PREMIER PREDATOR SAFARI WITH GREG DU TOIT

PREMIER PREDATOR SAFARI with GREG DU TOIT

BBC World Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013

( Well, he wasn’t yet in July, but won the title 3 months later ! )

I need help !

Since our trip to New Zealand, and one whole day with a photographer, I got from the setting “fully automatic” to (P). Was quite happy for a while. But I know I can do better, know my camera can do a lot better. See I got a new CANON 7D, it doesn’t even have a fully automatic setting anymore…..so I booked a trip with Greg. Why Greg out of dozens and dozens of photographers offering cool trips ? I don’t exactly know. Something in his pictures got to me, they are just a little different from the rest, and I like the style. He said he would help me get over my (P)…..lets see !

For the link to Greg’s webpage click here

JULY 2^nd

Our flight from Switzerland lands at 9:00, we stand in line for an hour to pass customs. Well, a least they had plenty of time to unload the bags, they are doing their rounds on the belt as we get there.

We spend one day in Johannesburg, the safari starts at 8:00 so we had to come a day early. Never mind. We freshen up in our room at the Hotel Intercontinental, conveniently located just across from the airport building. At noon we take the Gautrain to Nelson Mandela Square for lunch and some shopping. Dead easy and safe. Ask for a ticket to Sandton and get off at the end of the line, fool proof, can’t miss it. Once there just follow the crowds to the Square. It’s huge ! Luckily I have Juerg with me, wouldn’t have found the way out by myself ! Back at the hotel we dress up for dinner as fancy as possible, this is rather hard with just safari stuff in the bags but we manage. Dinner is really good.

Oh, got to mention this guy in the Shopping Mall, he tried to sell me some “anti-wrinkle+look 10 years younger” cream. He put some of his supercream on the right side of my face for just about 2 minutes, wiped it off…..and honest you see the difference ! Okay , it will probably not last long, hope my face is symmetrical again tomorrow !

JULY 3^rd

Yoh ! Safari time starts today !

We meet with Greg at the airport arrivals hall at 07:45. Greg is exactly as he is on his webpage, just a little rounder in the face ( and on the hips ) and no mud smear on his cheek. He is friendly, attentive, welcoming, interesting, at first impression we definitely like him. The other two photographers are a couple from Canada about our age. He is a full-time artist, she is his manager. He paints. Greg googled him on his laptop. His paintings are truly amazing, they almost look like photographs. We decide we really like these two people too. Let’s get going !

Herman is our driver, he is big ! Now I am tall, but he is just as tall and twice as wide ! He drives very well, but it is a long and boring drive, at first we chat, then everyone dozes. A coffee stop after 2 hours, 2½ more to the border. Herman drops us off and leaves. Well that is the first time I’ve walked across a border !

Our Mashatu driver is already waiting for us, 30 more minutes to the lodge. Once there we quickly change gear, get the camera bags ready, then it’s time for afternoon tea. Our first game drive starts right after tea. The other couple are “ Africa Virgins” as Greg calls it.

They are reduced to babbling, smiling idiots after the first five minutes. It is a pleasure to watch them, and see how they enjoy it, and are delighted at everything we see.

We are on our way to see the lions, it’s quite far so we can’t stop for every animal. Ofcourse at such a moment we have animals walking around just about everywhere we look, and standing in our way after every turn. The poor Canadians can’t believe we are just driving past, Eric our driver has no mercy, lions it shall be.

At the lion location it is dead empty, the Canadians are very disappointed. I’m afraid they plan to seriously hurt Eric if he doesn’t find them soon ! He mumbles, this morning they were here, can’t have gone far. He drives through the grass to the riverbank….nothing ! But upon driving back, suddenly a lion lifts its head. Turns out we almost drove over them and didn’t see them. So this again prooves : you see a mere 20% of what sees you ! There’s a lion mum with 3 or 4 half-growns. At first they just sleep, till the smallest one starts to get active, goes to mum, licks her face, walks all over her, bites her tail. Two more lions show up, the light is great, super ! We move on, another car has seen leopards. It is by now almost dark ( at this time of year at 17:30 ) but we find them on a clay riverbank, very well camouflaged. You have to look twice to see them. One moves down to the waterhole, the other car is closer, puts a spotlight on her, now we see !  To celebrate this we have our first sun-downer, or rather moon-upper, since it is by now almost completely dark. The drive back is cold, good I brought my warm jacket !

