Kgalagadi Summer: Self-Drive and Self-Catering (!) in South Africa, January 2015

[Atravelynn]

RE: #64

 

Outstanding sequence. I love the water running out of the cheetah's mouth. "So, the world's shortest game drive, approximately 500 metres on the main road. Not bad! Perhaps the other guests at camp had a great afternoon, but I think we were more lucky....."

 

It is unlikely the waterhole could have beaten the cheetah activity, which I am glad had them all reuniting for a happy ending. When you first mentioned the split in guest activities, I thought about the potential very different outcomes and how there is that concern when hearing from others about the road not taken. Funny how you don't have to go far. Here at home when we go on a walk my husband always jokes about the good sightings we have at basecamp. In other words we see a deer or interesting bird near our home and not out on the trails.

[penolva]

 

I love these pics of the storm!!! Fabulous! How long is the exposure?

 

@@jeremie

 

They were done with a manual shutter release, using trial and error. The ones posted were between 45-75 secs and have more than one lightning bolt in each

 

At 75secs how did you stop overexposing the storm photographs? What ISO did you set the camera on? We didn't have any luck with the storm in March with the Nikon just with the Panasonic camcorder. Thanks Pen

[Tdgraves]

@@penolva It was pitch black (as you can tell by me leaving the lens cap on...) which is why they weren't overexposed. A bolt of lightning is really fast and so the rest is really black. ISO 800 f 6.3 (not sure why we didn't change this - I blame the wine )

[Tdgraves]

Day 4 Evening Drive from Kieliekrankie

 

I was so excited after uploading my cheetah pics that I missed a day, so this is actually day 3 PM drive and what I have called day 3 PM drive is actually day 4 PM drive. I'm sure you can forgive me...

 

 

This is all we saw that was worth taking a photo of

[penolva]

@@penolva It was pitch black (as you can tell by me leaving the lens cap on...) which is why they weren't overexposed. A bolt of lightning is really fast and so the rest is really black. ISO 800 f 6.3 (not sure why we didn't change this - I blame the wine )

Thanks for explaining. Will have to experiment if it's not that dark next time and see what we get. Pressing the shutter when you see it does not work, lol, and we find the wine always adds to the hilarity?

[Tdgraves]

Day 5 Transfer from Kieliekrankie to Nossob

 

As it was going to be a long transfer, we decided to have a lie in and skip the morning drive, leaving at check out time. I wasn't able to lie in though, as the sun was streaming in the window. Unfortunately I was too late for any sunrise shots . It was a really hot day and there wasn't much about. It is quite a long and bumpy drive to Nossob, so we were both tired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some luck with birds at the picnic site, whilst we sat in the shade

 

 

 

 

 

We were quite pleased to get to Nossob and unpack, we were so hot that we used the pool, which was very nice

[Tdgraves]

 

@@penolva It was pitch black (as you can tell by me leaving the lens cap on...) which is why they weren't overexposed. A bolt of lightning is really fast and so the rest is really black. ISO 800 f 6.3 (not sure why we didn't change this - I blame the wine )

Thanks for explaining. Will have to experiment if it's not that dark next time and see what we get. Pressing the shutter when you see it does not work, lol, and we find the wine always adds to the hilarity?

 

 

I think we could probably have turned the ISO down and used a higher f stop, but we were unprepared and over-wined.....next time we'll do better (I hope)!

[jeremie]

Here is some few recipes for lightning bolts:

http://www.fotonaturaleza.cl/details.php?image_id=51339&mode=search

http://www.fotonaturaleza.cl/details.php?image_id=50058&mode=search

http://www.fotonaturaleza.cl/details.php?image_id=49916&mode=search

 

I really enjoy your storm pictures

[Tdgraves]

Here is some few recipes for lightning bolts:

http://www.fotonaturaleza.cl/details.php?image_id=51339&mode=search

http://www.fotonaturaleza.cl/details.php?image_id=50058&mode=search

http://www.fotonaturaleza.cl/details.php?image_id=49916&mode=search

 

I really enjoy your storm pictures

 

my Spanish isn't up to it, I'm afraid.....

[graceland]

@Tdgraves

 

I don't know how I missed those incredible shots of the cheetah. Love the water running out of its' mouth - and the sounds you provided - I don't think i'd ever heard it before.

 

And yes, wine adds much hilarity to any trip one is on , esp if there are decisions to be had.....iso's and things like that! And being tired, and excited all the same time

 

Fun riding along with you!

[Marks]

The third picture (well, all of them, really) in post #106 is perfect. You can feel the energy of the moment even at a glance.

