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He is a magnificent creature by any measure. Seen above drinking from a pond, you can see his full mane and sense the power that makes him top predator on the savanna. Evening is approaching and we are following him as he and a single female trail their pride across the plains. He is large and confident but he is not young. When he faces you head on you notice that his right eye is blood shot. When he moves he shows with a slight limp. He no longer has the fluid walk of his younger companion. The female offers herself but he ignores her. He is focused on catching up with his pride. She registers disappointment but he will no be deterred. He listens, instead, for calls from the larger pride. They are some distance ahead and he is making his way to join them. We are less than an hour until night fall. The color of the light has already softened. There is a breeze that brings cooler air to the plains. We are driving in our open Land Cruiser, matching the lions leisurely pace. They stop to rest. There is little hurry here. They will reach the pride. From where they sit, they can survey the open plains before them. Their companions are out of sight but you can hear one roar and ruff from time to time. With each call, the male raises his ears. Soon they are up again walking toward the invisible pride. She walks ahead now but never too far from her male. His limp slows him down but he keeps a steady pace, stopping only when he hears a call. Looking back on him from our vehicle, you can see that he is past his prime. Still, his stance is erect and formidable. He is focused and powerful even if the years have robbed him of his grace and speed. He stops to survey his path. Another "ruff" sounds from just over a low hill ahead. He lifts his head and barks a reply. It is twilight on the African plain. - - - - -
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. The great grasslands (or savannas) of Africa cover almost half of the continent's surface, or about 5 million square miles. That is significantly more than the 3.8 million square miles of land in all of the United States. In Kenya, where we visited, a temperate climate matched with wet and dry seasons provide the perfect environment for savannas. Lightning strikes and their resulting fires help keep trees from spreading and converting grasslands to woodlands. Elephants, sometimes referred to as the gardeners of the savanna, also help grasslands thrive by destroying and dining on trees and bushes. Until you visit, it is hard to imagine how vast the open areas are. When we left Rhino Camp in Ol Pejeta it took us almost 40 minutes by car on dirt roads to reach the border of the conservancy. And, even then, there were miles upon miles more of grassland outside. Words fail to describe what we saw. Hopefully, the following few images will give you a glimpse of the vastness and diversity of a healthy savanna. One of many great white rhino's on the plain outside Porini Rhino camp in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Check out or Safari 11: Crash on the Grass entry for more about the rhino and cape buffalo on the Ol Pejeta plain. In the Mara, three of 28 lions working together to capture a zebra for breakfast. We happened on them early in the morning while the rain from the prior night still clung to their fur. Here ware are following their progress from within the pride. Check out Safari 1: The Hunt entry for the full story. It took us a couple of hours driving across the savanna to catch up with the wildebeest migration crossing a river. Here they are, with a few zebra, just before reaching the river. Our trip to the river, the crossing and a kill by a lioness are described in our recent Safari 23: All Gnu But One entry. There were too many good images to include in our entry about following a family of cheetah hunt in the grass (our Safari 19: Hunting with Children entry). Here is Amani leading her three cubs into the grass. One veteran safari traveler (more than 20 past safaris) said we will never get a better look at cheetahs than the one we had. In the distance on a cloudy afternoon, five impala make their way across the plain. Elusive in part because of their smaller size and the tall grasses in which they roam, this cerval cat showed no reluctance to walk beside our vehicle as it hunted on the savanna. For more about this unusual cat check out our Safari 24.5: On the Road entry from last March. If you are a top tier predator, like this cheetah and her four cubs, a small tree for shade and a grazed portion of the savanna make a good place for a mid-morning nap. Four maturing cubs keep this mother busy much of the time. This young elephant is dancing in the grass while its parents and siblings are consuming a nearby tree. Her trunk is a complex organ to learn to control and she needs practice. Check out our Safari 18: How to Eat a Tree entry for more about this young elephant and her family. Families of jackals were everywhere. This one stops briefly to check us out. Cape buffalo appeared in great herds across the grasslands of Nairobi National Park and Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The oxpeckers, like the one on this mother's back, were always with them cleaning their hides. Would you call this elephant grass? Probably not but even the mighty elephant can seem engulfed by the tall grasses that follow the wet season. Here one makes her way to a nearby pond. _____
