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 :)