After a quick shower we meet for drinks at the bar called the Gin Trap. Dinner is in the Boma, in the middle a camp fire, around it a circle of tables. All this surrounded by a leadwood “ fence “. Food is very good, but we are so tired, soon after dinner we leave for the room. The room by the way, is absolutely smashing, beautifully decorated, loads of space, huge bathroom, big windows looking out into the bush. We don’t get to bed till 23:00, had the stupid idea to put the photo’s on my IPAD…then we had to look at them, select them, look at them again. Am not tired anymore !

To see the Mashatu webpage click here

JULY 4^th

Wake up call at 06:00, a quick coffee and some fruits and at 06:30 we leave. I’m dressed in my Antarctic outfitt : fleece, soft shell jacket, cap and gloves. On everyones seat is a hot water bottle and a blanket for over our legs, great ! I’m fine. At 06:45 the sun starts to rise over the horizon, beautiful ! We drive about 30 min to get to the hide. We really are at water level, about 2m from the water, wow ! The sun starts to rise from the left hand side.

Behind the water is a bank which is sort of orange coloured, behind that is a line of yellow grass, then green trees, above that a bright blue sky, what a great background !

At first there are just birds, but then, real early according to Greg, the elephants arrive. Wow, this is cool !  They drink and leave. In the bushes in the back there are hundreds of elephants walking by….come on guys, come and drink here !  Unfortunately they don’t. We found out later why not…  Got some cool photos after all, no worries, 8 more days to go.

From the hide we had a rather adventurous drive along, and through a riverbed in chase of the leopard pair we saw yesterday. Well, in the end, everybody but us saw them. We came just in time to see them run off in the bush. Bad luck again. On the way back to the lodge we came across a group of 20 or so elephants, that was nice. We also saw a big herd of impalas which kept perfectly still for ages. Breakfast, or rather brunch, was yummy. Juerg’s putting todays photos on the IPAD, I’m on photo safari of the lodge and grounds. Shop is cool, must drag Juerg over there some time later. Photo lessons at 13:30, focus and composition, knew most of that, rule of thirds, leading lines and so. New was the directional space. Leave space in the direction the animal is looking or moving. Make the viewer curious, what is it looking at, where is it going ?  The lesson is followed by the obligatory afternoon tea, as always we leave at 15:30. Let’s go find the leopards !

First through a riverbed and past the white cliffs. That was so beautiful ! To tell you the truth, the cliffs are actually red, just the part where the hyrax shit on them is white. Admittedly, this is rather a big part ! On top of the rocks are Candelabra trees, a succulent which looks like a huge cactus, but in the brightest green colour and in such wonderful light and contrast to the surroundings, we have to stop and take some more photos. Greg is already shaking his head, unbelievable, a predator tour and they want to stop for rocks and trees !  The other jeep just radioed us: a leopard has just crossed the riverbed and has gone into hiding, not again ! We go there and see him under the shrubs, not very clearly though, more of a “ can you find the animal in this picture” kind of way. Another jeep arrives, suddenly a roar, a jump, a rush, and swoops, here’s our leopard in the tree. Rather high up, but in clear sight. We took photos from 3 angles,

my neck is stiff from looking up all the time, my arm is close to dead from lifting the 400mm lens for so long, but it was amazing and definitely worth it !

Drove around till six when it was time for sundowners, and from there went straight to night photography.  Juerg especially asked for this. It was quite a set up, and after that, wait, wait, wait, till it was dark enough. Shutter speed set at 30 seconds, and our Greg was posted a the tree to light it with his torch for about 5-10 seconds. Absolutely amazing pictures ! He lit it from the front, from the back, from below, fabulous ! You see the tree, the stars and the whole milky way. Juerg is really happy and so are the Canadians. You should have seen us, standing on a hill in the pitchdark night, in the middle of a game reserve, and every minute or so you would hear…ready ? One, two, three…  now ! Followed by a 30 second silence, a click and then : wow, can we do one more ? After about 15 more it was time to go home. Shower, dinner, Amarula on ice at the camp fire. What a lovely day today, and everybody is so happy !

JULY 5^th

Wake up call at 6:00, leave at 6:30. Welcome to another day in paradise ! Damn, it’s cloudy, not much going on, hope we’ll see something today. We stop to take a picture of the sky, there’s an opening in the clouds and you see the rays of sun shining down. Greg suggests we find a tree, with it in the front of the picture the composition is more interesting. So we drive to a nice tree. Turns out to be “our tree” from yesterday evenings shoot. We try a few different exposures, get some decent shots.

