Sunbirds

We'll take a brief break from giant mammals for a post or two to prove that we did saw things other than huge cats while we were away. Sunbirds are Africas' hummingbirds. They fill the same niche as pollinators and have a similar overall body shape but flap their wings much slower and are even more iridescent and beautiful, as shown by this marico sunbird posing by the pool in the Maasai Mara.
Being tiny also makes them a bit of a pain to photograph well, and you should certainly be relieved you're spared all the failed efforts to get them in frame and in focus. Also darker ones like this scarlet-chested sunbird can be a royal pain to find flitting around in the trees.
Ever humble in the bird names, this beautiful sunbird (its actual name, not my praise) shows off everything we were fortunate to see with them.. striking colours, nice lighting and a bit of action without flying away from us.

Big Five Pt 5: Elephant

No list of African megafauna would be remotely complete without the elephant. Ranging from the savanna to the mountains and weighing from 3 tons (for the smaller forest breeds) to 7 tons (for a savanna bull) they are truly an awesome sight. Even in the last few days of our tour when we'd seen hundreds of things and were getting harder and harder to impress they took our breath away every single time.
Not that it doesn't take some time to put on that 7 tons, they start out pretty little and are absolutely enchanting when they're young and carefree as well. Watching a large group of them care for and look after each other was heartwarming and seeing an injury in their group was tragic.
Being the largest land animal on Earth they tend to build up a lot of body heat which they are able to control and vent through their ears, but in the hottest parts of the day they can be pretty sedate. At one point in the Maasai Mara it was raining and these two young bulls were practicing having a scrap. They apparently quite like the rain as it takes off the heat of the day and gives them a good rinse.
Despite centuries of hunting and poaching for their ivory, I was very happy to see so many of these animals and to see such a variety in ages throughout the groups. Kenya in particular has stopped all hunting of game animals and I think the conservation efforts of both countries are making a huge opportunity for these beautiful creatures to survive for a long time to come.

Big Five Pt 4: Lion

The King of the Jungle (despite the fact that the ones we saw were on the savanna) the lion is a truly amazing and fearsome creature to behold. The one below was one of a group of very hot lions we saw in Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. Although there were several efforts to hunt that day it was too hot and the prey were too careful for anything more than some intense staring matches to occur.
We saw them throughout our trip but the most magestic and numerous ones were in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. This lioness was one of a family that had wandered from the shade of a tree down to a waterhole. Our van was probably only 30 feet away or so and we were able to get some wonderful pictures of individuals as well as the whole family resting and grooming.
And when it came to up-close photo opportunities, the males didn't disappoint either. Since they spend 20+ hours a day resting they can be quite easy to get close to when they're sleepy. Below is one of a group of 3 males we were within 15 feet of, having himself a yawn after a long day of being photographed.Savage, beautiful and lazy all in one, they are truly an incredible sight.

Big Five Pt 3: Rhinoceros

Rhinos were one of the more elusive mammals on our tour (at least as elusive as a 2 ton primeval titan can be), due in no small part I am sure to years of poaching for their horns. Being nearsighted and aggressive probably hasn't helped their popularity in the long run, but from a distance they are enchanting creatures. The photo below was taken at Sweetwaters tented camp at the watering hole. The pair were perhaps 40 feet from us and really only separated from us by a small ditch.
We saw two kinds of rhinos on our tour, the White Rhino (shown below) and the Black Rhino (shown above and even more below). It may appear that they are not remarkably different in colour and this is a direct result of poor name translations. Apparently the white rhino has a wider mouth and was originally referred to as the wide rhino, but the difference was lost to time and translation.
There are several other differences between the two in so far as their range and grazing habits, with the black rhino being a savanna grazer and the white rhino sticking closer to the forests and lakes. Another interesting difference between the two that I would never have guessed without being told is that baby black rhinos follow behind their mother while white rhino babies are in the lead.
The rhino above is named 'Max' and was being gradually reintroduced to the wild and the other rhinos. To protect him from poachers he had a guard that follows him 24-7 as he learns to be a little more careful of people and become a wilder animal.

Big Five Pt 2: Leopard

The leopard is a solitary nocturnal cat, no part of which makes it easy to spot or locate. The easiest way to find a leopard seems to be to look for the biggest circle of tourist vans gathered around a lone and otherwise unremarkable tree. While there is one in the tree below, the types of trees they favor are also prone to leopard shaped growths.
The bonus of them being nocturnal is that once somebody finds one they are typically quite content to lounge around and have their pictures taken all day, allowing you to get reasonably close. The downside being that most of the time their heads are down or obscured by branches and the only motion you see is when one of their legs droops off a branch.Every now and then though you'll find one that's getting geared up to hunt and if you can navigate the labyrinth of safari vans in the area and your auto-focus doesn't snap to some foreground grasses, you can get a few nice pictures of one of these beautiful creatures on the go.To avoid having their kills stolen by more aggressive predators, leopards will often bring their meals into the trees with them or even leave them up there to ripen in the sun while they are away. So finding them in a tree is certainly the easiest and most frequent means of seeing them.

Big Five Pt 1: Cape Buffalo

There was so much more than the Big Five to see in Africa, but that seems like as good a point as any to start sharing animal photos. Of the five, I think the ones that get the least recognition over here are Cape Buffalo so I figured I'd start with them to try and spread awareness.
Not to be confused with water buffalo, the cape buffalo is an ornery and terrifying ton of angry beef rather than a docile work animal. They are in fact some of the most dangerous animals in the area and are still responsible for many deaths every year. The grass in many areas of Kenya/Tanzania is so long that they can be sitting down and disappear into its cover and people walking around will be unaware of them until they are almost on top of them.
Scarier still, if injured they will be aware that they are leaving a blood trail that people will follow, and are known for going far ahead and then looping around to wait in the grass by the side of their own trail to gore and trample whoever happens to be following them.We saw them throughout our trip in groups of anywhere between 3 to 400 and ranging from the savanna to mountain forests and they always blew us away with their size and power.

Driver-Guides

The most important people we spent time with in Africa were our Driver-Guides. These guys not only drove us long distances from camp to camp but also for hours on end around the parks looking for animals and getting good positions and lighting for photographs. Without their skills, sharp eyes and patience we likely wouldn't have seen a quarter of the things we did and the great photos of our trip are due in a large part to their talents.

We had three different driver-guides for different regions of our trip. John, our first driver, looked after us for around a week in Tanzania. He drove us through the Ngorongoro conservation area, the Serengeti, and around Lake Manyara as well as up to the the Kenya/Tanzania border. He's a member of the Chaga tribe and lives near Mount Kilimanjaro when he's not driving.
Freddy was our driver for the majority of Kenya over a two week period. He's a long time resident of the capital city of Nairobi and took us through Amboseli, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru, the Ark, Samburu and Sweetwaters.
Henry was our driver for the Maasai Mara and it was a particular treat for me to get to ride with him again as he had been the driver for me and my dad in our visit in '96. Henry has been driving since 1965 and been working with our tour leader since the early 80s so he knew every turn of the road and every person on it.
Once again a huge thank you to these gentlemen, without whom our trip would have been exponentially more chaotic and far less eventful :)