Shenton Safaris - African S - kaingo.com · the early morning sun, far from ideal shooting...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

1. Shenton Safaris - Photographic Newsletter

1.1.

1.2. June 2008 issue

It has to be said that blissful and wonderful as it is, life as a Mum is not shaping up

quite as I had imagined on the ‘spare time’ front. When asked by many guests last year

how I planned to combine my safari lifestyle with a new baby, I’d airily responded that

semi-retirement from office life would give me SO much time to focus on my

photography. I’d planned the long procrastinated move to RAW capture, and visualised

the hours and hours I could while away sorting through a backlog of thousands of

photos.

I imagine the parents among you are having a good chuckle – much as my guests did at

the time - however I pointedly ignored them, keeping myself warmly wrapped in my

illusions. Illusions I held right up until my precious bundle arrived in the bush. When

Shenton Safaris - African Safari Holidays http://www.kaingo.com/photo_newsletters/July2008.asp

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the wheeze-honking of hippos failed to lull her into a magical state of repose I realised

things might deviate somewhat from the plan.

Given a game drive is about 4 hours - I have absolutely no chance of going on one at

the moment. This means my photography has been limited to short visits out and about

in our closed landcruiser. I've had to adapt my photographic style to shooting through

the roof, whilst perched on the centre console and trying to dodge my lens around the

wing mirrors of the car. Still beggers most definitely can’t be choosers. Whilst I may be

missing the feeling of the wind whistling past me on the open vehicle it is heaven to get

out and about.

The source of my photographic discontent, the delightful Saphire India Shenton, graced

us with her presence on the 4th of March this year and has continued to fill us with joy

on a daily basis. Here are a couple of promised piccies: Saphire at 1 month and 3

months respectively.


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My first drive of the season was a few days after camp opened. Derek came bursting in

at the crack of dawn to tell us Wild Dogs had made a kill on Lion Plain. With Wild Dogs

on offer one doesn't waste time; I grabbed Saphire, my cameras and we bundled into

the car in our pyjamas.

Within minutes we were bouncing over hippo and elephant ripped cotton soil, me trying

to balance my huge lens on a sofa cushion I’d grabbed in lieu of a bean bag, and Derek

holding Saphire whilst trying to keep the car steady. The dogs were in direct line with

the early morning sun, far from ideal shooting conditions, but Wild dogs are Wild dogs

and only a poor tradesman blames their tools (or so my father always used to tell me),

so here are a selection of shots from that morning. I’m most pleased with the photos of

the tawny eagle and the hooded vulture.

We showed photos of the pack to the African Wild Dog Conservation research team and

they have been identified as a new pack of 6 males and a pregnant female. Our guests

saw them the next night kill a puku and then an impala, which they lost to a hyena.

They were seen again the next morning before disappearing into the mist as Wild Dog

tend to do. Hopefully they’ll be back soon.


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The majority of my pics these days are taken on transfer drives – the below were taken

on a morning drive to Mwamba Bush Camp - I'd gone to check on the progress of camp

building.


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This puku pair were very sweet – he ever so persistent and her ever so disinterested -

all framed prettily by the flora of Lion Plain.


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A couple of days ago Derek pulled himself away from the million jobs of camp opening

to take me on a morning drive. The light was terrible, so I wasn’t expecting much

photographically. I was simply enjoying being out and about when we found a neck of

Giraffe loping across the shelf at Acacia Loop. The light really was very flat so I was

just watching the young males play around when a shaft of sunlight came down and hit

them. Like a flash I’d handed Saphire over to Derek and was up through the roof. The

light only lasted for about 2 minutes but what a magical, magical few moments.


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A little further along we found this old Kakuli drinking at an algae covered lagoon. Just

beyond that we found a photographer friend of ours, so we stopped to have a chat and

introduce him to Saphire. Out of the car we all popped. Whilst standing there – not

100ms away - a huge male leopard came running across the little clearing behind

us towards the river (and thankfully not towards us!). Agog the three of us (and one

completely unaware, but thankfully momentarily quiet baby) watched this beautiful

beast. Again I hastily handed over Saphire and managed to get off a few shots leaning

on the bonnet of the car, when low and behold another leopard followed. A female.

Figuring mating might be on the cards we hurried into our respective vehicles and

followed in their wake.

Derek has an uncanny ability to track leopards and he drove us down to a little inland

road where we perched to wait. A fair amount of time passed. Convinced we had lost

them for the day I settled in to feed the now heartily protesting Saphire. Not 5

minutes later the female leopard came stalking on to the road in front of us. I didn’t

manage to get through the roof with kit in time to get face shots, but I got enough to

note that the female had a low swinging belly indicative of suckling a cub. How very

strange that she was chasing the male!


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We followed them back to Accacia Loop and sat under the trees in the grove with the

male in sight, but no sign of the female. We were still scanning around when there was

a thud right next to the vehicle. She’d been up the tree directly above us – what a

shame I didn’t see her – it would have made for some great shots through the roof of

the car.

We stayed with them for the next 15 minutes or so watching the very strange

behaviour of this female. We initially thought she was defending her cub, but having

pursued him so far we wondered if perhaps her cub had been killed and she was in

oestrous.


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Whilst we couldn't stick around, the female leopard was witnessed following the male

for at least another four hours - extremely unusual for this most solitary of

beasts. Nature always has something special with which to confound us. Whilst we can

postulate and extrapolate until the cows come home, more often than not animal

behaviour is a mystery that does not fit within our neat explanations.


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We’ve had phenomenal leopard sightings this season with leopard seemingly (and

literally in this instance) falling from the treetops. There have also been several

sightings of a couple of three month old cubs.

Within a day or so of this strange morning our guests saw a 6 week old cub with this

female leopard, it was wonderful to see the cub hadn't died as we suspected.

By some miracle I have managed to cobble together the makings of an entire

newsletter! However, given Saphire’s tendancy to complain vociferously the second I

get near a computer coupled with my infrequent drives at the moment, I am thinking I

will alter my format. I plan to open a newsletter with the first photos of each month,

then do small updates within that - posting pics within the relevant newsletter month

on a more regular basis. I will send you out the odd e-postcard to remind you to check

in each month.

Until next time

1.3. Jules

Previous Issues

December 2007 Newsletter

September 2007 Newsletter

July 2007 Newlsetter

February 2007 Newlsetter

December 2006 Newsletter (July images)

June 2006 Newsletter


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Leopard Interlude

May 2006 Newsletter

October 2005 Newsletter

Rains 2006 Newsletter

September 2005 Newsletter

August 2005 Newsletter

July 2005 Newsletter

June 2005 Newsletter

May 2005 Newsletter

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Shenton Safaris - African S - kaingo.com · the early morning sun, far from ideal shooting...

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