WOW! I am enchanted by the terrific photos! And Anne's wonderful report. Thanks gang! What a time you are all having!

Chitwa Chitwa Photos:

Wow great pictures Ken.

Wonderful pictures, Ken! Your work just keeps getting better and better! (if that was possible!)

Doug

And X-rated, too!

-----------------

Eugene

Altered Perspective

Marius (former Leopard Hills ranger) is here as a consultant to assist our wildlife photographic results. The LEOPARDS took turns gettting tips on exposure compensation (where do I find THAT on this camera?), aperture priority, portraits need an F-stop of 8 .. the list goes on. We've got the true SLR specialists along with those of us in the digital point-and-shoot stock in trade. No matter - Marius is up to the task!

Marcie won the award as our most improved photographer. She asked everyone with the long lenses to donate to her picture collection on behalf of "Photos for the Poor". Brilliant, creative . that's our Marcie!

We headed off in the early morning light into very fresh weather. Back where I come from, we'd call it downright cold. But I digress .. Remember got the call about leopard, adding wind chill to the mix as he barrelled down a tarred road. The leopard just crossed over the area where we cannot traverse; so we snuggled more tightly into the blankets and hoped our fingers will regain their feeling. Why does a leopard cross the road? ... The highs and lows of the safari drive had begun.

We then worked out how to improve our sunrise photos on the way to finding two of the remaining members of the Machatten pride of lions. The grandmother and a 1-1/2 to 2 year old male cub were doing what lions do best: snooze. It's a sober wake up call for me .. the Machatten pride sightings just 16 months ago were among the highlights of that trip. There were about 20 lions in all, strong and filled with cubs. With new male lion sheriffs taking over, the culling part (gruesome but necessary) of rebuilding the pride is well underway. The cub is thin and unlikely to see his next birthday; the grandmother is battle worn and approximately 18 years old. Her sister has already died, leaving her to shoulder the entire burden. Her time is running out.

A comfort stop occurred on the way to our next sighting. All the males in our rover hopped off towards an enticing bush; the females were channeling their inner camel so as to wait for proper toilet facilities.

Next up was the rhino calf. Her mother is sharing space with a bull rhino, all the while reminding him to stay away from the calf and to give her plenty of space. He seemed pained she didn't appreciate his good looks and companionship. The calf was doing what calves do best - be cute, curious and serve as wonderful photo subjects. She was talking to her mom; it never fails to surprise me how such enormous animals were equipped with only a high pitched, soft squeak and squeal. A barking chihuahua could drown them out without much effort. She obligingly needed to nurse in perfect light, then used her milk coma to lie down for a well-earned nap. What could be a better safari sighting than that?

Marius suggested we stop for the bush coffee and comfort break; yet Ranger Remember had a different plan. We drove past many a suitable drink stop location. It was near 9 am and the need for a comfort break was alive and well throughout our range rover. Hmm .. where IS that coffee stop? We turned a corner to find a gorgeous bush breakfast set and ready for our company. The females made fast tracks towards the proper toilet facilities and we enjoyed a lovely cold buffet with cooked to order hot items. Nikon Ken put his new photo knowledge to use, taking a magnificent picture of Marius and Ngaire. He assembled many montages of the LEOPARDS in small and large groupings. All in all, a delightful morning's drive.

Next up for those interested (ie, everybody) was a short slide show in the library by Marius showing many different ways to create a memorable photograph. Bottom line: an altered perspective produces exceptional photos. My favorite was the pan shot around motion. Translation? Blurred pictures. They are all the rage! Delete no more - your blurry picture may be the next cover of National Geographic.

A warm shower led to a two hour nap. One has to prepare for the rigors of camp life, and the next great challenge was Comfort Food Fest. Yep - American style hamburgers, fries and beer. The King's Camp staff rose to the challenge and
served up gorgeous burgers on a freshly baked, toasted bun, accompanied by trays groaning with tomato, onion, pickle, lettuce and condiments to build the perfect burger. Crisp french fries were served in espresso cups, followed by a hot tray for each table to devour. Contentment was achieved.

