A New Day, A new National Park

Here are a few snaps taken on my first day in Pilansberg National Park, three hours drive north west of Johannesburg. Never been here before but wanted to experience a different animal habitat after the deserts of Namibia.  Pilansberg was a natural choice because it is so easy to get to from J'Berg.  I mis-judged the time thanks to daylight savings so was up and ready by 4am wondering why no one else was in the reception. An hour later they all turned up and off we went. I had a private tour as the other guests booked for the safari were obviously also struggling with daylight saving. Here are a few of my best shots from day one.

Moonshot - as I got up one hour sooner than needed I had a bit of spare time on  my hands!

Mr Kranky-pants in action.
I suddenly felt I was going to end up as one of those YouTube videos featuring a game truck tipped over by a rampaging elephant. If we had not reversed quick enough, would have been.
Years ago all the old bulls died so the young elephants had no role models. In short, they all went a bit rogue, trying to mate with rhino and pulling fences down and generally misbehaving. 
Park authorities shipped five old bulls in from Kruger and within a week the bad behaviour stopped. We thought this might be one of those (now quite ancient) bulls.

Bull elephant 'in must' - meaning he is loaded with testosterone, ready to mate and very aggressive.  He walked out in front of the cruiser and mock charged us as we quickly reversed out of his 'personal' zone.
Quite a moment - at one moment he got so close my 24mm lens wasn't wide enough (above).

Southern giraffe - these species are so much lighter than those seen in Tanzania.
Older giraffe get darker.  The patterning is not for camouflage, but cooling.
The dark/light combination sets up a heat/cool circulation on the skin strong enough to provide a slight cooling effect on the body surface.

At the weekend this park is busy with self-drivers from Joberg. Someone sighted a dead impala up a tree next to the road and then the leopard appeared.
Unfortunately it was a dense tree so even seeing it was tough, let alone getting a good shot.  This was the only clear glimpse I had in about 50 tries. 450mmm focal length, 1/400s @ f4

Actually there were two leopards up a tree, but not at the same time, that would be too much to expect.
This was a smaller male,  seen the next time we drove past the traffic jam which was now being monitored by a park ranger ( to dissuade anyone from getting out of their cars). To get a more usable image, I bracketed the scene (3 shots) and produced this HDR of the tree leopard with better results.
An hour of cloning got rid of the worst leaves/twigs over the face.

Third time we drove past in the late afternoon, the small male was lying in full view on the roadside among some tree stumps.
The traffic jam was even worse but I eventually got this shot with my EF300mm lens (1/25s @ f2.8, ISO 1600) manual focussing.

Three minutes later the light had all but gone - and then the leopard sat up! Luckily one of the guides used the spotlight and I got this nice shot. 1/40s @ f2.8, ISO 3200, MF.

In the centre of Pilansberg there's a lake - the flooded part of the original caldera.
At one end there's an excellent bird hide providing good voews of the birds, including a whole bunch of pied kingfishers

Reed Cormorant

Southern Masked Weaver weaving.

Sunrise and a white rhino by the roadside

Two Red Hartebeeste keeping their usual distance from the roadside.  This is the second-fastest antelope in Africa. Fastest is the Tsessebe (which I have never seen).

Lesser striped swallows are everywhere in the park.

Lion Road Safety in Pilansberg National Park

It's not often you see a lioness with cubs in the wild, but we did yesterday.  One lioness and two cubs to be precise.  The morning started with a leopard sighting - it was up a tree - every photographer's dream shot.  Unfortunately not only was it in the thickest, bushiest tree, there were 15 vehicles parked along the roadside obstructing what miniscule view there was. We waited for our turn and I got a few leafy snaps. A serious pixel surgery job for later.
Nikki the guide was just backing out to move ahead when a pride of lions crossed behind us.  The female actually stopped in the road, sniffed some poo left there by another animal, then rolled in it - just like a dog.  I was told they do this to camouflage their scent which makes it easier to creep up on their prey.  They disappeared into the bush.
Later that afternoon we got sight of them again.  The pride had killed a waterbuck near the dam in the park and were munching on it when a crocodile intervened - I only heard this second-hand as we were miles away at the time.  We raced over to the spot to see the female walking up to the road with her cubs.  (No sign of the croc).  Clearly she wanted to cross but there were so many cars and so drivers did not recognise what she intended to do. We were right at the front so reversed to make a clearing. She actually mock-charged us a couple of times, then picked one cub up in her mouth and walked 100 metres along the side of the track till there was room to pass unmolested by the tourists.

