Ben’s Bulletin: This morning we drove straight down to the area where we had seen the huge crossing yesterday, and sure enough as we arrived we could see the buildup of wildebeest on the opposite bank. We scarcely had time to position ourselves really well for the action when the front animals leaped into the water – the crossing had started. Within moments the others followed, and although the crossing was not a huge as yesterday it is still amazing to see approximately 3000 wildebeest accompanied by their ever present zebra companions jump into the river and make the crossing with such determination. About half the animals from the far bank made the crossing at that time. For some reason the other 3000 remained behind to consider a later crossing. But on our side of the bank consternation arose as a group of young calves returned to the...
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Blog posts tagged in Wim van den Heever
Ben’s Bulletin: This morning we drove straight down to the area where we had seen the huge crossing yesterday, and sure enough as we arrived we could see the buildup of wildebeest on the opposite bank. We scarcely had time to position ourselves really well for the action when the front animals leaped into the water – the crossing had started. Within moments the others followed, and although the crossing was not a huge as yesterday it is still amazing to see approximately 3000 wildebeest accompanied by their ever present zebra companions jump into the river and make the crossing with such determination. About half the animals from the far bank made the crossing at that time. For some reason the other 3000 remained behind to consider a later crossing. But on our side of the bank consternation arose as a group of young calves returned to the...
Wim’s news Today is surely one of the most amazing days of my photographic career – nonstop action, from the first to the last. We spent almost the entire day with our cameras glued to our eyes … So where do I begin? Late yesterday we had seen a buildup of wildebeest on the far bank of the Mara River and we knew that the animals would not risk a crossing in the dark so we headed straight there this morning. We reached the spot at around 0700 and placed our vehicles in the best spots to capture the action, keeping an eye on the wildebeest all the while. We had just settled into our chosen spot when lions ran right past us, running between our vehicles and straight toward the wildebeest. The flattened themselves and started to stalk the oncoming wildebeest, and grabbed one...
Mara news from Wim: Last night as we were relaxing we were told that a cheetah with four very small cubs had just started to hunt when a thunderstorm interrupted her, leaving her hungry overnight and likely to hunt gain this morning. It was also unlikely that she would move four cubs during the night – especially in the rain. With this in mind we made an extra effort to leave early and drove straight to where she had been sighted. We could have had blinkers on, hardly looking to the left or right in our excitement at being able to catch up with her. When we found her she had caught a Thomson’s Gazelle and was preparing to disembowel her kill and to enjoy her meal. We spent most of the morning with her as she ate, then suckled her cubs, then rested and then ate...
Ben's Bulletin: We were up extra early this morning for our extra spectacular early morning Balloon Safari. We arrived at the airfield while it was still quite dark and excitedly took photos of each other and of the balloon as it inflated. Finally it was filled and we leapt into the basket … and lift off. We spent the next hour and a quarter experiencing what it must be like to be an eagle. The views of the Mara were breathtaking and the early light, with the sun peeping over the horizon, creating long shadows and shapes kept us enthralled. The moving animals made the shadow shapes even more interesting and grotesque. Our pilot flew the balloon at times extremely high, and we could see the wildebeest and zebra packed onto the plains, with some herds consisting of 10 000 or more animals creating dark blotches and stains on...
Ben’s Bulletin from Masai Mara: Here we are with one foot in Kenya and one in Tanzania - and we are half in Masai Mara and half in Serengeti! When we left the Lodge early this morning the skies were clear so we took a meandering drive to enjoy the early morning light, the sunrise and the magnificent scenery. The highlight of this early drive came when we spotted a White - headed Vulture. We were delighted and immediately stopped quite a distance away to get some record shots. Then we moved a little closer, slowly so as not to alarm the bird, and when still at a safe distance we stopped again to get some ‘safety’ shots. When done we approached even closer. Now we could get really good images and our memory cards filled rapidly. We approached twice more until we were close enough to get portrait...
From Wim: What a fantastic, beautiful, amazing day! We rushed out of camp early to be there for any action. As the sun rose, sending shards of unbelievably beautiful iridescent light through the heavy clouds and across the sky we found a herd of elephant right up on the escarpment. We were within meters of the animals and the light behind them gave us the chance to fill memory cards with the most exquisite images. Just 3 km further on a pride of lions feasting on a kill was followed almost immediately by two male cheetah walking down the road, we followed them for some time until they came across a huge boulder, about 4 to 5 meters tall which they proceeded to climb. They looked breathtakingly magnificent peering over the rim of the boulder out onto the Mara Plains below. Having checked out the entire area...
Masai Mara Update from Ben: Being in the bush is always magical - and then you get those days that are almost too beautiful to describe. We were up and out just before sunrise and were in time to see those first early ethereal looking rays creep through the heavy, puffy, grand cloud formations. We stopped to take photographs until the sun was well above the horizon, with the flat-topped acacias creating beautiful scenery for us. Driving on we encountered a tiny Topi – with the umbilical cord still attached, and practicing its first steps into its beautiful new world. A large matriarchal elephant herd was next. They were in longish grass and with that beautiful, dramatic sky behind them, the scene was set again for more and more photography. A very restless lioness with cubs was close by. The remains of a kill were not far...
From Wim at Masai Mara: After our flight from OR Thambo we were delighted to enjoy a hearty breakfast at the Serena hotel before our flight to Masai Mara. We arrived at Kichwa Tembo in time to unpack and have lunch. Hearing that there was possible wildebeest activity to the south, we headed off that way as soon as lunch was done. Most of the wildebeest had moved from this area, and the many remaining ones were grazing peacefully. The scenery here is lovely, and we were able to capture wonderful photographs in this amazing setting. Not only wildebeest, but also elephant, buffalo, giraffe and different antelope kept us busy the entire afternoon. As we sit outside enjoying a pre-dinner refreshment, the stars seem unbelievably bright, and the sounds and smells of the African bush are all around us. And as we look out over the...
Andrew's Notes:Our journeys to the Northern Marsh area have been so successful that we decided to start there again this morning.We found fairly fresh lion tracks and followed these until we found the pride. They had just finished consuming an Nyala that they caught - probably during the night -and we're lying a few meters away. The whole pride was lolling around with the cubs playing, climbing and chasing each other around. We remained with the pride until the senior lionesses moved the whole pride into dense bush, where we were unable to follow.The marshy clearing was teeming with game with plentiful impala, wildebeest and zebras. We stopped just long enough to get some photographs of these before we left and headed off to where we had seen the cheetahs yesterday, hoping that they would still be in the area.To our delight we found them...
From Brendon:We really wanted to find a leopard this morning and as we left the Lodge we picked up some fresh leopard tracks. This is surely Salayexe's prints we decided and followed them. The tracks became fresher and fresher as we followed them and after what felt like a very exciting and suspenseful time we found her.The tracks did belong to Salayexe and we were able to get some lovely shots of her in the decent morning light. We remained with her until the time came for us to return to the Lodge for breakfast.During the day a cold wind blew in and when we left for the afternoon drive we heard that four male lions had moved quite close from a neighbouring reserve, so we off we went to find them.But before we reached that area we came across a large herd of elephants in the lovely...
