Ruaha and Zanzibar - September / October 2014

[FlyTraveler]

Welcome back FlyTraveller , i am Glad Ruaha fulfilled your expectations!!!

 

Looking forward for photos and stories , i am sure they will bring memories from this amazing place that also i had the privilege to visit .

 

Paco

 

Thanks Paco! Your trip report and fabulous photography were an inspiration for me. I must have seen the TR at least 20-25 times...

Edited October 13, 2014 by FlyTraveler

[FlyTraveler]

Great TR so far, really looking forward to more.

I´m of to SLNP in three weeks, maybe Ruaha next year or KTP or Zakouma.. difficult choices..

 

Thanks Gregor! I'm jealous about SLNP... It's on my list, I hope to visit it some day. You should go to Ruaha, it's totally amazing. I have booked accommodation at KTP for 6 days in April/May 2015.

[FlyTraveler]

@@FlyTraveler Really enjoyed seeing the photos from Iringa. Lovely vivid colours.

 

Thanks Mat, Iringa is quite authentic, never been to Arusha, but I assume that it is perhaps too much influenced by the high visitor's traffic.

[Treepol]

@@FlyTraveler I will be following your TR avidly - Ruaha is my favourite 'wild' African park. Thanks so much for the tip about the en suite accommodation, I have filed this away for future use.

 

Great photos of Istanbul by night that contrast well with the aerial boma shots from the flight and those in Iringa.

[FlyTraveler]

@@FlyTraveler I will be following your TR avidly - Ruaha is my favourite 'wild' African park. Thanks so much for the tip about the en suite accommodation, I have filed this away for future use.

 

Great photos of Istanbul by night that contrast well with the aerial boma shots from the flight and those in Iringa.

 

Thanks for the attention @@Treepol. I will post photos from the cottages and the bandas somewhere in the report (when I get there).

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 29, 2014. Ruaha National Park, afternoon drive.

 

After we settled in and had lunch, we departed for our first game drive in Ruaha. This wasn't the most productive game drive on this trip, but it was a good introduction to the park. We were really tired after the night flight, the flight from Dar to Iringa and the two hours drive from Iringa to Ruaha, I even fell asleep several times while sitting in the Land Rover (still insisted to continue with the game drive).

 

 

Breeding herd of elephants on the Great Ruaha River (which wasn't that great at the end of the dry season, still flowing, though):

 

 

 

 

 

Juvenile male and female Greater kudus:

 

 

 

 

 

Running juvenile male Greater kudu:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here comes the adult male:

Edited October 14, 2014 by FlyTraveler

[xelas]

Looks like AF-C + AF-ON has done the job very well on running kudus. Kudos to you, @@FlyTraveler.

 

Now more photo insight. Have you shot RAW and convert them to JPEG or are these photos JPEG straight out of the camera (SOOC)?

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 29, 2014. Ruaha National Park, afternoon drive.

 

After the last safari trip to S. Africa and Botswana where we used entirely open or open sided vehicles, I was very happy to return to the classic pop-up roof East African style safari vehicle. It helps so much to be able to place my beanbag with the camera somewhere. I also had the option to shoot either from the roof or to kneel on the floor and take lower angle shots through the side windows. My mom (who just turned 75 while we were on this safari) made a great beanbag for me from old jeans, with two long ropes attached on both sides. I would tie one of the ropes to some part of the Land Rover, this way if I drop the beanbag by accident in the middle of a pride of lions, I can still pull it back to the vehicle.

 

I also had two pillow cases with zippers for the two DSLR-s that I carried on this trip. I find this to be a good way to protect the cameras and the lenses from dust and still being able to pull them out relatively fast.

 

 

Elephants eating the bark of a baobab tree:

 

 

 

 

I fell for the Sable antelope, thought it was real and quickly stood up to photograph it. The funnier thing is that lions sometimes take it for real and charge it.

 

 

I had my very old Nikon D50 with 18-70 mm kit lens for scenery shots (kept the D700 with 70-300 mm VR for wildlife) and it actually did pretty good job. The problem with this camera is that it is so old, that it can take only up to 2 GB SD cards, which are rare to find now days and if shooting RAW files they go quickly. I still had 10 cards with me, which was sufficient:

 

 

 

 

Superb starling (in case I mark a wrong name for a bird [or an animal] anywhere in the report, please feel free to correct me):

 

 

[FlyTraveler]

Looks like AF-C + AF-ON has done the job very well on running kudus. Kudos to you, @@FlyTraveler.

 

Now more photo insight. Have you shot RAW and convert them to JPEG or are these photos JPEG straight out of the camera (SOOC)?

 

Thanks xelas, it worked very well, indeed.

 

I wish these were JPG-s straight out of the camera, then I could have finished this report for 2-3 days

[xelas]

I don't know for D50, but D700 should produce quality SOOC JPEGs. At least that was my experience with D7100; have it RAW+JPEG, and final result out of RAW was just slightly better then SOOC JPEG (but probably due to my total lack of any decent PP skills).

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 29, 2014. Ruaha National Park, afternoon drive.

