Namibia and Zambia 2015 - What could go wrong this time

[dlo]

A slightly later start this morning and one of the last times we are not up at 6 we say our sad goodbye's and are taken back to our trusty little Polo. We are transferred back to our freshly scrubbed vehicle by our ranger who informs us of a visit by a leopard last night. Little did I know this would foreshadow a multitude of leopard's in Luangwa. We stopped in sleepy little Kamanjab for gas,food and the most essentail item of all toothpaste, I can't even describe my happiness at seeing Sensodyne!

After a second police stop that I had completely forgotten about which entailed a couple of hello's and a quick look at the car we took a good tarred road to Etosha. Going through formalities at the entrance gate is a breeze and you are through in minutes. After that it is a little game drive to Okaukuejo to check into you're room. Okaukuejo is huge and certainly not to everyone's taste so after a bit of a search we find the admin office to get our room and details sorted out. This takes a little longer as everyone is going a little slower and a couple of grumpy tourists don't help matters My strategically worn Arsenal shirt comes in handy again as the lady welcomes me with a comment and moves things along for us.

 

The reason my Etosha stay moved about so much is several accomodation's were already booked up. I tried to get a waterhole view room which with there balconies would provide a constant view,and always annoyed me when people were not using them but they were already gone. We were able to get a couple of nights in the view rooms staying in room 24 from which we were only seconds from the hole but i would regret not having the balcony tomorrow.

Just follow the path.

Our room before we messed it up.

 

Having not eaten much we booked an early dinner and spent a couple of hours before dinner at the waterhole. A pretty decent stream of animals greeted us we head back to the room for a bit as its still a little hot for to much activity. Of course I look up and we can just make out some elephants. We get their in time to watch them leave but I'm sure we'll see more.

My first Kudu

Lucky little zebra.

Another first

 

Meals are fine here nothing spectacular but it's buffet so you should be able to find something. Chris explains her allergies to the chef and he goes and gets some steaks and cooks them for her on a separate grill. We get back to the waterhole and spend hours there. A ridiculous, constant stream of wildlife it reaffirms my love of waterholes. We get our first rhino and he is shortly joined by a mother and her calf. They come together after a while and we get a lot of tension as their displeasure with each other continues of and on for a long time. The pressure is taken off the poor guy with the appearance of another rhino, and another and another, ok you get the point. well at one point we are at 8 rhinos at once, I don't know if that's normal but holy s**t this is awesome! Oh yeah a couple of male elephants come down too so that's cool too.

 

Probably our only guinea fowl picture

We really struggled with night time photography.

 

We just love the waterhole and decide to just hang out there tomorrow and skip driving around. It's a good decision as we will get lots of good sightings. If there is anyone out there reading this with some advice for night time photography I would love some tips.

 

 

 

 

 

[xelas]

@@dlo (and others interested)

 

Night time photography: use a tripod; use the highest ISO you are comfortable with (?? 3200 on your DSLR ??); use spot metering; use RAW for changing the WB in PP (OK, that is White Balance in Post Processing); get out with at least 3 layers of clothes, a wool cap and sometimes also gloves; do not forget hot coffee and a flask !

The rhino shots are typical for floodlit waterholes; the light reflecting from the water surface makes those annoying horizontal stripes on rhino bodies.

 

Maybe a tip also for photographing in harsh midday light: use CP-L filter! (that is use polariser filter).

[Big Andy]

All good advise from @@xelas especially use raw so you can alter the white balance later, but in all honesty your images look fine as they are, eg night time shots are supposed to look different to daylight and have a great atmosphere.

Really enjoying your TR.

[dlo]

@@xelas @@Big Andy

 

Thanks for any and all advice. We probably have hundreds of night time photos but I just felt they did not measure up for what some of what I see here. We've never brought a tripod so that could be something for us to look at.

