Safari Updates

Brendon's Bulletin:We dashed straight to where the buffalo were this morning and arrived before sunrise. Silver - Eye and her entire pride were lying in an open area, not yet quite awake, and in a good vantage point to keep an eye on the buffalo. As the lions woke up our cameras were very busy capturing the early morning rituals - grooming and greeting each other. The rising sun allowed beautiful backlighting and our rim shots were most successful.Then the lions moved toward the buffalo. Crossing open, clear water channels, and creating splashes against the sun again gave us some stupendous shots.Finding a convenient spot, the pride ensured that the heavily pregnant lioness, who is unable to hunt at present, was settled before they moved toward the buffalo with renewed vigour and determination.As on the previous days it is clear that the lions are hungry - and now hungrier than ever.   ...

From Brendan: To start here are some photographs that we could not upload until this evening: Today we had yet another great day, starting when we ventured out to photograph the fishing Fish Egles in the early morning light. All went well with Fish Eagle after Fish Eagle lifting fish seemingly effortlessly from the surface of the water.Then a dispute ensued. One one the Fish Eagles successfully caught a fish and within seconds a second Eagle swooped down and tried to grab the fish from him.  A wonderful contest followed with spectacular aerobatics as the two settled their dispute. Of course we made full use of the time to get some fabulous photography.We were thrilled when we came across two Lesser Striped Swallow's nests. We stopped there and did not move for the rest of the morning as we watched the adults fly in and out of the nests to feed...

From Ben CrankeAs always, the first rays of morning light found us in the orange - golden mist on the Plains, photographing the beautiful predawn, with lechwe and tsessebe silently and eerily appearing out of and then and disappearing back into the mist.Our intent this morning was to try to find Silver - Eye. Everyone has concentrated so much on the actions of the other pride for a few days, that none of us had time to track her and her pride. However, even the large pride had moved away from their buffalo kill, and although we could hear them, we did not see them this morning. Vultures galore again provided some excellent photo opportunities. Today they were able to attack the buffalo carcass without interruptions.The buffalo herd have moved onto Paradise Island, and the lions are probably staying as close as possible to them.We could hardly believe our luck...

Everyone was really keen to get going this morning, so after an early rise (04:45), and a quick breakfast, the vehicles were on the road by 05:30. The drive on to the Plains was truly beautiful, with a morning mist lending an ethereal feel to the area. Beautiful shots were captured of tsessebe in the morning mist with the sunrise making the scene quite breathtaking. The vehicles headed straight to the  buffalo, and on the way there found a pride of lions with a newly killed red lechwe. The large male, group of lionesses and two youngsters feasted while cameras clicked. While with these lions, the ODP Safari group could hear the buffalo not too far away, and decided to start heading toward them. The decision was just made when the pride of lions suddenly started roaring. Imagine the vehicles, surrounded by roaring lions, in the morning mist. As they roared, the...