Go grab your cameras, coats and hats to giddy up for another push through the bush. Ranger turnover time began. Patrick was off to enjoy his two week leave, and tracker Albert was following after our drive. Cynite (pronounced sign-it) took the wheel, laughed at our outlandish requests and pointed out his version of ostrich every chance he got. The big sighting was a lone bull elephant with awesome tusks on the river bed, using his trunk to dig a well and find water. It was fascinating to watch him plunge his trunk into the sand, screwing and extending it ever deeper, pull it up to hose down his mouth and then spew the rest from his trunk, so he could do it once again. We went to the boundary of the reserve, spending time near a dam with hippo, birds (saddlebill storks! haven't seen those since Botswana, 2006) and great possibilities for the sunset shots. We teamed up with another rover for joint sundowners and then made our way back to camp.

Our farewell cocktails were underway in no time. Those handy flashlights meant we could all safely find our way to and from the party and dining room. We finished off dinner with a celebratory toast to Richard and Joan on the occasion of their 37th wedding anniversary. As Richard so eloquently said, they were glad to share their special day with us, and to be accepted into such a fine group of fellow travelers. I can safely say we all share that sentiment. This has been a
remarkably congenial group of fellow travelers, and I am most grateful to share our safari with them. Our heartfelt thanks to Ngaire and Ken for organizing such a wonderful trip. We REALLY can't do it without them.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

This morning, single sex range rovers were sorted and we headed off for the last King's Camp game drive. It would not be a Ngaire trip if we didn't have acronyms for this adventure. The men chose DUNG: Dudes Unearthing Nature's Glories and the women chose GALPALS: Great African Ladies' Princess Approved Luxury Safari. Vive la difference!

Ngaire was all over winning the prize for largest number of documented animal sightings. She imposed a stiffer rule on her rover than the rest of us - no feathered creatures to be included in the tally! They zipped from animal to animal, thoroughly confusing the ranger who is used to long photo stops with the call of "GO! GO! GO! We've already got the Cape Buffalo!!" The gents were virtually playing the river course and scoring their virtual strokes, while our range rover was enjoying the considerable skills of Cheron as Range Rover Director and not bothering to document much of anything. We included birds in our count and enjoyed a large herd of elephants. I did get my new favorite ever elephant photo, so it was a complete success.

The PHOTO group (Picture Heaven: Occupants' Total Objective) got the Rockfig Jr. leopard sighting, along with Ngaire's group. We crashed around looking for RJ after she gave everyone the slip into dense foliage. As Morne reminded us, "It's said we only see 6% of the creatures that see us." And on THAT note .. EEK! Can we return to camp? Please??


Breakfast was lovely, as Ngaire digested the news she'd won the competition because the rest of us forgot to participate. Gary gave her plenty of guff, though, about the guys having won, so all was not lost. Congrats to Ngaire and her highly effective, well run rover.

We're at the point where the King's Campers now split and head in many directions. Sixteen are on their way to Leopard Hills; six are headed to Johannesburg and points beyond. Gary and I are here until tomorrow; then whisk ourselves back to Joburg International and make the no so long journey home on the South African JFK nonstop flight.

Spoiler Alert:

Internet is iffy at Leopard Hills. Further communication is guaranteed to be sporadic. Band width matters!

Thanks for following our travels - hope you can be here next time!

Pleasure, No. 7

Well...this fantastic trip is almost over. Many just left to fly on to Leopard Hills. Anne & Gary are staying here at King's Camp one more night but 6 of us are flying to JNB at 2:00. Jim & Mary Ellen are spending a few days in/around Cape Town and Joan & Rich are heading home. In order to avoid a 30 hours in JNB (no ff seats), we have a driver picking us up at Fed Air then off to "Walk With The Lions" this afternoon. Link: Walk With the Lions .

