Back in Africa - 12/2011 #1

Hello to everyone. After a long, tedious flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg (16.5 hrs in the air)...I'm now back in South Africa...at Makalali Game Reserve to be exact. That's about an hours drive from the small town of Hoedspruit. I've been here almost a week and have seen more than my fair share of exotic and wild animals...we'll get to that in a bit.

I had a much better trip this year as compared to my last trip...mostly because I packed so much less this year.  I guess that was part of the advantage of being here last year...I now know exactly what to bring.  This is especially true with camera gear.  This year I brought a new 70-300 L lens...and so far it's performed great.  It has allowed me to take some close-ups without having to use a 1.4 extender...which I didn't know until recently not only increases your f-stop, but decreases your shutter speed.  I think this is one reason many of my images from last year weren't as sharp as I would have liked.  I also used mostly "aperture priority" which I think was a mistake...I had too many images that needed a higher shutter speed to get the clarity.  So this year I'm using mostly "manual" controls, but today I tried using "shutter priority" with "auto ISO"...and I was pleased by the results.

I had a much easier time getting through the Jo'berg airport this time...had my reservations for a shuttle to pick me up and take me to a nearby hotel.  The next morning I flew on to Hoedspruit...but there was a mix-up and someone forgot to be there to pick me up.  My first obstacle since getting back.  I could have freaked-out..but did I get overly excited?  Of course not!  I just dealt with the situation as calmly as I could...and eventually I was at Makalali (a few hours later than I had anticipated), but I got there. It's nice to feel like you know what you're doing...or at least not freak out when something unexpected happens. 

I had a couple of hot, sunny days in the beginning of the week, but the last two days have been overcast with light rains off-and-on throughout the day.  However, at the coldest it's still probably 80 degrees. At the hottest, I'm sure we hit at least 100.

At Makalali right now there are seven other volunteers...from England, Italy, Germany, India, Netherlands, and one other person besides me from the US. As fate would have it, I'm the only male volunteer of the group. What that means is that I get a room by myself and the ladies have to share rooms.

So how about some images:

On my first morning at Makalali one of the first things I saw were these two giraffes...I knew then that I was back in Africa.

 

I also saw this White Rhinoceros the same morning.  He started shaking his head...letting us know that he wasn't very happy about us being there.

 

These two yellow-billed hornbills are looking at another hornbill that just landed on a tree branch near them.  I have some other images of these two making big fuss until the other hornbill flew away.  If you'd like, I'll add some images of them getting excited on the next blog.  Let me know. If nothing else, it was fun watching them get so excited because another hornbill flew into their territory.

 

This is an Eland...the largest antelope-type of animal in Africa.  Elands are one of the few types of antelopes that actually use their horns for defense.

 

This is a black-backed jackal

 

This was one of the first sunsets I saw.  So beautiful!

This is one of the rarest birds in Africa...a Southern Ground Hornbill.

 

Spotted Hyena

 

Impala fighting

...and I was lucky enough to see a few lions this week. Two of the females had cubs since last year. So I'm dedicating these images to Donna...who told me that she liked big cats.

 

Here's a cub playing with it's mother

This cub wanted to play with his dad...but as you can see, the dad didn't want anything to do with the cub.  Too bad for the cub (and for me since this happened so fast that I didn't get a clear shot...but you can tell that the big male is not in a playful mood)

..But wait...in the image below we see that the dad finally decided to let his cub play with him. Or at least tolerate the cub climbing on him.

And my Favorite Image of the Week:

Wow! What can I say...other than I was indeed in the right place at the right time.  Need I say more?

So that's it for this blog.  I know it's been short, but hopefully you enjoyed it and are ready for the next blog.  Unfortunately I have to cut it short as I'm leaving at 4:30am tomorrow morning to spend the day in Kruger National Park.  It's been somewhat hectic since I've been back...game drives for at least 8 hours each day...and sometimes even longer.  It just doesn't give a person much time for much else.  However, by the end of next week I'll be more acclimated to being here and will try to put together a good blog for you.  Do you have any requests? Any specific types of animals that you'de like to see?  Maybe more images of what the "bush" looks like here?  If so, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Until then...be safe, smile at someone new...because life is good.  Out...John