May 11, 2025 • 40 mins
*Video Episode on Spotify* Bobby-Jo from the Safari Life podcast jumps in the van with wild stories, hilarious first meetings, emotional photos and one very frisky prehistoric bird. 😳
Also:
• Cheetahs hunting only 15m from the car
• Gorillas gently moving her aside
• Shoebills doing… whatever THAT was
• The epic photo exhibition she’s about to drop
• How Safari Life was born - and where it’s going
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
With Robbie, well, this is very exciting.
Bobby Joe from the Safari Life podcast is in here.
It is the first time we've seen each other since we first met.
Yeah. Was it December last year?
January 9th they got a good memory 'cause I had a booking to
go and meet a hippo, yes. It was a day your life change
for everyone you met. Niall the Hippo.
(00:23):
That was so cool. So my sister bought me a hippo
experience at Western Plains Zooat Dubbo.
I've loved hippos since I was a little kid.
And so when she got me that thing, I was like, oh, that was,
that's really cool. So I did a trip out there by
myself to go on. Oh my gosh, I just played with
hippos. Funnily enough, no I wasn't
(00:44):
allowed to cuddle a hippo. The mum hippos name is Cuddles.
So cuddles the hippo rabbit cuddles the hippo.
That could be a headline. But then you actually find out I
was just there and there was a hippo called Cuddles.
Oh my God, I love hippo so much.That was so awesome.
(01:04):
I got to throw lettuce into the hippo's mouth and it was
amazing. And then when I came out, this
little kid comes up to me and goes, are you the owner of this
place? And I said, yeah.
When I turned up to join my group there was no one else and
you were the keeper. I know, sliding doors moment I
think. Right.
It's really funny how it all came out because I tell people
(01:27):
about this all the time. We were just chatting about it
and somewhere in there you said,yeah, I spend like seven months
of the year overseas on safaris.Like what?
Who does that? Yeah, me.
Yeah, I knew you'd have stories.I said come out, jump in the
van. We walked out to the pod van and
that was when we discovered the A-frame on the front of it was
(01:48):
broken. Yeah, completely bent.
That was so bad. But you handled that so well.
That's what I was really impressed with, that you didn't
stress. You were just pretty calm about
it. You were like, you know, yeah,
this happened now and not driving back to the coast.
I'm so glad I spotted it. Then all the like, maintenance
crew or I don't know who they were, the guys that turned up
and they're buggy. Keepers, actually.
(02:09):
Were they? Yeah.
Black rhino keepers. That's who they were.
They were like, what is this? What's Papa Joe doing?
This guy's van? Yeah.
Probably coming to check on you.And so anyway, you jumped in the
van. Then we did an episode just
getting a few of your stories. I think it was on your lunch
break. Yeah, it was my lunch break.
Yeah, it was awesome. It was such a great connection
and the start of great things tocome really.
I mean, it's funny looking back on that and you just had no idea
(02:31):
what was going somewhere in there.
You said I've always wanted to do a podcast, but I just, I
believe the words were time poor.
Yeah, and also not skilled. Like, I'm pretty good with the
computer of editing photos, but you know, what you do is
incredible. Like the editing and putting it
onto Spotify and Apple and yeah,and mostly on Tampa.
Yeah, I think that's the biggestthing is that I think anyone
(02:53):
could learn how to do it. But yeah, he should see the
hours I spend doing. I'm not just a massive nerd.
I hide it really well under this, like really cool exterior.
Oh, it wasn't where There wasn'ta joke anywhere in that.
If you're getting that, I watch your podcast and listen to them
and speak to you most days on WhatsApp.
(03:15):
But you wouldn't know that I'm amassive nerd.
I haven't, not at all. I love it.
I always spend hours and hours playing around with software
just to try and. But all with the goal of 'cause
now these are video episodes. Yeah, finding the right software
to be able to do all of that andeverything.
And so it started off you and I emailing back and forth, and I
was suggesting little lapel micsthat you could get.
(03:37):
And then you did like instantly.Yeah, they're great to travel
with as well. I can just sort of but pull them
out and interview people with, even with little tiny
microphones, sometimes when you pull that out, people can be
like, whoa, wait, the converse, you know, the voice changes and
they're like, yeah, you're recording me.
Isn't it funny? Yeah, it's funny.
You need to do it covert, like just attach it to your watch or
something. And.
But then you gotta hold your hand in their face.
(03:58):
Yeah. And.
Could probably find myself in court maybe, I'm not sure.
Yeah, true. And I was just offering them
some tips and tricks and things and I don't know how it went
from that to I think I said I'd take some of your audio and show
you what it what it can get turned into.
The whole reason for starting a podcast was to share my stories.
I had this fear of losing my memory as I get older, which I
(04:20):
think everyone has that fear. And I want a better when I'm 80
or even hopefully older than that, you know, listen to these
stories and go, wow, I lived a cool life.
Like that's probably the main reason for studying a podcast,
but also for advertising. And people might say, what is it
like to come on one of your safaris and let's go here,
listen to this podcast. I've actually on that safari
(04:41):
when I'm recording this with guests and so people can hear
the stories. You would have heard in my
latest episode when I was talking about like, I will get
the biggest kick out of when someone tells you that they're
booking their trip with you and they go, yeah, I've found you
through the podcast. Yeah, that'd be, that's going to
be awesome. Yeah.
People are listening and it's just a matter of timing I guess,
and. I can totally see it happening
(05:02):
if you've got that thing in the back of your mind.
I'd love to go to Africa on likeone of those safaris or
something. And then you listen to the
podcast, you get to know you. It's a no brainer.
Yeah, it's not even about the safaris as well.
It's about, you know, plugging the work of really important
sort of conservation issues in Africa.
So for example, the last couple of episodes have been about
copeline and now people are starting to follow them and you
(05:24):
never know what that might lead to them.
Wow, big donation or? Are you seeing new people
following? I've had a few people contact me
about Mama Simba Engler and say how inspiring she is and how you
know this. Her story was really powerful
and yeah, Yeah. So I've heard that feedback.
I've given her that feedback andshe still can't believe it if.
You haven't heard that episode. That's episode 5, I think, of
the safari life. And yeah.
(05:46):
And when you just said before about, you know, you'll look
back and go, oh, LED a pretty cool life.
Yeah, you do. We all the time.
My wife especially, like, oh, both of us, it's just mind
blowing, like to go and do one of those just to go over and do
a trip. You know, people come back from
there, just go. Oh my God, it was amazing.
(06:07):
It was life changing. You're over there all the time.
Yeah, I mean, I just got back three weeks ago.
Yeah. So now I'm back into the swing
of zoo life and home life. Yeah, which that's still
exciting as well. I still had like that little
part of my, the other part of mylife is just as exciting.
Yeah. Just not travelling as much.
But yeah, it's someone said to me about my work, your work is
amazing. And Wayne, a gallery owner than
(06:29):
working with he said no, it's your life.
This is not your work, this is your life.
Yeah. So I was like, it is.
Yeah, it's not work. At some point I'm gonna share
some of our WhatsApp messages. Oh jeez.
I'll run them by me first. Proofread them first.
Yeah, that's right. I just shake my head sometimes,
like you'll be just sending me amessage from, I don't know, on
(06:50):
the edge of the crater. Go on, say it.
Goro, Goro. You did.
We were. My sister and I were laughing at
you saying in Gordon Goro on thepodcast.
In Gordon Goro, Yeah, there's another N in there somewhere.
It's not Nazi Goring. I've heard people call it Nazi
Goring Crater and Gordon Goro the N is like, just like.
It's not. It's Gordon Goro.
You don't go. MMM.
Gordon Goro. It's just slightly pronounced.
(07:12):
Yeah. I just got to the crater, yeah.
And. That works.
You will send me like a WhatsAppvoice message from somewhere
over there and I'm just here and.
Like the crazy. Noises in the background.
I think there were a couple of baboons fighting or something
that's funny at 1:00. Point Yeah, that was my
interview of Kimani. We were sitting on the steps of
the Kobe line office, which is on the rim of the crater, and a
(07:34):
huge baboon troop kicked off at a massive fight.
And yeah, didn't stop talking and acknowledge that 'cause it
was like, sound like children screaming.
It was actually baboons. So when you're recording it,
'cause you can record anywhere. I told someone the other day
that one of your next episodes is gonna be from India and
you've just been talking to people outside the Taj Mahal.
Yeah, I wanted to do something different.
(07:55):
I go to the Taj Mahal a lot every year.
I go when I try to. There's only so many ways you
can photograph the Taj. And I thought I can do something
different this year. Last year I focused on, it was
International Woman's Day and I,I photographed women looking
beautiful at the Taj because women like to go and get dressed
up and do selfies and I don't know, they just feel it's a very
special place. So this time I interviewed a lot
(08:15):
of couples and people and asked them about what their take on
what love meant to them and would they build something like
the Taj for the person they loved.
And it was. This guy's quite funny.
Is that the story of the white look?
Yeah, the Taj was built a man that had many wives, but his
favorite wife, he built it for his favorite wife and she,
unfortunately, she passed away before it was finished.
Or he maybe he built it after she'd passed away.
(08:37):
Huh. It's quite a sad story.
Yeah, he built it for her. So I think her body is in the
tomb, is in the Taj. And then his son put him in jail
on the other side of the Taj Mahal.
There's the Fort to the Red Fort.
And he would could look at the Taj or tiny window for the rest
of his life. Oh no, I don't know if.
I've got the exact stories, right?
That's the exact detail, right. But basically he's going to
build a black Taj opposite the the white Taj.
(08:59):
But he was put in jail before, OK.
It's a temple. No, it's a mosque, essentially.
Like it's yeah, it is. It's yeah, it's a mosque.
It's so beautiful. But yeah, hearing people when
you go there, it's this really lovely vibe.
Like everyone's there and everyone's having a great time
and getting photos and best people watching on the planet.
Yeah. Why are they getting photos of
it? Is it like 'cause there's that
one, I know the shot how they can picture?
(09:21):
The Diana shot is what you're gonna say.
Oh, what's the Diana the. Princess Diana shot, there's
actually a chair now there that they, I think they put it there
for Princess Diana. It's when she first broke up
with Charles and it was public and she was at the Taj for her.
And there's this photo of her sitting on this chair in front
of the Taj, and you know how shewould sit, and she'd be very.
Small. Yeah, she made herself look,
(09:42):
really. And she just looked really sad
in the photo and lonely. And it was a really powerful
shot of her just looking lonely and isolated at the Taj.
And like, lots of people like tosit on that chair because that's
where Diana SAT. And then but otherwise you get
that shot from outside. But then is it all like
beautiful inside and? Yeah, it's amazing.
Every time I go there I just take my breath away.
You go there. All the time.
