Dan's Adventure

Since Etosha Nature Reserve is in its dry season, the best place to spot animals is at watering holes as animals congregate to drink. The campsite we were staying at in Etosha provided access to a floodlit watering hole at the edge of its grounds, so after dinner on the two nights we spent there we all headed down to watch the animals. On the first night a whole herd of elephants appeared, walking into view from the far side and walking right around to the side of the watering …

Until Etosha Nature Reserve in Namibia, the nearest I had got to spotting a Rhino was a disputed grey dot in the distance, which the majority of our group, including myself believed to be a buffalo. After an evening game drive in Etosha we returned to the campsite and walked down to the flood lit watering hole before dinner. Cameras flashed as a black rhino appeared followed by another. Drinking from the water before entering it. Later that night, as we sat with beers watching the activity at the watering …

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen elephants playing in a campsite, ripping trees apart to eat, washing in water holes and walking with their young just like in the jungle book. I’ve seen baby elephants, massive elephants and elephants with missing and broken tusks that are likely to have been damaged fighting. Elephants were abundant in the Masai Mara, Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, and like every other animal were very used to safari vehicles. Often they could be found at the side of the track where they …

Buffalo were the easiest of the big five to spot, they were everywhere and always in large numbers. Along with wildebeest everyone got fed up of seeing them very quickly so I didn’t take many photos of them at all. This photo of a buffalo was taken on our first game drive in the Masai Mara in Kenya.

Leopards are renowned for being difficult to spot. Hiding in long grass and hanging out in trees means that you really need to know what you’re looking for. In the Serengeti our driver pulled up behind another jeep in which everyone was pointing towards something in a tree. A long cat like object could be seen on one of the branches, with what looked like a tail dangling down. Assuming that this was the leopard we all started to zoom in with our cameras only to find that it was …

I spotted lions on almost every game drive I went on in Kenya and Tanzania. In the Masai Mara the drivers go off road a lot and get as close as they can to the animals, so we were very close to several lions. In the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, the drivers are all made to stick to the roads, but even then its amazing how close you sometimes get. In the Serengeti and crater I saw several prides of lions, mostly sleeping but in one sighting the pride were …