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artsupreme wrote:
I just returned from my first African safari. I'm glad I spent hours and hours researching and planning my trip the way I did because I saw exactly what I had hoped to see and it all worked out well. Back when I was booking my trip it was still difficult to cross borders in Africa with Covid so I decided to visit different regions in Kenya and Rwanda. It worked out very well and Kenya is a beautiful Country with beautiful people. I went to Amboseli for elephants, up North to Lewa for Rhinos, the Mara for the cats, and Rwanda for Gorillas. These areas all have very different terrain so the variety in both scenery and game was nice. I got the dry season look I was hoping for other than some early rains that turned some areas a little greener than I prefer. I spent a day at the Nairobi National Park to get warmed up and I would highly recommend it if you have some time to kill near Nairobi. As for gear, I ended up taking waay too many accessories but I was prepared for the worst. Next time I can lighten my load a little on the accessory and clothing side. As for camera gear, I took the gear in the attached photo along with a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone and GoPro 10. Drones aren't allowed there but I figured out a way to get mine in. If I was only allowed to take one lens on another similar trip it would be the RF 400. I found it perfect for my use and found the 400 range to work nicely in the conservancies. To answer some of my own questions when I started this thread:
1. The regions I mentioned above in late September and October gave me exactly what I was looking for as far as scenery and the big 5. It also gave me the dry season look I was after. Other than some abnormal early season rain showers it was mostly dry and dusty, just the way I like it. I got private vehicles at all camps for a friend and I. We had our girlfriends with us so there was a maximum of 4 people in the vehicle at all times. I would not do it any other way. Ideally two photographers to share the whole vehicle would be ideal.
2. I took (4) R5's with associated lenses. Wide angle was rarely used other than to get some wide angle tree silhouettes. If I went back I would rate and take the lenses in this order:
RF 400
70-200 2.8
200-400
100-500
14-35
I could probably get away with just an RF 400 and 70-200 2.8 for just about everything. I was in the conservancies where the drivers can go off-road. Heat shimmer ruins a lot of the long shots, even when it's not too late in the day so I'm glad I brought the 400 over the 600. I spent a ton of time preparing for the weight issues and it all worked out perfectly. I had to buy some international sized roller bags that weighed 5.3lbs each and I stuffed them with my camera gear, bubble wrap, air bags, and packed vests. I weighed everything ahead of time to make sure I didn't get called out and have to check any gear. When I did get called out I just removed the heavy photo vests from inside and put them on knowing my remains gear and bubble wrap would not exceed the weight limits. This worked out perfectly.
3. No they do not allow drones but I was able to take mine and got some cool footage.
4. I took some cheap battery chargers that were very lightweight and worked out very well. I did not touch my canon chargers (bricks) and would not take them back again. Most vehicles have chargers you can plug into and obviously all camps should have charging stations as well.
5. I overpacked for sure, with clothing and accessories. For the places I visited the climate was very similar to California in the fall. It's cold in the mornings and evenings especially with wind chill from driving. It gets nice and warm during the day, even hot a during a few days. All I really needed was a puffer jacket and then short sleeves for the rest of the day until sunset. Cargo pants and boots every day. Other than clothing I also took way too many camera accessories like filters, chargers, SSD's, memory cards, plug adapters, power adapters, batteries, cables, etc that I did not end up using. I also lugged a small tripod around that I never used and would not bring one back. I figured I might have time to do some astro photography with a tripod but it turned out I had zero time at all as I was hustling from 5am until about 7pm and then it was time to charge batteries, backup memory cards, eat, and plan to do it all over again and get up the next morning at 430am.
6. I did not take any medication or inoculations. Everyone else took Malarone but I took nothing and was fine.
7. PM me if you would like any contacts for doing a Kenyan Safari
8. I went first class with private vehicles and flew everywhere instead of driving so I paid the upper end of the spectrum. I think a nice two week safari could be done for 13K per head or less depending on your needs.
Some observations:
-It's amazing how much damage the elephants do to the Acacia tree forests. They clear forests as if there was nothing there. It's a shame but they do what they do.
-I didn't realize how intrusive the safari vehicles are to the wildlife. I can't imaging going during the busy season for the migrations when there's 50+ vehicles jockeying for position. No thanks. I was in the conservancies with only 5-6 vehicles allowed at a sighting and the jockeying was aggressive by some of the vehicles. IMO, these vehicles are getting way too close to the wildlife. It's because all the tourists want to hold out their iPhones from 10ft away and get selfies. I was telling my drivers to stay back as I had the 400 in my hands 90% of the time. The vehicles are 10x more intrusive than my drone is but I understand why they don't allow drones as there are too many irresponsible people.
-You really need to put your time in to get the opportunities you are looking for. It can get exhausting being out from sun up until sun down every day. One day we tracked cheetahs in the Mara all day and were in the vehicle for a total of 12hrs. It paid off because we eventually saw the kill happen right in front of us. It was one of the highlights along with a Lion kill we saw in Amboseli.
-Don't count on getting those amazing African sunsets. At least this time of the year there were a lot of gray skies and no color in sunrise or sunset. I only got a few good ones during the whole time I was there.
-Having a good driver makes all the difference. I had quite a variety of drivers and I bonded with a few of them. I taught a couple of them photography and let them use my gear. It was fun to lay on the ground with my new Maasai buddy and teach him how to use my R5 200-400. One of them caught on really quickly and could be a great photographer if I could figure out how to get him a nice camera.
-the drought is really taking it's toll on the wildlife and Maasai people. A friend and I are going to try and raise money to build a well for one of the Maasai villages. They are losing a ton of cattle.
-Jackals are badass little dudes. They are fearless.
-Buffalos are very aggressive. We got charged by a lonely male. He was ramming the vehicle and chasing a few vehicles behind us. According to all the locals, the buffalo are what you have to fear most in Africa. You can walk freely in the bush and not worry about Lions but you do have to worry about buffalo.
-The process of watching a cheetah kill from start to finish is very interesting. You have the cheetahs standing guard and eating as fast as they can hoping to polish everything before the hyenas show up. Once they do show up you have hyenas, vultures, and jackals all fighting for whatever the cats didn't eat.
That's it for now. Feel free to ask questions if I missed anything. I haven't started digging into my photos yet but I'll post some when I dig into them next week.
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We may have crossed paths somewhere! We returned a week ago from 2 weeks in Kenya spending the majority in Mara and a couple days in Nairobi National Park and Amboseli National Park. Amboseli had to be the saddest image I've ever seen traveling with how bad the drought has destroyed that area. Dead Zebra and Wildebeest were astronomical, and the smell of death was overpowering.
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