I go there every year. So yeah, I've been there like 8
(10:04):
times or something. One of my favorite things about
going there is that there's a very special bird that lives at
the Taj called the Egyptian vulture.
It's like critically endangered people travel all over Africa to
find it and I sent it twice now.On top of the Taj Mahal has had
a nest so I'm bird watching and there's like loads of parrots so
I'm doing a lot of bird watchingwhilst I'm a Taj.
(10:24):
What's my new favorite birds name?
Ah, the shoebill stalk. Shoebill Yeah.
When I posted that photo, I wanted to put up a thing saying
that you were gonna be in town and we were gonna go along to
this fundraiser and if people wanted to come along and meet
you, I went looking for a photo of you from your Instagram.
It's not. A lot of photos are.
You. Yeah, Good reason for that.
I'm behind the camera, yeah. And there's a whole bunch of
(10:46):
animals and birds and lot of cats, big cats, that is not not
the little ones. There's some little ones on
there, are there? Yeah, there's a couple of little
wild ones like caracal and serval.
Oh yeah, that's for Oz's favorite animal.
There you go. Well done.
And then I saw the photo of this.
What bill? Shoe bill.
Shoe Bill. So they say the beak looks like
a big shoe. Yes, you think was your first
(11:08):
thought prehistoric Like this thing looks like a dinosaur or a
large like puppet. Yeah.
Happy. Yes.
Yeah. Like something from the
labyrinth or something, you know?
Yeah. What's the name of the guy that
does all the puppets? Jim Henson, Jim.
Henson, yeah, looks like a Jim Henson puppet.
Really does. And when they look at you and
then they lower the head just slightly and the eyes are so
direct and it's really creepy. Like the looking over the top of
(11:31):
the. Glasses.
I got mated by one technically. I'm sorry, what?
I got mated by one. Technically in Uganda there's
the Entebbe zoo. They take on a lot of
confiscated animals that can't be rehabilitated or put back
into the wild. They have a shoebill that was
someone's pet, and he surrendered the pet.
His name's Sushi. The shoebill.
(11:52):
Very famous. He's all over the Internet.
Oh, really? Now I go and visit him on most
of my trips and it's cool because you get to go in there
and get up close with him and really.
Yeah, but how? Very close, like to the point to
the point where he starts displaying and they do this
thing when they put their head down and they, they clack their
beak and it's really quite a loud sound and they sort of
(12:12):
display to you. And this one time I was in
there, I've got a photo and a video of it somewhere.
This one time when I was in there, Sushi decided to jump
onto my back. And this is a big bird.
Like they're standing like they're huge.
He's on my back and he is basically rubbing his cloaca.
(12:33):
That's a great word, isn't it? First time I've heard cloaca in
the pod van. Yeah, I think so.
On my back whilst grooming like whilst pulling my hair in his
beak and like nipping at my ears.
And my guest thought it was the most hilarious thing on earth.
I was a little bit nervous and the zookeeper, I was like, come
on man, get his bird off me. This is this is hilarious,
(12:54):
everybody. Yeah, you're kidding.
This is the whole lot of my day.I've got the video on the photo
somewhere, but yeah, I was a little bit nervous 'cause it's a
huge bird, but yeah, I'm. Just trying to picture what your
kids would have looked like. Creepy as hell.
It's. Like humans with massive noses.
Yeah, he fancied me out. Look, it's the biggest
compliment. I'll take it.
I mean, if everybody likes me, well, what else is there left in
(13:16):
life, you know? I think you on safari and
Tanzania or something recently and you stumbled across some
where was it lions mating? Yeah, I've seen lots of lions
mating. Do you?
Yeah, it's quite a common. It's if you're around lions a
lot, there's a chance you'll find like when you're in safari.
It's you got a good chance of seeing mating lines.
(13:37):
'Cause I'd be like, oh, let's not look at them.
People really wanna say that. People will say to me, I really
wanna see lines mating. And no one says that's well,
that's creepy. But when you think about it, it
is creepy. Why are we wanting, Why are we
as fascinated with watching animals?
Wait, people. Say that to you.
I would not say that to you. Imagine if.
It was people mating, Alan Safari something.
I'd like to see that couple in that car over there mating.
(13:58):
But then you go, ohh, you creep.Like that's creepy.
But if it's an animal, no, no, no worries.
That's fine. Well, that's just an SOS, isn't
it? Yes, that was actually people
are loving the SOS episode. Are they?
Yeah, someone like guess like I didn't get an SOS.
For those who don't know, that'sSex on Safari.
Which it it's a thing. It's I don't know if it's still
(14:19):
a thing, and I don't know how much Pharaohs exaggerated that
whole story as well. Because it was about a a guest
that thought it was gonna happenwith.
Yeah. Yeah, and he was like, no, thank
you. He didn't say to him if she was
really young and hot, would you have considered this?
And maybe that's when you said before about which zoo was it?
That's an awesome zoo. In Tabby Zoo, right?
In Uganda, yeah. Why you reckon's the best zoo?
(14:42):
Because you've worked at Tarongaand yeah, Sydney and then you
work at Western Plains. Yeah, but you would have seen
lots. No, it's funny, you know, I'm
not a zoo person. I mean of.
Course you're not, because you don't need to see them.
Behind their things, When I was younger and not travelling as
much, I had the most really honest conversations with my
guests about zoos. A lot of people are like, they
(15:02):
hate zoos and it's like then they talk to me for a few hours
in a vehicle and they come around and go.
Actually, zoos are really important, which they are.
I've worked for Taronga for 20, almost 20 years, and I haven't
actually seen a lot of zoos because when I travel, I go to
the wild. So my zoo is a Serengeti.
But I like zoos that are doing alot of conservation and or
(15:23):
helping animals that need help and not so much.
I guess back in the day, zoos were like, you know, trying to
get people in the gates. Now stamp book collections,
like, oh, we've got a line and we've got this and we've got
giraffe and we've got all these spaces.
Everyone wants to stay up close.But yeah, I like the zoos that
are focusing on rehabilitating wildlife or Yeah, working like
(15:44):
like trogos and planes are doingamazing jobs.
We Yeah, I think you would have met Leonie from the zoo with
bilbies and church and planes Wanderers.
Yeah, that was really. Interesting finding out about
that stuff. Gold.
Stuff. That's the stuff that I'm super
proud of with the organization that I work for most.
People aren't going to be able to go to Africa and see lions,
so pretty cool to be able to go and see them.
(16:07):
Yeah, absolutely. And people, especially young
people, like children and teenagers and like you said,
well, families can't afford to take them overseas to Africa to
see lions and elephants if they can go to the zoo and get that
connection. Yeah.
And then advise them to go and exactly, you know, support
conservation, all go travelling and you know, just get out there
and help. It's sort of, yeah.
It opens the door, isn't it? Really it did for me.
(16:29):
If you think about it, I went toAfrica before it was a
zookeeper. But working at the zoo has
inspired me to go. For example, one of the images
that are going to be my upcomingexhibition is a bongo, very
endangered antelope that I care for at the zoo.
Oh, I'd never. I didn't even know what a bongo
was before I was a zookeeper. I'm pretty sure it's a drum.
Well, it is. Woody Harrelson plays a naked.
(16:49):
Bongo drum, yeah, but it's actually one of the most, it
probably is the most beautiful antelope in Africa, and not many
people know much about it. And I didn't know anything about
it. And now working with these
animals inspired me to go to Kenya and look for one and
become one of the first people on the planet to photograph one
on foot. What?
Yeah. So yeah, I was gonna talk to you
(17:09):
about that when we've some of the photos are gonna be at my
exhibition. They've all got great stories,
and that's one of them. And without the zoo, I wouldn't
have been inspired to do that, or if I didn't have that
connection with those animals and learn more about them.
You've got a really big guest onyour next episode.
It's me. I was looking at you.
Like what? This is so actually in this
(17:30):
episode, I wanted to bring up some of those photos because
you've got your exhibition coming up and that's it's in
North Sydney, it's around North Sydney, northern beaches.
Northern beaches Cromer, which is, yeah, just near DY.
It's an exhibition. Have you done a photography
exhibition before? No, this is my what am I?
I'm halfway through life really.Hopefully or no, hopefully I
leave more about 42. So this is my first time in my
(17:51):
career. I've been taking photos since
I've been a kid that I've had anexhibition.
So it's my first. I've been involved in other
people's exhibitions. This is my first solo
exhibition. Is it 50 photos or am I making
that up? No, 50 was going to be too much
for that space. It's about, I think we've got
about 32 or 33. I mean, how many photos do you
take? Yeah, I've got millions, I
(18:12):
reckon just in my current Lightroom catalog, which is
where I edit my photos from the last maybe 3 or 4 years.
I've got over 250,000 photos butthen I haven't culled like this
you. Don't cull.
You couldn't. Cull.
I'm getting good at culling now.I'm sitting on photos from 6-7
years ago that I think are absolute bangers, like they
should be in the exhibition, butI just, it's getting away from
(18:34):
me. It's, it's like it's building.
It's like a, you know, paperworkthat's piling up when you're
taking. Photos use a cannon.
Is yours a cannon? It is, yeah.
I use. I mean, I'm a cannon girl.
I thought it was unfortunately not sponsored.
But we need to make that. Have you tried it's?
Quite tough, yeah, To become an ambassador for Canon.
Because I was. Really.
(18:55):
No. Tell me your secrets.
Mine was A7 DI. Had a 7D, Did you?
Yeah. And I love Canon.
I just like like the way canons operate.
I like the feeling like I just met a wildlife documentary maker
in Africa and she shoots her video work with Sony and then
she shoots stills with Canon. And I said, what's the
(19:16):
difference? And she described it
beautifully. She said Sony so sharp.
You can't like for film, for like movies, you can't compete
with the sharpness and the crisp, cool colours, she said.
But for stills, Canon is king because of the there's this
beautiful. Warmth when you're taking your
photos. So there's, I don't know, some
big cat taking something down. You're cool.
(19:36):
Great shot. Are you going?
Yeah, it depends on what the behaviour is.
So if, for example, one of my shots in the exhibition is
cheetah hunting a small wildebeest calf, and that
sequence I took maybe 2 or 300 shots within a minute.
So when I play it back on my laptop, like just the photos,
it's like a moving picture. I could turn it into a movie
(19:56):
just from the photos. It's unbelievable.
And the camera I have currently shoot with is an R1.
It's Canon's best camera at the moment.
It's sort of for wildlife and sports photographers.
And the beauty of it is it can take, I think it's 16 frames per
second. And if you hold the shutter
button down, you can take easily100 to 200 shots without even
buffering without stopping. Wow.
(20:17):
Hence why you have 1/4 of a million photos.
Let's have a look at some of thephotos here because I've got
them on the screen as you're listening to this.
If you're listening to this is avideo episode on Spotify as
well. So the images that we're talking
about are actually up on the screen.