As we move on we see two jackals on an impala midden. Greg says they do that to keep warm, it is rather cold, so we can understand that ! One runs off, the other stays put. Even when Greg gets out of the car and crawls closer and closer it doesn’t move. We have to call Greg back, there’s elephants coming. We speed off through the bush to get in front of them and park and wait. They walk right towards us and pass about 20m distance, brilliant ! We follow them for another try, but they don’t like it when you are behind them and start running. There is always a plan B. Greg and Eric believe they are going to drink, and they just happen to know where. We head there, get out ( I like that part best ) and sit in the sand a few metres down the riverbank, so our silhouette is not visible to them, and wait for the show to begin. Here they come ! So cool ! Click, click, click. Coffeebreak with a fabulous view, wow !

From there it gets even better. I know that is hardly possible after this exiting elephant encounter, but it really got better !

Two baby leopards, okay maybe not quite baby, but still small.  They are lying in a sandpit, sleeping all cuddled together, waiting for mum to return. We stay for about an hour. Every time a new jeep arrives they lift their heads and change position, wow, wow, wow ! And we are sooooo close, hardly 10m away ! They are so cute, cuddly, fuzzy, I feel like getting out and stroking them, crawl their little heads or something even dumber, but you better not . We tear ourselves away from them, back to camp for brunch. Mike Dexter, the guy who did the cover shot for the last Africa Geographic Magazine is back. He is the in-house-photographer here. Nice guy, will come with us to the hide tomorrow. After breakfast we have some time to ourselves, photolessons are on the program at 13:30.

This lesson is horrible ! Av / Tv, shutter speed, exposure…my weak spot, or should I say blind side ? Boy I hate it, Juerg is nodding and smiling, Greg is laughing because I am writing notes like a schoolgirl. I’ve got to memorise this !

The Av thing slowly gets into my head, but once he starts on shutter speed, aperture, up-down, open-close, high-low, speed 100-1600, F5.6-22, HELP !!!  Tea time saved me, end of lesson, thank you.  I’m still struggling with numbers in my head as we drive off. We see one vulture.  As learnt in Kaingo, where there’s vultures there’s a kill. Edward, the spotter calls out, we back up. In some distance is a tree so loaded with vultures we are afraid the branches might break off. As we get closer we see an elephant on the ground. Oh no, not poachers ! Greg assures us this place is a safe haven for elephants, plus most of the females don’t even have tusks, so nothing here for poachers. The truly sad thing is the other elephant standing close by the carcass, trying to chase of the hyena and the vultures. Unfortunately there are so many, if he stands on one side, they start eating away at the other side. A few vultures sit on top and chase each other off, most of the white bearded vultures are by now red headed. Please let’s leave, this is such a sad scene, I’m so sorry for the lonely elephant standing there, mourning the loss of it’s partner, do elephants cry ? I think this one is…

From here we drive around, see a lot but nothing really spectacular, mostly impala, giraffe, kudu, eland, zebra’s and of course the wonderful coloured bird. It’s called a lilac breasted roller, as you notice, I am definitely not a birder, but these are incredible, never seen so many colours in one bird. We stop on a small rise for sundowners and watch a beautiful sunset. Started drinking gin&tonic, not so bad at all !  A stop at the hyena den on the way back, flash use is just not our thing, doesn’t go well, who cares, baby hyena is cute. Keeps trying to get away and explore the world, mum keeps pushing it back into the den. Back home for dinner after that.

JULY 6^th

Greg is by now officially joking, this group stops for rocks and trees, threatens to buy us bumper stickers for our car : I stop for trees.

Never mind, as long as all are happy. We leave for the hide at 6:30, Mike is coming along. The weather is even worse than yesterday, it is really badly overcast, about the same as the weather back home. No light, okay no shadows either. Greg says good light for portraits and close ups, flowers and birds, see there is always something positive to be found.  At the hide it is again much quieter as we had hoped. One lonely elephant bull comes for a quick drink, other than that just birds. The guinea fowls are coming ! I am not such a bird fan, but I love those, they are so funny and seem totally unorganised. Another group of 8-10 elephants arrive. If I hadn’t seen them coming through the little side window, we only would have noticed once they were here. Incredible !  There’s 10 elephants jogging towards you and you don’t hear a sound !  As they leave the leading cow suddenly turns and mock-charged the hide. Even Mike is astonished, he has never seen anything like this, and he is here almost every day ! Maybe it is because of the dead elephant ?

