The 2020 Africa Journals

 NOTE:   The photos will look best if you open them by clicking on one.   A film strip will appear at the bottom and you can scroll through them.   I suggest you read the story then go back and click on the first photo.

Chapter Nineteen

Rules are Made to be Broken

We are barely out of the copse of trees in which Entim Camp is located when David’s Rules to Shoot By are tested and blown all to pieces.

A couple explanations:

1.    The layout of the Land Rover for photographers provides three rows of two seats each, with each photographer having an entire row to himself/herself.  The front row, which is where the access door is, has two seats with a narrow aisle in between.   The second row has one seat on the right side and no seat on the left, which is the side David says we should shoot from.  This empty area is meant for a photographer to kneel on the steel flooring plates, using throw cushions for comfort.   The third row has two seats with a DC-powered cooler box in between, making access to the right seat very difficult.

2.     As it turns out, all three of us women have mobility issues.   I jokingly call us the Infirm Photographers Group.   Mary has a long-standing condition that affects her mobility.    I have a piece of a broken bone in my right knee that prevented walking in January and I was very concerned the condition would flare up again.  I came quite close to canceling this trip because of that. The Third Person has had three operations on her knees and was afraid her knee(s) would lock up if she knelt.

In Botswana, Marg and Mary graciously and generously allowed me to baby my knee by insisting that I ride in the seat next to the driver, which in a tiered-seating vehicle meant the the least amount of climbing.

On this day at Entim, I remember that I sat in the first row of seats and that Mary sat in the rear.   That left the middle, with the missing left seat, for the Third Person.   I saw some throw pillows on the floor and took one so I could kneel on it with my injured knee, the idea being that the lower to the ground you can shoot, the better.

Shortly after exiting the trees, the Third Person in the second row says that this will not work for her because of her knees.  

When the subject of pillows comes up in the following discussion, I surrender the one pillow I have, realizing it was for the middle seat person’s use.   Finally, Delores changes seats with the Third Person and our safari gets underway.   More about how we break this rule later.

  

Almost our first sighting is of some denizens of the Maasai Mara who really appreciate the heavy rains.   This is the Mud Hole Day Spa for Cape Buffalo:

 

 

Buffalo, elephants, and rhinos wallow in mud for several reasons.   It cools them, protects them from biting insects, and also acts as a sunscreen.

It’s also good for their complexions, don’t you think? 

 Some birds appreciate the mud hole, too.

Spurwinged Lapwing

Hamerkop has caught a frog

The guides find some sleeping lions.

David, Marg, and Laura.

I want all you shooters to notice that Marg is practicing trigger safety. 

So much for a nap.

Having disturbed sleeping lions, we go in search of more critters to photograph.

Southern Ground-hornbill

Juvenile Southern Ground-hornbill.   Darned grass.

It’s getting dark and we’re heading back to camp when we spot topi on the horizon in what amounts to today’s sunset.   Not colorful at all, but the topi are on the horizon, so…

Then!   Drama!

It’s almost too dark for photos, so I’ve lightened the following photos quite a bit.

The  Cape Buffalo, fresh from the Mud Hole Day Spa, are chasing three lions out of the area.    I spin to my right and start shooting.   And BANG!  goes another of David’s Rules to Shoot By. 

See the light brown along the right edge of the photo?   That's part of the safari vehicle.   That means I'm breaking another Rules to Shoot By and shooting out the right.

 

By the time the driver changes positions so we can shoot from the left side of the vehicle, I missed the parting of the three lions.

 One disappears into a bush and watches from his lair.   Two run towards the vehicles, perhaps hoping the buffalo will give off the chase. 

 

Ah, not so fast these you wily lions.   The buffalo continue the chase.

And don't ya come back no more, no more, no more.

When at last the buffalo stop running, a thoroughly chastised lion walks away to locate his missing brothers.

 

And we return to camp.

The 2020 Africa Journals

Chapter Eighteen

Into the Muddy Mara

Hard rains pounded the Maasai Mara National Reserve, swelling the languid Mara and Talek rivers and turning them into white water rapids.   Flooding wiped away several tented camps, blocked the river crossings, and in general created a big, muddy mess.

The aggressive tire treads on the safari vehicles churned up the red dirt on the Mara “roads” and splashed through the puddles, creating quagmires.  Deep ruts formed and when the sun came out, they dried into monstrous speed bumps.   Add more rain, and the process began all over again.

The frogs were delighted and set up a high-decibel chorus of singing, except when the hamerkop and storks were hunting them in the puddles.

The dry grasses of the savanna took a big gulp of water and sprouted upwards and upwards, high enough to secret the slinking serval as it hunts....

High enough to obscure the sight of a new-born Cape buffalo calf....

And high enough, even, to hide the sleeping lions.  

When the grass reached its maximum height, seed stalks appeared and created a layer of tan above the green grass.

But those rains were in November, the wrong time, the guides say, for such torrents of water.   

“Climate change,” they said.

This is mid-February, the usual time for Kenya’s skies to open and drench the land. 

We were lucky.   It hadn’t rained hard for a day or two and the river crossings were fordable.  The guides from Entim camp met us at the gravel airstrip, loaded our baggage into the Land Rovers, and we set out for a half-hour drive to our tented camp.

Animal droppings at the bottom of the steps.

Had the river crossings been flooded, we would have been in for a long, long drive.

Crossing a river.   The vehicles are equipped with air intake snorkels.

This drive itself is an adventure on the muddy, bumpy Mara roads.  The word “roads” bestows more status than they deserve.   They are more akin to Jeep trails.   At least we are spared the dust.

We arrive at camp and have a glass of juice while we await our tent assignments.   Then, off to our tents to get situated before lunch.   I luck out.   There’s an extra tent and David assigns it to me.   This will cost me an extra $800, a charge called a single supplement as most lodgings base their price per person on double occupancy.

 

Before we set out on our afternoon safari at 4 o’clock, we assemble for orientation.

The lounge, or common area.

David runs his safaris differently than any I’ve encountered before. 

Because there are nine of us, he assigns two groups of three and two groups of two to a vehicle, and those three will rotate seats every day, front moving to back, back moving to middle, middle moving to front.   That is how we usually do it.

What’s different, though, is that each three-person group will move to a different vehicle every day.  That enables all of us to go out with all four driver/guides a couple times during our session.     That sounds good.  It also means that each guide has the same opportunity for tips as the other three.

My tent, number five.

Now here’s the catch:   each three-person group remains together.   No rotating with any of the others in different groups.   Marg, Laura, and Sherry are in one group.    Mary, a friend from Boston, and I are in a different group with a third woman

, so I will not be able to spend time shooting with Marg (my mentor) or Laura or Sherry, or any of the other folks on this trip.

David and his assistant Delores will take turns riding with all of the groups.

Further, David says we will always shoot from the left side of the vehicle.   Most of the time, that makes sense.   It’s easier that way and the driver then knows how to position the vehicle.   As it turned out, I missed two good shots because the immediate action was on the right side and by the time the driver turned around, the moment was gone.

Finally, we are ready to head out.

If spinning the tires as fast as they will go doesn't get you unstuck, you summon another vehicle for a push.