[Tdgraves]

Day 5 Evening Drive from Nossob North

 

There was a storm coming in, so the drive was very quiet. No photos

[Tdgraves]

Day 6 Morning Drive from Nossob North

 

It is a gamble whether to turn North or South, so we chose North. We were among the first out after having a lie-in on the previous day. It was still pretty dark when we signed out. No more than 100 metres from the gate, then a pair of cape foxes darted in front of us. Unfortunately the camera which I grabbed was the 7D, so it is a bit grainier than it might have been. Only managed to get one shot though and it was our only sighting of Cape foxes....

 

 

As the light started to get nice, I was pleased that there was some activity at the water holes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is one from the OH, which I just love

 

 

We got a fair way north and as there is no convenient picnic stop (i.e. toilet) we decided to turn around and head slowly back to camp. Not long after we did this we noticed fresh lion spoor, heading south. Presumably all of the vehicles streaming north (including us) were too busy looking around, rather than at the sandy road and I suppose when the sun is very low, it is more difficult to see. We tracked it for several kms and then lost the footprints, we think off into the bush, rather than under tyre tracks, as we had managed to lose them and find them again several times (the joy of sandy roads). So again, no lion, but they were close and we had three days in this area to find them .

 

 

This goshawk gave us some practice at taking off/in flight photos

 

 

 

And then made a kill! Very difficult to focus through the sticks though

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a bad drive and it more than made up for the night before! Back to camp for breakfast

[xelas]

@ Tdgraves: a drive without any photo ?? So, it can happen also to you ?! Springboks, they are so 3-dimensional. Were they done with full frame body? And the OH, he has an eye for ... the eyes

[Tdgraves]

@ Tdgraves: a drive without any photo ?? So, it can happen also to you ?! Springboks, they are so 3-dimensional. Were they done with full frame body? And the OH, he has an eye for ... the eyes

@@xelas none that made it to the favourites folder at least....I'll pass son your appreciation to the OH

 

Ps if you want someone to get a message you need to do @theirname without a space, so @ their name would not work

[Tdgraves]

PS yes full frame body, canon 5d mark iii

[Atravelynn]

Resident Barn Owls, what a nice bonus.

 

That jackal and the flying insect looks like something out of a an illustrated fairytale! Then the goshawk comes on the scene.

 

Your night shots are fantastic. You got the lens cap off in time.

[jeremie]

I am a bit surprised by all these man-made waterholes, the high densities of mammals seem to be artificial.

Could you tell me if they were bored to mitigate the problem generated by fences, blocking the former migrations allowing for the animals to move far away and find good pastures and water?

[Tdgraves]

@@jeremie when the park was first established a boundary/border fence was erected which prevented the usual migration to find water, so the waterholes were added. It is the desert after all...

[Peter Connan]

@@Tdgraves, I absolutely love the jackal with the muddy nose! And the Goshawk with the kill!

[Tdgraves]

Thanks @@Peter Connan me too! It was by far the nicest looking jackal we saw. Most of them were fairly scrawny looking. Have passed on the praise to the OH, who is crowing.....

[Treepol]

@@Tdgraves great TR, I have just caught up with the last day.

 

Really like the photos of the flying sand grouse, the wildes lined up at the waterhole and the intense looking jackal.

[Tdgraves]

@@Treepol they fly surprisingly fast, so it was actually quite hard to catch them!

[Tom Kellie]

 

~ @@Tdgraves

 

Pure magic!

The very largest of ‘Likes’!

Tom K.

 

 

[Tdgraves]

Day 6 Evening Drive from Nossob South

 

There is a hide in Nossob, and we saw some secretary birds land whilst we were eating brunch, so we thought we'd wander across and have a look

 

 

 

 

As we had not yet been south, apart from when we transferred to Nossob, we thought that we would do this evening.

 

 

It was a hot day and the car thermometer reached 42 degrees briefly....

 

We met a professional photographer, Gerhard Steenkamp (www.gerhardsteenkamp.com check our his images, they are amazing) sat by the side of the road and so we asked him why he was there. There was a male lion, but as the grass was so high and the road quite a lot lower than the level of the surroundings, that he could not be seen. Given that it was so hot and there was not much else around, we thought that we might as well park and wait to see what happened. So we waited. And waited. After about an hour Gerhard gave up and made his way north. We had invested so much time, we thought we'd wait longer. Every so often he would roll over and you'd catch a glimpse of a leg...

 

 

After about an hour and a half, just as the light was getting nice, he finally got up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So it was worth the wait!

 

As we got back to the camp gate, we again bumped into Gerhard, who was focusing towards the waterhole. The rest of the pride had come to camp for a drink! Everyone returning from drives, ran to leave their permits at the office and descended on the hide. The sun had already gone down, so lots of cameras that were on auto had their flashes going off. The lions didn't seem to be bothered by this, the incessant beeping or the excited chatter from the humans in the very full hide....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pride seemed to split into two factions close to camp and spend the whole night calling to each other