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Imagine my surprise yesterday to find my February 7 blog post - Safari 19: Hunting With Children - presented on this web page as the work of someone else. Here, on another person's web site, sits my work but with "Alex Jones" misrepresenting that he took the pictures and had the experience taken by me and reported in my earlier blog. Should I be flattered or outraged? Some say imitation is the purest form of flattery but this is not imitation, it is plagiarism. And plagiarism, according to plagiarism.org (yes, there is such a website), is "an act of fraud" that "involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterwards." But still, it is a bit flattering isn't it? After all, someone who holds himself out as a professional wildlife photographer was impressed enough with my photographs and writing to steal them and post them on his web site as his own. But no, I am definitely going with outraged. Photographic-Safaris.com and someone named Alex Jones misappropriated my images and content and posted them on their web site as their own work. You can see it for yourself in the screen shot above. If you are one of the thousands of people who read my February 7 blog, one full week before Mr. Jones posted it verbatim(1) and image-for-image onto his website and held it out as his own, you saw my original Safari 19: Hunting With Children post. And, you saw this as the first image in my post. It was a great day on the Maasai Mara that I was reporting about in Hunting With Children. To get to watch Amani the cheetah hunt with her three children was a thrill. But it was my experience and the experience of others on my trip, not Mr. Jones'. And, those are my photographs, not Mr. Jones. And the trip that produced the great images and content for my Venture Moola blog was with Gamewatchers Safaris not Mr. Jones' Photographic-Safaries.com. I don't know Mr. Jones. Never met him. Never talked to him. Nothing. Nada. (1) Not exactly verbatim. He added his company's name before "Lion Camp" in paragraph two. The original reads just "Lion Camp." In fact, we were at Gamewatchers Porini Lion Camp. But back to Alex Jones who is described on his site as a man with "enormous patience" who claims to have captured "photographs of unequalled wildlife behavior.. . ." How much "patience" does it take to steal images and content from someone else's blog? And, when it says "captured," would you think that includes taking images from someone else and claiming they are your own? In the site's About section, we are encouraged to "[r]ead about some of the exquisite wild animals that Alex has photographed.. . ." Don't be fooled, Alex Jones did not photograph the cheetahs in my blog post. Nor did he write the copy. He ripped it off from the Venture Moola blog and me. To paraphrase plagairism.com, he stole my work and lied about it afterward. If you want to see my images and read about a great African safari trip check out my blog at ReadJanus.com or check out the same content on the fully-licensed porini.com website, home to Gamewatchers Safaris. But enough about copyright infringement and plagairism. The whole incident also reminds me of a great encounter on a great trip last fall. Join me in viewing a few other photographs I took on that special day. And, if you think you might like an opportunity to have days like this yourself on the African savanna, think about contacting the outfitter I used for my trip - Gamewatchers Safaris. You can reach them through their porini.com website or by contacting Wayne Hammond at wayne@gamewatchers.com (or in the UK by phone on +44 (0) 7986 978985) or Julie Ruggow at julie@gamewatchers.com (or by telephone in the US toll-free at 1-877-710-3014.) Wayne helped me and Julie helped a good friend plan great trips. Either can help you too. Gamewatchers Safaris were great hosts and even better guides. Very experienced and very knowledgeable. They work in partnership with the local Maasai who ran their lodges and served as our guides. As you have seen through this blog, their guides will help you have great game watching experiences. To close, let me say that while I may be a bit flattered in a perverse way by Mr. Jones, I am not amused. Nor, apparently, is my buddy above. -----
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. All worldwide rights reserved. These images and more can be seen at the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share (but not steal) this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. When we planned our safari we did not really know what to expect. Would we see lots of animals? Would we be able to get close? Would we see young animals? Or, would the area be depleted because of drought? If you have been reading the earlier Safari Series entries, you know the answers to these questions. The abundance and variety of animals exceeded all expectations. And, skilled Maasai guides got us close, not just to the animals but also to the action and drama of the African plain. All this was illustrated as we headed back toward camp in the Maasai Mara. The softened light of the hour before dusk was upon us as our guide headed us toward a hyena nest we had seen the day before. This day, however, we were greeted by a large troop of baboons in the valley just next to the small rise where the hyena made its nest. There were at least 40 of them and they were on the move heading in the general direction of the camp. Some stopped to eat or sit but all were slowly making their way across the plain. Our guide drove right up to the troop and then slowly through it on his way to the rise where the hyena were nesting. As shown in the first picture from the day before, there were several cubs in the nest. This evening, one of them was out and actively following mom as she wandered about. The mom