Just like a dog. A lion will roll in poo to disguise the scent of a predator

Traffic jam in Pilansberg.
The park employs rangers who monitor radio traffic and turn up at a cat sighting to make sure no one does anything stupid. 
Apparently some idiots try to get out of their vehicles to get a 'better' view, kids hang out of windows, and some people stay too long, creating spectator rage...

I loved this shot - the mother is actually growling heavily because she wants to cross - but there are too many cars.
Canon EOS 300mm + 1.4X Extender, f2.8, f4 @ 1/400s, ISO 1600.

Not a yawn - the mother is getting very kranky at not being allowed over the road. 
With two cubs in tow, she is very dangerous.

After five or six minutes, the drivers finally stopped following the lioness allowing her room to cross with her cubs.

Fish River Canyon

It’s the biggest thing in Namibia and is the largest canyon in the world, second only to the Grand Canyon in the USA. Unlike its American cousin, Fish River Canyon is a long way from anywhere – we drove two and a half hours out of Keetmanshoop to get there, stayed overnight at the wacky Canon Roadhouse – from where it was another 20 mins drive to the canyon edge. But it is definitely worth it – firstly to see the canyon, but also to experience the wacky roadhouse with its unique car 'museum' inside and out
(http://robinnicholsworkshops.blogspot.com/2014/09/roadhouse-roadsters.html)

On the road from the Namibian border to Keetmanshoop

Just before sunset produces some great hints of colour on an otherwise totally shaded canyon

An hour before sunset produces flat looking views - this is looking towards the official viewpoint seen to the left of centre

You can hike into the canyon but from the top, this looks like a very hard prospect. The canyon is 160kms long and 550metres deep!

Complete panorama of the canyon an hour after dawn - this is a tough place to shoot. At any other time of the day the light is too intense and shadowless producing a very bleached out result.

Biltong, dried meat for every occasion

You can buy it anywhere in Southern Africa. Biltong, an air-dried and spiced meat is ubiquitous in the region and replaces snacks like chips and beer nuts at parties, bar-b-qs (braais) and while driving.  It even appears on a menu at the Hilton menu in Windhoek - a plate of biltong and drywors (a sort of salami style sausage that is also dried to the consistency of boot leather).

Biltong comes in a range of meats including: beef, kudu, ostrich, impala, springbok and even shark.  You can also find biltong flavoured with different spices - chilli is my favourite as it can mask the often strongish meaty flavour.  The main ingredients include:  black pepper, coriander, salt, sugar, vinegar and barbecue spice.  Modern-day ingredients include: balsamic or malt vinegar, dry ground chili peppers, nutmeg, garlic, bicarbonate of soda, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, and saltpetre as a preservative.

Leopards at Okonjima Reserve

Okonjima in Namibia is the place to go if you want to see leopard and cheetah in their natural environment.  There you can see the Africat organisation in action, caring for rehabituated cats in its 200 square kilometre reserve. 
Radio collars are fitted to the cats and also to some of the other animals in the reserve (hyena and wild dogs) so they can find them if they need medical attention and of course for visitors to have achance of seeing the animals up close.  I have done several leopard drives on my two visits - you usually find at least one of the cats in the park - but you don't necessarily see them!  Leopard like to hide in the day, choosing the densest thickets well away from the 4WD tracks that criss-cross the park. If this happens the best you can hope to get is a disappearing cat as it heads off at speed in another direction. This trip we were lucky. The first cat that registered on the guide's VHF tracker sloped off when we go near leaving six photographers with not enough time to turn their cameras on.  Conversely we spotted the second cat walking towards us along a grassed river bed - or at least we saw its tail.  I clicked away and came up  with this hilarious shot - all tail but still no cat.  He slumped into the undergrowth and after some very clever manoeuvring through the bush, we got a clear view.  In typical fashion the cat took no notice of us, preferring to close its eyes and nap in the heat of the later afternoon. Occasionally we got shots when a sudden rustle or animal call made the cat lift its head to check. 

