Phoitos - North Luangwa & South Luangwa
 

The photos of my October, 2006 trip to North and South Luangwa can be viewed at:

http://www.pbase.com/greendrake

"Phoitos" - what the hell are those???

Well as I said in my report I think maybe I acquired a mixture of a Swedish/German accent from my travel companions ;)

Hi GreenDrake,
Inspired your photo's I created a quick yahoo album of our trip to Luangwa River Lodge in June 06. Unfortunately the url is not quite as snappy as yours, but if you copy and paste it into the address bar you can visit memory lane with us.

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mig...QsjuFBrNNxBNFX

Regards

Bushbunny - love the "elephant ear" photos and you got some great leopard shots. Thanks for sharing.

Fred

Greendrake,

Lots of nice pics.....thanks for sharing.

Hari

Hi Greendrake

Some nice pics there. My wife and I are off to Sth Luangwa (Kaingo 7nights+Puku 5nights)next Sept.
What camera/lens combo?
Cheers
Marc

Apologies GreenDrake,
Have just checked your exif data on pbase.

Marc - I also used a T-CON 17 telephoto conversion lens for a majority of the shots.

My fist trip to Zambia was in September and you will find ideal game viewing conditions. That's a nice combination of camps that puts you in two different parts of the park.

Fred

I have no problem understanding phoitos,
but "exif data on pbase" could be Swedish or German to me.

Anyway, great collection. Some lovely sunsets. The giraffe in silhouette is something I will now strive for when I point and shoot my phoitos. Please tell me I don't need exif data on pbase to get such an effect. The lion eyes were captivating. That also gives me an idea for the future. Good night shots of the leopards. The elephant ears are in some great positions.

Yahoo does a good job of displaying the photos. I've been thinking of using it. I believe if you have a yahoo account, the photo space is free and does not expire like Kodak and the other photo sites.

Thanks for posting your shots.

Top grade CIA translaters broke the code on this and sent me the translation - "exif data on Pbase."

Exif data are all the camera settings that were used to take a particular photo and Pbase is the website I used to host my photos.

I chose Pbase to host over Kodak or Yahoo because it will import and display exif data when you upload your photos to their website. I also like the fact that you can view nearly full screen images on Pbase and easily link your photos to other websites and bulletin boards.

On the other hand its not free - but is only $24/year for a ton of storage.

So you are not using Yahoo. I thought I saw that it was a Yahoo site.

Do you have future travel plans?

Lynn - first link in this thread are my photos on Pbase and second post by Bushbunny has a link to Bushbunny's photos which are on Yahoo.

Future Travel - Montana this summer is a sure thing as I routinely go there to fly-fish. Next international trip will definitely be Africa and I would like to spend more time in the North Luangwa. If logistics and $$$ allowed it, I would love to combine that with Uganda/Rwanda.

Ruaha/Selous also sounds appealing to me and , but I must say the Swedish group I traveled with to N.Luangwa thought there were greater game densities in N.Luangwa and that the game were more skittish in Ruaha than N.Luagwa.

Look forward to hearing about your Brazil adventures.

Hi Fred (aka Greendrake),

Saw your comment re. flyfishing, also a love of mine. Have you fished for tigerfish on the Lower Zambezi?

I did for the first time on my just completed trip to the Lower Zambezi. Had a ball. Tigerfish have it all. Great fighters, agressive biters, and can bite back with those pirhana-like teeth. It was a great combination of fishing, being on the river for sundowners and great sunsets, and wonderful gameviewing on drives and walks. Hope to do it again next year.

Jim

Jim - tiger fishing on the Zambezi sounds great!! I have not yet made it down to the Zambezi, but I will have to give this a try. All the great things that an African safari brings plus great fly-fishing - man that would be hard to beat.

Did you bring your own fly-rod and reel? What weight rod? 8 wt? Sinking line? Tiger fish jump?

Jim where do you usually fly-fish? We will have to exchange some stories and tips. I predominantly fly-fish the freshwater rivers in New England with one or two trips out to the big western rivers each year.

Fred

Greendrake,

I know you did a lot of walking on your recent trip, but, do you think you lost some conditioning in terms of running? Reason i ask, i usually do mostly jeep drives on my trip...probably one or two mickey mouse walks near the camp/lodge....so usually end up complaining about myself when i get back home.....

