East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

It looks like east Africa is finally receiving a decent amount of rain
which is long overdue. The immediate effect of the rain may cuase some
problems as flooding will impact and already desperate situation.
Here's an update on the rains for April 2006:

http://wwww.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF...Q?OpenDocument

Monthly updates from USAID:
http://www.fews.net/centers/?f=ke

News on the crisis in Kenya:
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/...284/index.html
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org...03-13-2006.cfm

****

There are extreme problems all over Africa which will need time and
money to improve. I hope that anyone who is willing to spend thousands
of dollars to visit these places will also be willing to donate a small
amount to aid organizations which are trying to help these people. I
understand that tourism itself helps in these countries but tourism
does not always reach the worst hit areas.

I personally donate to Doctors Without Borders as they are one of the
most efficient aid organizations in terms of maximing the impact of
every dollar contributed (84% of each dollar is used for support.)
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

Whichever charity you prefer, please make a donation to help these
people...

-Alan

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

writes ...

It looks like east Africa is finally receiving a decent amount of
rain which is long overdue.

We were in Tanzania in late January and they were suffering from a
three year drought, with little rain during the "short wet" season ...
we went back in early April for 10 days (just returned a week ago) and
it was a different place entirely as they had a great deal of rain
starting in March ... we had some rain every day and had a couple of
real tropical downpours while staying in the Serengeti. So at least
for now the weather patterns are back to 'normal'. Very beautiful to
see all the greenery.

Here are some pics from the April trip, mostly birds (nothing like 37
billion tsetse flies, mosquitos, flying termites and other flies to
invigorate the bird life) ... the lions trying to kill each other and
the cheetah jumping on the roof were pretty cool too ...

http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/ta...06/cheetah.htm

Bill

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

In message .com
"Bill" wrote:

[big snip]
Great pics, Bill.
Glad you enjoyed your trip.
I could see the flies in your pics, at first I was surprised you
hadn't 'spotted' your images, then I realised!
The tsetses are a real nuisance. Were you totally free of them in Jan?

Slainte

Liz

--

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

Liz writes ...

The tsetses are a real nuisance. Were you totally free of them in Jan?

We had them at Manyara but not at Tarangire, the crater or Serengeti in
Jan ... but it was a very dry year to that point so perhaps they were
fewer than usual. In April Manyara actually seemed to have fewer
insects than in January but Serengeti had several orders of magnitude
more flies, tsetses and, after torrential rains two nights, hatching
flying termites. We didn't go to Tarangire or Crater in April.

We didn't see any mosquitos in April but I assume they will hatch in
force later since there were thousands of puddles.

Bill

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

In message .com
"Bill" wrote:

Liz writes ...

The tsetses are a real nuisance. Were you totally free of them in Jan?

We had them at Manyara but not at Tarangire, the crater or Serengeti in
Jan ... but it was a very dry year to that point so perhaps they were
fewer than usual.
Ah, right.
I had forgotten that although I was there in July, usually the dry
season, things were much wetter than usual that year because of El
Nino.

In April Manyara actually seemed to have fewer
insects than in January but Serengeti had several orders of magnitude
more flies, tsetses and, after torrential rains two nights, hatching
flying termites. We didn't go to Tarangire or Crater in April.

We didn't see any mosquitos in April but I assume they will hatch in
force later since there were thousands of puddles.
There's always something.
:-(((

Tx for the info.

Slainte

Liz

--

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

Bill wrote:
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/ta...06/cheetah.htm

Good writeup and photos again, Bill. That cheetah on the roof must
have been a very enjoyable experience!

A question - what is that support which you are using for your Arca
Swiss and Sidekick? I am still trying to find a good, flexible mount
for vehicles which doesnt involve clamping to a window.

Vandit

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

Bill wrote:
Hi Vandit, you're going in October, right?

Hi Bill - yes, the big trip is planned for October (may or may not
happen due to some business expansion stuff going on). However, I am
most likely also taking a trip in July with my parents to Masai Mara
(present to my dad, after he recovers from some minor surgery), and
figured I'd get some shooting in :D.