We drive on at  9:00, not many animals around, are they hiding because of the weather ? We see another group of elephants, 2 really big ones, 4-5 medium and 3 tiny ones. They walk straight towards us, just 10m away they stop, turn away to the right. Unexpectedly the biggest one does a mock charge towards the jeep till about 4-5m away. Impressive and rather close….  But then she comes again, and this time no ear flapping, she comes straight for the car, stamps her feet and sends clouds of dust flying. She is now so close that Mike, who is on the back seat, could have touched her, good for us she has no tusks !

Go, Eric, go ! She keeps on after us. Normally they stop after 5-10m when they see you leave, not this time, we shout to our driver, go Eric, go, she’s still coming ! I keep pressing the shutter button, she was so close it wouldn’t even work, can’t focus.

Shit, there is a ditch ahead, we have to slow down, she’s closing in again. Eric says we are safe now, from here it is flat.  An elephant can do 40km/h , we can do more. Good for us ! He’s right, she stops at the ditch and lets us go. Good thing the ditch didn’t come earlier….  Boy that got our adrenaline going ! We head back to the lodge for brunch. They rest of the day we take rather big diversions around elephants. Once is enough. Eric explains to us he went that way on purpose, knew the elephant would stop once we went down the ditch. Good thinking ! And good that elephants don’t jump.  Boy, Mike and Greg and also Eric and Edward can’t believe how long this elephant chased us, at least 500m if not 1000m !

This afternoon we leave early at 14:00 to go to Greg’s favourite place, to lure us rock and tree photographers, he said it’s a tree on a rock, a special tree… so we’ll do landscape photography this afternoon. We were very lucky, expecting only bushes and trees we got some nice sightings. First a 1m long monitor lizard, later 3 female kudu. Remember, at Kaingo my promise was to get a kudu close up because they have such lovely faces and gigantic ears, well, I got it !  Two mating ostriches and a few elephants which we kept well away from later, we left the reserve and got onto the main road. After about 1 hour we got to a magnificent rock formation, it is by now 15:30, lovely light on the cliffs…  suddenly we see something move, a leopard is on the cliffs ! We follow him along, he’s far away but we get a few shots, just following him is exiting , it’s a big male. We watch him chase hyrax and see him catch one ! Okay out of the car everybody. What here, near the leopard ? Yes here, so we go, and scramble up the hill ( opposite side of where the leopard was ) . No problem for us,  just poor Edward carrying the cool box with our sundowners is suffering, bad luck for him but Eric already has the gun to carry. The view from the top is the best ever. The place is called Rhodes Baobab, seems Sir Cecil John Rhodes, big colonial time politician was up here and even scratched his name in the bark of this tree.

We decide to rename it, call it “close to heaven”, don’t think I will ever get any closer !  We take lots of photos, it’s great in any direction, rocks, trees, view !

After sundowners we do some serious sunset photography. I’m actually starting to play with Aperture, ISO and exposure compensation. As soon as the sun is gone we head down, and go home. We meet at the bar for another gin&tonic. Wow, that was a super special day, an elephant charging the hide, followed by one charging us, in the afternoon the best view ever, and I forgot to mention the elephant shrew. They are tiny little mouses with a trunk-like nose, so cute and incredibly fast. Really hard to get on camera…but I got one.

Checked my photos, the charging elephant is very close, the kudu is fab, the sunset is great too and the shrew is in focus !

JULY 7^th

Boy, it is cold ! Maybe 5°C or so. When you breathe out your breath forms little white clouds in the crisp morning air. Off we go. At the dam there is a group of eland, and oh wonder, they are not running away. We get a few good shots. A hyena shows up on our left, moves up the hill, comes running down again and lets out a loud howl or bark, whatever it is. Runs off. Now what ? At the top of the hill 8-10 hyena appear, not this guys group, that’s why he is running. We follow them to the water where a few bathe. As they continue on the next group shows up, all are coming from the elephant carcass, won’t be much left of it now. The rest of the drive is quiet. After brunch we pack,we go to the airport at 12:00. A cute little airport, looks more like the local bus station. We leave on time in our 10-seater plane, land in Polokwane 40 min later. Burocracy at its best, we walk in , show our passports, take the luggage through the X-ray machine and leave again. The second part of the flight was great, we passed over Blyde River Canyon which looks stunning from above.