was both attentive and, from time to time, a bit wary of the attention. There was no feeding going on. Perhaps she was finished for the day. As you can see, she was attentive and gentle with her cub. As I watched this warm family moment from my seat on the right side of the Land Cruiser, my wife reached over and tapped me on the shoulder. "Look to your left," she said. As I did, I noticed that all other eyes in the vehicle were fixed on a baboon with her newborn baby. Quite something to see two species with babies in such close proximity. The hyena were no more than 10 yards from the right side of the vehicle and the baboon was less than 15 yards from the other side of the vehicle. But something was not right. As we watched the baboon cling to and groom here newborn we noticed that the baby did not move. She carried the baby close to her body and walked about. The baby seemed limp in her arms. She was not responsive. And then, after settling in one spot, the mother released the stillborn infant and laid her in the grass. The mood in the Land Cruiser dampened. We watched a bit longer to see if there was life in the infant but there was not. We soon headed back to camp. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. It is a travel day so this will be short. A half entry so to speak. Lions and leopards and cheetah have filled these entries, but there is another cat to be seen in the Mara. She is smaller and solitary and able this season to use the tall grasses for almost complete cover as she walks the plain. The serval cat is just two feet tall and a little over 3 feet long in the largest specimens. She feeds on rodents, small birds, frogs, insects and reptiles for the most part. Relative to her overall body size, her legs are the longest among the great cats of Africa. And when she is avoiding the hyenas and jackals that hunt her, she often leaps into the air as she races off, holding her tail straight up in the air. We saw her just this once outside Lion Camp in the tall grass not far from a stream. Take a look. -----
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Our first pass at spotting a leopard, you may remember, was when we returned to the Rhino camp after sunset one evening. During the drive back, we noticed the heads of four Giraffe all intently looking in the same direction at something ahead of us. It was getting dark and I was in a back seat. Our driver pulled out a bright spotting lamp and pointed it into the bush. Just moments later our spotter saw the leopard in front of us. Within seconds the leopard bolted into the bush and disappeared into the darkness. I missed it entirely and wondered if we would get another chance to spot this elusive animal. Our first game drive at the Lion Camp answered my question. We were already having a good day when our driver headed out of the grassland toward the bush. He was heading to an area where leopard had been previously spotted. We drove for some time until another nearby driver spotted something. The young leopard Figlet was in the bush near the stream we were canvasing. We drove over to join the other vehicle and surveyed the area. Not knowing if we would succeed and expecting it would not be a long viewing if the leopard was moving in the bush, I readied my camera for shooting into the bush with a long 400 mm lens, a fast ISO speed, continuous shooting mode and auto focus settings. I was expecting lower light shooting into the bush and knew the faster ISO speed would give me slower shutter speeds to complement using a longer lens. When we reached the bush where the other driver was waiting, it did not look promising. We found heavy bushes in front of a meandering stream with a deep bank. There were lots of directions the cat could go without our seeing her. Our driver pulled away from the other vehicle and parked us in front of a spot where a small opening let you look back into the brush. No one could see a cat. I secured my camera to my wrist, adjusted the viewing screen on the back so I could look down and see what the camera saw and lowered the camera as far as I could over the side of our vehicle, pointed into the opening. If the cat appeared the photos would be from her eye level. We sat with me leaning over the edge of the vehicle and our guides a bit nervous about my posture. “No one is getting out to retrieve your camera if it falls,” they politely pointed out. We waited quietly. Nothing happened. And, then there was movement in the bush. As I watched, the head of the leopard moved through the bush into the back of the opening my camera was watching. I hit the shutter button and the camera took a dozen pictures in quick succession. She was gone as quickly as she appeared but the thrill of seeing her remained. As did her image. The autofocus worked imperfectly under these challenging conditions but did manage to focus on Figlet often enough to generate a some great images. The one below shows her just as she appears in the opening in the bush. We had seen the elusive leopard on her home turf and captured her image as she warily moved near the river bank. It was a great moment and one we did not expect to replicate. A couple of days later, however, our guides started our morning drive looking for Figlet again. She had been spotted outside the conservancy (meaning there could be more vehicles following her) in a tree near a stream. What outed her was the carcass of an animal she had killed the night before. It was in the high grass near the tree where the other drivers said she was hidden. You can see our approach to the area in the image above with the safari vehicles around a tree. We stayed awhile but there