The last leopard sighting was as the light was almost gone - even 12,800 ISO was not fast enough to get a sharp shot so we all sat back and enjoyed the moment.
If you take the educational tour you get to meet either/or Lewa.  I photographed Wahu last year - this year it was Lewa that was called on.  The organisation have a number of rescue cats that have lived with humans - usually as 'pets'. This means that they can never really survive in the wild. At Africat they live in a huge enclosure - 5 or 7 hectares and only come close to the hide when it is feeding time. It's a great opportunity to get uninterrupted shots of these magnificent creatures in the (semi-) wild without their radio collars.

Lewa snacking on a donkey chop.

Cheetahs at Okonjima

Okonjima, part of the Africat organisation in Namibia is one of my favourite African destinations - partly because it's a great place to visit in terms of food and accommodation but it is also a terrific opportunity for any photographer to get eye-popping shots of leopard and cheetah in their natural habitat.

The Africat organisation began by looking after 'rescued' cheetahs (and leopard) from outlying farms in the northern part of the country (because there are so many farms here, all predators run the risk of being shot on site by nervous farmers.  It now has so many on its property, it no longer rescues animals, preferring to educate the locals into not shooting the predators, and by building kraals for the famers to house their livestock overnight - away from the potential killers.  So, by protecting the already rescued cheetahs and educating the wider public, Africat is going a long way in helping stop the loss of this amazing creature.

Early start on a game drive looking for cheetahs wearing a radio collar

One of the many distractions while out looking for cheetah in the early morning. 
Two kudu in the park.

Male cheetah with radio collar

Male cheetah in the 200 square kilometre Okonjima estate

Walking up to within 15 feet of a fully grown cheetah is quite something. 
They mostly take no notice of humans simply because they have never been threatened by them. 
This male was far more interested in an animal at the end of the clearing than in us.

Wildlife shooting in Walvis Bay, Namibia

Visitors to the town of Swakopmund in Namibia might be well aware of the amazing array of wildlife in and around its massive lagoon.   Most do a tour of the harbour.  Some go as far as Sandwich Harbour, another massive lagoon 25kms to the south of Swakop.  This place is popular because it's where the massive dunes of the Namib Naukluft National Park spill into the ocean.

View of the dunes meeting the South Atlantic. Sandwich Harbour used to be a whaling station - now it's a national park

We did both: a boat trip into the lagoon and a 4WD drive into the dunes.  For a photographer this is a great opportunity because there’s so much to shoot - landscapes, wildlife - even the commercial salt pans are impressive viewed from atop one of the nearby dunes. 

All shots were taken using a Canon EOS 5D MkIII and EF300mm f2.8 lens with a 1.4X or 2X Extender - I prefer the 1.4 as this makes almost no difference to the final quality (I find images shot with the 2X Extender are often soft unless shot at smaller apertures).

Lucky shot. Six pelicans came gliding and soaring along the dunes at the end of the day. 
We saw them coming but were not really fast enough to set up and wait for them.
This was a lucky shot, taken from the Land Rover's side window as they glided past.

From the top of one of the higher dunes we say this ostrich determinedly plodding north towards the edge of the sand.
It made a great off-centre shot to emphasise the size of the bird against the massive backdrop of the dunes.

I could say this was shot after days trekking into the deep interior of the Namib Naukluft park
- but it's actually a snap taken out of the car window as we drove to Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay is famous for the mass of Lesser and Greater flamingos that populate the shallows along the town waterfront.

This is a lesser flamingo walking over the mud flats, Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay: Avocet trawling for food in the shallows

Walvis bay: Little Egret

Walvis Bay lagoon: Great White Pelican

Walvis Bay lagoon: flying kelp gull

Walvis Bay lagoon: Heaviside dolphin jumping out of the swell

Walvis Bay lagoon: Heaviside dolphin jumping out of the swell

Walvis Bay lagoon: Heaviside dolphin riding the bow wave of a tourist boat

Walvis Bay lagoon: Fur seals frolicking just off the coast

Great white pelican in Walvis Bay harbour

Bull seal protecting his harem of females. Walvis bay lagoon.

Close up, Great White Pelican

Commercial salt pans to the south of Walvis Bay.
Namibia 'mines' in excess of one million tonnes of industrial grade salt from the sea each year.