Capturing the Moment

How to Scuba Dive South Africa from the cold waters of Cape Town to tropical reefs at Sodwana Bay    Everyone knows about the wonderful land animals and parks of Africa. But for many travelers around the world the knowledge underwater life of South Africa is limited to a short clip of 'air jaws' or great white sharks leaping out of the water. Now I understand why this might scare some scuba divers off from thinking about planning a dive trip to South Africa but those in the know have found amazing diversity among South Africa's dive sites that are a true hidden treasure. For those of you still reading you may just have what it takes to take the plunge and find out about these hidden gems for yourself.      Planning a dive trip to South Africa could be done in several visits or in one larger trip if you have a bit of time. Luckily right now the South African Rand is the cheapest I've seen in 30 years, hovering around 13.5SAR to 1 USD. In other words it ...

Hungry European Bee Eater Grey Headed Kingfisher Bird Photography in Kruger National Park  The bird life in Africa is amazing. It is enough to turn anyone into a budding birder. Beautiful bee eaters, colorful rollers, king fishers, sun birds, and all kinds of birds-of-prey abound in places like Kruger National Park. Armed with a new Canon 100-400mm L series lens I was ready to capture all the action.   There are two methods for getting bird photography in Kruger. You can drive around, cover some distance, and keep an eye out for colorful streaks across the road, or the silhouettes of larger birds up in the trees, but you need to really hone in your bird scanning if you are going to do this on the move. Another method is to find birding hotspots and stay in one place. Several blinds have been setup around the park overlooking ponds. Africa is the kind of place that you can sit and watch one big tree and see dozens of different bird species. Rare sighting of a...

Finding Africa's Big 5    If you are looking for Africa's "Big 5" then Kruger National Park should be your destination. For those not in the know the Big Five is a term left over from colonial hunting days in Africa for the five animals that if a hunter shot but didn't kill, the animal could charge and kill the hunter. This elite group of potentially deadly animals include elephants, rhino, leopard, lion, and cape buffalo. Now the term is thrown around more by enthusiastic wildlife watchers in safari vehicles trying to shoot a photo of the Big 5.  African Elephant   Even though these animal sightings are heavily sought after, to the point of camps having recent sightings boards up with moveable magnets for each animals, it can still be quite a challenge to see them all. If you are in a place like Kruger National Park in South Africa and get quite lucky then it is possible to see them all in a day, but the longer you stay in the park the better your ...

  Finding the Mythical Sable Antelope    The sable antelope ( hippotragus niger ), is one of the rarest, and hardest to find antelope in Africa. Until this past trip into Kruger National Park in South Africa I had only spotted 2 in all of my Africa travels; one in the desolate Katavi National Park in Tanzania and one in the heavily wooded region of Pretoriaskop in Kruger National Park.  Regal Sable Antelope When I was growing up my family spent all of our free time on a privately owned island off the coast of Georgia which the Bronx Zoo used as an off-site breeding area for incredibly rare and endangered animals. Some of these breeding programs went so well that animals were moved from here back into the wild all over Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Surrounded by exotic animals like lemurs, zebra, and Arabian oryx was a magical experience for a young future biologist like me. But of all of these wonderful creatures there was always one that capture my...