So you could be looking at what we're talking about.
So what's the did you say it's awildebeest?
It's a little wildebeest calf. It's only a couple of days old.
(20:39):
I know this is the sad part. So in the southern Serengeti in
February or January, this year was actually really early, it
was December. You get about close to over
1,000,000 wildebeests giving birth in the Short Plains.
So wow, the Short Plains, the grass is really nutritious.
So the first it comes up, the zebras come in and they mow it
down and you've got these short little bits left and that's
(20:59):
where all the phosphorus nutrients are.
And the wildebeest eat that for their carbs.
All need that if they go and eat.
And that's perfect energy, greatnutrition for having their
carbs. And they hang out there for a
little while and they start making their way back up to
Kenya. So this is in southern Serengeti
in Tanzania. What happens is every predator,
it's like a buffet, all right? It's like the world's biggest
buffet. Wildebeest are quite easy to
(21:20):
prey upon. So you get a lot of high density
of predators. You'll get cheetah, leopard
line. I mean, lines are territorial,
but the cheetah and cheetahs have massive territories and
they sometimes just move. So all the cheetahs will come
into that area. Hyena, Jackal, everything.
Birds of prey. Birds of prey are, after all,
the placenta that's laying around.
So like vultures are like the clean up crew.
(21:42):
They come in and clean up all the placenta.
You have a very weird life. I'm talking about it like it's
just normal, aren't I? I know.
And you do this all the time. Yeah, it's kicks me out.
It's when? Because I wouldn't see you
getting emotional over something, taking something down
and then just jumping on it. No, I do Do.
You got emotional in my car yesterday just listening to the
sad song on the radio. I'm a very emotional, highly
(22:04):
sensitive person, and I cried after that hunting sequence,
mostly because my adrenaline trying to capture the shot was
through the roof. So my energy levels get to a
point where I can't, like, I'm just bursting of energy, and I
just start crying. I was crying because it was a
bit sad, but it was also happy for the cheetah.
But I was also happy for me because I was like, yes, I got
(22:27):
the shot with the new camera that I was having troubles,
like, because it's a new camera and it's got so many different
settings and buttons, And I was just happy that it worked out.
Yeah, I've literally watched some really brutal things happen
in Africa and I've been crying through my viewfinder and I'm
still taking the shots, but I'm crying.
But my guests aren't even crying.
I'm crying. Yeah.
Have you had guests that have just been like, way too upset
(22:51):
over some of the things they've seen?
Yeah, my energy can really, I can be very careful of it.
Like I can bring people up and bring people down, like just
from my energy. So if we're at a really, I
guess, kind of confronting scene, I've got to make sure I'm
trying to not be too emotional. But I've had guests, yeah, that
have been very upset. One guest, Tony Schwent, Mommy
(23:11):
mentioning her. She's one of my favorite people.
And she's been on many trips, and she doesn't like seeing
kills. And so she'll say to me, what
trip has do you think has the least amount of chances of
seeing it kill? And every time I tell her that
we see, like, lots of kills. So one trip we were in southern
Africa, and we watched lines bringing down a Buffalo.
And that was pretty fun. Yeah.
(23:32):
And Buffalo do not, they do not give up.
It's like cheetahs, when they make a kill, it's quick.
The Buffalo, the Buffalo fight. And so, and we ended up, I think
we end up getting another vehicle there and getting her
onto the other vehicle so she could leave.
She put her headphones on. And yeah, so she deals with it
really well. Like she will save me.
I'm not comfortable with this, but I'm want everybody else to,
if they, you know, wanting to watch this and they're
(23:54):
fascinated by it, I'm not, you know, I'm hoping that against
you guys, I'm gonna put my headphones on.
I'm gonna look away. I think I would be more like
Tony. OK, I don't know that I could
handle just watching animals killing each other.
I. Guess it rarely happens in the
scheme of things. Like I've done hundreds and
hundreds of safaris and I can count on the two hands, I think
(24:14):
how many kills I've seen and I were quite brutal.
It's. Not Tony's trips.
People, people, actually, a lot of guests will say to me, what
trip should I avoid? Like, what trip do you think's
gonna have the most hunting action?
I'm like, I can't. Like I would say Southern
Serengeti's one that has more potential because cheetahs are
hunting. But when cheetahs hunt, it's not
confronting, but your adrenalineis going.
(24:35):
So when you see a cheetah take off, just happened on my last
safari. You know, the fastest animal on
the planet is a cheetah. Do you know what the second
fastest animal on the planet is?What?
Thompson's gazelle, their prey. So it's the two fastest animals
in the world following each other?
Wait, wait. The cheetah's the fastest, the
other ones the fastest. But they move like the Thompson
Gazelle, like so good at moving,but the sidestep they do, but
(24:56):
the cheetah does too. And you'll notice the cheetah
has in that photo, you'll see the tail up.
The tail acts, like I said, a rudder.
Is that what we say? Like it helps keep balance
enabled for them to turn and notlose their balance.
Wow. And to watch that and it's
incredible. And then it's like just when you
think the cheetah is in full, like that's at top speed, it's
like they hit that. Is it nitric acid or whatever?
(25:17):
It's good. Yeah.
Nitro, Nitro, Nitro, Nitro. Yeah, Yeah.
You know, when Vin Diesel and Bossafield presses that button
that they just go on another level, You know, everyone just
here under the car go whoa. And no, really no one stands a
chance of getting a photo because the first, particularly
if it's their first hunt, because it just happened so
quickly in your heart, it's racing and.
What sort of distance are we talking?
Hunt like 500 metres really. Even more sometimes.
(25:41):
Because I thought cheetahs, likethey have that crazy speed, but
it doesn't last very long. Yes, you have to get pretty
close. They probably get maybe 50-60
metres from their prey. Is that crawling down low?
Leopards are the crawlers. They're the ones that are doing
most of the crawling. Cheetah will get down low, but
then they'll sort of sit behind a bullshit.
They'll just go flat, OK, and just sit.
And sometimes it's hard as a photographer.
I've lost the cheetah so many times.
(26:02):
And then you don't see it until it takes off.
And all of a sudden, if you haven't got a camera that's good
at grabbing focus, you, you can screw up massively.
But I just tell my guests for the first cheetah hunt, just
watch it or film it or spray andpray.
Just that's what I do. I just spray and pray.
And hopefully should I get that in focus, so is that.
Again, hence why you have quarter of a million photos in
(26:23):
the Lightroom. But it's like you can't.
The look on my guest's face whenthey've seen a cheat, whether
it's been successful or not successful, just that whole
watching the fastest animal on earth run across the plains,
it's yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, wow.
The wildebeest calf in this particular sighting, something I
forgot to mention. Went on to live a long and
beautiful life. End of.
(26:44):
Story No, he was lost. So sometimes when you've got a
million wildebeests and you loseyour mum, you're in trouble.
So, And does the hell look quitesimilar as well?
I think, yeah. They well, if you start actually
watching wildebeests, they do look a bit different, but
there's just so many of them andif they don't imprint on their
calf in the first few minutes ofthe calf can't keep up, you look
(27:04):
across they just, I decide no other wildebeests will take
them. They'll push them off until you
get these little wildebeests just wandering around they.
Won't take the other wildebeests.
Nope, they won't get adopted. And then sometimes, for some
strange reason, I don't know howto describe it, they see our
vehicle and they might come running towards it and bleating
and it's that's what gets my guests in the fields.
Yeah, a little lost. So this little guy would.
(27:25):
Open the door. Let him.
In No, it's hard. This little guy was lost and we
sat with this cheater and there was some gazelles not far from
her and she was not interested in them.
Like said to my guides, something's going on here.
Like that's so easy. Those gazelles haven't even seen
her, but she's looking in the distance and they're like, don't
I? And then after 5 minutes, we
finally saw in the distance it was a speck.
(27:46):
It was a little lone wildebeest calf, but she could see it so
much further. And 5 minutes before us, she
watched it. It was coming closer and closer.
And then she just got herself into position and now she took
off and chased it. Even though his calf is only a
couple days old, his instincts like, uh oh, this is trouble.
He starts running and he ran directly past our car and she
(28:08):
tackled it right next to the car.
And that shot is just her. What I love about that shot and
it's, you know, bad day for the wildebeest calf, good day for
the cheetah. But you can just see the moment
her nails are about I. Just I just zoomed in on it.
Yeah, those claws. So they're not, they're non
retractable. So like lions and leopards and
your house cats can retract their claws, right.
(28:30):
Cheetahs can't. They need it for grip.
That's what they grip on when they're running.
Oh, and you can just see the moment her paws coming down and
that she's about to tackle that animal.
Yeah. You know what?
That's the best thing that couldhave happened to that little
fella. That sounds weird.
Yeah. I would much rather him be.
Cheetah killed very quickly. And they're not.
That's not messy. Like if it was a hyena, it'd be
yeah, yeah, yeah, we die of starvation, so.
(28:52):
Well, that's the other thing, yeah, yeah.
That's what I tell myself when I'm crying to my camera.
How far away is this from your vehicle about?
15 metres probably. Whoa.
Yeah, we positioned ourselves quite well, but at the end of
the day, that was just right time at the right place.
You. Can't know where they're going
to run, which direction it's gonna run in.
(29:12):
February. That's the first time ever in my
Safari career that I've had a tackle happen perfectly parallel
to the car. Alright, moving on to the next
one, I'm gonna call this 1A snowleopard.
It doesn't look like a leopard. It's in the snow or it's
floating in the clouds. Ohh, that's a sculpture.
So that is an Andy and Puma. So Puma are a cat.
They're not a big cat. Also known as Cougars.
(29:34):
Oh, yeah. Mountain lions.
OK Panther. Sometimes they're the animal, I
think in the Guinness Book of Records with the most amount of
names. All right, Puma con collar is a
scientific name, but these guys are found in, like, the very
bottom of South America. So they're Andean Pumas.
And last year I through one of my best adventures I've ever
done, I went for a week in Patagonia and was on foot with
(29:55):
them for five days. And what do you mean for me to
year away? Like on foot with my camera gear
and a guard who's been watching them since that one?
Was a cub just hanging out with them and following them at a
safe distance? Essentially a Mountain Lion.
Yeah. Is this in the snow?
It is. So we got lucky.
We went to Patagonia and the time of year we went, there's
normally not snow. We were a little bit too early
(30:17):
for the snow. This particular area have not
had problems with them. They're tolerant of us and like,
I guess. Oh my God, you just described
every cat. Yeah, cats.
You know what people don't like?Cats.
Look, it's as simple as the catsare assholes.
That's all there is to. The Pumas are, Yeah, this
particular Puma. Her name is a scorcher.
And out of all the Pumas we spent, we spent the most time
(30:38):
with, her name means bitter frost in Spanish.
