I never did get that ‘runner’s high’ everyone talks about, but its a whole different story when you are on a safari in South Africa and you get that photographer’s high. I have more than 1,500 photos for two weeks and I might possibly have the addiction.
It was a very intense Czech tour. Not sure how to describe that, but to say every second seemed filled by the journey from Cape Town, along the coast and over to Johannesburg, checking in a new hotel each day, and spending a lot of time in a van for 13 people. Each day ended with reviewing photos and hoping we had gotten the perfect shot.
The new camera was a great idea before the trip with an awesome zoom feature. My iphone would not do the job for sure! I never did master the different features, but in the end having the long lens was really a whole part of being able to see the animals so clearly from a short distance. Perhaps the binoculars would have been cheaper.
They were real hippos, crocs, lions, elephants, snakes, rhinoceros, giraffes, zebras, water buffalo and baboons, just to name a few, wandering around a park two times bigger than Yellowstone National Park. There was constant signage to warn us of the dangerous hippos at night and troops of baboons ready to kill or attack us. I’ll never forget the boat trip through the hippos and crocs where the guide would tell us about how dangerous these beasts were as he got the boat closer and closer. Then he would say as he turned the engine off, “Now get out your cameras and take your photos and sit back and just relax”, in a lovely South African accent.
One night we spent inside Kruger park where they have some electric fences surrounding the camp ground to keep us safe. However, at the restaurant for dinner there was such a strong thunderstorm the electricity would keep going out. The guide the following day confirmed that yes it does mean the fence doesn’t work, but they feel confident the animals remember the shock!
At one point I thought our shuttle van would tip over with each animal we came across and everyone jumping to the other side to take a photo. Even just a bug would capture the attention of all photographers. Below is what my last 14 days were like. Now for the rest of my month of sorting and editing pictures….
From Polly to Pavla 