Ruaha March 2015

[Atravelynn]

After viewing page 1, the green season looks inviting. Intense lion hunt with the zebra to start you off. Do you have software to input all the photo data? Or are you doing it yourself? Very instructive.

 

Now I've looked at the rest of the report. Scenery and animals and scenery/animal shots are gorgeous. You really brought in the dramatic skies. Ruaha is a different place in March than when most people visit.

 

Even at 12800 ISO for the owl your shots are distinct and not grainy.

 

We all love the Wydah!

 

Warthog really came through for you. You mention wanting to see more animals and might have seen more in the dry season, but you certainly captured what makes Ruaha special in the green season. Maybe you can make a dry season trip to compare. And maybe your mother could join you on that trip, like Zambia, now that you've scouted out the lodging and found a good company and guide. But this one looks like a success to me!

Edited August 5, 2015 by Atravelynn

[westcoastexport]

Final Thoughts

 

As you know this trip in March is during the wet season. I think the height of the wet season is a bit later, during April. Weather was changing all the time, between sun, rain and cloudy. But it was still pretty dry. The rainfalls was typically short and intense, but didn´t leave more water than that the ground dried up quickly. I guess that Ruaha is a very dry place during the dry season. As you have seen from the pictures, the ”green” is mostly in the form of widespread bushes. The landscape is it self very varied, with the Ruaha river valley, sand rivers, savanna areas, hillside areas , and of course lots of bushes. I like this variety, and it is great to be abel to see and photography the animals in different habitats. Variety and density of animals was limited, or spread out. There is of course more animals around, but they are difficult to find. This was kind of a disappointment. Birdlife was splendid though. I´m not a birder, so I can´t compare to other areas in east Africa. Compared to Europe birds in east Africa is generally much more abundent and less skittish. In Africa it is easy to approach a bird with the car and stay 10-15 meters away and take photographs. In Europe it would have flown away long before. And some of these birds are the same individuals!

 

Our guide/driver was Hanib from Warthog Adventures, we booked him directly via email. It worked flawless. Warthog also booked cottages on our behalf. I am very pleased with their service. Tanapas cottages is very nice, and I can recommend them. The ”lodge” service to the contrary was very basic. Their ”shop” was closed, and only food was rice/pasta with watery tomatosause. The lodge had no beaverage at all. Luckily we brught much from Iringa, and could stock up at the rangers station. Nothing wrong with the lodge house, but everything else they have a lot to work on. I figure that there is more service during turist high-season.

 

From a photography point of view, my reason for this trip, I was during the week a bit disappointed. As I earlier in the trip report told you, we where out in the park every day from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. We covered a lot ground, but sightings was scarse, except for birds. I do like to have the opportunity to stay out the full day. I prefer this much more then spend several hours every day on the lodge, as otherwise is usual on safaris. Thanks to Habib and Warthogs for this. The only shortcoming with this is that I didn´t have time to do any daily notes, and in this trip report my pictures have to stand for them self. I brought 2 NIkon D4, Nikon 600 mm f/4, Nikon 70-200 mm f/2,8, Nikon 24-70 mm f/2,8 and TC-1,4. During this week I took 3130 pictures. 2150 with the 600 mm, 863 with the 70-200 mm and 117 with the 24-70 mm. The reason why I used the 600 mm so much is because there was so much bird photography/few animals to photograph. In retrospect, now when I am home and work with the pictures, I am much more pleased. I think I got some nice pictures

 

Last picture of the trip. A lonely lioness on the prowl looking for something. But we had to leave..

 

Stunning photos! I love the lion shots. Ruaha is one of our favorite places and we are going back in September. Thank you for the description about the scarcity of animals in the early or wet season.