Mala Mala in Sabie Sand is the second lodge we stay at. It is quite different, no hills and ridges, rather flat and lots of dense bush, how are we going to find animals in here ? Mashatu’s landscape was more to my liking, this morning when driving down a hill, the whole land lay before us, the sun was rising, putting the landscape in a soft golden glow. Greg quoted Karen Blixen : “now I know, this is where I ought to be”, I spontaneously started crying, couldn’t help it, it’s just so damned beautiful and I am so happy to be here. Back to Mala Mala. We get shown to our room by Pieter, our guide. This room is bigger than our whole ground floor at home, has 2 big bathrooms ( of which we decide to use only the one with the shower ), two huge closets and views over the Sand River. A mere 10 min later we’re on the main deck, after tea and sandwiches we go on our first game drive. Greg told us he specially requested Pieter as a driver, he’s from Zambia, grew up on a farm , learnt to track as a child. He’s the best driver and tracker around, fast & furious, Ferrari safari ! If we would like to see wild dogs ? What kind of a question, the most endangered carnivores in Africa, second most endangered of all. It’s a 40 km drive to the south border, we are now in the north-west. Who cares, let’s go. So we speed down, and yes, they are still there. About 10 or 15 of them, a few on the road, some to the left and right in the grass, playing like normal dogs, rolling on their backs.

As they run off Pieter says hold on…. yes, we sure had to! That was off-road safari hard-core ! Breaking down smaller trees, branches, bushes, bumping up and down, through thornbushes, duck, duck, get down! Boy, that was cool !

We got some more photos but the light is fading fast now. Driving back in the dark we don’t see much, just a tiny, tiny green chameleon. Now how did he see that driving past in the near dark ? It’s about as big as my little finger. After that the usual, rush through the shower, beers in the bar, dinner in the boma. Cook sisters for dessert, sweet as hell, Greg and Juerg love them.

To see the Mala Mala webpage click here

JULY 8^th

Set the alarm at 6:00, coffee is brought to our room at 6:30. We are already looking through yesterdays photos and I am trying to catch up on the writing. Breakfast at 7:00, just fruits and a piece of toast for me, can’t eat that much this early. We leave camp at 7:30, so late ! Pieter explains since it is rather cold the animals just sit and hide, no use going much earlier in this weather. We see buffalo, kudu, mongoose, giraffe, hornbills and some other birds. They radio us, we leave our rhino quest and race down, a leopard ! After that coffee break in a cool location, and finally on our way back to camp, the long searched for rhino. A mere 500m from camp, sleeping in the middle of the road, can you believe that ? He’s massive ! How can anyone kill this peaceful, ancient, quiet animal just for its horn ? Crazy ! I actually believe Pieter knew he was there all along and was just building up suspence.

Back in camp we have an hour to relax before lunch. Lunch was great, the best meal yet. We meet again at 15:00 fot tea. No-one wants anything sweet to eat after the big lunch, so we’re finished quickly. Game drive please !  We don’t have to go far, elephants at the airstrip, shortly afterwards we see a female leopard, off-road time again. We follow her “through thick and thin “, crashing down trees, breaking branches, bumpy, dusty, who cares. We lose sight of her, who can spot her ? Somehow we get to a road again and that is where she is.

This is where the leopard story starts :

– she gets to a tree with a kill in its top branches

– hyenas chase her away

– the owner of the kill arrives, a big male leopard

– she goes in hiding, hyenas sit under the tree, male sits under a bush

Good thing for us, this bush is just 10m from our car. We get some lovely shots. By now 3 jeeps on the scene.

– male leopard approaches tree again

– we are all ready to shoot our life changing picture

– no way, the hyenas chase him off

– as they are away the female leopard rushes up the tree and starts to eat

– hyenas come back and sit under the tree and quarrel over the scraps falling down

– male leopard returns, doesn’t dare go near the tree because of the hyenas and lies down, really pissed because SHE is eating HIS meal. And this at 2m from our left rear wheel !

– she drops the last piece, the hyenas fight each other over it, and go away

– she goes down and disappears

– he is, in the meantime at our left front wheel

– we expect him to chase her off but he doesn’t, he just walks around the tree then disappears

All this of course well documented by us. This calls for a major sundowner, must be at camp though, too many predators around, so we drive home. Shower and meet for drinks at the bar, dinner in the boma with a good bottle of wine. Good food here ! Tomorrow we will start earlier, no worries, we’ll be there. Even so, we are the last guests to leave, had so much to talk about after this exiting day !

