Photographic safari - Second stop - Tanda Tula

Eight week old Lion Cubs

The Timbavati is privately owned land and is adjacent and open to Kruger National Park making it part of a ecosystem of more than 2 million hectares. Indeed one of Africa's finest wildlife areas. With its relatively flat typography and wooded bushland it is quite different from the more open and undulating Mashatu yet still as exciting. Our camp of choise was Tanda Tula, a tented camp along the now dry Sharalumi river. Its one of South Africa's flagship tented camps. But don't be fooled. This luxury camp is super comfortable yet with a warm personal touch evident throughout. 

White-faced Scops-owls

I have always maintained that due to the more wooded landscape the Timbavati (or Greater Kruger) is a land of surprizes. Game is not seen from a kilometer away but one never knows what the next bend in the road may yield. This was beautifully illustrated when finding a pair of symmetric White-Faced scops owls roosting in a Combretum tree. 

Dwarf mongoose

No drive was without excitement. We encountered a very obliging clan of Dwarf moongoose in a similarly surprizing manner and because everyone was interested in everything nature had on offer even that provided excellent viewing and photographing opportunities ( and my first decent images of these cool little carnivores).

Stunning Leopard drinking at last light.

Thats not to say we were not interested in the predators. Leopard visited camp every night which we loved and we saw three individuals during our time at Tanda Tula. Another unique feature of this neck of the woods is the effort and skill employed in getting quality sightings. This striking image of a drinking leopard was purely a result of the combined skills of our guide Scotch and his tracker Patrick.

Boisterous cubs 

Our first lion cubs of the safari were seen at Tanda Tula. Catching up with them just before nightfall provided great viewing as the two of them started playing (and bullying) one another.

Early morning White Rhino.

The Timbavati is also one of the best places to see and photograph White Rhinos. The second largest land mammal is becoming increasingly under threat due to the poaching pandemic flooding Africa. Comforting to know though is that a heavy presence in the Timbavati is halting this problem.  

View over the Sharalumi River from the Deck.

Now off to our last stop. The incredible Mala Mala.

Lowveld Private Safari

This past weekend (7 – 9 Sept) I had the privilege to host a private photographic safari right on my own doorstep in the South African Lowveld. And what a treat. Friday afternoon strarted somewhat wet. Ok we got totally drenched on our first drive and basically made piece with the fact that we will be photographing frogs in the lodge gardens for the remainder of the weekend. It all turned for the better on Saturday morning though and soon we were raking in the sightings which just kept coming right till we had to leave Sunday morning. Four fo the big five plus cheetah and wilddogs put in an appearance as well as the countless other inhabitants if this region. Below a few pics from the weekend

 

Our first sighting was of this female and her large cub. Serendipitously the cub came to lie down right next to mom from where they posed for us photographers.



We found no less than six individual Cheetah, all of which were in very photogenic positions. Here one stalks towards the vehicle.




Remarkably we also found Africas second most endangered carnivore, African Wilddogs and to top that a litter of nine pups.



A portrait of the ubiquitous White Rhino.

Resting the shutter fingers. Manus and Ursula, who made it such a pleasurable weekend. It was a pleasure sharing this all with people not only interested in photography but who also has a keen love for their subject. Looking forward to many more