After such an amazing evening drive it is important to reset expectations. The Mara is not a zoo. There is no certainty that you will see particular animals and seeing a kill, or cats eating a kill, is a privelage that many do not experience on their entire safari trip. The guides have amazing knowledge…
It was great to be back at Brian Freeman’s camp ( (Freeman Safaris) a few people had moved on but there were still several staff from my last visit and there is something special about being greeted by people who know you. Settling in, having lunch, meeting the other guests – yep it definitely felt like coming…
The morning started off well with good sightings of plains animals, gerenuk, and grevy zebra and excellent birds. The goshawk has such attractive markings and a strong but somehow delicate face. The warthog picture is a joy. You don’t often have them coming towards you – usually they are running away! The red ground sets…
Sorry about the gap in posting – as soon as the good weather comes I am out walking and taking pictures (even if my locations aren’t as exotic as Africa!!) But today is wet and grey so back to my Kenyan trip last year … The highlight of this afternoon was elephants digging for water…
As I explained in the last post, I had thought that the ostrich we saw on the nest yesterday evening had hatched just one chick so far and I was keen to check it out and see if there were some more this morning. So that was to be our first port of call. I…
When we set off the sun was out but the sky was a dark, stormy, grey-blue. Probably my favourite combination! After about an hour, a movement to our right caught our attention. It was a cheetah. You don’t see cats in Samburu as often as you do in the Mara so this was special. It…
The area is always arid but this year the effects of the drought took me by surprise. I have seen the river in full flood and I had seen it very low but never completely dry. These pictures, taken at roughly the same time of year, show the extent of the drought this year. This…
By the time we set off on an afternoon drive, the sky had clouded over. Cloud cover produces rather flat light so not ideal for photographs but that is part of the challenge with wildlife photography. You don’t get to choose the conditions in which you will see interesting things. It was fairly quiet out…
It was wonderful to be back in Samburu. (October 17 2015) Unfortunately I had spent 2 hours at Wilson Airport because the hotel hadn’t managed to pass on the information that my flight had been re-scheduled. Actually that’s not strictly true because they passed the message to me when I checked in at the end…
It was the end of the day and the light was fading. As we drove towards the camp we passed through an area where we would not normally see many animals but it just goes to show in Africa you never can tell – round the next bend maybe … feeding gerenuk! What was so…