[Towlersonsafari]

@dio the photos look splendid to me-much better than your choice of NFL anfd Footy teams!- Really interested about etosha. the sightings look great but the adverse comments about the food and the crowds put us off-are we being too precious?-were there any/many others at the waterhole or did the great sightings make up for any other distractions?. looking forward to further updates!Very impressed by the chef's help with diet-but then we find that if we are polite and patient( and also looking like foolish english folk who should not be allowed out on their own also helps) we get good service

[Treepol]

@@dlo really enjoying your TR, the Polo did a good job!

[Marks]

The rhinos at night look almost haunting. The pictures are dripping with atmosphere.

 

 

What bold silhouettes! Was there any post-processing involved? I really like this one.

[dlo]

@@Towlersonsafari

 

I think for the most part we were well taken care of for her allergies and Chris always feels bad about asking for help because she is allergic to so many things and as Canadians I think we are obligated to apologize for everything! At some places though she really gets some blank looks regarding this. She has started getting itchy a few times after asking what something has been cooked in even after being assured its okay. Its no one's fault though its just a difficult thing to deal with. Between her medications and food she brings with her and also camera equipment we are always stressed about weight on our flights.

 

For what its worth I will give you my opinions on what my experience at the waterholes was on my next post. I definitely have some opinions to share.

[dlo]

@@Marks

 

We were still using film before this trip and had never done any post processing before. Chris downloaded Lightroom and played with it without much success. I'm playing around Youtube like usual and I see some tutorials on the Londolozi Channel which really helped and we played around with maybe 10% of our pictures.

 

 

So that's our before and after. I like it but I know nothing about how people's opinions are towards working photos. Most of our pictures aren't touched up yet but most look pretty nice.

[Marks]

Looks superb to me. You've brought out all the strengths of the original shot without making it seem fake or overproduced. So I would call it a success!

[dlo]

Some lions calling out in the night and I sure wish we had that balcony now, I'm not willing to run out in the middle of the night to check if they are near as I have no idea if they ever come into the camp, but the camp itself is loaded with jackal's. They surround the restaurant and you will always pass several on the walk back to you're room. An hour at the waterhole and off for breakfast as its now quiet we decide to definitely stay all day at camp. The morning provides a constant stream of giraffe, zebra, oryx, impala, and plenty of springbok. Most of the action revolves around plenty of impala battles and very nervous oryx who after getting close to the water can still take around 20 minutes just to get their drink.

These guys never tired out

 

No migration here

 

 

 

 

After lunch we had some new neighbours in the room next to us and ended up visiting for quite a while but I caught sight of an elephant and headed back. Shortly after the first guy showed up another male came lumbering down. He definitely established himself as the dominant one after it looked for a couple of seconds they might have an issue with each other but things settled down and they were eventually joined by another male. They drank and splashed for a long time and then appeared to sleep for a long time as they were motionless for a good half hour. I don't know if this is regular behaviour as I've never noticed before but one guy constantly rested his trunk on his tusk. Beautiful amazing creatures their destruction is a tragedy.

 

He was the only one who was always resting his trunk

 

That was the prime drinking spot

 

 

 

 

 

Our evening is even better than yesterday. The rhinos come early and often and we lose count after 20. They are constantly having a go at each other and the mom's let their large infants test themselves against the males until a little cry sounds out and then lookout! Then we get a large elephant family of around 25-30. I love watching the excitement of the juveniles as they literally race to the waterhole blasting past the slower ladies who were leading the way. Between them and the rhinos and the giraffes waiting for everyone to leave it stays busy for the rest of the evening. One of the giraffes amuses us but not the rhinos as his continual curiosity of them leads him getting constantly to close until he is let known that his presence is no longer welcomed as he is charged away.Further drama is then provided by an springbok who comes running full pelt up to the fences with a look of sheer terror and its tongue is even hanging out as it looks unsucessfully for an escape. Just as it heads into the darkness several jackals start running up and continue to follow into the night.We never heard anything afterwords so I have no end to this tale.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we head to Halali and a really different type of waterhole. We also end up with a mysterious disappearance and a mad honey badger.