We will overnight at their lodge and do the lion programs tomorrow morning (thanks to seeing Ralph & Andi's photos it immediately went on the bucket list).
After lunch there we will continue on to the elephant sanctuary for the afternoon. Link: Elephant Sanctuary

From the sanctuary we'll go back to JNB and begin our journey home at 7:00pm tomorrow evening on British Air connecting at LHR, then on to LAX.

This has been the best trip with a wonderful group and lasting memories never to fade. Ngaire & Ken never cease to amaze me at how they put together such fabulous escorted trips albeit on land or sea. Always A+++

The good news is that we'll be welcoming a 4th grandbaby any time...just hope he doesn't arrive before Sunday night when we get home.

Marcie, safe trip. Have a fantastic time walking with lions. I understand the elephant sanctuary is also fantastic. It's on our bucket list for the next time. Glad it was wonderful!

I am so envious of the cheetah sightings! Sure wish we had been able to do this trip.

Hi everyone!

Anne has covered most of the aspects of this safari we have truly had some outstanding sightings and great weather.
One thing to add was at Chitwa Chitwa and the antics of the resident crocodile.

Chitwa Chitwa has a huge lake in front of the lodge and all guest rooms. Each day at 3.30 pm the crocodile would start chasing the little fish into the corner of a shallow pool just right next to the lodge. The fish would then jump out of the water and the crocodile would rise up and catch them mid air. Like clockwork each day for afternoon tea.

We also saw him do this at about morning tea time when we were waiting to leave for Kings Camp. A very civilized croc he must be of english decent.

We arrived at leopard Hills unfortunately it was drizzly and over cast. It has not dampened the Leopards spirits though and we have had great sightings.

An exciting situation is at hand. The lion coalition called the Majingelane boys are threatening to take over the territory of the resident four line strong Selati coalition. There has already been a fight as we saw three of the Selati boys and they are banged up but the rangers believe the Selati boys will be victorius. The Majingelane boys are on an area we cannot drive but should move over to our side to fight the Selati boys.

In the meantime the pretty boy of four strong Selati boys is very busy having an affair with the most beautiful lionness, and not joining in the fight. We had a pretty pornographic sighting of the action of these two gorgeous lions.

As always Leopard Hills muffins RULE. The new rooms the stunning amazing difference.

Okay more later.

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!

Wonderful pictures, Mary Ellen.
Yes, Al Servo is the 'hidden' gem in the Canon camera.

Glad everyone had such a great time!

Doug

Thank you everyone for the wonderful reports and pictures.

What a wonderful 24 hour whirlwind we've had. Landed in JNB after the funniest thing watching a semi aborted take off delay waiting for family of watrhogs to casually stroll off the runway. They showed no fear as airplane was coming straight at them...dumb!

We were greeted by a driver and off we went to "Walk With The Lions". We were late arriving but the owners and staff couldn't have been any nicer. They made us lasagna dinner, salad, desert, bottle of wine and escorted us to our cabin for the night. Our cabin was rustic,a clean free standing unit with sparse furnishings but a very comfortable bed, adequate bath and just fine for our 1 night there. It reminded me of going to camp as a child.

We were awakened early the next morning by roaring lions...they sounded like they were right outside our door, yep, they really were! Our guide "gathered" us at 8:00 and off we went to walk with the lions. This group of lions approximately 4-6 years old, the teenager group not quite fully grown and a bit mischievous. It was amazing, a bit scary but with the guides we both felt comfortable. It was such an experience I'll never forget.

Back for a 3 course breakfast around 9:15 then off to learn and see more about all the research they're doing and seeing 3 day old baby cubs. Just a quick glance as not to make "Mom" nervous. We were able to play with a group of approximately 12 "toddler" lions under 1 year old. They had a thing for "jeans" and continued to try to tug at Tom's leg. It was hilarious. I could have stayed there all day with these playful pre-schoolers. They also have 2 rescued tigers that are huge and so pretty. We met Emma, a resident cheetah and I was able to pet her which was very cool. The final program of the morning was cuddling with the babies. OMG, you've never seen anything cuter. So precious, you want to bring 'em home. This is an amazing facility, doing so much good work for the betterment and future of lions and in depth studies especially re breeding of white lions (recessive gene).