And she is the only cat out of all the cats we saw.
We saw about 16 different Pumas that in that five days that
would look straight at you. She really looks at you.
She came out of the Bush one dayand she like, almost brushed up
against me, she was that close. And our guy said just stay still
and don't move your feet about because the vibrations would
(31:00):
upset them to stay still. And we found her in the late
afternoon. She was with her mother.
Her mother has a very famous catcalled Pataka.
And she's on all the National Geographic documentaries.
And she still hangs out with hermother, even though her mother
booted her ages ago. We found her that afternoon with
her mum, and she was on the sideof the road.
It got out, and we're only like 10 meters from her.
For that photo. I just saw her sitting and it
was snowing, and I just saw it. Here's my chance to get
(31:24):
something really simple but special.
So I got down into this ditch. My angle allowed me to look like
she was just covered in snow. And then she just stared at me.
And I just say, oh, I just, you just know when you've got that
shot, this new show, this is something special.
I wouldn't do that with a line out in the, you know, in the
Savannah or something. That would.
Yeah, that would not be cool. What?
You just see my face? I'm looking at my iPad and I've
(31:47):
just flicked over to the next photo.
What do you what one do you think I'm looking at based on my
reaction there? The gorilla.
Yeah. Oh, that's.
Well, you know that gorilla? I've already talked about that
gorilla. The one that put his hand on
your. That's the recundo he shouldn't.
Pause that he put his hand on your Yes.
I am you. Know the story?
(32:09):
It would be so funny if it was my chest, wouldn't it?
No, it was definitely my stomach.
I So I've photographed him many times.
I'm actually gonna go back and see him this September, So it's
like visiting an old friend. He's just a real sweetheart.
He's just very sweet. He's a big boy.
I love that photo of him 'cause he's just sitting there just
being. So that was we came around the
corner. My guess.
I did 2 gorilla tricks last season last year and this was
(32:29):
the first one and when we turnedaround the corner he was just
there sitting like. That I was going to ask you, do
you have those moments where you're like, you're just, you're
hiking in there, You're hoping you're gonna say that.
There's no guarantee you're going to, I suppose.
There's a pretty big guarantee with the gorillas.
Oh yeah, they still say it's not100% guarantee, but I've done
like over 10 gorilla tricks now and I've never not seen them.
I've seen them every time. Because like, do they sort of
(32:51):
hang in the same area? They do each day, depending on
where they want to eat and what food they want, they get a
different area. So the first day they were
eating a lot of bamboo shoots. They're in the primary
rainforest. The second day, when the day
when you touch my stomach, they were in the, they come out of
the primary into the secondary forest, which was basically
converted farmland that they'd given back and they were after
berries. So he was moving me to get to
(33:13):
the berries that were. But my head, yeah.
So if you haven't seen that clip, oh man, go and look at it
on my social on on Bobby Joe's socials.
Yeah, we made a clip out of it, didn't we?
Or did you already have? Well, you had the footage from.
You made a little clip of it too, with the story over the
top. Yeah.
That was from when we first met.You were telling that story and
then you said I've actually got the video of it and so put that
to it. He's come walking over towards
(33:34):
you. What a freaky moment.
And then he just gently moves you to the side so he can reach.
Yeah. And the.
Berries next to me eating the berries.
You know, I never tie her. But the thing I get really
excited about is my guest seeingit.
Even just recently, when my guests saw their first tiger in
India, Caroline from South Africa spent so much time with
big cats, and she'd never seen tiger.
(33:54):
We saw one, and I'm just grabbing her and smacking her.
I tend to like, I don't know if it's an energy transfer, but I
grab people and I'm like, Oh my God.
You know, I get a real kick out of sharing that moment with them
and seeing them get excited by it.
So, yeah, so nice. It's such a high.
When she saw the tiger. How far away are you from?
We're only like it was we're in Kaziranga, which is very hard
place to see tigers. It's the first time I've ever
(34:15):
seen one up close in Kaziranga and we weren't expecting to see
one. We had it all to ourselves and
it was just in the Bush, but allyou could see was its eyes
looking through the ferns. Scared the crap out of me.
That was good time. Oh my God, the camera just fell
down. Oh my God, that made me jump.
(34:39):
It's like the ghost in the darkness in the pod, man.
But how far away is the tiger from you?
Oh it. Was only maybe 5-6 metres but we
were in a vehicle and it was sort of down the gully.
That photo was incredible. And all these stories, I'm not
in that much detail, but there'll be like a story of each
photo. When people come to the
exhibition, they can read or they can actually even scan AQR
(35:00):
code or when they buy the print,the story will be with it.
So. Right.
So all these photos that you've got on display, they're all for
sale. Absolutely.
Look at this photo of this elephant that you've put in
here. That's a great one.
Oh dida yes I've got 2 elephant shots in the exhibition so I was
trying to think of which one. You used to be a elephant
keeper. Yeah, I was an elephant keeper
(35:21):
for many years at Taronga and then moved out to the whole
reason I moved to Dubbo was to come out before we sent some
elephants to Dubbo and yeah, to welcome them when they arrived.
Who's this elephant in this one?Her name is Dida and she was the
queen of Tsavo. So Tsavo E Tsavo National Park
is in Kenya. It's huge National Park.
It's very famous. It's it gets smashed by drought
(35:42):
a lot, but it's very famous for having that really rich red
soil. It's famous for the lions, the
man eating lions of Tsavo. Have you ever you know the movie
The Ghost in the Darkness with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas?
Yeah, I've heard of it. It's about Colonel Patterson was
a guy. They were building the railway
line through Kenya or through Tsavo and these people just
getting eaten by lions. Oh, I think I did see it.
(36:03):
Yeah, that's your story. And that's in Tsavo East where
this photo is taken. For some reason, Tsavo National
Park has some of the biggest tusca elephants on the planet.
And most people refer to tusca elephants as just an elephant
that's just got tusks. But a tusca is the tusks have to
be a certain weight and diameterand length to be called a tusca.
As in, like TUSKER? Yeah.
(36:24):
Tusca. Yep.
So African elephants, both male and female can have big tusks
with the Asian elephants and males get the really big tusks
and the females have a little thing called a tusher, a set of
tashes. So they're just like small
little tusks under. So Dieter is probably, I think
still to this day she's passed away.
Now, unfortunately she was the biggest female tusker on record.
So even though she doesn't really have the weight or the
(36:45):
width the males can get her length of her tusks were she was
almost touching the ground. They look like they'd be
cumbersome. Yeah, I just watched her and
there's another one. I can't think of her name right
now. And we photographed her as well.
And I watched her across the road once.
She come down sort of the side of the road and her tusks got
caught in the ground and she stumbled and I was just like.
No, I tripped over my teeth again.
(37:07):
I thought that. A bit long on the tooth, yeah,
Yeah. No, it is her teeth.
It is essentially the sizer a lot.
And yes, it is a tooth basically.
I tripped over my teeth it. Has a special dentine like a
crisscross matrix kind of make. That's how it's special, because
it's a Tusk. But there's no use for it.
Oh. No, definitely.
They use it for fighting and it's a genetic thing.
(37:29):
Like you know how they say in Australia, it's so obvious,
people go up. We did a paper on this and it's
like the big males, Kangaroos are the big biceps.
Can females wanna breed with them 'cause it's good genetics,
right, Right. And that to me that's so
obvious. Like, but then it's not when it
meant, you know, brain capacity.But you know, most guys I look
at that have big muscles that not really do much for me up
here. It's like these guys, I think
(37:51):
they get favoured by the femalescause they've got the big tusks.
Oh, right, lines with big manes.That all that that, that one's
good for genetics, right? With that one.
How shallow, Very shallow of them.
I know. So hopefully these guys.
And then the weird thing is, is that the head of the Tsarvo
trust, I've spoken to him, a wonderful man.
He said to me that it's normallythe last decade of their life
(38:11):
that their tusks will really grow, which I found really
interesting. And luckily for Dida, they found
her with really sad cry. She cried, they found her.
It's a success and it's sad. They found her from like an
aerial patrol. She'd been dead for I think a
week or two or maybe, I don't know, things perish pretty
quickly in Tsarvo. But they found her tusks were
(38:31):
intact, which is the photo was really confronting.
But it was also really amazing that she lived her full life.
She would have had attacks on her for sure.
By. Humans.
Right, I was gonna say poaching.No other animals are gonna wanna
take her tasks when? Yeah, so.
She would have been dodging poachers big chunk of her life.
How? How old?
She was in her 60s, I think whenhow old 60s.
(38:53):
I can't think I've topped my head that she she died with her
tusks, so that's really quite special.
I feel very privileged to have seen her in the wild.
I love the stories behind these photos.
Yeah. The exhibition is on.
So opening night, which everyone's invited to, you just
have to RSVP if you'd like to come, is May 17th, 5:00 PM at
Northern Beaches Gallery in Cromer.
OK. You do need to RSVP to attend
(39:15):
the opening night, so you can shoot me an e-mail in So Bobby
Joe safaris.com but then the exhibition is open for two weeks
up until the 31st of May. You can pop in there and look at
the images and you can buy them if you like.
So cool, I hope someone looks into this.
That is, you know, loves their art, wants to get a new piece
for the wall or something. He's heard your stories and
goes, oh. That there's a few photos that
(39:37):
people haven't even seen yet that I've not shared with anyone
on the socials. It's taken me all my strength,
not because I like to share things.
And I've also created a virtual exhibition so people can't make
it there in person. If you're, you know, Interstate
or overseas and listening and would like to see it.
I'll be releasing the link to the virtual exhibition probably
a day after the well, after the opening.
Yeah, you can actually buy, look, see the stories.
(39:58):
It's pretty cool. So cool.
Alright, the next episode of Safari Life with Bobby Jo.
As I said earlier, big guest. Real big guest.
Just don't know how you even managed to lock this one in.
Yeah. Pull in a big favour.
Yeah, obviously some sort of wildlife expert or something.
I don't know what I'm doing in your podcast, but we'll have a
(40:20):
bit more of a chat about some ofthe other photos as well from
the exhibition and the stories behind them.
I love those. So that's in Bobby Joe's next
episode. It's episode #6 of Safari Life.
So I'll, I'll see you in your podcast.
OK, cool. We'll come Late podcast.
With Robbie. Oh hey, just before you go
little heads up, there's a couple of brand new shows that
(40:42):
are now part of the Pod Van Media family and I'd love you to
check them out. They are brilliant.
First up, beyond the tube with Phi Roderick.
This is a podcast for parents and carers navigating life with
a tube fed child. This is something Phi knows
about first hand through her journey with her son Ezra.
Five days after his first birthday we were admitted to
(41:04):
Gosford Public Hospital where westayed for five nights and Ng
was inserted 24 hours after we were admitted because he was
failure to thrive. Within about 3 weeks we saw a
huge drop. He still looked very healthy.
