Serengeti National Park, the endless plain where sky meets grass.

Serengeti Wilderness camp

This is where grass meets sky and Wildebeest does the introductions

The vast grasslands that seem endless, but you know it has to meet the sky somewhere, this is the Serengeti.  If the Ngorongoro is a salad bowl, then the Serenget is the buffet, and it operates like one as well. Meal times for the Southern short grass plains in the Southern Serengeti and Ndutu is from February through to April when the long rains would bring the huge herds who are following the growing grass; who have responded to the rains.

This is surely the best place in the world to observe Cheetahs hunting.

There is a great diversity of animals in these grass plains, even the aquatic Hippo

In these parts Lions climb trees, so when looking for you mate ... tree are a good place too look.

We had some great light.

Serengeti Wilderness camp is located in the central Serengeti , During  our entrance to the park we noted a few small herds of Wildebeests. Not taking much notice of this we continued, before we knew it we were well within the largest congregation of life that I had ever experienced.  Not just the hundreds of thousands of wildebeests but also the zebra, Thompsons and Grants gazelles. With this huge number of prey moving through, there is a population of predators that move with the herds and all the year round inhabitants. 

Lions seem to love rocky outcrops

the ruff and tumble life of being a Lion cub

where there is something to eat there will be something to eat it.

We reached the camp very late in the evening, upon our arrival we were met and escorted to our tents, which were large and well equipped with proper beds, linens and en-suite bathrooms.  . The Wilderness camp only moves every three or four months and as such is able to offer these larger tents and other wonderful comforts while still being a real bush experience.

The game viewing we experienced up to now had been phenomenal and lady luck was not going to hold back for the last three days of our trip, we saw cheetah and lions everyday, with our one leopard sight for the trip happening on our second day. But these things you can see typically on any safari, I wanted to see the wildebeest. I was not disappointed with numerous herds that make up the greater migration being spread all over this area of the Serengeti. They were just passing through with the third day there being less than the day before. We could see and smell the rain further south of us that is the driving force behind this annual migration.

Leopards in tree ...

and Lions in tree's ...

There were some highlight sightings, we managed to get too see a cheetah in full stride, lion cubs playing at sunset and great photographic opportunities with the migrating herds with storm clouds.

Serengeti National Park as a Photographic destination

·      Again two camera bodies are a must.

·      The Serengeti and Ngorongoro are unique ecosystems where the surrounding landscapes are so different to any other place on the continent that it would be a sin to photograph the animal living here by cropping in close to only see their faces. This can be done in Tarangire or Southern Africa where the bush is thick.

·      I shot as wide as possible while still being able to see what the subject animal is, I wanted to show the animals in their natural habitat.

·      So in this regard the 100-400 excelled as I could compose my images with this in mind. As you are not able to move off the roads using a fixed focal lens would be tricky. (Although, by prior arrangement off-road permits can be organized in some areas)

Ngorongoro Conservation area

Its Africa’s Garden of Eden

The road and view while we made our way down to the Crater floor

You hear and read stories of this place, and all that you have seen and heard cannot give you the same feelings or emotions that your first glance of this very large natural and unbroken caldera gives you. Its Africa’s Garden of Eden, I see it as a very big salad bowl, with all the creatures that eat salad living there and all the critters that eat the things that eat salad … it’s a complete ecosystem in a Bowl!

The amount of life in this reasonably small area is astonishing

All our Lions in the crater were some distance from the roads, here this male was resting in the shade of this small rock out crop, with its Zebra kill also hidden in the rocks.

 We spent the night on the crater rim and woke up to what can only be described as the best view in the world. We all set off rather excitedly down to the crater floor, I have had numerous emotions during my time on this beautiful planet, but I had never had the sensation of arriving in Africa for the first time. This must be one of the most special experiences, of travelling to the Dark Continent. Having grown up here I was always jealous of people visiting our great continent – seeing it through fresh eyes. . Driving onto the Crater floor was a truly awesome experience; something I assume would be close to coming to Africa for the first time.

The Ngorogoro has a very good and healthy population of Hyena

The game viewing down here is nothing short of amazing, we saw seven different Black rhino, elephant, 2 different cheetah, 3 lions sighting and numerous hyena. To the point that if I could choose what I come back as in the after life, its definitely not  an impala or anything that’s eats green stuff and definitely not in the Ngorongoro Crater. 

Ngorongoro Crater and conservation area as a Photographic Destination

Wow where do I begin, 

• I used both lenses so much taking close ups and wide landscapes.   
• OK here, ideally, I needed a a second camera body, I missed a few good shots of a cheetah running because I was moments before was taking a “cheethascape” (landscape with a cheetah), and I could not change the lenses fast enough … so we learn, now you will not make that same mistake. So two camera bodies is a must for this place. 
• The backdrop of the crater rim wall is featured in every single one of my images, which is the best background you could ask for as a wildlife photographer.

