I thought this little baby penguin with a pink heart painted on his chest was fitting for today. He lives on Boulder’s Bay, in Simonstown, South Africa, along with a colony of African Penguins. They used to be called Jackass Penguins because of the noise they make.
No other penguins were marked like this, so I really have no idea why he’s got this little heart painted on him.
While on a booze cruise just above the Victoria Falls in Livingstone Zambia I spotted this guy resting on the bank. He’s actually a baby, which is probably why his teeth are such a bright white. Even at his age he’s got that menacing, sly look crocodiles are so good at it.
Our jeep rumbled down the dirt road towards the river. Then, as we entered the flat lands surrounding the water we saw dozens of giraffe milling about. I really wanted to see one drink. As the truck pulled away I thought I wasn’t going to be that lucky. Then this guy decided to take a sip.
I didn’t plan on taking this photo of a double-decker bus in London. I was inspired to set up my camera when I saw a line of black cabs sat at the traffic lights just under that bridge. Then, this big red behemoth blocked my view. I think it’s kinda cool though…
Off we drove, into the off road area at Dune 7 in our sub-par 4×4. We picked up speed as we prepared to climb from the hard packed sand at the base to the flowing dunes. Then, we stopped. We were stuck. Fifteen minutes later we dug, rocked and pushed the car out and back down to the hard packed sand. It was time to set off on foot.
Walking on these dunes really isn’t easy. The sand is very soft and it doesn’t take much of a gradient to feel like you’re getting lower down with each step forward you take. As a result, the three of us took off in different directions, attacking what we thought was the easiest route. Harleigh, pictured below, took the direct route up some of the steepest inclines. Her momentum carried her about three quarters of the way to the top, where I was able to catch this photo of her just before she was forced to drop to her hands and knees and drag herself the rest of the way.
I was jealous. As I was carrying two cameras and a tripod I couldn’t used my hands to make the climb without dragging my gear through the sand. I spent quite a while trying different routes until I found a way, using less steep bits, that let me reach the ridge.
Splitting up worked out well for me as I was able to snap a few pictures of the dunes dwarfing the girls and giving a real sense of the immensity of these mountains of sand.
My first trip to Africa was entirely inspired by a forwarded e-mail showing people swimming in the Devil’s Pool right on the edge of Victoria Falls. In order to do this we had to go at low water, which was an incredible experience. However, I can safely say that a return at high water was necessary to truly appreciate the grandeur of the falls.
Where you can see the fall in this picture is where we walked across the last time we were here, it was bone dry. This time, mist swirled everywhere and it didn’t take long for me to get completely soaked.
I certainly didn’t expect to get a photo like this while on safari in Botswana. These lilypads lined the river as we cruised up and down watching hippos and crocodiles go about their daily business.
This is the backside of Dune 7 in Namibia. You can rent quad bikes here, or go sand dune boarding. We decided that rather than do either of these activities we’d take our own 4×4 into the off-road area. It took us about 3 minutes to get stuck on the side of the dune. Thankfully we were able to push it free after digging out the sand around the wheels. After this we stuck to the hard sand until parking it and setting off up the dunes on foot.
My travel buddy posted her photo of a hippo from our recent tour of Southern Africa. So, I decided I should publish my hippo photo. This was taken on a boat safari in Botswana.
I was stood on the viewing deck of the campsite where we spent our last night in Namibia. My camera gear was down by our tent and as I watched the sunset develop I contemplated just watching it and not taking any photos. Then I decided to go for it. I ran and grabbed my gear, crossed a dry river bed on the other side of the camp and went in search of a good shot. The further away from camp I walked (not very far) the more I wondered what sort of predators there were in this area. Then, I entered a clearing, full of springbok. There had to be at least thirty of them. They didn’t stick around for long, they took off as soon as they saw me. Well, I hoped it was because of me.
This encounter reminded me I really was out in the wilderness and I beat a hasty retreat. The retreat was paused briefly to snap one more photo, this one.
