A true wilderness experience.
After several years of conducting most of my safaris in East Africa, it has been wonderful to guide some safaris near home (Zimbabwe) again, and in very familiar territory. I had not been to Gonarezhou National Park in southeastern Zimbabwe for several years, and was recently blown away by the...
Our first day in Namibia
We had left the lush green swamps of the Okavango Delta a day before. One of the last activities we did there was riding in a mokoro alongside a family of African elephants. We were poled through the channel, gliding an arm’s length from the elephants, as they sloshed their...
Hungry lions – Our second day at Vumbura
So, Wild Dogs hunting on Day One at Vumbura. Could Day Two possibly come close to that? The following afternoon we had planned a mokoro (dugout canoe) ride in the Delta. We set off from the camp after tea, heading in the direction of the place in one of the...
Our First Day at Vumbura in the Okavango Delta
The African Wild Dog is one of Africa’s rarest large predators. Although they may look a little thin and sometimes mangy, I have a great deal of respect for these much maligned animals. I hoped to see them in March when I was on safari on the Serengeti Plains (Tanzania),...
Tracking a White Stork
I catch the daily morning flight on KLM from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The airport terminal disappears from view within a few minutes of leaving the gate as we taxi through the mist and line up for take off. There is not much to see through the window but...
A closer look at the migration
We were on safari to witness the wildebeest migration in the green season, when they tend to disperse on the Plains, and we did. Wildebeest were everywhere – around us, behind us, and spread out far into the distance. Sometimes we could see lighter-colored bands of animals, which were herds...
Young cheetahs hunting
A contrast to the scenario from my previous post was to happen a few days later when we found two hungry sub-adult cheetah attempting to hunt in an area further west of the Serengeti Plains, where the migratory herds are unlikely to arrive until June. They were young siblings about...
Mother cheetah – the provider
Throughout the morning we had driven across the Plains through herds of wildebeest and zebra. Day and week old wildebeest calves were everywhere. Prey was so abundant and widespread that it was hard to imagine any predator going hungry. We came across a mother cheetah and her four large cubs...
The Hyaena – the Serengeti’s Super Predator
As the crew went about their work preparing the balloon, a lone wildebeest ran up to within about fifteen yards of it before running away again. This happened two more times. Then a solitary hyaena started chasing the wildebeest all over the plains, following behind at a distance of about...
Ballooning over the Migration
It’s early January in the Serengeti, and the rains this year have been good for the first time in several years. Some years are drier at this time of year, and at such times the wildebeest split up in search of food and water, congregating wherever small sporadic downpours have...
A hippo encounters an elephant
Watching hippos bask in a pool of water, wheeze-honking every now and then and snorting when they come up for air, would make you think their lives are peaceful. However hippos depend on water to keep their bodies cool, and have a harem breeding system, so the males compete intensely...
Elephants and a waterhole
We left Mombo Camp with a plan to find roaring lions we had heard from the camp at dawn, with Callum, our Mombo Camp guide. However soon after leaving camp we encountered a couple of breeding herd of elephants. They were moving quite quickly, eager to get somewhere. There was...
