. and trying to figure out how I can! Well, maybe you cant teach an old dog new technology...but seriously it is fabulous what you share. It is wonderful to watch.

 

Just thinking, I'd never be able to do it....

Posted

You've been busy in July! Great videos above or below water. I always learn something like there are 9 subspecies of giraffe and dwarf mongoose are the smallest predators. Like you, I noted how few visitors I encountered in Manyara, just a few weeks after you had been there. You made the most of your first dung beetle encounter. You made it to Ndutu where all the action is. Wildebeest party I believe was your term.

Brian's Art for Animals
Posted (edited)

Thanks to you both. Yes I did feel like I was invited to the wildebeest party. Yes I think it takes more time to make a real tv show or movie obviously. But for home videos you can edit quick if you want to, but it does eat up a lot of time. I usually take about about 20 minutes of travel video (I make it easy on myself by simply going in order) and then from that 20 minutes of footage I have to find the best 4-5 minutes for the final video. I look over what I have, come up with a script and then record me talking. I edit the talking part along with the video and place very basic graphics on it like the name of the place or animal. I try to keep things very basic, so I don't spend all my free time behind a computer screen.

Edited by Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

And you do a brilliant job for which I thank you.

  • 3 weeks later...
Brian's Art for Animals
Posted

 

We finished our Drive into Ndutu with watching the lion pride, finding 2 cheetahs, and going to the Kenzan Luxury mobile camp. They had the biggest beds inside a tent I have ever seen. And the location changes from year to year, so you are always right in a great location for viewing. We woke up early the next morning to catch the sun coming up and some hyena finishing off their meal. During the morning drive we only saw one other jeep, so it felt like we had Africa all to ourselves, which was nice after leaving the crowded lion pride the night before (the only part of my whole trip where I felt the other jeeps were a little crowding.) There was one lion who was sleeping away from the pride and when some jeeps were coming in, we let the others know there was a lion in the weeds they were driving near. I thought for a moment it would get hit, but the little lion eventually got up and walked back to the safety of the pride.

Posted

African Wild Cat … how lucky can you be!!!

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