Walking Birds

While many of the birds we saw in Africa were magestic eagles and tiny sparrows, there were a handful of magnificent ground birds. Not all of them were flightless but they were all certainly striking in their own way, starting off with the obvious ostrich. There were 2 varieties to be seen, the Common Ostrich which we saw throughout Kenya and Tanzania and the Somali Ostrich which we hoped to see in Samburu but were unable to find.
The Kori Bustard was always an impressive sight. They are apparently the largest birds capable of flight, but we consistently saw them on the ground. They have a very striking courtship ritual in which the male tucks his head and seems to inflate his neck in a strange way but we only saw this from a distance or in a moving car and don't have any good pictures to back it up.
Rounding out the set, Secretary Birds were an infrequent treat that could be seen searching for lizards, snakes and insects in the grasses. There were several occassions where they were walking along parallel to the road and we could see them well, and a few occassions where we saw them in flight.

Maasai Mara - Highlight Reel

We were in the Maasai Mara for about 6 days as an optional extension at the end of our safari. About half the group opted not to do it but we were certainly glad to. For anyone in our group that missed it, this can at least fill in some of the gaps for you, and for anyone considering an extension there, we heartily recommend it.

Music: "He Lives in You" by Lebo M.

The lodges in the Mara were often tricky to get nice pictures of as the building themselves are usually tucked well into the brush at the tops of hills and under dense foliage. This is done more to conceal the buildings and make the landscapes seem uninterrupted then to hide ugly architecture. The Mara Serena lodge (shown below) is particularly charming, situated at the top of a hill its buildings all seem to lack 90 degree angles thanks to smooth concrete and stucco.The view from the top was wonderful as well and the sunrise timelapse and one of the pans in the video above were both shot there.We stayed in two tented camps in the Maasai Mara as well, and just to show that a tent in a safari lodge is different from a tent when you go to the lake on the long weekend, here's a picture of one tents interior. Notice the twin beds and attached bathroom with lighting, just like your typical tent. Roughing it every step of the way ;)

Baraka, the Blind Rhino

One thing that set Sweetwaters apart from some of the other parks we visited was that they also had several areas in the park set aside for injured or displaced animals. One such resident was a black rhino named 'Baraka' (which is Swahili for blessing). Despite being very large and healthy he is completely blind, having lost one eye in a tussel with another rhino and the other eye to advanced cataracts.
Being blind is bad news for rhinos, even though their vision is quite poor to begin with, so he has become an ambassador for people, replacing another rhino in the park that had recently died of old age. This way he is cared for and can continue to live a healthy life while also helping educate people. His horn was originally over a meter in length and had to be cut off to fit him in the container to move him to the park. Since their horns are made of keratin, having it trimmed was no more painful for him than having your hair or fingernails cut and it is growing back slowly.
Kathryn was even lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and get to feed him some sugarcane as part of his lunch. At the same time she was able to pat his nose and horn a little which made her day.

The Best Adventure of All

June 21st marks not only the Summer Solstice but also our wedding anniversary. We've been married for 3 years now and together for 5 1/2, and in that time we've had 1 cat, 4 apartments, travelled to 4 continents (3 if you don't count crossing the Bosphorous as 'going to Asia'), visited 14 countries and had heaps of adventures.
Kathryn has proven day in and out to be the greatest thing in my life and the perfect wife, best friend and dearest traveller. We moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver on a hope of getting a better career going for us both and she has helped and supported every step of the way.
So to my little darling and from my very heart, thank you for every second of every hour of the last few years and here's hoping that the next 3 and the 50 after that are as wonderful and full of delights and adventure as the last 3; and to everyone thats been a part of our life up to now, thank you for your love and support. Its been a great time and its only going to get better.

Kenya/Tanzania 2010 - Best Of

We shot a lot of great footage between the two of us, and trimming it down to something we felt we could make other people sit through was no small feat. The clip below includes many of the highlights from our trip.

Music: "Theme from Jurassic Park" by John Williams.

99% of the footage we shot was done handheld in a crowded little mini-bus with a pop-up roof. With 5-6 people moving around at all times trying to get the best shots and working around the metal posts that propped the roof up it was a bit of a challenge, but one that we thoroughly enjoyed.
With each new video upload I will also try and highlight the lodges we stayed in to help dispel any notions that they were tiny tents or Maasai huts. The lodge below was the first one we stayed in just outside of Arusha in Tanzania and while we were too jet-lagged and eager to get moving to fully enjoy it, it was very pleasant all the same

Batizado

This past weekend was Kathryns Capoeira groups annual Batizado, so she was busy with workshops and general badassery. On the Sunday it was their big belt changing ceremony and showing off to the great unwashed, so I took my dutiful place in the front row and got some pictures. For those of you that have never been to a batizado its basically 3 hours of the picture below, which is exhausting to watch much less do yourself.
Kathryn also got her double orange belt this year which is her 5th belt and puts here close to the top of her group in experience. She's been very dedicated not only to her practice this past year but also to learning instruments, Portugese and as much Brazillian culture as she can get, so I was very proud to see her hard efforts recognized. Below are the students from her academy that changed belts this year along with the instructors and guests from out of town.
She's in the middle of the picture above, but for those of you that like your Kathryns more than 10 pixels across, here's a closer picture of her. She's gotten very good over the years and I am always proud to see my Little Scrapper strut her stuff.

