I was originally planning to combine the two areas of the Sabi Sands I stayed at into one highlights post, but I’ve been having such difficulty finding the time to work on my photos the last few weeks that it just wasn’t feasible. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get to the final highlights post this weekend, so I can move on to the other editing projects that I want to do – and get out and do some more shooting too!
This guy only had eyes for one thing (the female that is out of shot). More about that in another post.We turned the corner, and there he was!A huge group of vultures gathering near a kudu carcass. They were waiting for a female lion to clear off before heading in fight for scraps.A wild dog peers at us from between two small tree trunks.A lion take a pause from his kudu breakfast.A dagga boy. One of the old buffalo bulls cooling off in the watering hole.A yellow billed hornbill, or as my Dad likes to say “the flying banana”.A wildebeest enjoying the cool air of early morning.Not who you would expect to see in a wallow.One of my favourite birds, the beautiful lilac breasted roller.
This time-lapse was one of my first attempts, and shows a mid afternoon at the dam in front of Chitwa lodge. Lots of waterbuck around that afternoon!
While I have been home now almost a week, I thought I would continue on with posting my highlights of each area I visited in Southern Africa, and then move on to other blog post formats. I came home with over 13,300 images, so I will have lots to work through over the next couple of months.
I hope you enjoy, and have a great day!
After moving all night, this lion just couldn’t go any further, and laid down for a nap on the road.The beautiful textures of the inside of an elephant’s trunk.This is what it looks like driving through the bush at night.A heavily pregnant alpha female wild dog looks our way from behind some branches.A leopard cub peers down between the branches of a tree.Hyenas come in small, medium and large at this sighting.A lioness looks on while the cubs swarm her sister.
The area of the delta where I stayed was one of permanent water, but day by day, changes in the landscape were apparent as the flood waters flowing in from the Angola highlands began to fill previously dry channels. I think I had the best of both worlds as I was able to see the delta from both land and water – and as a special treat, by air on a helicopter tour.
I took over 1800 photos in 3 nights in the delta. I hope you enjoy a few of the highlights.
A lone giraffe wanders through an area of new flood.A leopard peers down from a tree.A spectacular sunset over the delta, taken while on a sundowner boat trip.A gorgeous female leopard using a fallen tree as a vantage point. I had no expectation of seeing leopard at all in the delta, but I had told my guide the previous afternoon that my dream photo would be capturing a leopard on a tree branch. In two days, I saw three leopards. Talk about lucky!A pair of spotted hyena cubs rest outside of their den.Stand-by passengers at the airstrip?A fish eagle from above.The delta by air.A herd of elephants from above.Water crossing! One of the camp vehicles carrying luggage from the airstrip to the camp.afr
Londolozi is well known for the number of leopards they have living within the bounds of the property, and I was lucky enough to see three of them during my visit. They were elusive at first though, and it wasn’t until our third afternoon game drive that we finally saw our first leopard; the lions stole the show for the first half of our visit.
The photo opportunities were slim based on how the vehicle had to park, and how deep under the bushes the leopard was. Thankfully, the light was decent (unlike when we saw the lion cubs!) so I managed a few obstructed shots.
It was around 4:30 when Talley took a call that a leopard had been spotted with a fresh kill, and even though the viewing was not likely to yield great photos, we headed in that direction anyways, since we had yet to see a leopard.
When we found him, he was deep under some bushes with an impala ram. He had already had his fill, but was still working on pulling the fur off of the impala. The view from the vehicle was obstructed by the bushes, while I managed to get a couple shots and a short video clip, mostly I just watched.
This boy had a full belly, but he wasn’t about to leave his kill for another animal to steal anytime soon. As the light started fading, we left him alone so he could hoist the impala or drag it to a new location to avoid hyenas.
We came across this leopard, as well as others, the next morning. The photographic opportunities and the story of that morning viewing were amazing!
The Camp Pan male leopard with an impala ram, April 4, 2013 at Londolozi.