There are other animals within the compound (zebras, impala, and such) so the lions are able to practice and learn hunting skills. There are lots of volunteers from around the world and and a very dedicated group.

After our farewell with the lions our driver drove us about 1 hour away to the Elephant Sanctuary. Another fantastic experience spent learning all about elephants, hearing the stories about how they came to be there (some so sad). We were able to feed some, touch them and really feel them. We spent several hours there, I got a kiss from one male. It made me giggle.

We were then whisked from the sanctuary to JNB airport for the beginning of our journey home. I just can't begin to tell you what a special 24 hours we had being able to visit both the lions as well as the elephants and all because we had a 30 hour layover due to unavailability of ff seats. What a Blessing! I would highly recommend visiting both of these if you ever have the opportunity, would be difficult to have to choose one over another. Both have lodging facilities, I did take photos of some of the cottages at Walk With The Lions and peaked in the windows of one of the rooms at the elephant sanctuary and it looked nice.

Now in the Concord room here at Heathrow waiting for our final leg home.
I uploaded photos if anyone would like to see them here. Walk With The Lions

Elephant Sanctuary

More Photos from Leopard:


Male Rhino marking his territory.


Cape Buffalo in early morning still resting.


Baby Giraffe and Oxpecker.


Fly away bird.


Shiela, Ngaire, & Linda having Rover service.


Wait for me Mom.




Elephants running.


We tracked down this leopard just before dark.

Wonderful photos Mary Ellen, Ken and Marcie!

Ken,

That Cape Buffalo pic is Nat Geo stuff. Amazing! Wish we were there.

Maddy & Paul

Sadly, the remaining 16 of us parted ways today. Sheila, Ken, David and Claudia are heading home to Australia. Al and I are in the SAA lounge in JNB waiting for our 9 pm flight to JFK and the remaining LEOPARDS are off to walk with the lions. What a wonderful adventure this has been. We've seen such incredible animals and learned so much about them. As an added bonus we have made so many new friends! This has been such a great group! Our hats off to Ngaire and Ken for the trip of a lifetime. Many, many thanks to you both!

By the way, Marcie, the picture of the lion going after Tom's jeans had us all in hysterics this morning! Glad you had such a great time!

The Princess has demanded a final poem be done
To reiterate that the LEOPARDS had especially great fun
We viewed leopards and lions doing their mating thing
While unlucky males only dreamed of such flings
In total 24 LEOPARDS took part
And there was laughter and kidding right from the start
Brown,Keene and Hutyra, a great travel team
Put together a trip extraordinarily supreme
As we come to the end of this South African pursuit
Ken and Ngaire we heartily salute
We went on safari and the Big 5 we saw
Now we look forward to seeing LCTer's at Hee Haw

Bravo, Mark! Thanks to all for the pictures and updates, and we wish you a safe and uneventful trip home.

Cheers, Anne

Obvious to us that it was a special adventure you had and look forward to hearing about it from those of you who will be doing Hee Haw.

In the meantime, pleasant dreams as you fly home.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

Now that all the Leopards are home, looking forward to seeing everyone's photos.

We already miss everyone

I always get sad when your wonderful trips end

Posting for Kathy:

Happy shoppers!

Ah those lovely coats in the V&A Waterfront Mall. Fast purchase by Marcie as she was lusting after the coat I bought that afternoon. The coat was too big for me but I did not care I loved it.
All originals only one of a kind. All the group were waiting outside the store we were on our way to Baia. Fastest purchase EVER!

Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While the majority of LEOPARDS were at Kings Camp Richard and I were at Royal Malewane (sister property to Birkenhead House and La Residence). Here are our photos.
http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r220/cruzaddict/Royal%20Malewane%202012/

Very nice pix Richard and Lori. Thanks for sharing them.