Samburu Celebration
Stop Stimulating the Ivory Trade; Just Stop Trade
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/14/stop-stimulating-the-ivory-trade-just-stop-trade/?fb_action_ids=10151408258606350&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151408258606350%22%3A598976433462923%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151408258606350%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
Stop Stimulating the Ivory Trade; Just Stop Trade
This article is succinct and a must read. Endorsed by Mary Rice of the EIA who has dedicated her life to protecting elephants. With increased demand for ivory trinkets, jewellery and art coming from Asia, and given a total ban has worked before, it has to be the only way we can stop the cruel and brutal slaughter of elephants and rhino and the rangers and people who lose their lives trying to protect these helpless animals. Total ban on ivory sales. It has to be. I defy anyone who has seen pictures of bloodied, butchered de-horned rhino and de-tusked elephants, or seen the peculiar, out of character, traumatised behaviour of surviving calfs or elephants who have escaped the hunters to see it any other way. Already this year there have been an alarming number of ivory hauls and elephant/rhino slaughters. Total ban. Please.
Kenya and Tanzania Safari: Xmas 2012
Hopefully this gives a flavour of the wide variety of game we spent time with in the Serengeti, the Mara and Laikipia over Christmas and the New Year. The Big Cats performed well: lots of Lion activity, not just sleeping! Cheetah kills, Wild Dog hunting Dik Dik - we could hear the shrieks and then crunching of bones.... but the terrain was too difficult to keep up with these hunters. Still, we lucked in with seeing Wild Dog puppies though! We nearly saw a Leopard kill but some bad mannered Homo Sapiens messed up the kill, much to the frustration of a number of us who had been respectfully watching her hunt, and of course don't forget the frustration of the poor Leopard who was frightened off, needing to eat and with an empty stomach. More on safari etiquette in a later Blog!
The Northern Serengeti showed us Hyena galore, the Southern Serengeti Wildebeest galore. A Puff Adder (gulp), different species of Zebra and Giraffe in the Kenyan highlands, and not featuring in this video, but some privileged time with Samburu as they celebrated the coming of age of some of their young men.
2013 is shaping up well!
Julie and Adam
January 2013
Interesting Sightings
We were very lucky on our recent safari in Kenya and Tanzania to catch some particularly interesting sightings. These images bring back fond memories. Just before laying out our picnic blankets, Raphael spotted something unusual in the grass, THANKFULLY! A Puff Adder with a bird partly engulfed, its stiff legs of death sticking out and helping to break the camouflage. How interesting. Puff Adders dislocate their jaws in order to swallow their prey. Although we were trying to be careful, a number of lenses pointing down at him spooked him. Thankfully, this chap had to dislocate his jaw again to spit out the bird, buying us all time to shriek, jump in the air a few times, cling to each other and then withdraw back to the vehicle out of his reach. With the benefit of hindsight, we're still laughing about this.
Wild Dogs in the Kenyan Highlands
Happy New Year everyone, we hope most of your dreams are realised this year and that you manage to keep most of your resolutions. One of our resolutions is to be better at keeping this Blog up to date as we have been told by some that they prefer the detail of the Blog to FaceBook. So starting the year with a bang, African Wild Dogs..... We are just back from hanging around a pack of African wild dogs up in the north of Kenya. We stayed at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp, owned and run by Annabelle and Steve who really gave us a great bush experience, and with their fantastic Samburu staff, helped us to spend alot of our time looking for and watching the dogs who continue to den nearby. Why do we love Wild Dogs so much? * Well, they are terrific socialisers and get very excited and affectionate toward each other when they greet, before they go hunting, when they return. * They then morph into efficient killing machines. They are quick, they hunt in small packs, they devour pretty much everything, bones included, within minutes, trying to beat hyenas or anything else wanting to nick their kill. * The adults regurgitate what they have eaten to feed the puppies or other dogs in the pack that haven't eaten. * It's adrenaline filled full-on exhilaration speeding around in an open safari vehicle, clinging to your camera gear with one hand to protect it and clinging to anything solid to protect yourself, as you try to keep up with the dogs as they are hunting. Too much fun! * And Wild Dogs don't grow on trees so whenever we can, we invest the time to get really good sightings of them. If you're interested in Wild Dog behaviour, we highly recommend staying at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya where you will also be very well fed and watered, (possibly the best food in the bush!), and you will enjoy a very genuine, real bush experience as in this part of Kenya you have ranchers collaborating with small safari camps, cooperating with local communities, all on the same land. Quite a different experience.
INCREDIBLE India! 25 March 2012
We have just returned and recovered from a really incredible trip to India. We visited a few new states; Gujarat to the West and Assam and Meghalaya in the far North East. We went back to Rajasthan for the Holi festival and passed through glorious Delhi on the way in and out again.