JULY 9th

Meet at the jeep at 6:30, it’s bloody freezing ! With 5 layers of clothing, a blanket and a hot water bottle just about bearable.

Unbelievable ! After 30 min we’ve seen a rhino with baby and a leopard, unfortunately they both cross the park border and we can’t follow them. Good thing we started early or we would have missed them. Pieter gets a radio message, lions have been sighted. Turn the car and race south. The faster you go, the colder it is, but we’re tough and well tucked in under our blankets. We drive past a few old buffalo, one is bleeding, the lions got to him, but he got away. Poor thing, his tail is almost ripped off, hangs by a few threads and blood is running down his thighs. From here on it’s lion time. First we found the ones they radioed about, one lioness and 2 young male lions. In the distance we hear a lion roar. The three immediately get up and start moving. Good ! Moving lions are much nicer to photograph than sleeping ones, Pieter gets us in a great position, they walk right towards us ! We lose them in the bush, decide to go and find the roaring lion. Pieter explains there’s a coalition of 4 big, old, bad males here which have an immense territory, they’ll kill any other lion that wants to get in. No wonder these guys moved !

We stopped at an old farm, a private house on the riverbank. Decide to wait for the lions to come and cross the river. Suddenly we see a big black-maned one on the other shore. He’s scared off by our human “silhouettes” as we walk about and leaves. So no more wait plus coffee break, get in the jeep and go !  We drive around for ages, in contact with the other two jeeps and we find them first, juhui ! Boy, they are big, mean, old ones. One has a black mane, lots of scars on them. They’re on the move, we follow… Pieter style, crashing, bumping, breaking as usual. Wow, wow, wow !  We get some great shots.

We end up at the rivershore, pretty much the same place we saw them first. First one, then the other comes to drink. Nr.3 doesn’t. One of the other cars gets stuck in the sand, all the commotion is not good, they leave,  just as we were so well positioned to get real good shots of Nr.3 coming to drink, bad luck. We leave, a tractor is coming to pull the others loose, we can’t get them out . The tractor is on its way anyway to help the car that’s stuck in the river after taking the wrong line when crossing. As soon as we are across the river we are met by the breakfast guys, boy, I’m hungry. No wonder it is 10:45 and we didn’t get our coffee break either, we were too busy chasing lions.

The worst thing happened. I checked the little screen on my camera after the lion encounter, couldn’t believe my eyes, everything was out of focus, help ! Turns out I forgot to put my reading glasses on… just hold it a little further away and all is well, thank God ! Our bush breakfast was great : muffins, fruit skewers, breads, ham & cheese, coffee & tea. Eaten in the bush, after our rally drive and lion sightings, made it extra fine.

From here we soon get onto the main road and head for camp, passed some elephants on the way and in doing so completed our BIG 5 in one morning !

No lunch since breakfast was so late, were having some sandwiches during our photo lesson at 14:00. This time we learn about exposure correction, ISO, histograms and metering. Cool, I’m starting to get the hang of it.

At 15:00 we leave. Pieter takes us straight to a buffalo herd on the riverbank, at least 300 of them ! We are so close, there’s photo motives everywhere. After a while Greg suggests a new photo position, different angle, so our Pete drives the jeep about 2m past the nearest buffalo to get to a clear spot a little further away. I’ve never been so close to a buffalo !  Thought they were so very dangerous ? Seems not to be. Pete explains only the single old bulls are, these are like a big herd of cattle. He even lets me get out of the car again, cool ! I’m lying on my stomach in the sand, just past the right front wheel, taking photos of 300 buffalo a mere 10m away. Well allright, maybe only 200 by now, they are moving away but there are still a lot left.

After that to a sunset viewpoint, had to walk the last part up the hill. Ofcourse the Swiss arrived at the top first, and I carried the backpack with the sundowners and Pieters camera as extra load, since he is up front with the gun. Cool view from above, but no sunset, just big fat clouds. We climbed to a ledge facing the sunset, sat there for a while and enjoyed the view, then went to a slightly safer spot, a little further down, for sundowners. I’m beginning to really like these gin&tonics.

