1. 1. 2019
The new year began with a crystal clear sky. After we left at 6:30am with Caleb there was not a cloud in the sky. We looked for a suitable tree for the foreground again:
and waited for the sun to rise:
Later we met the big lion group again. In best light we got some nice portrait shots, partly from close up, like with this lioness:
We came so close to her, that one could see in her eye not only flies but also the reflection of our LandCruiser:
I love the 50 Megapixel resolution of the Canon EOS 5DS R 😉
We watched the lion group for a longer time. Later some of them lay down in the shadows, which created a nice illumination effect:
We also discovered a cheetah:
We followed the cheetah for some time. Since it was obviously hungry, we hoped to witness a hunting scene, but unfortunately in vain. Later a secretary bird stalked through the grass in search of insects:
More pictures of the morning:
We enjoyed lunch in the camp at the Hippopool to celebrate the day. As an aperitif we had a glass of champagne for everyone.
We talked again for a long time with the camp manager Nadine who told us a lot about the country and the people. She originally comes from Gummersbach in Germany and has been living in Africa for many years. She substituted Michela, who had holidays. Unfortunately, Nadine left us already in the afternoon, then Nelson took over the management for both camps. From today on the camp had only 6 guests in all with us included. Afterwards we rested a little bit, at 4:00pm we will start our game drive again.
In the afternoon we discovered a pair of bee-eaters, but unfortunately only from a distance:
Later on we visited the cheetah from the morning again. There was no hunting scene, because a hyena came closer and closer and disturbed the cheetah. But the scene became very beautiful at the light of the sinking sun and therefore we got some nice shots:
With a still cloudless sky we looked for a suitable place to enjoy the sunset. This time some zebras posed for us in front of the setting sun:
Nach dem inzwischen üblichen Abendritual: Duschen, Bilder sichern, Drinks am Lagerfeuer und Obis famosen Abendessen fielen wir nach einem sehr ereignisreichen Tag todmüde in einen tiefen Schlaf...