If I showed you photos of what he looked like at that stage,
you would think there's nothing wrong with him.
(41:26):
He's a chubby little boy and he looks good.
He did. He looked really good, but my
breast milk was all that was keeping him alive.
Even if you're not in that world, it's a really good
listen. And then there's Safari Life
with Bobby Jo. Now she's out in the wild,
literally sending me incredible stories from wherever she is in
the world. This one's from Tanzania with a
(41:48):
local guide she's been using forthe last 10 years.
And what a. Story The baby elephant came up
and started touching the car andthe mother for a good 5-10
minutes. She tried to get this calf away
and she's getting quite frustrated and we stayed very
quiet. They don't know whether it's
people or we are another certaintype of animals in the wild, but
the way she was care about. Her baby trying to pull her baby
(42:09):
away while keep her eye on us. It was incredible experience.
She gave us a look and it was like a look of she was just
definitely trying to assess whatwas happening.
Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. I just love the stories we're
getting out of these both shows alive now, so you can just
search up Safari Life or Beyond the Tube in the same app you're
in now.
With Robbie, well, this is very exciting.
Bobby Joe from the Safari Life podcast is in here.
It is the first time we've seen each other since we first met.
Yeah. Was it December last year?
January 9th they got a good memory 'cause I had a booking to
go and meet a hippo, yes. It was a day your life change
for everyone you met. Niall the Hippo.
(00:23):
That was so cool. So my sister bought me a hippo
experience at Western Plains Zooat Dubbo.
I've loved hippos since I was a little kid.
And so when she got me that thing, I was like, oh, that was,
that's really cool. So I did a trip out there by
myself to go on. Oh my gosh, I just played with
hippos. Funnily enough, no I wasn't
(00:44):
allowed to cuddle a hippo. The mum hippos name is Cuddles.
So cuddles the hippo rabbit cuddles the hippo.
That could be a headline. But then you actually find out I
was just there and there was a hippo called Cuddles.
Oh my God, I love hippo so much.That was so awesome.
(01:04):
I got to throw lettuce into the hippo's mouth and it was
amazing. And then when I came out, this
little kid comes up to me and goes, are you the owner of this
place? And I said, yeah.
When I turned up to join my group there was no one else and
you were the keeper. I know, sliding doors moment I
think. Right.
It's really funny how it all came out because I tell people
(01:27):
about this all the time. We were just chatting about it
and somewhere in there you said,yeah, I spend like seven months
of the year overseas on safaris.Like what?
Who does that? Yeah, me.
Yeah, I knew you'd have stories.I said come out, jump in the
van. We walked out to the pod van and
that was when we discovered the A-frame on the front of it was
(01:48):
broken. Yeah, completely bent.
That was so bad. But you handled that so well.
That's what I was really impressed with, that you didn't
stress. You were just pretty calm about
it. You were like, you know, yeah,
this happened now and not driving back to the coast.
I'm so glad I spotted it. Then all the like, maintenance
crew or I don't know who they were, the guys that turned up
and they're buggy. Keepers, actually.
(02:09):
Were they? Yeah.
Black rhino keepers. That's who they were.
They were like, what is this? What's Papa Joe doing?
This guy's van? Yeah.
Probably coming to check on you.And so anyway, you jumped in the
van. Then we did an episode just
getting a few of your stories. I think it was on your lunch
break. Yeah, it was my lunch break.
Yeah, it was awesome. It was such a great connection
and the start of great things tocome really.
I mean, it's funny looking back on that and you just had no idea
(02:31):
what was going somewhere in there.
You said I've always wanted to do a podcast, but I just, I
believe the words were time poor.
Yeah, and also not skilled. Like, I'm pretty good with the
computer of editing photos, but you know, what you do is
incredible. Like the editing and putting it
onto Spotify and Apple and yeah,and mostly on Tampa.
Yeah, I think that's the biggestthing is that I think anyone
(02:53):
could learn how to do it. But yeah, he should see the
hours I spend doing. I'm not just a massive nerd.
I hide it really well under this, like really cool exterior.
Oh, it wasn't where There wasn'ta joke anywhere in that.
If you're getting that, I watch your podcast and listen to them
and speak to you most days on WhatsApp.
(03:15):
But you wouldn't know that I'm amassive nerd.
I haven't, not at all. I love it.
I always spend hours and hours playing around with software
just to try and. But all with the goal of 'cause
now these are video episodes. Yeah, finding the right software
to be able to do all of that andeverything.
And so it started off you and I emailing back and forth, and I
was suggesting little lapel micsthat you could get.
(03:37):
And then you did like instantly.Yeah, they're great to travel
with as well. I can just sort of but pull them
out and interview people with, even with little tiny
microphones, sometimes when you pull that out, people can be
like, whoa, wait, the converse, you know, the voice changes and
they're like, yeah, you're recording me.
Isn't it funny? Yeah, it's funny.
You need to do it covert, like just attach it to your watch or
something. And.
But then you gotta hold your hand in their face.
(03:58):
Yeah. And.
Could probably find myself in court maybe, I'm not sure.
Yeah, true. And I was just offering them
some tips and tricks and things and I don't know how it went
from that to I think I said I'd take some of your audio and show
you what it what it can get turned into.
The whole reason for starting a podcast was to share my stories.
I had this fear of losing my memory as I get older, which I
(04:20):
think everyone has that fear. And I want a better when I'm 80
or even hopefully older than that, you know, listen to these
stories and go, wow, I lived a cool life.
Like that's probably the main reason for studying a podcast,
but also for advertising. And people might say, what is it
like to come on one of your safaris and let's go here,
listen to this podcast. I've actually on that safari
(04:41):
when I'm recording this with guests and so people can hear
the stories. You would have heard in my
latest episode when I was talking about like, I will get
the biggest kick out of when someone tells you that they're
booking their trip with you and they go, yeah, I've found you
through the podcast. Yeah, that'd be, that's going to
be awesome. Yeah.
People are listening and it's just a matter of timing I guess,
and. I can totally see it happening
(05:02):
if you've got that thing in the back of your mind.
I'd love to go to Africa on likeone of those safaris or
something. And then you listen to the
podcast, you get to know you. It's a no brainer.
Yeah, it's not even about the safaris as well.
It's about, you know, plugging the work of really important
sort of conservation issues in Africa.
So for example, the last couple of episodes have been about
copeline and now people are starting to follow them and you
(05:24):
never know what that might lead to them.
Wow, big donation or? Are you seeing new people
following? I've had a few people contact me
about Mama Simba Engler and say how inspiring she is and how you
know this. Her story was really powerful
and yeah, Yeah. So I've heard that feedback.
I've given her that feedback andshe still can't believe it if.
You haven't heard that episode. That's episode 5, I think, of
the safari life. And yeah.
(05:46):
And when you just said before about, you know, you'll look
back and go, oh, LED a pretty cool life.
Yeah, you do. We all the time.
My wife especially, like, oh, both of us, it's just mind
blowing, like to go and do one of those just to go over and do
a trip. You know, people come back from
there, just go. Oh my God, it was amazing.
(06:07):
It was life changing. You're over there all the time.
Yeah, I mean, I just got back three weeks ago.
Yeah. So now I'm back into the swing
of zoo life and home life. Yeah, which that's still
exciting as well. I still had like that little
part of my, the other part of mylife is just as exciting.
Yeah. Just not travelling as much.
But yeah, it's someone said to me about my work, your work is
amazing. And Wayne, a gallery owner than
(06:29):
working with he said no, it's your life.
This is not your work, this is your life.
Yeah. So I was like, it is.
Yeah, it's not work. At some point I'm gonna share
some of our WhatsApp messages. Oh jeez.
I'll run them by me first. Proofread them first.
Yeah, that's right. I just shake my head sometimes,
like you'll be just sending me amessage from, I don't know, on
(06:50):
the edge of the crater. Go on, say it.
Goro, Goro. You did.
We were. My sister and I were laughing at
you saying in Gordon Goro on thepodcast.
In Gordon Goro, Yeah, there's another N in there somewhere.
It's not Nazi Goring. I've heard people call it Nazi
Goring Crater and Gordon Goro the N is like, just like.
It's not. It's Gordon Goro.
You don't go. MMM.
Gordon Goro. It's just slightly pronounced.
(07:12):
Yeah. I just got to the crater, yeah.
And. That works.
You will send me like a WhatsAppvoice message from somewhere
over there and I'm just here and.
Like the crazy. Noises in the background.
I think there were a couple of baboons fighting or something
that's funny at 1:00. Point Yeah, that was my
interview of Kimani. We were sitting on the steps of
the Kobe line office, which is on the rim of the crater, and a
(07:34):
huge baboon troop kicked off at a massive fight.
And yeah, didn't stop talking and acknowledge that 'cause it
was like, sound like children screaming.
It was actually baboons. So when you're recording it,
'cause you can record anywhere. I told someone the other day
that one of your next episodes is gonna be from India and
you've just been talking to people outside the Taj Mahal.
Yeah, I wanted to do something different.
(07:55):
I go to the Taj Mahal a lot every year.
I go when I try to. There's only so many ways you
can photograph the Taj. And I thought I can do something
different this year. Last year I focused on, it was
International Woman's Day and I,I photographed women looking
beautiful at the Taj because women like to go and get dressed
up and do selfies and I don't know, they just feel it's a very
special place. So this time I interviewed a lot
(08:15):
of couples and people and asked them about what their take on
what love meant to them and would they build something like
the Taj for the person they loved.
And it was. This guy's quite funny.
Is that the story of the white look?
Yeah, the Taj was built a man that had many wives, but his
favorite wife, he built it for his favorite wife and she,
unfortunately, she passed away before it was finished.
Or he maybe he built it after she'd passed away.
(08:37):
Huh. It's quite a sad story.
Yeah, he built it for her. So I think her body is in the
tomb, is in the Taj. And then his son put him in jail
on the other side of the Taj Mahal.
There's the Fort to the Red Fort.
And he would could look at the Taj or tiny window for the rest
of his life. Oh no, I don't know if.
I've got the exact stories, right?
That's the exact detail, right. But basically he's going to
build a black Taj opposite the the white Taj.
(08:59):
But he was put in jail before, OK.
It's a temple. No, it's a mosque, essentially.
Like it's yeah, it is. It's yeah, it's a mosque.
It's so beautiful. But yeah, hearing people when
you go there, it's this really lovely vibe.
Like everyone's there and everyone's having a great time
and getting photos and best people watching on the planet.
Yeah. Why are they getting photos of
it? Is it like 'cause there's that
one, I know the shot how they can picture?
(09:21):
The Diana shot is what you're gonna say.
Oh, what's the Diana the. Princess Diana shot, there's
actually a chair now there that they, I think they put it there
for Princess Diana. It's when she first broke up
with Charles and it was public and she was at the Taj for her.
