Greetings!

We are in Cape Town at the ever lovely Cape Grace. This has been one of our most memorable trips ever. Special thanks to Ngaire and Ken for this most amazing journey.

The weather was a bit stormy yesterday so we departed from the airport at Eastgate instead of the landing strip near Kings Camp. We did get to experience an aborted takeoff due to a family of warthogs who really needed to get to the other side of the runway just as we began to accelerate! Marcie had the best view of them trotting along with their tails held straight up.

Ngaire had arranged for Marius to join us and deliver real time photography lessons. As many of you know, he is an enthusiastic teacher and he provided hints and tips for everyone, no matter their level of expertise. For all you Canon people, the best tip for me was to shoot in AI servo instead of one shot. Also, use aperture priority AND when confronted with bright, glaring light and high contrast shadows deliberately UNDER expose by 1/3 or 2/3. We also spent time working on backlighting.

Some results of the tutoring for your viewing pleasure.

Mama and "baby"



Baby elephant (AI Servo helped nail this one)



At the watering hole





Anne described our last game drive above. The ranger was a little confused with our cries of "enough watching the elephants, we want rhino" and "never mind the hyenas, we need giraffe". We did manage to see 15 different species in our rapid fire "Ferrari Safari" Including some interesting specimens of the two legged variety



As a final flourish, we went crashing through the bush to track a leopard. By now you all know, that I am always happy to see cats





It was a sunny, warm day in Cape Town and we made the journey out to Robben Island. One more full day here with a visit to Franschoeck and then the long journey home and back to reality.



We are looking forward to the reports from Leopard Hills and plotting our return to Africa!