 

@@Towlersonsafari

 

Sorry I said I'd talk waterholes today but I'm going to let it keep till after Halali.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dlo]

A short visit with some of the people we've met and we get out stuff together for a game drive to Halali. First thing to go wrong today is my sandal breaks, very annoying I tie it together and see if the shops might have something. Nope and one guy can get help but his guy is to far away so I get to hobble around and try again at Halali. Its late so we stick around for lunch and do a midday game drive, I know not to bright but we're bound to see something. We see a few things but everything is quiet and only a few vehicles are even out. We see someone parked with the binocs out so my inner guide says there must be something to see! Amazingly I'm right again as waaaaay off in the distance we see a lion, happy with this small victory we follow a jackal moving around and WOW another lion. I know they are a long ways away but hey our first of many cats this trip.

 

These guys were a constant threat at the buffet

 

 

 

 

Hornbill! And my wife thought I couldn't Id birds

 

Ostrich. I think I'm ready for my guiding license.

 

Halali is a much smaller camp with a much smaller waterhole. It's stadium seating only and is a fair ways away from our room. We arrive around 5 and manage to squeeze into a couple of seats. We've heard its sometimes quiet here but almost immediately we get a rhino! Well it doesn't take long and another shows up! These 2 don't like each other at all and they proceed to make a lot of noise at each other and chase each other around a bit before we get a mexican standoff before moving to opposite sides of the waterhole.

 

Its getting dark when an elephant moves in so we start getting ready to see how they get on as the hole is fairly small when CRASH something smashes behind us! I can't believe people are making this much noise as the elephant and rhinos don't look to impressed. All hell is breaking loose now as people are getting up and checking out something behind me. Chris wades into the fray and says to me their's a skunk! JESUS I don't even look but its gotta be a honey badger. Yep as I stand on a chair that's one big honey badger rampaging through the garbage. There are at least 10 people within 5 feet of this guy including some little kids. I on the other hand think honey badgers are crazy and let Chris know this in no uncertain terms. I really don't know how bad honey badgers are but I've seen enough craziness on youtube that I insist we get out of there.

 

At dinner I mention this and I guess everyone knows this honey badger and he pretty much has run of the camp! Having dinner outside he topples over several more garbages and recycle bins and then heads out on his merry way.We literally got no pictures of him as it was so dark.

 

Chasing away the other rhino

 

 

Give me some space!

 

Right before the honey badger strikes

 

Of course our biggest issue of the day arrives when we look at our car and we suddenly notice we're missing a hubcap! The constant stream of car alarms at Okaukuejo we heard yesterday was probably an indicator of problems but our attitude was whatever everything's fine. Insurance doesn't cover this and we were even warned to take them off so I guess we'll find out soon enough.

 

 

[Marks]

Funny honey badger story and a great look at the rhinos.

Hope the missing hubcap didn't turn into too big of a problem.

[Patty]

We were able to retrieve our hub cap only because Mark caught a glimpse of it rolling down the road behind us. That's when we noticed all of the others were cable tied to the car. We never got the warning!

[dlo]

@@Patty

 

Getting a warning is only useful if you pay attention to the warning! That's pretty amazing you got it back though.

[dlo]

@@Towlersonsafari

 

Each person's experience is obviously different but for me I liked Etosha but it could not hold a candle to South Luangwa. The main waterholes are great for rhino and elephant and reading others reports cats are being seen. My favourite country is Uganda with its riotous greenery exploding from everywhere so Etosha is a bit dull scenically.

 

I was very surprised by how well behaved everyone was at our waterholes. Everyone always spoke in whispers so yes things were busy but it never bothered us. I also think a 4x4 with its higher vantage point would be very preferable. Its definitely worth a visit to me and I really enjoyed it but I don't foresee a second visit ever happening.

[Towlersonsafari]

Thank you @dio I must admit Zambia is our favourite destination

[Marks]

I was very surprised by how well behaved everyone was at our waterholes. Everyone always spoke in whispers so yes things were busy but it never bothered us. I also think a 4x4 with its higher vantage point would be very preferable. Its definitely worth a visit to me and I really enjoyed it but I don't foresee a second visit ever happening.