And there's this photo of her sitting on this chair in front
of the Taj, and you know how shewould sit, and she'd be very.
Small. Yeah, she made herself look,
(09:42):
really. And she just looked really sad
in the photo and lonely. And it was a really powerful
shot of her just looking lonely and isolated at the Taj.
And like, lots of people like tosit on that chair because that's
where Diana SAT. And then but otherwise you get
that shot from outside. But then is it all like
beautiful inside and? Yeah, it's amazing.
Every time I go there I just take my breath away.
You go there. All the time.
I go there every year. So yeah, I've been there like 8
(10:04):
times or something. One of my favorite things about
going there is that there's a very special bird that lives at
the Taj called the Egyptian vulture.
It's like critically endangered people travel all over Africa to
find it and I sent it twice now.On top of the Taj Mahal has had
a nest so I'm bird watching and there's like loads of parrots so
I'm doing a lot of bird watchingwhilst I'm a Taj.
(10:24):
What's my new favorite birds name?
Ah, the shoebill stalk. Shoebill Yeah.
When I posted that photo, I wanted to put up a thing saying
that you were gonna be in town and we were gonna go along to
this fundraiser and if people wanted to come along and meet
you, I went looking for a photo of you from your Instagram.
It's not. A lot of photos are.
You. Yeah, Good reason for that.
I'm behind the camera, yeah. And there's a whole bunch of
(10:46):
animals and birds and lot of cats, big cats, that is not not
the little ones. There's some little ones on
there, are there? Yeah, there's a couple of little
wild ones like caracal and serval.
Oh yeah, that's for Oz's favorite animal.
There you go. Well done.
And then I saw the photo of this.
What bill? Shoe bill.
Shoe Bill. So they say the beak looks like
a big shoe. Yes, you think was your first
(11:08):
thought prehistoric Like this thing looks like a dinosaur or a
large like puppet. Yeah.
Happy. Yes.
Yeah. Like something from the
labyrinth or something, you know?
Yeah. What's the name of the guy that
does all the puppets? Jim Henson, Jim.
Henson, yeah, looks like a Jim Henson puppet.
Really does. And when they look at you and
then they lower the head just slightly and the eyes are so
direct and it's really creepy. Like the looking over the top of
(11:31):
the. Glasses.
I got mated by one technically. I'm sorry, what?
I got mated by one. Technically in Uganda there's
the Entebbe zoo. They take on a lot of
confiscated animals that can't be rehabilitated or put back
into the wild. They have a shoebill that was
someone's pet, and he surrendered the pet.
His name's Sushi. The shoebill.
(11:52):
Very famous. He's all over the Internet.
Oh, really? Now I go and visit him on most
of my trips and it's cool because you get to go in there
and get up close with him and really.
Yeah, but how? Very close, like to the point to
the point where he starts displaying and they do this
thing when they put their head down and they, they clack their
beak and it's really quite a loud sound and they sort of
(12:12):
display to you. And this one time I was in
there, I've got a photo and a video of it somewhere.
This one time when I was in there, Sushi decided to jump
onto my back. And this is a big bird.
Like they're standing like they're huge.
He's on my back and he is basically rubbing his cloaca.
(12:33):
That's a great word, isn't it? First time I've heard cloaca in
the pod van. Yeah, I think so.
On my back whilst grooming like whilst pulling my hair in his
beak and like nipping at my ears.
And my guest thought it was the most hilarious thing on earth.
I was a little bit nervous and the zookeeper, I was like, come
on man, get his bird off me. This is this is hilarious,
(12:54):
everybody. Yeah, you're kidding.
This is the whole lot of my day.I've got the video on the photo
somewhere, but yeah, I was a little bit nervous 'cause it's a
huge bird, but yeah, I'm. Just trying to picture what your
kids would have looked like. Creepy as hell.
It's. Like humans with massive noses.
Yeah, he fancied me out. Look, it's the biggest
compliment. I'll take it.
I mean, if everybody likes me, well, what else is there left in
(13:16):
life, you know? I think you on safari and
Tanzania or something recently and you stumbled across some
where was it lions mating? Yeah, I've seen lots of lions
mating. Do you?
Yeah, it's quite a common. It's if you're around lions a
lot, there's a chance you'll find like when you're in safari.
It's you got a good chance of seeing mating lines.
(13:37):
'Cause I'd be like, oh, let's not look at them.
People really wanna say that. People will say to me, I really
wanna see lines mating. And no one says that's well,
that's creepy. But when you think about it, it
is creepy. Why are we wanting, Why are we
as fascinated with watching animals?
Wait, people. Say that to you.
I would not say that to you. Imagine if.
It was people mating, Alan Safari something.
I'd like to see that couple in that car over there mating.
(13:58):
But then you go, ohh, you creep.Like that's creepy.
But if it's an animal, no, no, no worries.
That's fine. Well, that's just an SOS, isn't
it? Yes, that was actually people
are loving the SOS episode. Are they?
Yeah, someone like guess like I didn't get an SOS.
For those who don't know, that'sSex on Safari.
Which it it's a thing. It's I don't know if it's still
(14:19):
a thing, and I don't know how much Pharaohs exaggerated that
whole story as well. Because it was about a a guest
that thought it was gonna happenwith.
Yeah. Yeah, and he was like, no, thank
you. He didn't say to him if she was
really young and hot, would you have considered this?
And maybe that's when you said before about which zoo was it?
That's an awesome zoo. In Tabby Zoo, right?
In Uganda, yeah. Why you reckon's the best zoo?
(14:42):
Because you've worked at Tarongaand yeah, Sydney and then you
work at Western Plains. Yeah, but you would have seen
lots. No, it's funny, you know, I'm
not a zoo person. I mean of.
Course you're not, because you don't need to see them.
Behind their things, When I was younger and not travelling as
much, I had the most really honest conversations with my
guests about zoos. A lot of people are like, they
(15:02):
hate zoos and it's like then they talk to me for a few hours
in a vehicle and they come around and go.
Actually, zoos are really important, which they are.
I've worked for Taronga for 20, almost 20 years, and I haven't
actually seen a lot of zoos because when I travel, I go to
the wild. So my zoo is a Serengeti.
But I like zoos that are doing alot of conservation and or
(15:23):
helping animals that need help and not so much.
I guess back in the day, zoos were like, you know, trying to
get people in the gates. Now stamp book collections,
like, oh, we've got a line and we've got this and we've got
giraffe and we've got all these spaces.
Everyone wants to stay up close.But yeah, I like the zoos that
are focusing on rehabilitating wildlife or Yeah, working like
(15:44):
like trogos and planes are doingamazing jobs.
We Yeah, I think you would have met Leonie from the zoo with
bilbies and church and planes Wanderers.
Yeah, that was really. Interesting finding out about
that stuff. Gold.
Stuff. That's the stuff that I'm super
proud of with the organization that I work for most.
People aren't going to be able to go to Africa and see lions,
so pretty cool to be able to go and see them.
(16:07):
Yeah, absolutely. And people, especially young
people, like children and teenagers and like you said,
well, families can't afford to take them overseas to Africa to
see lions and elephants if they can go to the zoo and get that
connection. Yeah.
And then advise them to go and exactly, you know, support
conservation, all go travelling and you know, just get out there
and help. It's sort of, yeah.
It opens the door, isn't it? Really it did for me.
(16:29):
If you think about it, I went toAfrica before it was a
zookeeper. But working at the zoo has
inspired me to go. For example, one of the images
that are going to be my upcomingexhibition is a bongo, very
endangered antelope that I care for at the zoo.
Oh, I'd never. I didn't even know what a bongo
was before I was a zookeeper. I'm pretty sure it's a drum.
Well, it is. Woody Harrelson plays a naked.
(16:49):
Bongo drum, yeah, but it's actually one of the most, it
probably is the most beautiful antelope in Africa, and not many
people know much about it. And I didn't know anything about
it. And now working with these
animals inspired me to go to Kenya and look for one and
become one of the first people on the planet to photograph one
on foot. What?
Yeah. So yeah, I was gonna talk to you
(17:09):
about that when we've some of the photos are gonna be at my
exhibition. They've all got great stories,
and that's one of them. And without the zoo, I wouldn't
have been inspired to do that, or if I didn't have that
connection with those animals and learn more about them.
You've got a really big guest onyour next episode.
It's me. I was looking at you.
Like what? This is so actually in this
(17:30):
episode, I wanted to bring up some of those photos because
you've got your exhibition coming up and that's it's in
North Sydney, it's around North Sydney, northern beaches.
Northern beaches Cromer, which is, yeah, just near DY.
It's an exhibition. Have you done a photography
exhibition before? No, this is my what am I?
I'm halfway through life really.Hopefully or no, hopefully I
leave more about 42. So this is my first time in my
(17:51):
career. I've been taking photos since
I've been a kid that I've had anexhibition.
So it's my first. I've been involved in other
people's exhibitions. This is my first solo
exhibition. Is it 50 photos or am I making
that up? No, 50 was going to be too much
for that space. It's about, I think we've got
about 32 or 33. I mean, how many photos do you
take? Yeah, I've got millions, I
(18:12):
reckon just in my current Lightroom catalog, which is
where I edit my photos from the last maybe 3 or 4 years.
I've got over 250,000 photos butthen I haven't culled like this
you. Don't cull.
You couldn't. Cull.
I'm getting good at culling now.I'm sitting on photos from 6-7
years ago that I think are absolute bangers, like they
should be in the exhibition, butI just, it's getting away from
(18:34):
me. It's, it's like it's building.
It's like a, you know, paperworkthat's piling up when you're
taking. Photos use a cannon.
Is yours a cannon? It is, yeah.
I use. I mean, I'm a cannon girl.
I thought it was unfortunately not sponsored.
But we need to make that. Have you tried it's?
Quite tough, yeah, To become an ambassador for Canon.
Because I was. Really.
(18:55):
No. Tell me your secrets.
Mine was A7 DI. Had a 7D, Did you?
Yeah. And I love Canon.
I just like like the way canons operate.
I like the feeling like I just met a wildlife documentary maker
in Africa and she shoots her video work with Sony and then
she shoots stills with Canon. And I said, what's the
(19:16):
difference? And she described it
beautifully. She said Sony so sharp.
You can't like for film, for like movies, you can't compete
with the sharpness and the crisp, cool colours, she said.
But for stills, Canon is king because of the there's this
beautiful. Warmth when you're taking your
photos. So there's, I don't know, some
big cat taking something down. You're cool.
(19:36):
Great shot. Are you going?
Yeah, it depends on what the behaviour is.
So if, for example, one of my shots in the exhibition is
cheetah hunting a small wildebeest calf, and that
sequence I took maybe 2 or 300 shots within a minute.