Friends on the Island

Rounding out our trip to Vancouver Island, here's a few pictures of our friends we visited on the trip. Jim and Mary live in Telegraph Cove and took us out on their whale watching boat. They were also on our trip to Africa and shared in all our adventures over there.Roger and Colleen met up with us from Campbell River and the Comox Valley respectively. Roger was in our van throughout most of the Africa trip and put up with more than his share of our nonsense.
And here's one of the group of Africa veterans, along with Joey the dog. Good times and good people :)

Mammals of Vancouver Island

We had a nice mix of mammals on our trip since we were spending a goodly chunk of time driving through the forest and a nice bit of time boating. These Stellar's Sea Lions are some of my all-time favorite animals and are always a delight to see. We found a small colony of them on an island while we were out on our boat tour and though we couldn't get as close as I would have liked (they are apparently skittish at the start of the tourist season and more docile at the end of it) they were still wonderful.
Contrasting somewhat, these Mule Deer were standing just by the roadside one evening as we were on a drive to get some forgotten groceries. They were nearly 'Pinawa-style' tame and didn't balk at the arrival of our car or our camera lenses. Kathryn is always a deer enthusiast and they were nice to see.
There were several mammals we saw but due to distance or hiding we were unable to get good pictures of, so this last one is a bit of a cheat. We passed by a bear on the drive back and saw several Harbor Porpoises and Dall's Porpoises on the boat. The problem with porpoises is that they breach maybe 2-3 times 200 yards out and in totally different spots before they disappear entirely, so I couldn't get a single picture of them. This harbor porpoise below still counts as a sighting though as it was a captive porpoise that Kathryn worked with at the MMR last summer and at least gives you an idea of what they look like.

Neat Old Machines

Being a historical and touristy place, Telegraph Cove also has its share of neat old machines on display. Having been well trained by my father to always stop and admire old locomotives I was particularly happy to find the one shown below sitting at the side of the highway at Beaver Cove, just minutes from our lodgings. I assume it was once used by the nearby lumber company but there wasn't much signage there to explain it.
Although it was somewhat ambiguous about climing it; the front sign says do so at your own risk and the back sign says not to, I clambered around and gave it a thorough photographing. The interior of the cab was particularly neat as it was rapidly being reclaimed by nature and there were plants growning through the floor and out of the various pipes along with a generous coating of moss on the flat parts of the exterior.
This old truck was sitting as a little display in Telegraph Cove and was well in line with the old-time feel that most of the old town carries, along with little historical fact signs and a general feeling of the past. I doubt this truck could ever run again, but better to see it out on display in any form than at the bottom of the sea or in a junk heap.

Telegraph Cove

Our friends in Telegraph Cove run a little company renting their cottage to vacationing visitors, and were very kind to put us up there. As you can see from the picture below, "cottage" perhaps means something else on the west coast then it does elsewhere. Needless to say we had a wonderful stay and heartily recommend their business to anyone else in the area.
Telegraph Cove seems to largely be a tourist town with a small dedicated year-round populace and an inflated population during the summer. There is a large camp ground near where we were staying and most of the business in town seems to be tourist-centric, but there is still some fishing going on in the area as shown by this fellow and his halibut.
Telegraph Cove itself is going through an odd transitional phase. The two halves of the town seem to be owned by different developers. The old half of the town is all historical buildings, museums (far left) while the new half is being developed with spacious multi-million dollar homes by the sea (development on the right). The Whale Interpretive Centre can be seen in this photo as the long red building on the far side, and the boat infront of it is the one we went on our tour in. Click the panorama below to enlarge.

Varied Vancouver Island Birds

There were quite a mix of birds to be seen in our trip to Vancouver Island. Bald eagles are thriving and common as crows over there. We typically saw them on the roadside every few kilometers and they were clustered around a fishmeal plant near Telegraph Cove. This particular individual was called down out of a tree by our friend Roger's neighbor with the promise of turkey necks. I did get the whole bird in frame but he was close enough that I figure this makes a more interesting web image.
Our friend Mary in Telegraph Cove is an avid hummingbird fan and there were 4 feeders on their front step doing booming business. Both Rufous and Anna's hummingbirds were present and in such great numbers that their constant buzzing was audible everywhere. Because they were so well fed and safe there they were also very good about having their pictures taken.
On the drive up the island we found a flock of Black Oystercatchers and Qualicum Beach and managed to get some nice pictures of them running around the beach and in the surf.

Whale Interpretive Centre

Another reason that we were quite keen to get up to Telegraph Cove is that our friends there not only run a whale-watching company but also started and continue to help manage the Whale Interpretive Centre. Anyone that claims to know Kathryn at all knows that she is fascinated by bones and loves to get up close and poke at them and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. The photo below doesn't do it justice but there's also a 3rd Minke whale in the background in the left behind the front whale.
Aside from cetacean bones there was also a sizeable selection of displays on pinnipeds (seals etc) which are always favorites of mine. Below are a harbor seal and Stellar's sea lion; having seen both of those types of animals in the wild so often it was really neat to see how they fit together under the blubber.
I feel that the quality of whale skeletons on display here is better than anything I've seen outside of London or Paris and the place is a real testament to the dedication they have put into it. Anyone who finds themselves in that neck of the woods is heartily recommended to go give it a look.