was no cat to see. So, we drove through the grass near the stream, passing the carcass and a pair of opportunistic hyena. We followed the stream long enough to spot several Dik-dik (small antelopes a bit larger than the Suni we saw in Nairobi National Park) but found no leopard. Our driver got back on the radio and then backtracked to approach the original site from another direction. There were still a few vehicles at the site but they were beginning to move on. So we moved too, driving near the stream in hopes of catching another glance of the leopard. From the radio conversation (in Swahili) our driver knew we were close when he pulled up close to the stream to watch. Another vehicle pulled up behind us along the stream bed and Figlet moved away from the vehicle along the edge of the bush giving us this spectacular view. Our driver pulled our Land Cruiser ahead in the direction Figlet was moving. Another vehicle arrived. Figlet kept walking in the bush and then turned and walked out of the bush in our direction. Not the least bit intimidated by us or our vehicles, she walked leisurely up to our vehicle and stopped long enough to look at me and the long lens of my camera. She was less than two feet from the vehicle. I pushed the camera shutter to capture the large aqua marine eyes that mesmerized us all. I also felt my heart race a bit as her eyes caught mine and she stopped. She was so close. And as she fixed her gaze in my direction, I felt vulnerable. Pulse beating vulnerable. If only for a moment (she moved on), I feared she might jump into the vehicle. The thought and my racing heart resulted in a fuzzy close-up of her magnificent eyes. Fortunately, I was able to catch them in a longer distance shot when my hands were steady. Here is Figlet's close up. Once she walked off, we left as well. It was time for a bush breakfast. We drove to a more open spot and had a breakfast prepared earlier at our camp on a table and chairs set up next to our vehicle. Within a few feet of our table were hippo tracks in the mud. A great breakfast as usual and we still had the rest of the morning drive to look forward. -----
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. No one ever called this beast a gnu while we were in Africa. Instead, it was called the wildebeest or blue wildebeest to be precise. But it is also known as a brindled gnu and gnu makes for a better title. And, as you have guessed by now, we are spending much of this drive to take in the great wildebeest migration. The river crossing point we are aiming for is a good drive from the camp so we get see the wildebeest from several perspectives before we arrive for the dramatic conclusion. As we drive across the plains our guides point out the herd of wildebeest in the far distance. They are barely specs on the horizon at this point but other wildlife seem alert to their presence nonetheless. First we spot lions, like the one above watching from the grass. Then, further on and closer to the river crossing, we and the herd get closer. Here a pair of giraffe inspect the area for predators as the wildebeest make their way along. Eventually we get close to and even inside a large herd of wildebeest with several zebra in their ranks. With the van stopped, we sit and watch. Soon, a group of wildebeest and a few zebra go sprinting down a hill in the direction of the river. Everyone gathers together again, this time near a tree less than 100 yards from the river. We have followed their progress and now sit, with a few other vehicles off to the side but between the wildebeest and the river. They wait and so do we. Thoughts of television specials showing the great wildebeest migration with thousands of wildebeest madly racing across a river while crocodiles and other predators snap and grab at them crosses my mind. Is this what we will see? We are near the end of the migration season for this area and the herd is not as big as my TV-spectacular-imagination has led me to expect. And being late, some of the predators like the crocodile may be satiated. Still there is anticipation in the air. The wildebeest and their zebra companions are anxious as they wait. Then quickly, one and then another race toward the water followed by the group that had been waiting by the tree. It is a race to the water and down the bank and into the river. They have picked a steep embankment on the other side. Our van has to race to the river bank too. We catch up with them as they plunge into the river. No predators appear and most are quickly across. Climbing the embankment is a challenge. One stumbles badly on the steep incline and falls. But the rest manage the river and climb without incident. We have seen a safe passage. I confess to some disappointed. Not that I wished harm on any of the wildebeest but I was surprised there was not more drama. We pulled our van back from the river bank and, with the other vehicles nearby, watched as more wildebeest gathered under the tree for their shot at a safe crossing. And, that is when it happened. A flash of black followed quickly by a flash of light brown in front of us. Tall grass parting as they moved swiftly. A wildebeest had darted into the tall grass between the vehicles in a desperate attempt to evade a lioness.. The lioness quickly caught the wildebeest and a protracted struggle began. We watched as the two struggled. The lioness grabbed the wildebeest by the throat and took it to the ground, with it kicking and fighting to get away the whole time. Then she gripped the wildebeest's throat harder and applied pressure. The wildebeest kicked its legs up and down. The lioness kept her grip. After a few minutes the kicking stopped and the lioness dragged the carcass into the bushes. She was winded from the struggle and sat their panting for a good while before giving off a roar. With her kill hidden, she left the area to inform her pride. All while this was happening, behind us some of the wildebeest were starting to move. First a few, led by a zebra, and then more and, like before, suddenly all of them were racing to the river. As before, our vehicle hurried back to the river bank to watch this second crossing. As you can see, the bank on the other side of the river is not as steep as the last crossing. All made it across. After this second pass, we headed back to camp. The joy and tragedy we found on the way back is the subject of next week's entry. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Airing out her wings on a termite mound overlooking the vast grasslands of the Maasai Mara, this vulture repeats a process her distant ancestors practiced in this same spot. As we watched this afternoon, she walked and bounced back and forth across the mound surveying the plains while she aired out her wings. Modern paleontologists have firmly established a direct link between modern birds and ancient dinosaurs. They are part of the family. Some can draw a direct link to flying dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Period that ended some 65.5 million years ago. Others follow from dinosaurs who took flight only after the end of the Cretaceous Period. If you finished school more than ten years ago, forget what you learned about dinosaurs. Modern scientists using tools undreamed of decades ago are unlocking secrets about dinosaurs at a rapid rate. The unique breathing system of birds that enables them to extract oxygen as they inhale and exhale was developed by their dinosaur ancestors. How did grazing dinosaurs reach sizes unheard of today? You guessed it. Part of what enabled such grand sizes was the dinosaur's more efficient breathing system still used today by birds. But birds do not look like dinosaurs. Think again. Many dinosaurs, scholars now know, sported feathers of one sort or another. Even the giant T-Rex with teeth the size of railroad spikes had primitive feathers. And if you think there are no worthy avian heirs to the ferocity of T-Rex think again. The common ostrich, shown above, has leg muscles and claws powerful enough to dispatch a lion. But all dinosaurs were not T-Rex. For hundreds of millions of years, dinosaurs ruled the planet not by being fierce but by being adaptive and filling every available niche in the environment. Which is why Kenya is the perfect place to connect with our modern dinosaurs. In Kenya, birds fill nearly every available niche including more than 1,100 different species. That is more species of bird in one country than in all of North America. If you want to see dinosaurs, then this is the place to be. Everything from vultures to ostrich to spoonbill are here. So too are lilac breasted rollers, kori bustards, kingfishers, pelicans, secretary birds, eagles, hawks, Egyptian geese, and many more. Here are just a few who crossed our path on Safari. Some will look familiar. Others will not. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. As the sun sets on the African plain, safari protocol calls for a sundowner where drinks and snacks are served on picnic tables set up next to the vehicle. On a couple of occasions on our trip, this tradition was interrupted by more interesting activities. Once we followed four male lions as they headed to a nearby watering hole (Safari 7: Pooh on You). Another time a pride of lions appeared on a nearby hill (Safari 12: Sundowner Surprise) causing us to get in the vehicle and head over to watch. But usually we stuck with tradition, loading up the vehicle and heading back to camp as total darkness approached. Typically, its a straight trip back as the dark overtakes us but, even then, something interesting could happen, as when we stumbled on a leopard hunting nearby the road in the bushy terrain near Rhino Camp (Safari 13: Stalag Panzee). Once back in camp there is usually time for a quick shower before a late dinner. In some camps, guests would gather around a fire pit before dinner to relax and exchange stories. The fire pit below was in the woods at Nairobi National Park Camp. At Rhino Camp, a waterhole sits 50 yards away across a small stream with a deep embankment. One evening there, we heard sounds coming from the waterhole and were greeted with this view when one of our Maasai hosts brought out a search light. Their quick unveiling by the light and relatively close proximity gave new meaning to the concept of an intimate safari experience. There was no sense of imminent danger. Only one of awe. I was not a big fan of our two night drives. Yes, I was interested in seeing what was out an about at night. But the bright intrusive lights needed to view the animals and the sense I had that we were somewhere we should not be left me with an odd feeling. Nonetheless, the few images I took during these drives do help to illustrate how active the animals were while we were sleeping. And, how active they were while we were being escorted to our tents after dinner. I was never particularly concerned about safety during the trip except, perhaps, for a moment during one escorted tent walk at Lion Camp. The setting there placed the tents in a line facing out onto an open plain of tall grasses. The night before had been particularly noisy with what sounded like two prides of lions exchanging roars and barks late into the night. First, you would hear them off to the left. And then, a few minutes later, the roars