Pictures Mashatu and MalaMala from sundowner
 

Here are some of the pictures from our trip to Africa this summer. You may have read about it on Carla's thread. http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...56&start=0

The trip was promised to my oldest daughter as a college graduation gift in an effort to entice her to finish school quicker! She did graduate in 2007 and we decided to go the following summer. We started visiting with CarlaM about what we were doing and where we were going and ended up planning the trip together. We also ended up taking my younger daughter. It was Ashley's first trip, Katie's second trip, my eighth and Carla's second.

It was such a fun, fun trip the only way it could have been better was to be longer.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.
http://www.pbase.com/cjw/africa_2008_mashatu
http://www.pbase.com/cjw/2008_malamala_africa

Beautiful pics Cindy-all of them excellent! Looks like you saw everything and had a great time!
Thanks!

Cindy,

I enjoyed your pictures a lot. The ones of Mashatu reminds me of my time I was there.

Greetz,

Johan

Hi Cindy

I shall look at your photos tonight, but I have been looking forward to you posting them.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed looking at those beautiful Spirit Bears, they are absolutely magnificent!

Kind regards

Kaye

I snuck a look at the Spirit Bears too. You could not have been luckier with them. It was my understanding also that seeing them is quite rare.

You could not have been luckier at Mashatu either. You had abundance and you photographed it well. That class you took paid off.

Hi Cindy

Absolutely magnificent photos! It is worth lugging that camera equipment around.

I had to laugh to see the girls having a little rest, must have been the day we left when it was still dark! It would be easy to nod off if I wasn't worried I would miss something.

Shame about that poor snake - much better alive! I especially love the bee-eaters, but all the photos were wonderful and quite a few of the photos look quite similar to mine, except the Giant Eagle Owl which looked dreadful and blurry, really where your magnificent lense works wonders - still wonder what he was eating - bird or lizard?

No problem with the bird identification - it will give me a head start to what I will see in January.

Kind regards

Kaye

Cindy

Great pictures, only a few more months until I'm back in SA, hopefully I'll see the Styx Pride Cubs.

Matt

Great reminder of our trip to Mashatu. Hope the dead snake wasn't our little guy:

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?...localeid=en_GB

Thank you all for the nice comments!

Johan, we knew we were following in your footsteps. :)

Kaye and Lynn, that Spirit Bear trip was very, very fun and I was very happy to see the bears, both colors.

Kaye, between your pictures, Carla's and Ashley's we have plenty of "duplicates". Did you see the closeup of the Giant Eagle Owl's meal? It looks like a guinea fowl to me http://www.pbase.com/cjw/image/104200261

I don't know if you read about the snake in Carla's report. There were two dead pythons. One was 12' and had been eaten on. The other was across the road and was 9' long and hadn't been eaten on.

Hi Cindy

The spotted feathers do suggest a guinea fowl, but I am not sure if it is the neck we are now looking at, as the guinea fowl is quite a big bird and I am wondering where the big body is!

What a shame about the snakes - they must be quite an age to get to that length and odd how they were not completely eaten.

Kind regards

Kaye

Bravo, Cindy! I left a few comments on pbase but really all the photos are terrific and I cannot choose favorites.

I really enjoyed viewing these. The elles marching single file amidst the vast Mashautu landscape is outstanding as are the crested barbet and hoopoe shots.

Cindy, these are super pictures, excellent work! I am partial to the leopards and the LBRs, but both sets are wonderful. Thankas for sharing these.

Chris

Excellent pictures here, Cindy!!! Thank You!!!

Great pictures.
Looks like a wonderful trip.

Thank you so much for the comments :)

Greendrake, there were a few tears as we watched those elephants. We had been driving amongst them and then we drove to the top of a kopje for coffee. Richard thought they would walk towards where we were and they did. It was our last day and we watched them walk towards us from very far away and then watched them walk off until they disappeared in the distance. Great last day.

:(( that moment still gets to me everytime I think about it....

Thanks for all the incredible photos and trip report. I am leaving in six days for the same camps and hope to see all the action you had, I will give a cub update upon return.

Shellcat