Kenya Safari

by Tom Dahlin

Most of my work has been college and professional sports, but I’ve always wanted to do projects involving travel, nature and people. When an opportunity arose to join a photo safari group in Kenya, I jumped on it. The safari was scheduled for January 2012, a good time to flee Minnesota's winter, plus the NFL season was winding down and the Vikes already had stunk it up.

Over 14 days in Kenya, we visited three game reserves: Samburu, Lake Nakuru, and Masai Mara. Each was quite different and presented new photo opportunities.

Boy Scout Camp Was Never Like This

The lodging was listed as ‘tent camps’. To me, this conjured up images from my Boy Scout leader days of cramped canvas tents and sleeping bags. “OK”, I thought, “maybe they have somewhat larger tents and cots”. I totally expected to have to walk to a latrine with flashlight at night and use a communal shower. Boy, what a surprise. To my delight, I found that ‘tent camp’ meant huge vertical walled tents with wood parquet floors, a writing table, dressers, private bathrooms with showers, and double beds with lace canopies. All had hot water and electricity. And the coup de grace .. The camp staff brings you carafes of hot chocolate and coffee with your pre-dawn wakeup knock. Life is good.

Typical Photo Day

A typical day began with a 5:45 AM ‘wakeup’ knock on the tent door. We met as a group and drove off by 6:30 so as to get us in position to photograph the sunrise with a suitable acacia tree in the foreground. Once the sun was up, we began the ‘game drive’, patrolling for animals in the early golden light. We took a short breakfast break around 9:00 to eat packed meals and then continued photographing. The drivers were very knowledgeable as to where the wildlife was and usually got us several good photo ops on each drive. We returned to camp at noon for lunch and a siesta and then set out again at 2:30PM. The afternoon game drives were similar in manner to the mornings, only much warmer. All of the reserves required our drivers to be back at camp before sunset.

Seasons / Weather

Kenya lies on the equator and shares common borders with Tanzania and Uganda. The country doesn’t have distinct seasons, the climate is generally very pleasant and variations in altitude and terrain create the contrasts. They do have ‘rainy’ seasons, which occur from late October through November (the ‘short rains’) and late March to early June (the ‘long rains’). As we were there in January, we were in between the short and long rains. The weather was hottest in Samburu as it is closest to the equator. There the afternoon temperatures were in the 90’s. Things cooled off a lot when we moved to Lake Nakuru and then Masai Mara

Vehicles and Photography

All photography was done from Land Rover type vehicles with roof hatches. We were fortunate in that each photographer in our group had his/her own bench seat and could shoot from the right or left side of the vehicle. Most of us used bean bags to support the long lenses which worked out great. Those with fancy clamps and swivel heads had problems. I used a Nikon D3 and 200-400mm zoom for 90% of my shots. Sometimes I threw on a teleconverter when I needed the reach, but that was not too often. I also carried two other bodies: a Nikon D7000 body with a 18-200mm zoom and polarizer, and a Leica M9 with 35mm f/1.4. I used these bodies when we were close to the animals or if I wanted a wide angle shot. The biggest challenge was keeping the gear clean and safe while bouncing around in a dusty environment. The best solution to that is to minimize gear and tie down a padded bag with a bungee cord.

I Like the Nightlife

Once back at camp after the afternoon game drive, my routine was to begin downloading the memory cards and then shower and take a swim. I usually could sneak in a 30 minute nap before pre-dinner beers. (Did I mention we were not roughing it?). Dinners at all of the camps were fantastic, usually offering fresh fish and beef prepared over a BBQ grill. Meal time is a social event and takes a couple of hours concluding with dessert and coffee. Once back in the tent, I made sure my images were safely on the computer and shut things down for the evening falling asleep to the sounds of baboons screeching, lions roaring, and bush babies shrieking.

Return from the Wild

We returned to Nairobi from Masai Mara via a small Cessna bush plane. Our last night in Kenya was spent at the Panari Hotel, a very modern and new facility very close to the airport. The hotel’s architecture is striking and it is part of a complex containing a shopping mall, skating rink, cinema and several international restaurants (Think of City Center meets Mall of America). After a final meal at the hotel, we boarded the flight to London.

To Be Continued

My adventure did not stop in London. From there, I hopped over to Paris on the Eurostar via the Chunnel and spent 4 wonderful days touring the museums and enjoying the fine restaurants. But that’s another story and another gallery. More to come later ..