 

I have wondered about this, thanks for mentioning it.

I guess the honey badger is an exception to the well-behaved rule.

[dlo]

 

I was very surprised by how well behaved everyone was at our waterholes. Everyone always spoke in whispers so yes things were busy but it never bothered us. I also think a 4x4 with its higher vantage point would be very preferable. Its definitely worth a visit to me and I really enjoyed it but I don't foresee a second visit ever happening.

 

I have wondered about this, thanks for mentioning it.

I guess the honey badger is an exception to the well-behaved rule.

 

 

I'm sure a well intentioned chat with the offending honey badger would do the trick!

[dlo]

I'm feeling a little pressure here, no not about going to Onguma bush camp but from my wife who followed a gentle word in my ear with an email in the middle of the night admonishing me on my suspect grammar! This is now followed by " why are none of my 500 sunset pictures up".

 

 

 

With that most important part out of the way we left Etosha in the afternoon for 2 nights at Onguma bush camp. Onguma is a nice little camp that is very well run with outstanding staff. The only negative and it's a big one is the wildlife is sparse and you should probably head back into Etosha if you want to see a lot. Upon checking in the manager lets me know a staff member can fix my sandal which he does and probably leaves them in better shape than they were originally. I feel we end up with 4 exceptional sightings here with our first being on the walk to our room when we are treated to a tiny scops owl our first of these and first of 5 owls in 4 days!

 

Amazing camouflage

 

Amazing horns!

 

Golden tailed woodpecker?

 

Pied kingfisher?

 

I enjoy birds far more than I ever thought I would but I'm no expert so any corrections or affirmations would be greatly appreciated. Our second owl appeared before our evening drive when he perched himself on a branch at the waterhole. Up to no good he is dive bombed several times by a couple of unknown smaller birds who finally win out and knock him off his perch.

 

Anyone have any idea?

 

 

 

We have a few nocturnal species on our night drive but things are highlighted by one sighting and one apparent sighting! Driving along we reach an apparent quiet spot and without a word our driver and tracker climb out of the vehicle. I'm guessing they wanted to stay in the light just in case some lion was hiding behind us but nature calls and they both decide to mark their territories right in front of all assembled As usual I find this amusing but I'm not sure the people in front of us did. I told this story to one of our Luangwa guides and he was rendered speechless only saying "in front of the car".

 

This brings us to our if a tree falls in the forest does it make a noise moment. Driving along my wife practically yells at the driver AARDVARK. The guy in front of me sees a tail and I see a bush move but that's it, we look around but no one else sees anything. So did she see it? Well since I know a happy wife makes a happy life I'm gonna say yes that's OUR first aardvark!

 

 

 

 

A very very cold night drive but still worthwhile for the apparent aardvark alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Big Andy]

I would say your owl is a Verreaux's Eagle Owl Which is quite a large species. As there is nothing to get scale from was it large?

[Marks]

Your wife's sunset pictures are breathtaking. The first jumps out at me for the giraffe poking its head above the trees, but the second may be even more special; the rhino silhouettes being visible only by reflection is decidedly beautiful.

[Tdgraves]

Your wife's sunset pictures are breathtaking. The first jumps out at me for the giraffe poking its head above the trees, but the second may be even more special; the rhino silhouettes being visible only by reflection is decidedly beautiful.

+1

[xelas]

And one more vote of admiration for Chris' sunset photography! @@dlo, post them more, please!

[dlo]

@@Big Andy

 

We saw a barn owl the next night that was close to the same size but we a few feet away from it so its harder to judge.

 

@@Marks @@Tdgraves @xelas

 

I love all her pictures so there is no conspiracy I just keep forgetting to put any in. I'm sure we have plenty from Luangwa so I'll have some more. She's enjoying teasing me about my grammar and I love teasing her about everything. She really appreciates the likes.