would come from the right. That same night we were woken by the sound of heavy breathing and chomping behind the tent, likely a hippo from the stream behind the camp. As related earlier (Safari 3: Tented Camps and Conservancies), the nights were full of sound. Everything from the indescribable wails of hyena to the snorts of cape buffalo and hippo to the barks and roars of lions reminded you each night where you were. But the back and forth of the lion prides was something special to hear. It also emphasized just how open our camp was and why you are always escorted at night by a Maasia warrior carrying a flashlight and a long pole. On this one night that security and safety entered my mind, we were being escorted along a pathway to our room and talking about just how open the area was and just how long the grasses were. Certainly tall enough to hide a lion. And then we noticed. Our escort was scanning the grasses with his flashlight between shining it ahead on our path. A reasonable thing to do, for sure, but not particularly comforting when all he carried was a long pole. We had headed back to the tent later that night than usual, having stayed in the dining tent after dinner to socialize and then, with a break in the cloud cover that did not last long enough, to try and photograph the night sky. The equatorial sky shows more of the Milky Way than the Northern Hemisphere and even though we were near full moon it was worth trying to take a picture. Those of you who have followed this blog for sometime will know that night photography is hobby, particularly photographing the night sky from remote locations (See It's Not That Far From Here 4/26/2018, The Color of Black and White 4/19/2018 and More About Dark Skies 8/29/2016). Our attempt that night failed. The clouds rolled in before we could take the shot. Still, it makes for a nice representation of night in the Lion Camp. What you see in addition to a cloudy sky with a few clear patches revealing a bit of the heavens, is a small gathering tent and some of the fence that surrounds the staff and kitchen areas. The dining tent is off picture to the left. - - - - -
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Sometimes these entries come easily, like when we follow a large pride of lions hunting a herd of zebra (Safari 1: The Hunt) or a smaller group of lions being rebuffed by an elephant matriarch (Safari 7: Pooh on You). The action drives you through a narrative and the accompanying images. But other times it is a challenge. The vastness and complexity of your surroundings overwhelms your ability to communicate through words and pictures. The vitality and diversity of what you experience is so far removed from your day-to-day reality that it is difficult to describe. In a way, it feels like being immersed in a great symphony and then trying to use words to describe its beauty and grandeur. For a safari, a passing moment will sometimes capture a bit some of the magic of the surroundings. Here, our passing vehicle caused a waterbuck to move across the Amboseli plain in front of a family of elephants. In one image we capture the vast plains, deep grass following a good raining season, the movement of the waterbuck and the nearby elephants making their way across the savanna. Other times a herd of animals captures your eye and a detail in the herd tells you something special is happening. Here it is a herd of topi with something amiss. On this morning, we were headed to see a male lion with a kill that had been spotted by another guide. As we passed this small herd, I noticed two of the topi were acting differently. Can you see them in the image above? Look near the middle and to the right. Two males are interacting with each other aggressively. One is jumping. The other is head down facing off his rival. It was a challenge for dominance. When I pointed this out, our driver stopped the vehicle and we watched. The two males chased and confronted one another repeatedly. The females paid little attention. They had seen it all before. But, for us, it was new, so we lingered even though there was a waiting lion nearby. The contest alternated between chases and square-offs like this one for quite some time until one of the males backed off. We then moved on. Within minutes we watching this gorged male and its kill. We caught up with the old fellow in a clump of bushes just as he was finishing his meal. After casually noting our presence, he picked up the remains of his prey and walked into the bush to store it in a less visible location. The he settled down and dozed off. His belly was full (as you can see below) and he was totally unconcerned about us. We headed back to camp. We had witnessed a small movement from the safari symphony on this drive. And while it was always fun to see a lion, the dance of the blue-jeaned topi reminded me of the many non-predators we had witnessed on our drives. If the big cats and their antics were the melody to the symphony then these non-predators were the background music that gave the symphony color and complexity. This bit of the background is an interlude that suggests wariness. The two zebra are not cuddling. The are watching the horizon cooperatively, each taking half and protecting the heard. These ungulates and the open plain are the movements that express the vastness of what you are experiencing. Dancing vultures bouncing across an old termite mound as they air out their wings provide a light interlude. While the gazelles and their young bring an alert sense of calm and order to the day. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. |
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