We will be publishing a trip report, youtube slideshow and some Facebook updates in due course, but for the time being this post will try to capture some of the highlights while fresh in our minds!
Holi
Holi is an ancient Indian festival known as the "Festival of Colours" and involves a tradition of covering anyone at home or out in the streets of India with lots of colours. This is the 3rd year we returned to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, for the Elephant festival and the Holi colours.
The Elephant festival is held at the Polo ground and this year seemed to attract fewer elephants than the last two years. In any event, it is a chance to see Elephants painted with all sorts of colours:
There is a great competition by the men sitting on top of the elephants to look as regal as possible in the hope of winning one of the prizes. This guy with the flag did pretty well.
The next day the people of Jaipur go a little crazy playing Holi, the streets are full of people running about trying to cover each other with dye. Some would say we are foolish, but we love travelling about in an open Jeep built in the 1940s with our good friends Devendra and Praveen. No Health & Safety, no seat belts and no harm done at all!
You have two options with the dyes. Natural ones which are bright and relatively easy to wash off or chemical dyes which turn your face are more indelible black or dark shade!. Anyway, lots and lots of fun for everyone whether you are crowded on a motorbike:
In your car:
Or having a quiet walk in the streets:
The tourists with the right sense of humour really get stuck in:
And even those who had no intention of getting covered in colours can be encouraged to do so:
At the end of the day, to avoid annoying our hotel we like to use a garden hose to get rid of the worst of the dyes:
Gujarat
After Holi, it was a quick flight down to Gujarat to capture some of the festivals which some of the local tribes celebrate to continue the fun. The first was in the small town of Kavant. This is a gathering of the Rathva community to recreate the joy of existence and life. We arriving there and not much seemed to be happening. A daily empty street, a tattoo artist applying small tattoos for about £1 and which took about 30 seconds (no change of needle):
Then suddenly the town filled up with all sorts of people from many miles around. Crazy guys with a little too much makeup but great attitude:
Lots of girls, many of whom we understand are looking for prospective husbands:
And really energetic crowds with people shouting, singing and having a great time:
We thought this was pretty mad, but the next day it got even better. Another village and again starting very slowly. A few of the local men started off the morning with some of the local hooch:
But after a few hours, again thousands and thousands of people started to descend on the village either walking, or arriving on overloaded jeeps:
We thought something special was going to happen. Well it was a pretty unique ceremony in which some sort of priest was strapped to a large contraption:
Then someone else climbed on the other end of the contraption and it was spun round and round and round:
And this was after half a dozen chickens had their heads chopped off and a few people walked across some burning coals ...
This was another chance to see some of the really great colours the girls wear:
And their nails:
And jewelery:
And men with their great moustaches:
Once we got out of the main cities, Gujarat was exceptional. The colour, the people, the festivals and the food. It exceeded all our expectations. Then a flight east to Kolkata and then north to Guwahati in the remote north east of India.
Living Root Bridges
The main reason for travelling so far was to see the Living Root Bridges. These are bridges across rivers which are made from the Indian Rubber tree (Ficus Elastica) and which are trained over many years to form a bridge. Quite extraordinary. We saw five or six of these over the couple of days we were based in the region. There were two that really impressed us. The first was a double decker! To say that this was not easy to get to was an understatement. We drove to the end of the road and a sign pointed down into a ravine. The good news was there there were concrete stairs. The bad news... there were 2,800 steps down and another 2,800 back up. Did we mention we were staying at Cherrapunjee which is the wettest place in the world?
It was well worth it to see this amazing fusion of nature and man.
The bridges are very sturdy and can easily take the weight of 10 men. They have stones placed along the bit you walk in and are a very natural structure. 
We then travelled to what many regard as the most beautiful of the living root bridges at Mawlynnong. This was easier to walk to and was stunning:
When driving along in India there is always something to look at and often things that make us stop and get out!
Horses and their trainers in the desert:
People watering their animals:
Or people playing cricket with home made bats and balls!
What did this trip tell us? No matter how many times you visit the country there is always more to see. A festival, new wildlife or some wonderful scenery. The food is varied and if you are slightly brave there is always a new dish to try. And finally the people offer different tribes to get to know and they almost always love having their photographs taken.
Thank you India.
Julie and Adam
emails in the jungle - 15 January 2012
While out in Borneo we spend most of our time photographing Orangutans, processing our photos, eating or sleeping. Our phones and Julie's blackberry were not picking up any signals so we were without 24/7 contact ;-)
One day we went for a walk in the jungle and at the base found this. It was a wooden platform linked to a simple wire a hundred feet up in the canopy. To our amazement, when Julie put her Blackberry on the device it picked up a signal and started downloading emails. Amazing. No electronics, no power, just a simple wire.
Julie and Adam