So when I play it back on my laptop, like just the photos,
it's like a moving picture. I could turn it into a movie
(19:56):
just from the photos. It's unbelievable.
And the camera I have currently shoot with is an R1.
It's Canon's best camera at the moment.
It's sort of for wildlife and sports photographers.
And the beauty of it is it can take, I think it's 16 frames per
second. And if you hold the shutter
button down, you can take easily100 to 200 shots without even
buffering without stopping. Wow.
(20:17):
Hence why you have 1/4 of a million photos.
Let's have a look at some of thephotos here because I've got
them on the screen as you're listening to this.
If you're listening to this is avideo episode on Spotify as
well. So the images that we're talking
about are actually up on the screen.
So you could be looking at what we're talking about.
So what's the did you say it's awildebeest?
It's a little wildebeest calf. It's only a couple of days old.
(20:39):
I know this is the sad part. So in the southern Serengeti in
February or January, this year was actually really early, it
was December. You get about close to over
1,000,000 wildebeests giving birth in the Short Plains.
So wow, the Short Plains, the grass is really nutritious.
So the first it comes up, the zebras come in and they mow it
down and you've got these short little bits left and that's
(20:59):
where all the phosphorus nutrients are.
And the wildebeest eat that for their carbs.
All need that if they go and eat.
And that's perfect energy, greatnutrition for having their
carbs. And they hang out there for a
little while and they start making their way back up to
Kenya. So this is in southern Serengeti
in Tanzania. What happens is every predator,
it's like a buffet, all right? It's like the world's biggest
buffet. Wildebeest are quite easy to
(21:20):
prey upon. So you get a lot of high density
of predators. You'll get cheetah, leopard
line. I mean, lines are territorial,
but the cheetah and cheetahs have massive territories and
they sometimes just move. So all the cheetahs will come
into that area. Hyena, Jackal, everything.
Birds of prey. Birds of prey are, after all,
the placenta that's laying around.
So like vultures are like the clean up crew.
(21:42):
They come in and clean up all the placenta.
You have a very weird life. I'm talking about it like it's
just normal, aren't I? I know.
And you do this all the time. Yeah, it's kicks me out.
It's when? Because I wouldn't see you
getting emotional over something, taking something down
and then just jumping on it. No, I do Do.
You got emotional in my car yesterday just listening to the
sad song on the radio. I'm a very emotional, highly
(22:04):
sensitive person, and I cried after that hunting sequence,
mostly because my adrenaline trying to capture the shot was
through the roof. So my energy levels get to a
point where I can't, like, I'm just bursting of energy, and I
just start crying. I was crying because it was a
bit sad, but it was also happy for the cheetah.
But I was also happy for me because I was like, yes, I got
(22:27):
the shot with the new camera that I was having troubles,
like, because it's a new camera and it's got so many different
settings and buttons, And I was just happy that it worked out.
Yeah, I've literally watched some really brutal things happen
in Africa and I've been crying through my viewfinder and I'm
still taking the shots, but I'm crying.
But my guests aren't even crying.
I'm crying. Yeah.
Have you had guests that have just been like, way too upset
(22:51):
over some of the things they've seen?
Yeah, my energy can really, I can be very careful of it.
Like I can bring people up and bring people down, like just
from my energy. So if we're at a really, I
guess, kind of confronting scene, I've got to make sure I'm
trying to not be too emotional. But I've had guests, yeah, that
have been very upset. One guest, Tony Schwent, Mommy
(23:11):
mentioning her. She's one of my favorite people.
And she's been on many trips, and she doesn't like seeing
kills. And so she'll say to me, what
trip has do you think has the least amount of chances of
seeing it kill? And every time I tell her that
we see, like, lots of kills. So one trip we were in southern
Africa, and we watched lines bringing down a Buffalo.
And that was pretty fun. Yeah.
(23:32):
And Buffalo do not, they do not give up.
It's like cheetahs, when they make a kill, it's quick.
The Buffalo, the Buffalo fight. And so, and we ended up, I think
we end up getting another vehicle there and getting her
onto the other vehicle so she could leave.
She put her headphones on. And yeah, so she deals with it
really well. Like she will save me.
I'm not comfortable with this, but I'm want everybody else to,
if they, you know, wanting to watch this and they're
(23:54):
fascinated by it, I'm not, you know, I'm hoping that against
you guys, I'm gonna put my headphones on.
I'm gonna look away. I think I would be more like
Tony. OK, I don't know that I could
handle just watching animals killing each other.
I. Guess it rarely happens in the
scheme of things. Like I've done hundreds and
hundreds of safaris and I can count on the two hands, I think
(24:14):
how many kills I've seen and I were quite brutal.
It's. Not Tony's trips.
People, people, actually, a lot of guests will say to me, what
trip should I avoid? Like, what trip do you think's
gonna have the most hunting action?
I'm like, I can't. Like I would say Southern
Serengeti's one that has more potential because cheetahs are
hunting. But when cheetahs hunt, it's not
confronting, but your adrenalineis going.
(24:35):
So when you see a cheetah take off, just happened on my last
safari. You know, the fastest animal on
the planet is a cheetah. Do you know what the second
fastest animal on the planet is?What?
Thompson's gazelle, their prey. So it's the two fastest animals
in the world following each other?
Wait, wait. The cheetah's the fastest, the
other ones the fastest. But they move like the Thompson
Gazelle, like so good at moving,but the sidestep they do, but
(24:56):
the cheetah does too. And you'll notice the cheetah
has in that photo, you'll see the tail up.
The tail acts, like I said, a rudder.
Is that what we say? Like it helps keep balance
enabled for them to turn and notlose their balance.
Wow. And to watch that and it's
incredible. And then it's like just when you
think the cheetah is in full, like that's at top speed, it's
like they hit that. Is it nitric acid or whatever?
(25:17):
It's good. Yeah.
Nitro, Nitro, Nitro, Nitro. Yeah, Yeah.
You know, when Vin Diesel and Bossafield presses that button
that they just go on another level, You know, everyone just
here under the car go whoa. And no, really no one stands a
chance of getting a photo because the first, particularly
if it's their first hunt, because it just happened so
quickly in your heart, it's racing and.
What sort of distance are we talking?
Hunt like 500 metres really. Even more sometimes.
(25:41):
Because I thought cheetahs, likethey have that crazy speed, but
it doesn't last very long. Yes, you have to get pretty
close. They probably get maybe 50-60
metres from their prey. Is that crawling down low?
Leopards are the crawlers. They're the ones that are doing
most of the crawling. Cheetah will get down low, but
then they'll sort of sit behind a bullshit.
They'll just go flat, OK, and just sit.
And sometimes it's hard as a photographer.
I've lost the cheetah so many times.
(26:02):
And then you don't see it until it takes off.
And all of a sudden, if you haven't got a camera that's good
at grabbing focus, you, you can screw up massively.
But I just tell my guests for the first cheetah hunt, just
watch it or film it or spray andpray.
Just that's what I do. I just spray and pray.
And hopefully should I get that in focus, so is that.
Again, hence why you have quarter of a million photos in
(26:23):
the Lightroom. But it's like you can't.
The look on my guest's face whenthey've seen a cheat, whether
it's been successful or not successful, just that whole
watching the fastest animal on earth run across the plains,
it's yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, wow.
The wildebeest calf in this particular sighting, something I
forgot to mention. Went on to live a long and
beautiful life. End of.
(26:44):
Story No, he was lost. So sometimes when you've got a
million wildebeests and you loseyour mum, you're in trouble.
So, And does the hell look quitesimilar as well?
I think, yeah. They well, if you start actually
watching wildebeests, they do look a bit different, but
there's just so many of them andif they don't imprint on their
calf in the first few minutes ofthe calf can't keep up, you look
(27:04):
across they just, I decide no other wildebeests will take
them. They'll push them off until you
get these little wildebeests just wandering around they.
Won't take the other wildebeests.
Nope, they won't get adopted. And then sometimes, for some
strange reason, I don't know howto describe it, they see our
vehicle and they might come running towards it and bleating
and it's that's what gets my guests in the fields.
Yeah, a little lost. So this little guy would.
(27:25):
Open the door. Let him.
In No, it's hard. This little guy was lost and we
sat with this cheater and there was some gazelles not far from
her and she was not interested in them.
Like said to my guides, something's going on here.
Like that's so easy. Those gazelles haven't even seen
her, but she's looking in the distance and they're like, don't
I? And then after 5 minutes, we
finally saw in the distance it was a speck.
(27:46):
It was a little lone wildebeest calf, but she could see it so
much further. And 5 minutes before us, she
watched it. It was coming closer and closer.
And then she just got herself into position and now she took
off and chased it. Even though his calf is only a
couple days old, his instincts like, uh oh, this is trouble.
He starts running and he ran directly past our car and she
(28:08):
tackled it right next to the car.
And that shot is just her. What I love about that shot and
it's, you know, bad day for the wildebeest calf, good day for
the cheetah. But you can just see the moment
her nails are about I. Just I just zoomed in on it.
Yeah, those claws. So they're not, they're non
retractable. So like lions and leopards and
your house cats can retract their claws, right.
(28:30):
Cheetahs can't. They need it for grip.
That's what they grip on when they're running.
Oh, and you can just see the moment her paws coming down and
that she's about to tackle that animal.
Yeah. You know what?
That's the best thing that couldhave happened to that little
fella. That sounds weird.
Yeah. I would much rather him be.
Cheetah killed very quickly. And they're not.
That's not messy. Like if it was a hyena, it'd be
yeah, yeah, yeah, we die of starvation, so.
(28:52):
Well, that's the other thing, yeah, yeah.
That's what I tell myself when I'm crying to my camera.
How far away is this from your vehicle about?
15 metres probably. Whoa.
Yeah, we positioned ourselves quite well, but at the end of
the day, that was just right time at the right place.
You. Can't know where they're going
to run, which direction it's gonna run in.
(29:12):
February. That's the first time ever in my
Safari career that I've had a tackle happen perfectly parallel
to the car. Alright, moving on to the next
one, I'm gonna call this 1A snowleopard.
It doesn't look like a leopard. It's in the snow or it's
floating in the clouds. Ohh, that's a sculpture.
So that is an Andy and Puma. So Puma are a cat.
They're not a big cat. Also known as Cougars.
(29:34):
Oh, yeah. Mountain lions.
OK Panther. Sometimes they're the animal, I
think in the Guinness Book of Records with the most amount of
names. All right, Puma con collar is a
scientific name, but these guys are found in, like, the very
bottom of South America. So they're Andean Pumas.
And last year I through one of my best adventures I've ever
done, I went for a week in Patagonia and was on foot with
(29:55):
them for five days. And what do you mean for me to
year away? Like on foot with my camera gear
and a guard who's been watching them since that one?