On the way back we saw another leopard, a new young male, but he disappeared in the thickets. No use chasing him in the dark, we’ve done enough chasing for one day. We have to do a little detour to get to the lodge, elephants everywhere. Even now we are forced to stop, they are all over the road. We stand still and Pete turns off the motor. We sit in the near dark, wait for them to move on. We see the silhouettes of elephants walking beside our car, hear them munch on branches,  push over small trees, a cow with little one passes by so close we could touch her. Do they know we are here, us humans ? Pete says yes, they know, they let us be, tolerate us in their midst. This is so peaceful.  At some point Pete says, this is what I do it for.  Amazing guy ! I must admit I am deeply impressed by this young man, not only for his knowledge and his driving & guiding skills, mostly for his love, his passion for the wildlife here. Here’s one person who truly loves what he is doing. Greg in one of his lessons said : “see with your eyes and your heart”, I believe the only one on this jeep who really does that is Pieter.  Back at the lodge, same routine as usual, shower, drinks at the bar, dinner in the boma, we’re getting good at this. Hope I’ll sleep well tonight, only slept 5 hours last night. Woke because of the hyenas at 4:30, and was so exited that I couldn’t sleep anymore.

JULY 10^th

Our last whole day here. Wake up call at 6:00, so we leave at 6:30. Did I mention how fabulous this place is. The room itself is a little too big for my liking, not as cosy and bush-like as in Mashatu. But the main building… it’s like you are set 100 years back in time. I read these Wilbur Smith novels and here I feel like I’m living in one ! It was a hunting lodge, the first that changed from hunting to photo safaris back in the sixties somewhere. It still looks as in the old colonial days. Big sofa’s everywhere, a huge fireplace, doors that open to the main deck and lawns. All the walls are covered with animal skins, stuffed heads and other hunting trophies. The bar is cool, the barstools are in leopard print, dark old woods, and lots of old black & white photos on the walls showing hunting scenes dating back to the thirties ! All the guides and rangers sit at the fireplace when you come in in the evening and with every guest they all rise and greet. Sort of old school and a little outdated, but it is kind of cool, makes you feel special. The staff are very “servant” like, not as open and friendly and easy going as in Mashatu, everybody here is very attentive and very well behaved.

Shit it’s very cloudy again, let’s hope it clears. We are searching for cheetahs today. No luck. Till coffee break at 8:30 we hardly see anything except for the occasional bird and impala, warthog or jackal. At least the coffee is good and the muffins are great. We do a few fun shots of the group, takes a while till we get the timer set at 10 seconds but then ! We promise Greg these can be used for commercial reasons, they make you want to join the group. After that we photograph zebras, Pieter later walks up to them, and by doing so urges them in our direction, we are ready for some action shots. The same a while later with impalas. Hey, we’re over the beginner stage, we’re doing moving objects now ! Bush breakfast is as wonderful as yesterday, though we are much more relaxed now, yesterday we came directly from chasing lions through the bush. Today we do it the easy way and eat first, followed by an easy drive up to the lions after breakfast, no adrenaline rush today. They are lying right across from camp. There are quite a lot of clouds, but every few minutes the sun breaks trough and sets new highlights on the lions. They keep lifting their heads because they see people moving at the lodge. We are 5m in front of them, but that doesn’t seem to bother them at all. Stupid place for a midday sleep !

For lunch we had Bobotie, a local dish, the best ever, must get the recipe. Photo lessons again at 14:00, in the jeep by 15:00, all of us except Greg and Pete, they are having tea. As I went to look for them, they explained to me afternoon tea is somewhat holy here, never miss it ! Oops sorry guys, but we want animals not tea, and are waiting in the jeep, roaring to go. We’re planning on seeing the hyena den, they have cubs. Fat chance !  We, better said I, spotted 3 rhino and we follow them. Boy, that was great. In the end we were parked close to them, they are as blind as a bat, and as long as we keep very quiet it was allright.

They came to within 2m of the car and we all held our breaths. The light got better and better, the rhinos closer and closer. Shit, my lens is too big, can’t get the whole rhino in the picture anymore, that’s how close they are !

Now Nr.4 showed up, a big male. This is our lucky day ! Again ! It was an amazing situation, four rhinos so close by grazing peacefully, in the background a thunderstorm, lead grey skies, the sun from behind lighting up all the bush colours : red and orange leaves, green bushes, white tree trunks, a rainbow. It was like living in a painting. Sadly the light was turned off and it started raining, pouring. Pieter got us ponchos from the back of the car. Just in time or we would have been soaked. He parked us under a tree till the worst was over, then we moved on. As we got to a plain, guess who was there ? Our 3 rhinos ! Look more like black rhinos now they were all wet. New light, new background and here we go again click, click, click.

