Capturing the Moment

A male leopard seems to say ,"No, this is mine." as it takes a moment to break from his impala kill to stare right into the lens.   There is something so special about Sandibe Okavango Delta Safari Lodge. It is built to immerse you into the deep wilds of one of Africa's most stunning safari locations. The screens keep the bugs out, but allow all the nighttime sounds of the bush to filter in. In fact, last night I woke up around 2am to the sound of something big splashing in my private plunge pool on my outside deck. After listening for a bit, I couldn't fight the urge to try and see what it was, so I flipped on the outside lights. It was a huge elephant! Luckily, it was not in my pool, it wouldn't have fit anyway, but it was just below the deck, splashing around in the floodwaters and reeds. I watched it for a while before slipping back into bed and drifting back off to sleep. This is the kind of experience that I want to give to guests that I bring here. This is ...

Life moment. The tiniest of baby leopard cubs makes an appearance. We found the mom, crossing the Sand river, calling to her cub. We followed, and sure enough, this tiny leopard cub came out of its hiding place to see mom.   We woke up in Kirkman's Camp, a historic luxury safari lodge in the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve in South Africa. Originally built in the 1920's, it is located high on a bluff, overlooking the Sand River. I ventured out to my veranda, listened to the birds, peered down at the river, and felt the excitement grow as I got dressed for the morning game drive. Who knows what we might see down there. After meeting our guide, Willy, for a morning cappuccino, Greg, Sue, and I loaded up our safari vehicle. There was a special seat on the front of the hood for our tracker, Richard. Like our other safari vehicles, this was the class green, extended Land Cruiser. However, this one not only had no doors, but it also had no roof. We really felt like we were in the elem...

  Sabi Sands Game Reserve in South Africa is renowned for having one of the best safari experiences in the world. It is situated in the southwest corner of Kruger National Park, and share a 50 kilometer unfenced border. The reserve it especially famous for leopard sightings, due to the leopards being habituated to safari vehicles, making more intimate sightings possible. I was hoping that our time here would provide some good leopard sightings, but we also needed to find a predator that we hadn't seen yet, the wild dog.

  Having fun with the school kids, just outside the boundaries of Lake Manyara park. We had a wonderful walking tour of the village, medical center, and school with a local guide. The hits just keep coming. We've followed cheetah in the Masai Mara, we've cheered on migrating wildebeest swimming across the Mara river in the Serengeti, and now we are living in tree houses, scanning the darkness for nocturnal creatures, and hanging with some of the friendliest kids around in Lake Manyara National Park. Our guide, Aron, took us out on a relaxing drive in the morning. We added new birds to our list, and had our first good look at a mature bateleur eagle. We had rare barbets and fire finches, and lots of colorful kingfishers. We checked the area where we found the tree climbing lions the evening before, but they were nowhere to be found. Just a reminder of how lucky we were to see them at all. It is easy for animals to disappear into the dense bush here. The real jewel of the morning...

One of the most unique lion photos I've ever captured. This was one of the famous tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara. It is a behavior that is hardly seen anywhere else in the world with lions. To find these, up on a tree, was such a huge surprise for us during our drive through the park to our lodge. It is so unusual to have sky as the background behind a lion, since they are usually on the ground and you are shooting down at it from your vehicle. The late afternoon light lit up the inside of the mouth, bringing out incredible detail of the impressive teeth and rough looking tongue.   After six days of intense wildlife safari action in the African savannah of Masai Mara and the Serengeti, we find ourselves traveling to a new ecosystem. We are switching up the vast plains for the lakeside forest of Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania. Its not just a change in scenery we are after, it is a home for new species of animals. Lake Manyara is well known for its numerous monkey, incre...

  An action shot of a large crocodile tearing off a piece of zebra meet and sending it down its gullet. What a day! It was sad saying goodbye to all our new friends and fond memories at Kichwa Tembo in the Masai Mara, but after 4 nights there, it was time to move on to our next spot in Tanzania's famed Serengeti National Park. We took a couple of small bush planes and a quick transfer by van across the border into Tanzania. We were pleasantly surprised to have the entire 12 seater plane to ourselves as we entered the Serengeti. Our new guide from andBeyond Serengeti Under Canvas was there at the airport, ready to meet us, and he even had a table of drinks and cookies set up in the shade of an acacia tree for us. Enoch, our guide, knew we only had two nights here to explore the Serengeti, so he wasted no time in packing the safari vehicle up for a game drive on our way to camp. First stop... the Mara River.

  Its hard to pic a photo of the day, but this might be it. We put in our time after finding this leopard resting high in the branches of this fig tree. It moved once to an open branch, which was great. But climbing down the tree to grab a drink in a nearby creek was better than I could hope for. Patience pays off again. Our day in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve began with one of those sunrises you don't forget. It reflected off the infinity pool and over a lone acacia tree in the savanna beyond. After a big camp breakfast, and plenty of Kenyan coffee, we climbed into our open sided Land Cruiser with our expert guide, David, and set out for a full day safari.

  Our safari tents were situated perfectly so the sunrise would stream in. This was our view each morning after the butler delivered coffee and opened the flaps. 14 days, 5 different parks, an elephant orphange, giraffe center, 2 countries, and thousands of pictures later, we have come to the conclusion of our East African Safari. Each day has brought new experiences, from the excitement of seeing our first wild animal from the rooftop pool at the Hilton, to have mating lions a few feet from the vehicle. Everyone soaked up a ton of knowledge from James, Jackson, and Godliving. We were cared for, and led, so well throughout that it was easy to fall into the groove of morning and afternoon game drives, delicious meals, and chatting around the campfires. Yet we were still tired each night, as we lay down on our comfy beds out in the middle of the African wilderness. We listened to bird songs, zebra, elephants, hyrax, and hyena from our beds. After starting with very pleasant overcast ...

  We traveled for a while, soaking in the early morning misty plains of the Serengeti from our extended land cruiser safari vehicle. Our morning reverie was interrupted by a group of vultures fighting a hyena over a freshly killed wildebeest. It was the groups first fresh kill. Not everyone was into the gruesome action. You couldn't even see some of the heads of the vultures since they were neck deep into the carcass. But this is the circle of life. Pretty soon there won't be much more than bleached bones left, thanks to the vultures and hyena. We continued on after the vulture show, and quickly came upon two male lions and a female. As we hung out with them we were surprised to see a third male lion pop up, and then a little later a fourth male lion popped up! The mane male and female were the same mating pair we had spotted two days earlier. She now looked like she was pretty over it, and disengaged from the male every time he attempted anything. The mating pair, and two of b...