Btw, I wrote my post to you on seeing the first cheetah page only -
didnt see the lion pages until later. Spec-f'ing-tacular.

It must have been amazing to witness something like that. I've seen a
big male putting the smackdown on his pride female for getting too
close to a *huge* giraffe carcass (see:
http://www.photosafariindia.com/arti...3/page015.html),
but this was pretty intense stuff.

Incidentally, I've never thought that pride females would hang around
so close to nomads, without the pride males having anything to say
about it.

Great bird photos as well... your photos, and also the commentary, are
a genuine treat to read.

are always vibrating loose. I did a write-up on what worked and didn't
work on the January trip describing the T-mount base we used ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/ta...i.htm#vehicles
and scroll down about half a page to "Vehicle camera supports" ... in
that write-up I was bitching about how these aren't level on the Toyota
Land Cruisers we used (they were designed for the British Land Rovers
with three pop-off roof sections) so on this trip we took 10"x4"x4"
blocks of wood, which you can see in the first and last cheetah pics,
and these leveled it off quite nicely.

Ah, I see it now - that diagram in the above page helped a lot.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems as if this T-base just forms a
base (supported on the 3 ends) for screwing in the head. Is that
right? If so, I'll see if I can get one made locally...

What did you do if the action was on the other side, btw? Just move
your rig over, I assume?

We also took small knapsacks and bought 5 kilo bags of rice in Arusha
and used these as 'bean-bags' for the shorter lenses up to 300 mm f/4,
which worked very well ... then gave the rice bags away at the end of
the trip.

Yeah, I like beanbags as well. For static subjects, they are great,
arent they? I just took a few tiger photos taken at ISO 1600 and a
shutter speed of 1/10 at an effective focal length of 900mm :) But
they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to action....

Regards,
Vandit

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

On 2 May 2006 09:25:56 -0700, VK wrote:

Incidentally, I've never thought that pride females would hang around
so close to nomads, without the pride males having anything to say
about it.

VK,

where did you read that? Pride males never tolerate any stranger
males within their territory.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

Hans-Georg Michna wrote:
where did you read that? Pride males never tolerate any stranger
males within their territory.

Hans-Georg, that's what I thought Bill had mentioned in his article
(link in his first post in this thread) - that the pride males had
abandoned the kill and the 2 nomads had taken it over. Given that 2
females and a sub-adult were hanging around, I was quite surprised as
well.

If I misunderstood/misread, mea culpa.

Cheers,
Vandit

East Africa - Drought Conditions
 

VK writes ...

Btw, I wrote my post to you on seeing the first cheetah page only -
didnt see the lion pages until later. Spec-f'ing-tacular

Before our first trip a friend told us we'd be bored with the lions
because they sleep 20-22 hours a day, but we've photographed them
strutting in great early morning golden light, with playful cubs, on
various zebra and wildebeest kills, stalking buffalo, squabbling with
hyenas, copulating repeatedly and here fighting each other ... we've
been really lucky with the lions :)

Ah, I see it now - that diagram in the above page helped a lot.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems as if this T-base just forms a
base (supported on the 3 ends) for screwing in the head. Is that
right? If so, I'll see if I can get one made locally

Yes, with three small 1/2" wide pipe extensions with rubber caps for
'feet' ... make sure you don't build the top of the T too short or it
won't fit ... one guy on our first trip had built his own but it
wouldn't span the well of the vehicle and was worthless ... if you use
the dimensions in the photo you should be OK for the two types of
vehicles I mentioned.

What did you do if the action was on the other side, btw? Just
move your rig over, I assume?

Yes, about 50 times a day you just lift it and move to either the other
side or, if the animal moves behind you, to the spacer bar behind you
.... the 500 mm with a Mark II weighs about 15 lbs with the Wimberley
head and it's tough moving it when the vehicle is moving in bumpy areas
but often you need to be setup (especially for birds) as soon as he
stops or you miss the shot.

Yeah, I like beanbags as well. For static subjects, they are
great, arent they?

I'm glad I wasn't using the beanbags when the cheetah was on the roof
though, the T-mount was much more stable ...

Bill