My Nat-Geo-Moments Safari

[twaffle]

GW, I took lots of camp photos but most were on my daughter's point and shoot and wouldn't you know, I'm having trouble with the SD card. I've sent it off to see what can be salvaged so fingers crossed. I do have a few coming up but most were done on the p & s because of the battery charging issue.

[Guest sniktawk]

Jolly nice photos it seems that both you and the 7D had a very good time.

[madaboutcheetah]

Lovely report and photos, Twaffle ....... Was Daniel your guide or the spotter? I do remember a Daniel that was my spotter in 2008, hence the question.

 

I saw on the Serian website that they are due to open a seasonal camp in the Northern Serengeti. That's something I look forward to.

[Nick Wright]

Great report and photos - can't wait for the next post.

 

Did you make notes as you went along or are you putting this together from the photos now you are back?

[Pangolin]

Wow!

 

Great report and photos.

 

The pace is just right.

[Guest nyama]

I had my power board plugged into the generator to charge all my batteries and due to some little incident the whole lot were blown. So day one and I couldn’t charge any camera batteries or my phone

I'm having trouble with the SD card.

I'm looking forward to our next dinosaur-technology discussion...

 

Love your picture of the vervet monkey on the roof, and the beads shot. And the zebra eye and elephant foot close-ups.

[twaffle]

Snik, I am really enjoying the 7D. I also took a 40D so I could have two lenses mounted and ready to go but the 40D light meter doesn't seem as good as the 7D and I was always manually adjusting it whereas the 7D on Tv or Av with small exp compensation worked just fine. Manual exp for any low light situations on both.

 

Hari, there are two Daniels at Serian and I don't know if both are spotter/guides. My Daniel was an expert with birds.

 

I think Alex's idea is to have the ability to access the migration at all times of year. I don't know much about the new camp although there was plenty of talk about it. Now is certainly a good time to visit as although I got a good deal (in my view) Serian are now offering a pay 5 stay 7 deal as well as a pay 3 stay 4 through to June. I wonder if I can get a flight back and take advantage of it!

 

I know that they are having great wild dog action at Maswa so that is high on my radar for the future.

 

 

Nick, I started the safari with good note taking intentions. Until the first full day that is. Too tired to write by kerosene lamp and although I wrote some more the following day I decided to rely on the photos and my gps tracks. Writing this report now is good because the memories are still clear.

 

 

Thanks Pangolin for you comments. The pace slows a little bit towards the end, thank goodness, because I was fast running out of CF cards and although I was downloading to my storage device due to charging issues I wasn't going to be able to continue with this.

 

 

[i'm looking forward to our next dinosaur-technology discussion...

Nyama, I don't know what you're talking about! Surely I've never taken a shot at you for not entering the digital world of photography earlier? Not like me............ But funnily enough, it was partly due to your discussion regarding going bush and not needing electricity for endless charging which made me take 3 batteries for my 7D. Thank goodness for that. I didn't need to charge them at all, the 3 lasted until I made it home. The 40D only had 1 battery being my back up and I was lucky that Alex found an old charger which worked. My Power Monkey died on the plane going over after providing one charge for my iPhone so that needs to go back. There are ways to get around the charging and electricity issues and I'm working on before my next bush trip. Maybe I'll need that dinosaur to carry all the batteries I'll take to avoid chargers!

[pault]

I can't believe you're still on Day 1. Hard to top that drive!

[twaffle]

Paul, that is exactly what I thought!

[madaboutcheetah]

Twaffle,

 

 

I'm keen on Maswa too, as an area to get away from the Ndutu crowds. Likewise a Serian option in Northern Serengeti is awesome. Good to know that dogs are around - I've been so lucky in Bots that this wouldn't be high on my "wish-list" ......... I'd be wishing for more cheetah

[Atravelynn]

I'm chuckling at your description of the introductions. Two lisping drivers in a single trip!? What are the odds?

 

Those giraffes in the water are a marvelous find! The nursing topi should be out of the house and self sufficient--that's the equivalent of a 30 year old still sleeping on mama's couch.

 

Was this the buffalo calving season? How exciting to see that newborn. I recall being told that Jan-Feb is when the buffalo calves were born at Duba Plains. Same in Mara?

 

What a wonderful report you have going!

[twaffle]

Hari, I don't think you'd have any trouble with cheetah viewing. If you start thinking of it seriously I would suggest you contact the camp itself, especially Alex, and discuss your special cheetah viewing requirements. Flexibility being their motto, I would expect a great deal of attention would be paid to your needs. From all accounts they have a number of professional photographers use the camp and are quite used to catering for the serious photographer with serious goals. Not like me! I was just happy to see everything.

 

A long time since I've seen wild dogs so I'm very interested in the Maswa location but interestingly they have had sightings in the MNC also so fingers crossed that they can grow in numbers and not suffer another depressing disease wipe out.

