Category: Family and friends

Sunday August 22, 2010 Part III

Post author By Woody
Post date Sunday August 22, 2010

MAASAI MARA – In the late afternoon, under dull skies, we visited a Maasai village. The Maasai are nomads – they tend cattle which are their primary index of wealth. We find the Maasai friendly and welcoming. Their culture is sufficiently binding that they tend to return to their roots after being educated, and even after travel to the US. Our Maasai guide in the Maasai Mara, Ping, had spent six months in Orlando as a consultant to the Safari feature at Disney World. They are under severe pressure to change some of their ways, For example it was a coming of age rite for a young Maasai man to kill a lion. The Maasai population is East Africa is around 400,000, the lion population is around 25,000 so the numbers no longer support this practice. The Maasai also historically practiced female circumcision, a practice that has appropriately been banned by the governments of Kenya and Tanzania. Here’s a link the the Wikipedia entry on the Maasai: The Maasai

One interesting theory on the origin of the Maasai that we heard from several guides: A Roman legion was sent to explore the sources of the Nile and vanished. The theory is that legion trained a local tribe as legionnaires and that the Maasai descended from them. The Maasai wear red cloaks (colour reserved for soldiers in the Roman army) draped like togas and use spears which resemble the Roman Pilum and short swords which resemble the Roman Gladius.

Nancy and Maasai:

Maasai chickens:

Maasai child at play:

We were taken into a Maasai house – they are constructed of acacia branches driven into the ground and covered with cow dung. There is one very small window – 6 cm or so in diameter.

Maasai children in the door of a Maasai house.

Tags Africa, Kenya, Maasai

Animals Family and friends Landscape Travel

Friday August 20, 2010

Post author By Woody
Post date Friday August 20, 2010

CHYULU HILLS, KENYA – Most of the images in the trip are taken with a Nikon D700 and various combinations of long lenses. There is a 15 kilogram baggage weight limit on chartered bush plains, so my photo gear severely limited luxury items like clothing and toiletries. Our typical day started with coffee in camp before sunrise (6:30) followed by a game drive in a Land Rover to catch the activity around sunrise, then breakfast in the bush. Game was not particularly plentiful in this region as it has suffered three years of drought. Impalas from our morning game drive:

I also traveled with my Leica M9, which is not useful for game, but in the places where it can be used produces images that actually do stand out as having an intangible clarity and a three-dimensional quality.

Acacias from our morning game drive. The Chyulu Hills are part of the vast Serengeti ecosystem, which looks heart-breakingly like Out of Africa.

This from an afternoon bush walk.

Here we are at sunset at the end of a bush walk. The man in red is a Maasai tracker; the man in green is armed in case of an unfortunate encounter with wildlife. In Ol Donyo Wuas’ experience this hasn’t been an issue but their view is better safe than sorry.

Tags Africa, Kenya, Serengeti, Wildlife

-Woody's Picks Animals Family and friends Landscape Travel

Thursday August 19, 2010

Post author By Woody
Post date Thursday August 19, 2010

OL DONYO WUAS CAMP, CHYULU HILLS, KENYA – We spent the morning connecting with our charter aircraft and flying to the Chyulu Hills, where we stayed at Ol Donyo Wuas, the only camp that we are staying at with permanent structures (as opposed to tents). We did a game drive from the dirt airstrip to the camp, and cycled later in the afternoon. Game was fairly scarce – this area has suffered three years of drought.

Kilimanjaro from the air – to the south of us on the other side of the Tanzanian boarder.

Ol Donyo Wuas has built a watering hole fed by the camp’s “gray” water. It’s very popular. Here’s a giraffe getting a drink – the giraffe is vulnerable to predators when it drinks because it can’t give defensive in this position.

Ol Donyo Wuas met us un the bush with elaborate tea and cocktails after our ten mile ride on trail bikes.

Sunset. This happens quickly and doesn’t last vey long in the tropics. We’re almost on the equator so there is very little variation in sunrise (6:30 AM) and sunset (6;30 PM) throughout the year.

Tags Africa, Kenya, Mara Plains, Wildlife

Animals Family and friends Travel

Wednesday August 18, 2010

Post author By Woody
Post date Wednesday August 18, 2010

NAIROBI, KENYA – We spent the day touring around Nairobi. Starting now and for the rest of the trip I’ll be showing more than one picture a day – typically four or five. I’m capturing 500 – 600 images per day – boiling this down to a single image per day takes more editing time than I have available. Here’s a link to a New York Times article on what to do if you have 36 hours in Nairobi: 36 hours in Nairobi Here we go:

John at Breakfast at the Norflok Hotel (Norfolk Hotel):

Maria makes a tall friend at Giraffe Manor, a Scottish hunting lodge set in what is now the outskirts of Nairobi (Giraffe Manor)

Lunch at the Talisman Restaurant – this is a large bird in the garden of the restaurant – we had not gotten into the habit of asking about particulars of gender and species is at this point so I don’t have any notes as to what this is.

Maria and Nancy at One Off Gallery – a delightful art gallery owned by Carol Lees. She represents (among many other artists) Timothy Brooke, who’s paintings from the set of the film version of White Mischief adorn the walls of the Fairmont Norfolk Hotel.

Tags Africa, Kenya, Nairobi, Wildlife

Family and friends Travel

Wednesday August 17, 2010

Post author By Woody
Post date Tuesday August 17, 2010

HEATHROW AIRPORT, UK – After our overnight flight from New York we made our way-too-tight connection to our flight to Nairobi, an all-day affair which puts us in Nairobi at 9:00 PM local time, way after dark. Total travel time was 20 hours or so with 7 hours of time change from New York. Just after boarding we caught up with our friends John and Nancy Novogrod, who we’ll be traveling with for the next two weeks. John (like me) is a lawyer in New York; Nancy is the Editor in Chief of Travel & Leisure Magazine – the trip to Africa was her idea. Anyway, here are John and Nancy, just after boarding.

Shot with a Panasonic GF1 and 20mm f1.7 pancake lens.

Tags Aircraft

Family and friends Travel

Tuesday August 17, 2010

Post author By Woody
Post date Tuesday August 17, 2010

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 104, MID-ATLANTIC – We had a hectic day of packing for our trip to East Africa. Not much opportunity to photograph. Once we got on board the aircraft for the first leg of our flight I got a chance to grab this shot of Maria.