WILDEBEEST - a.k.a the GNU

The Wildebeest

“A large, bearded antelope of the Acacia savanna and short-grass plains. Deep-chested and short – necked, High shoulders and thin legs … head: broad, blunt muzzle, Horns, cowlike, smooth, with enlarged boss, wider and much thicker in males … coat: short and glossy with vertical strips of longer hair: A beard and lax or upstanding mane. Colour: varies with subspecies, gender (males darker), season and individuality; ranging from slate grey to dark brown; lighter and darker below; black face, mane, tail, and stripes, bearded black (except White – bearded species)”

Smaller than an African Buffalo, Bigger than a gazelle. The Gnu is the most numerous member of the important sub-family of the long faced Alcelaphine antelopes that includes Impala, Topi and Bontebok, Hartebeests and the rare Hunter’s Hartebeests. A “Social Grazer” who, like a social drinker, congregates in response to local distribution of key resources, in the Gnu’s case, short grass pastures and water.

As African myth’s go, this creature, the Gnu was created by God in an effort to use up all the remaining bit and pieces used when he created all the animals that now roam these vast grasslands, forests and savanna’s.

From the book: Serengeti, the Great Migration, text by Harvey  Croze ... I found this while on location in the Serengeti and have yet to find some thing more descriptive of this beast and its annual pilgrimage behind the rains in its quest to find fresh grazing. 

Migrating Thunder

Tarangire National Park - “Explorer Mobile safaris

The land of Baobab’s and Elephants …

After we met each other over a wonderful dinner at the Mount Meru Game lodge in Arusha the day before, we set off towards Tarangire National Park which lies to the west of Arusha. It’s a 1 and a half hour drive to reach the main entrance gate of Tarangire, we took a little longer stopping to change some money and pick up some drinks for the following days. We were going to  enjoy a Wild frontiers  Explorer Mobile camping safari, staying in private sites with all the hard work done by the staff – like safaris of ‘old’  - we always arrived to a hot meal and prepared camp after a long day. 

Very comfortable camping ...

positioned nicely under big Sausage tree's

Always plenty of life by the Tarangire River.

We managed to see a pair of, wait for it. Sleeping Lions, nothing new here. Seems lion in East Africa like counting buffaloes as much as their southern African counterparts.  Tarangire is famous for two things, its Baobabs and its very large Elephant population. We saw numerous breeding herds traversing the sparse and arid areas toward the Tarangire River. This river flows for the greater part of the year because  a huge ‘sponge’ supplies it, known as the Tarangire marsh.  This captures the water through the rains and releases it during the dry season. So droves of animals are found along its banks during the arid winters.

Dik Dik are fairly common through out the park, but can be tricky to photograph

A Zebra running from another stallion close to the Tarangire marsh

Apart from the numerous antelope and Elephants, we saw great variety of predators, we had a Lion sighting everyday and managed to get a reasonably good viewing of a pair of cheetah.

Tarangire as a Photographic Destination 

• I am a sucker for Elephants and big trees, and this place has this in surplus  
• Here I found I used my 17-40 more than I did the 100-400. Purely as I want to show the diverse landscape.  
• The bush is more what you would expect in Southern Africa.  
• Our trip was great as we arrived here before the big rains had arrived and we saw plenty of animals by the Tarangire River. After the rains there would be plenty of water everywhere and the bush would be much thicker, so timing your photo-safari here needs to be done with people on the ground, getting here at the right season in critical. 

Lake Manyara National Park, a lake on the edge of the Rift Valley – we just  passed through.

The view of the Lake and the area that is the National park.

Our next overnight was at the Ngorongoro Crater, but first we popped into one of the Rift Valley lakes, which has a  large percentage of its shoreline as a national park. Lake Manayara National park is a thin slither of land between the sodic lake and the giant escarpment wall of the Great Rift that stretches through from Mozambique right through East Africa into the Red Sea. The entrance to the national park is a tropical jungle, which is not fed by rainwater but rather hundreds of little springs that flow out at the base of the Rift Valley wall. The water originates from the Ngorongoro Highlands and flows through the volcanic rocks and when it reaches the valley floor it exits as mineral rich water, which sustains a growing rice farming community outside the National Park gate.

We saw Giraffe, Buffalo, Zebra and wildebeest against the very interesting backdrop of the lake.

Dust devil as a back drop ...

The park is a stark contrast to the surrounding thorn veld, in a mere 10km you have two very different habitats, from a lush tropical forest to vast and arid scrublands that numerous nomadic Maasai wonder through looking for grazing for their cattle and goats.  What amazed me was that even out here where these ancient people don’t grow crops they can still produce alcohol. They do this by keeping bees, we saw numerous logs hanging from trees and these are the traditional bee hives of the Maasai. I regret not trying the very sweet beer … next time!

 

Lake Manyara as a photographic destination

• Firstly we were only here for a few hours over the heat of the day, so game viewing was never going to be amazing.  
• However we saw a ton of birds, especially in the thick forest entrance to the park and along the lake edge. 
•   So I used my 100-400 here predominantly, If you are into your birds this is a great place for it and well worth bringing that 500mm here.
•  In the thick and shady forest a quick lens is needed a f2.8 and f4. But you could also get away by pushing up your ISO in your camera to allow the use of a slower lens.