 

Lynn, I agree entirely about the topi calf and I thought the mother looked distinctly thin. Jan-Feb is the birthing season in the Mara for just about all the prey species as far as I could tell. There were youngsters everywhere you looked.

[twaffle]

My second day in Mara began early, much earlier than I had expected. The hippo roll call leaving the river had rattled my tent well before midnight so I hadn’t expected to wake around 3am from what could only be described as an eery silence. Once awake I struggled to get back to sleep as the sounds of the night slowly crept in. Consequently I was up and ready to go long before my wake up call and thermos of hot tea.

 

I managed to photograph a slight bit of colour lifting above the river before walking vaguely towards the mess tent. No breakfast in camp today but we weren’t spending the whole day out having decided to come back for lunch.

 

 

[twaffle]

First order of the morning was the sunrise, of course, and what would a sunrise in the Mara be without a balloon or two!

 

 

 

I have to say that these balloons make one big noise … quite disturbing of the peace!

[twaffle]

This breeding herd of impalas were stirring in the early light and although I tried hard to capture them leaping the light was too low and the lens too long to hand hold and get nice sharp images. Eh, I didn’t care, I was having fun and had no expectations.

 

 

 

 

We came across these two topis fighting and I just settled in to get a nice series of pictures when my camera blipped ‘full card’. Next time I’m not taking anything less than 8gb cards, maybe 16gb. Fewer times to get to the end of the card.

 

[twaffle]

With new card inserted we passed by yet another jackal

and made our way towards the tree where we had seen the leopard the day before. I thought it would have left the tree during the night to hunt, but no … the lazy thing was still firmly ensconced in his branch and although he had moved he didn’t look at all interested in anything but rest.

 

 

So we left him and moved on. I could pretend that it was different trees and say that I had seen 3 leopards but that would be lying so sadly it is the same leopard 3 times.

[twaffle]

We stopped to photograph this black-chested snake-eagle and the ring necked dove sitting on a branch near by. I was trying to remember to look in 360 degree angles every time we stopped as you could never tell what was in the trees and bushes around the vehicle.

 

 

Shortly afterwards we found some more vultures on the remains of a fresh kill. Although looking around we never did find the culprits.

 

[twaffle]

Breakfast this morning was a little earlier as we hadn’t had the activity we experienced the day before. Daniel directed Kimansi to the look out which commanded magnificent views over the Serengeti and west over the Mara triangle. We looked down on the Fig Tree balloon champagne breakfast … spying really, and enjoyed our own repast which was deliciously fresh and plentiful as usual. My seat was placed with views in sight but I only sat on it briefly whilst I was joined by this agama lizard.

 

 

 

[twaffle]

Although meerkats aren’t in the Mara we saw quite a few banded mongooses and they are characters indeed.

 

 

As we crossed a small creek bed I noticed this lily and asked Kimansi to stop. Actually, I yelled “stooooop” in a loud voice and I’m sure he thought I’d seen something truly spectacular. Not really, but this is probably one of my most favourite photos taken on this safari. Not the least because of the beetle drinking which I hadn’t seen before taking the photo.

 

 

I liked this view of the impalas moving through this grove of trees, a different perspective of the Mara plains.

 

Eventually we made it down to the Tanzanian border, where we had to stand on forbidden land, so to speak. I’m sure all dedicated tourists do that at least once.

 

[twaffle]

On the way to make a short pit stop at the Mara Triangle entry gate, we came across this cheetah lying behind a bush. Looking at it through binoculars we could see that it wasn’t in the bests of condition, whether old or sick we couldn’t tell. At the gate I found quite a few agamas displaying so grabbed a quick photo before heading back towards camp for lunch.

 

 

 

 

A few scenes along the way.

 

 

This very small crocodile was sun bathing in another creek and I didn’t even see him until Daniel pointed him out. It pays to look more carefully as there is always something happening.

 

 

Also in this pool was this dragon fly (or some such insect) and I was quite please that it turned out so well.

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Twaffle,

 

I can now confirm that it's the same "Daniel" that I refer to - just saw his picture!!!

[twaffle]

Excellent. If I had known before hand I could have gossiped about you!

[madaboutcheetah]

Excellent. If I had known before hand I could have gossiped about you!

 

(If he remembered)

 

 

Your pic of those open plains - is it somewhere near the Musiara marsh etc etc.,?

[Bugs]

Day Two only - Oh my word! I have to go back there. Nat-geo-moments indeed.

 

Great photos too Twaff. Keep them coming.

[twaffle]

Hari, I took so many open plains that I'll have to refer to my gps tracks which I've loaded but not analysed yet. I'll let you know.

 

I'm sorry .... that you aren't in amongst the thick of the migration as we speak, but you have some exciting safaris coming up so I'm not feeling too sorry for you!

 

Dik dik, indeed you must do another safari in the East, so accessible for you … I'm quite envious.