I'm sure everybody knows what a porcupine quill looks like, but have you ever actually seen the porcupine itself? A while ago I was at Schotia Private Game Reserve and while we were waiting for dinner in their open air boma, in strolled Mr Porcupine himself. It was the first time that I actually got to see one in real life. What a bonus to the evening's proceedings.Porcupines are nocturnal animals that live in burrows. The forage at night, alone…
I noticed that this is my 100th post. I didn't realise that I've done so many. So how do I celebrate my "blog century". I went scratching around my photo stock and decided to post a one in a hundred (or probably more one in a hundred thousand) photo. This pic was taken in the Addo Elephant National Park. They released lions into Addo about 6 years ago and at first people struggled to even find them. Since then the…
Addo Elephant Nationl Park is only 40 minutes from home, so it is the ideal spot for a short weekend getaway.
People from overseas, who visit South Africa for the first time, are often surprised at how Westernised and 1st world our main cities are. But don't despair, around the next corner, you may come across a sight like this and be reminded that you are indeed in Africa! You feel like you have entered a time warp, the pace of life for these guys ambling down the street is so different to that of the motorists behind them, huffing and…
Today I just wanted to post a couple of random elephant photos taken in the Addo Elephant National Park. Its been a while since I've been there and today I was kind of missing the park, so I decided to do a post on it. I have posted on the park before and you can read my first post explaining more about the park here. A family of elephants drinking water at the Domkrag waterhole. A mother elephant is leading…
Tonight I'm just having some fun. On one of the game drives last week I took a pic of a two headed zebra. Well, not really. Duh... But the moment I took the photo I saw the potential on what some photo shop work can do to the pic. Alas, I don't have Photoshop. I really need to get it. So I used Coral Photo-Paint and this is the result. Its not something I've done much of before, but its…
On my trip last week I visited two different private game reserves. Between the two reserves I got to see and photograph three species of big cats.Ok, so not indigenous to South Africa, but a very awesome cat. Kwantu Private Game Reserve has a predator centre where they breed with endangered animals. They have a pair of Bengal Tigers and the male was quite content with his picture being taken. He even posed and looked straight into the camera.This lion…
I am leaving today for an exhibit in South America called South Africa Explore. On 9 September we will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil and on 11 September in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The exhibit is aimed specifically to promote South Africa as a tourist destination and in our case to try and get visitors to come to Port Elizabeth (actually the whole metropolitan area of Nelson Mandela Bay) and the Eastern Cape. I may not have the opportunity to do…
Kwantu Private Game Reserve is an unique reserve in that it is owned by a Muslim family and they are sticking strictly to their Islamic traditions by not allowing alcohol on the reserve. Their food is also very Eastern in flavour. I've had the opportunity to visit the reserve a couple of times while I was a tour guide and this giraffe pic was taken one late afternoon at about sunset.
An adult male and two juveniles lying in the late afternoon sun in the Schotia Private Game Reserve. This is the same game reserve where I took the sunset photo of a couple of days ago.