 

From there we move to a nice open spot for our well deserved sundowners. In the midst of which, suddenly the big male rhino shows up again, walks towards us.

Greg starts puffing and panting like an astmatic patient after running a marathon and is scarring his foot on the ground, we stand very close to the car, the rhino comes closer and closer, this is an exiting sundowner !

He moves on, but from a distance keeps an eye on us. The hyena den we visit afterwards is deserted, who cares, let’s go home for drinks, I need one ! We only have 25 min to change so no shower, just change and go. We are first to arrive in the bar, shortly after us the Canadians arrive, then Pete, Greg is last but he is the only “clean” one . Dinner in the boma is fantastic as usual, I even go for a second helping. We sit at the fire with Pieter till 22:30, must then go back to the room to pack. Shit, it’s time to go tomorrow, I don’t want to leave here, not for a long time.

JULY 11^th

Set the alarm at 05.30 to have a shower since we didn’t have time yesterday. Hell it’s early. Wake up call and coffee at 5:45, leave at 6:15 sharp, or as Greg puts it, on Swiss time ( Swiss are known to be very punctual ). Be there or be square, we are going for a sunrise on the lions rock and must get there before sunrise. These are the lion prides favourite rocks, they sit here, live here, give birth here. The Canadians are late, funny, they never are, as I go to fetch them they are at their door, insist it was 06:30. Never mind, it is cloudy anyway, no sunrise shots to be taken. Still, it’s fantastic up there. I climb on the highest rock, as I stand there I can truly feel the power of the place, you definitely feel like the lion king up here. Imagine all this land around would be your to rule over, you’d be a mighty lion king. I just sit on my rock, drink a coffee and feel like a king for 30 minutes.

From here we try the cheetah plains again but no luck. A few zebra, gnu and impala cross our path, the occasional warthog scurries of in the bushes, tail standing straight up. At 9:00 we have our last bush breakfast on the plains. I seriously consider chaining myself to a tree so I will have to stay here. No chain to be found though, and Juerg won’t let me stay. On the drive home we see a group of elephants beside the road, with them a tiny one.

Greg warns us to get the camera ready : junior will charge us, try to impress his mama, show her he’s a big dangerous elephant. Tiny does just that.

 

Unfortunately he is not so good at it yet, and almost stumbles over his own feet. He is then, when closing in on our jeep flapping his cute little ears, rather impressed by the jeeps size and races off in the bush. From behind a big bush he keeps an eye on us. Mum, very relaxed, crosses the road a little later. We get one more try at capturing a roller in flight, I believe we got it ! And the best part is the impalas in the background, we really only notice them as we look at the pictures on the camera screen, the best background ever. We have to go now, finish packing and at 10:30 leave, that’s 10:00 on African time, little delay, no worries. Almost forgot the best, this morning as we left, just 500m outside camp, not even past the gate, guess what we see ? Baby rhino and its mum once again ! That made my day, I was so hoping to see him once more before we leave. The light was totally lousy, no pictures to be taken, just sit and watch …with your eyes and your heart, I’m trying Pete !

The drive is long and boring. We take the road over Long Tom pass via Sabie. We were there 10 years ago, the B&B we stayed at is still there. At 14:00 we stop for gas, to get some coffee and sandwiches for lunch and to pee. Sorry no water in town, they broke a water pipe-line. Well, as long as there is enough water to get us a coffee, concerning the other matter , just find us a tree. Greg shows up with a brown paper bag, biltong. It is good, very good, the best I had so far, it’s tasty, lean, not dried out, hard and tough as others I had before. Greg says ask for medium that’s the secret. We arrive at the airport at 16:30, plenty of time to spare. I hate to leave, but already look forward to coming back. We plan to do a trip with Greg again in 2016, Wildebeest Migration in the Masai Mara and Gorillas in Uganda. Will cost us a bloody fortune but who cares, you only live once.

I learnt so much.

I make better photos.

I’ve seen more animals at closer range than ever before.

I had a great time.

I had a super ranger, who always got us in prime photo position,

one could say “pole position” on a daily base

I’ve never had so many crazy animal encounters in my life

THANK YOU GREG ! ! !

 

I know now, this is where I ought to be, and I will be back !

P.S. Remember the beauty cream on day 1 ? I think it works, the lines in my face on the right side are still less than on the left. Damn, I should have bought it….. !

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 story and photo copyright by Asi@bluemelphoto.ch