Hari

Hari - I think I found some loss of conditioning, but minor and the kind you can regain in a week of two of training.

I found the break beneficial. As you know when you train every day you accumulate an assortment of minor injuries and this break gives those injuries a chance to heal.

When I returned after my first 8 mile run my quads were a bit sore after the run. The kind of soreness you have after a hard 1/2 marathon race. I am usually never sore after an easy training run. Cardiovascular wise I felt pretty good. The weather here was about 50 F or 10 C and after training in the heat all summer I felt really good running in these cooler temperatures. The fall here is my favorite time to run.

Fred

Fred,

Yep, agree about the East coast fall weather....

Dont want to convert your safari thread into Runners world online, but, over the past few weeks i sit cross-legged on the floor for 20-25 mins every day and i find the benefit in easing the hip flexors and hence improving my running form. I sit longer, when i'm watching a game on tv.....

You will be sore after the first day, if you are not used to it....

Hari

Hari - in a yoga like crossed leg position?

Tight hip flexors the bane of long-distance running. I try to do quite a few stetches at this group of muscles

Hi Fred,

I live on the other side of the country, in No. California, and I'm lucky to have the American River practically in my back yard. It has has steelhead, salmon, striped bass and shad, depending on time of year. Do you live in/near upstate NY? Was there last spring, and talked to people who are high on the fishing there, but didn't have a chance to get out myself. Would like to go back and give it a try.

Tigerfish do jump, and except for the fearsome maw, they reminded me of baby tarpon with stripes like a striped bass. Bright Deceiver/Clouser-type streamers do the trick, althohgh they do take poppers occasionaly. The only trouble I had in traveling to Zambia was the loss of my beloved 3-piece Loomis by BA which I had to check. I borrowed a rod at Chiawa which worked fine. I could have used their whole outfit, but I liked my line because it seemed to sink deeper. A 7/8-weight seems just about right, but I caught only small ones, less than 7 pounds. They can get to 15 pounds and even more, Next time I will take a 4-piece rod which I can stick into my carry-on. Another alternative would be only to take reel, spare spools, flies, and extra wire tippets.

I did most of my fishing while staying at Chiawa, which I highly recommend, not only for the fishing, but for the professionalism, expertise, and friendliness of the staff, from top to bottom, great game-viewing and accommodations. First class all the way. Sausage Tree is downstream, and has a nice location, but management was very poor--frankly unacceptable-- IMO.

I was promised ahead of time that I would be fishng only with another fly fisherman, or just my companion, and a guide. We ended up in a small boat with two other bait fishermen who the manager catered to, with a motor that barely ran. I'm no purist, but it just didn't work, and after catching one tigerfish, I just put down my rod the rest of the evening. Night and day difference with my experience at Chiawa.

But there were far worse problems with Sausage Tree which I will relate when I return to my trip report on "Zambia--What an amazing journey!" I have written already about the first phase of our journey on that tbread with some pictures taken with a P&S. I now have my slides back and some better pics which I'm in the process of digitizing and adding to the site.

Sorry all, didn't mean to hijack this thread, but hope you understand what happens when guys start talking about fishing. <g>

Jim

Jim - sorry to hear about your Loomis. I have cast the GLX and that is one "sweet rod." All my rods now are 4 or 5 piece rods.

I also would not have wanted to pay to be put on a boat with other bait fisherman. For others who may think we are "snobs", there just are different tactics involved and if you are paying to have a guide and boat definitely want him to have a fly-fishing orientation. One of the rivers I frequent is catch and release,but not fly-fishing only. Occassionally I will find myself trying to fish small dries during a hatch and will have a gang of guys with spinning rods stand 10 feet away from me and start lobbing their "grenades" at the fish I targeting. Drives me crazy. Thank God its a rare occassion.

Upstate NY rivers have some big time King, Coho and Steelhead runs. The Salmon River in Paulaski one of the more famous spots, but descriptions of it being "combat fishing" always has kept me from making the 4 or 5 hour drive. The American sounds like a great fishery. My home water is the Farmington, River in CT. Tailwater with browns, and rainbows and only about 2 hours from home and I am usually on it every weekend.