This 5th trip to Africa
was a repeat of my first trip to Africa taken
23 years ago. I have learned a lot about traveling and photographing in
Africa since then and put this experience to use. All the work
and attention to detail paid off because
this trip was the best one so far. Everyone enjoyed themselves and felt
the trip exceeded expectations, which was my primary goal. We
tentatively plan on going back in February of
2011 to watch 30,000 wildebeests have their calves in a 2 week period
of time.
Yup, this is me 23 years
ago at the entrance to the Serengeti at the Naabi Hill gate. While
planning
out the details of the 2009 trip I was hoping to go back to this
exact same spot and take another picture.
From what I can tell this is the same spot in July of 2009. This is based on comparing a rock that
is present in
the lower right of both photos. Look at the markings at the top front
of the rocks in the
closeup photos that follow.
1986 Rock
2009 Rock
This trip was a whirlwind of sites and activity. We started in
Arusha (at the base of Kilimanjaro), and went through Tarangire
National Park, then Lake Manyara National Park, to the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area, ending up in the Serengeti. It was similar to the
trip that many people take in Tanzania and was a perfect trip for the
first-timers in my group.
Along the way we went to Oldupai (its Oldupai not Olduvai for you
purists) Gorge where the Leakey's found
evidence of our hominid ancestors. We were literally at the historical
site 50
years and 1 day after the discovery. This is in
the Great Rift Valley, the area that our earliest ancestors originated
from as they colonized the world. It is fascinating to be in this area,
imagining them coming down from the trees millions of years ago and
adapting to this environment as they evolved into homo sapiens.
This section of
northern Tanzania, along with the Masai Mara in Kenya, is called the
Greater
Serengeti Ecosystem. It is a timeless place where the wildebeest and
other ungulates migrate for water and optimum grazing. It
is the grasses in this ecosystem that makes this all happen. As
they migrate they go through territories held by predators and interact
with them in many ways.
It is these funny-looking guys,
called the Blue Wildebeest (the Swahili name is Gnu),
migrating in the
millions, that are a big part of making this extravaganza of wildlife
happen
I did not take many photos on this
trip by design. I set up it so my guests would do almost all of the
photography using my professional equipment and guidance. Of course
they drove me crazy with all their questions, but once you see their
photos it will be apparent they learned rapidly and are good wildlife
and nature photographers. Besides, even if the pictures did not come
out we had a blast taking them and sharing them.
Just because I said I did not take many
photos does not mean I did not
take any photos. The lioness
above on the log was taken by me
the last
day of Group 2's stay at the mobile camps in the Serengeti. The lioness
was
quite obliging in that afternoon sun. I also have a sequence of
pictures of a lioness
stalking and killing a wildebeest. The link to these pictures are
further down the page.
As you will
learn from this page my trips are substantially
more
personal and customized than a typical safari.
A pre-trip meeting at my place covers all questions and gives everyone
a chance to meet. This icebreaker gets the group dynamics off to the
right start when everyone meets in Africa and starts their actual
travels together.
Before the trip anyone is welcome to spend the day
with me practicing with their own camera and lens. After the trip I
make a web page, which you are reading right now,
for everyone so they can share
their experience online. Finally, everyone gets to
invite their
friends to a slide show at my place so they can show off their trip to
others and feel really cool when their picture appears on the screen
and they get to tell the story about it.
To add to the personal and custom touch during the trip I
have 3 people
maximum
per car (most groups have 5-7), plan out the next day only once we have
the best idea where the wildlife are, let each car go where it wants
based on what its occupants decide, and constantly rotate with me in
the
photography car to use the professional equipment. And the price is the
same.
A
vehicle filled with people that is typical of the other tours we
encountered on this trip. Those tours were TAUK, Overseas Adventure
Travel (OAT) and National Geographic tours.
Our
vehicles with plenty of room to move and take photos and 3 persons
maximum
Everyone, even if they have no interest in photography, is welcome to
join (although most people tend to develop a keen interest in
photography once they see how much fun everyone is having). These trips
book up very fast because I keep them small and personal. Come back to
this page monthly to learn where we are going next. At the moment, our
next stop is Galapagos in March of 2010. There is still room for others
on this trip. Here is the link- Galapagos.pdf.
In a foreign land with such a
large area to cover the guides make the trip. The one's we had from
Ranger Safari were excellent, especially at taking our group photos.
They got to wear some cool Oakley sunglasses courtesy of Silvia
Both sets of guides were awesome! They learned lots of American
slang and I even taught them how to find hidden wildlife.
This is me the last day of the
last group, packed up and set to go.
I am a little tired from answering
way too many photography
questions and lugging camera equipment around
for 21 days, but
at
least I am still smiling!
In 2007 we went to the
Masai Mara, located in southwest Kenya, to see the Wildebeest
migration as
they crossed the Mara river. You can learn about this trip here.
The Masai Mara page will show you the professional photography
equipment I bring on all of my Africa
trips for everyone to use in case you are interested in what we used to
capture these photos.
When the next Africa trip gets finalized I will
post it on my
photography page. Contact me at carlp@me.com anytime with
questions.
Before we get on to
the remainder of this page I leave you with one last photo I took on
the last day.
It is two Cape Buffalo with a vulture in a tree towards
sunset in the Serengeti.
This
page is broken down into several sections. Click on the main photo for
each section and you will be taken through a succession of pages and
pictures within that section. The sections are in this order:
The 19 people that went with me
Pictures they took
The sequence of the lioness hunting the
wildebeest
A few very short videos of some people in each
group enjoying themselves
All
the photos on this page have been decreased in size and
resolution for faster downloading on the web, so they do not show their
true beauty. They are available in very high resolution and suitable
for customizing and printing at professional quality at 30 " x 20". Let
me know if any individual photo interests you and I will print and mail
it to you at cost plus postage.
Participants- Click
on the photos to see them in action.
Group 1
Group 2
Photos- Take
a
peek at some of the great shots they obtained by clicking on their
picture.
Bob and Linda
Joy
Mike and Carole
Silvia
Lorna
Dominic
Lela and Robert
Joan and Rick
Jessica
Melissa
Nicole
Hunting Lioness
On Group 1's second day in the Serengeti, while some were
ballooning, Joy, Linda, and myself were the morning photography crew.
Joy and Linda were doing the usual shooting and asking lots of dumb
photography
questions when we came across a lioness that was hungry and looking for
breakfast. When our guide said "hang on she is stalking" I grabbed the
camera from Linda (sorry Linda, its in my rule book) and
tried to hang on and shoot as we bounced in reverse to get a better
vantage point. All 3 of us were shaking for
quite a while after witnessing this up front and personal. And Linda
was relieved
that she was not responsible for screwing up this once-in-a-lifetime
photo chance. Click on the lioness photo below to see the sequence- it
is not for the
faint of
heart!
Videos
- Some very short and candid videos of our group talking about the
trip. I busted them first thing in the AM the last day while they were
still waking up so some of them look like deer caught in headlights.
Click on their face once and the
Quicktime movie will play automatically.
Mike Kim describing his overall
experience
Bob Tonnacour relating his experience
Mike Gerutto talking about how he liked the trip
The Dinkers saying good bye
The Dinkers inviting some friends on a future trip
while watching a leopard. It was a
breezy day so the beginning has some excess wind noise that goes away.