 

 

The first zebra in Ruaha:

 

 

 

 

Defassa waterbuck (no toilet seat stamp on the but):

 

 

Elephants on the Ruaha riverbed (there will be many similar photos on the Ruaha and Mwagusi riverbeds):

 

 

 

 

 

A Marabou stork flying in front of the elephants (kind of small, but still visible):

 

 

 

Marabou storks and vultures feasting on elephant carcass:

 

 

 

Sunset with a baobab tree:

 

 

Sunset with Euphobia Candelabrum:

 

 

If I had any doubts about the natural beauty of the park, they were all gone far away by the end of this first game drive.

[FlyTraveler]

I don't know for D50, but D700 should produce quality SOOC JPEGs. At least that was my experience with D7100; have it RAW+JPEG, and final result out of RAW was just slightly better then SOOC JPEG (but probably due to my total lack of any decent PP skills).

 

I believe that I can manipulate the exposure a lot more with RAW files during PP, but still I didn't know anything about SOOC JPG files, I'll check them out, thanks for the suggestion.

[TonyQ]

@@FlyTraveler

The park certainly does look beautiful - especially the group of elephants in the river

You did well with the sable shot

[wilddog]

Loving this report. Clearly the advice you have received is helping; some lovely images.

 

I particularly like that picture of the boabab with elephant framed by the hole. Often timing is of the essence!

[Africalover]

Great TR and nice pictures , looking foreward to the rest.

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 30, 2014. Ruaha National Park, morning game drive.

 

 

We agreed with Alphonce to just skip breakfast and start the morning game drives at 06:30 h (coming back for lunch bout 13:30-14:00 h). We would carry some snacks in the Land Rover and would share them between three of us.

 

 

View of the sunrise from our cottage:

 

 

 

Exterior view of our cottage (they are all pretty much the same). The panoramic windows are on the other side, facing Ruaha river:

 

 

The first sighting for the day was a lonely Defassa waterbuck:

 

 

I used the "golden hour" to get some scenery shots:

 

 

 

Love the combination of acacia and baobab trees:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyrax on a kopje:

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 30, 2014. Ruaha National Park, morning game drive.

 

 

Next we stopped for a Lilac breasted roller, with the private vehicle we had the luxury to stop for any type of bird or animal or just for taking photo of a tree without feeling guilty in front of vehicle-mates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bull elephant eating dry branches (not much else left at the end of the dry season):

 

 

 

 

 

 

The elephant was very relaxed, flapping the ears just for ventilation:

 

 

Then we stopped at a picnic site next to a big baobab tree on the bank of Ruaha river and I used the situation to take some photos of our ride for the next six days:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looked like an old bee hive:

Edited October 14, 2014 by FlyTraveler

[xelas]

Those baobab trees are so photogenic! And the Landy itself merit a visit to Ruaha .

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 30, 2014. Ruaha National Park, morning game drive.

 

 

Continuing with the morning drive on our second day in Ruaha.

 

 

Impalas on the opposite side of Ruaha River:

 

 

 

 

 

Crocs in the river (can not ID the bird on the edge of the water):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View of the TANAPA en-suite cottagers from the river:

 

 

Groups of birds (mostly Pelicans, but also Yellow-billed storks, Egrets, Spoonbills, Hamercops and Herons). The problem with wildlife viewing in Ruaha is that off-road driving is not permitted and quite often it's just not possible to get an optimal viewing angle:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baboons in the riverbed:

[michael-ibk]

Love the roller in the sun. Those cottages look good to me, certainly a nice view! Hard to tell about the bird you asked for, possibly a Water Thick-Knee?

[TonyQ]

@@FlyTraveler

The park looks beautiful - great shots of the landscape as well as the wildlife.

[FlyTraveler]

Sept. 30, 2014. Ruaha National Park, morning game drive.

 

 

The first lions that we saw in Ruaha NP, right on the bank of Ruaha river. it was a pride of 9 to 11 lions (it was hard to tell, since they didn't all stay at the same place and were moving and changing positions) - all adult females and grown up cubs. They were doing what lions do best - snoozing and rolling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an injured lioness:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pault]

It's great that you got all of Ruaha's lovely (and very strong) golden light and blue, blue skies. We had cloud, cloud cloud and I really missed it - not just for photography but for the special feeling it gives the place.

 

Enjoying your report and seeing all the sights. Greta view of the river from the cottages.

 

Did I dream it or did your mother appear briefly in this narrative?

[Marks]

@@FlyTraveler This thread moves fast! Just started and it's already on page 3. Well-deserved, too. It's always a pleasure to see your aerial shots. I agree that baobabs + acacias is about as good as it gets. Particularly like the LBR shot as well as the photos of the community.

[FlyTraveler]

It's great that you got all of Ruaha's lovely (and very strong) golden light and blue, blue skies. We had cloud, cloud cloud and I really missed it - not just for photography but for the special feeling it gives the place.

 

Enjoying your report and seeing all the sights. Greta view of the river from the cottages.

 

Did I dream it or did your mother appear briefly in this narrative?

 

 

Thanks for the good words, @@pault!

 

I was praying for a blue sky, this does make a big difference, indeed and it is second best after blue sky with small white clouds (we had that on the day we were leaving, which allowed for very nice shots at the airstrip). We had bad clouds with low light only one afternoon, just enough to make me appreciate the sunny sky even more.

 

Yes, I mentioned my mum, she sewed a great beanbag out of a pair of old jeans for me just before we left for the safari, with two long ropes attached on both sides (following my specifications and even improving the design).

 

I will check again your TR for updates, really curious to read the narrative and see Ruaha through your lens (and the other places, as well).