Was a cub just hanging out with them and following them at a
safe distance? Essentially a Mountain Lion.
Yeah. Is this in the snow?
It is. So we got lucky.
We went to Patagonia and the time of year we went, there's
normally not snow. We were a little bit too early
(30:17):
for the snow. This particular area have not
had problems with them. They're tolerant of us and like,
I guess. Oh my God, you just described
every cat. Yeah, cats.
You know what people don't like?Cats.
Look, it's as simple as the catsare assholes.
That's all there is to. The Pumas are, Yeah, this
particular Puma. Her name is a scorcher.
And out of all the Pumas we spent, we spent the most time
(30:38):
with, her name means bitter frost in Spanish.
And she is the only cat out of all the cats we saw.
We saw about 16 different Pumas that in that five days that
would look straight at you. She really looks at you.
She came out of the Bush one dayand she like, almost brushed up
against me, she was that close. And our guy said just stay still
and don't move your feet about because the vibrations would
(31:00):
upset them to stay still. And we found her in the late
afternoon. She was with her mother.
Her mother has a very famous catcalled Pataka.
And she's on all the National Geographic documentaries.
And she still hangs out with hermother, even though her mother
booted her ages ago. We found her that afternoon with
her mum, and she was on the sideof the road.
It got out, and we're only like 10 meters from her.
For that photo. I just saw her sitting and it
was snowing, and I just saw it. Here's my chance to get
(31:24):
something really simple but special.
So I got down into this ditch. My angle allowed me to look like
she was just covered in snow. And then she just stared at me.
And I just say, oh, I just, you just know when you've got that
shot, this new show, this is something special.
I wouldn't do that with a line out in the, you know, in the
Savannah or something. That would.
Yeah, that would not be cool. What?
You just see my face? I'm looking at my iPad and I've
(31:47):
just flicked over to the next photo.
What do you what one do you think I'm looking at based on my
reaction there? The gorilla.
Yeah. Oh, that's.
Well, you know that gorilla? I've already talked about that
gorilla. The one that put his hand on
your. That's the recundo he shouldn't.
Pause that he put his hand on your Yes.
I am you. Know the story?
(32:09):
It would be so funny if it was my chest, wouldn't it?
No, it was definitely my stomach.
I So I've photographed him many times.
I'm actually gonna go back and see him this September, So it's
like visiting an old friend. He's just a real sweetheart.
He's just very sweet. He's a big boy.
I love that photo of him 'cause he's just sitting there just
being. So that was we came around the
corner. My guess.
I did 2 gorilla tricks last season last year and this was
(32:29):
the first one and when we turnedaround the corner he was just
there sitting like. That I was going to ask you, do
you have those moments where you're like, you're just, you're
hiking in there, You're hoping you're gonna say that.
There's no guarantee you're going to, I suppose.
There's a pretty big guarantee with the gorillas.
Oh yeah, they still say it's not100% guarantee, but I've done
like over 10 gorilla tricks now and I've never not seen them.
I've seen them every time. Because like, do they sort of
(32:51):
hang in the same area? They do each day, depending on
where they want to eat and what food they want, they get a
different area. So the first day they were
eating a lot of bamboo shoots. They're in the primary
rainforest. The second day, when the day
when you touch my stomach, they were in the, they come out of
the primary into the secondary forest, which was basically
converted farmland that they'd given back and they were after
berries. So he was moving me to get to
(33:13):
the berries that were. But my head, yeah.
So if you haven't seen that clip, oh man, go and look at it
on my social on on Bobby Joe's socials.
Yeah, we made a clip out of it, didn't we?
Or did you already have? Well, you had the footage from.
You made a little clip of it too, with the story over the
top. Yeah.
That was from when we first met.You were telling that story and
then you said I've actually got the video of it and so put that
to it. He's come walking over towards
(33:34):
you. What a freaky moment.
And then he just gently moves you to the side so he can reach.
Yeah. And the.
Berries next to me eating the berries.
You know, I never tie her. But the thing I get really
excited about is my guest seeingit.
Even just recently, when my guests saw their first tiger in
India, Caroline from South Africa spent so much time with
big cats, and she'd never seen tiger.
(33:54):
We saw one, and I'm just grabbing her and smacking her.
I tend to like, I don't know if it's an energy transfer, but I
grab people and I'm like, Oh my God.
You know, I get a real kick out of sharing that moment with them
and seeing them get excited by it.
So, yeah, so nice. It's such a high.
When she saw the tiger. How far away are you from?
We're only like it was we're in Kaziranga, which is very hard
place to see tigers. It's the first time I've ever
(34:15):
seen one up close in Kaziranga and we weren't expecting to see
one. We had it all to ourselves and
it was just in the Bush, but allyou could see was its eyes
looking through the ferns. Scared the crap out of me.
That was good time. Oh my God, the camera just fell
down. Oh my God, that made me jump.
(34:39):
It's like the ghost in the darkness in the pod, man.
But how far away is the tiger from you?
Oh it. Was only maybe 5-6 metres but we
were in a vehicle and it was sort of down the gully.
That photo was incredible. And all these stories, I'm not
in that much detail, but there'll be like a story of each
photo. When people come to the
exhibition, they can read or they can actually even scan AQR
(35:00):
code or when they buy the print,the story will be with it.
So. Right.
So all these photos that you've got on display, they're all for
sale. Absolutely.
Look at this photo of this elephant that you've put in
here. That's a great one.
Oh dida yes I've got 2 elephant shots in the exhibition so I was
trying to think of which one. You used to be a elephant
keeper. Yeah, I was an elephant keeper
(35:21):
for many years at Taronga and then moved out to the whole
reason I moved to Dubbo was to come out before we sent some
elephants to Dubbo and yeah, to welcome them when they arrived.
Who's this elephant in this one?Her name is Dida and she was the
queen of Tsavo. So Tsavo E Tsavo National Park
is in Kenya. It's huge National Park.
It's very famous. It's it gets smashed by drought
(35:42):
a lot, but it's very famous for having that really rich red
soil. It's famous for the lions, the
man eating lions of Tsavo. Have you ever you know the movie
The Ghost in the Darkness with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas?
Yeah, I've heard of it. It's about Colonel Patterson was
a guy. They were building the railway
line through Kenya or through Tsavo and these people just
getting eaten by lions. Oh, I think I did see it.
(36:03):
Yeah, that's your story. And that's in Tsavo East where
this photo is taken. For some reason, Tsavo National
Park has some of the biggest tusca elephants on the planet.
And most people refer to tusca elephants as just an elephant
that's just got tusks. But a tusca is the tusks have to
be a certain weight and diameterand length to be called a tusca.
As in, like TUSKER? Yeah.
(36:24):
Tusca. Yep.
So African elephants, both male and female can have big tusks
with the Asian elephants and males get the really big tusks
and the females have a little thing called a tusher, a set of
tashes. So they're just like small
little tusks under. So Dieter is probably, I think
still to this day she's passed away.
Now, unfortunately she was the biggest female tusker on record.
So even though she doesn't really have the weight or the
(36:45):
width the males can get her length of her tusks were she was
almost touching the ground. They look like they'd be
cumbersome. Yeah, I just watched her and
there's another one. I can't think of her name right
now. And we photographed her as well.
And I watched her across the road once.
She come down sort of the side of the road and her tusks got
caught in the ground and she stumbled and I was just like.
No, I tripped over my teeth again.
(37:07):
I thought that. A bit long on the tooth, yeah,
Yeah. No, it is her teeth.
It is essentially the sizer a lot.
And yes, it is a tooth basically.
I tripped over my teeth it. Has a special dentine like a
crisscross matrix kind of make. That's how it's special, because
it's a Tusk. But there's no use for it.
Oh. No, definitely.
They use it for fighting and it's a genetic thing.
(37:29):
Like you know how they say in Australia, it's so obvious,
people go up. We did a paper on this and it's
like the big males, Kangaroos are the big biceps.
Can females wanna breed with them 'cause it's good genetics,
right, Right. And that to me that's so
obvious. Like, but then it's not when it
meant, you know, brain capacity.But you know, most guys I look
at that have big muscles that not really do much for me up
here. It's like these guys, I think
(37:51):
they get favoured by the femalescause they've got the big tusks.
Oh, right, lines with big manes.That all that that, that one's
good for genetics, right? With that one.
How shallow, Very shallow of them.
I know. So hopefully these guys.
And then the weird thing is, is that the head of the Tsarvo
trust, I've spoken to him, a wonderful man.
He said to me that it's normallythe last decade of their life
(38:11):
that their tusks will really grow, which I found really
interesting. And luckily for Dida, they found
her with really sad cry. She cried, they found her.
It's a success and it's sad. They found her from like an
aerial patrol. She'd been dead for I think a
week or two or maybe, I don't know, things perish pretty
quickly in Tsarvo. But they found her tusks were
(38:31):
intact, which is the photo was really confronting.
But it was also really amazing that she lived her full life.
She would have had attacks on her for sure.
By. Humans.
Right, I was gonna say poaching.No other animals are gonna wanna
take her tasks when? Yeah, so.
She would have been dodging poachers big chunk of her life.
How? How old?
She was in her 60s, I think whenhow old 60s.
(38:53):
I can't think I've topped my head that she she died with her
tusks, so that's really quite special.
I feel very privileged to have seen her in the wild.
I love the stories behind these photos.
Yeah. The exhibition is on.
So opening night, which everyone's invited to, you just
have to RSVP if you'd like to come, is May 17th, 5:00 PM at
Northern Beaches Gallery in Cromer.
OK. You do need to RSVP to attend
(39:15):
the opening night, so you can shoot me an e-mail in So Bobby
Joe safaris.com but then the exhibition is open for two weeks
up until the 31st of May. You can pop in there and look at
the images and you can buy them if you like.
So cool, I hope someone looks into this.
That is, you know, loves their art, wants to get a new piece
for the wall or something. He's heard your stories and
goes, oh. That there's a few photos that
(39:37):
people haven't even seen yet that I've not shared with anyone
on the socials. It's taken me all my strength,
not because I like to share things.
And I've also created a virtual exhibition so people can't make
it there in person. If you're, you know, Interstate
or overseas and listening and would like to see it.
I'll be releasing the link to the virtual exhibition probably
a day after the well, after the opening.
Yeah, you can actually buy, look, see the stories.
(39:58):
It's pretty cool. So cool.
Alright, the next episode of Safari Life with Bobby Jo.
As I said earlier, big guest. Real big guest.
Just don't know how you even managed to lock this one in.
Yeah. Pull in a big favour.
Yeah, obviously some sort of wildlife expert or something.
I don't know what I'm doing in your podcast, but we'll have a
(40:20):
bit more of a chat about some ofthe other photos as well from
the exhibition and the stories behind them.
I love those. So that's in Bobby Joe's next
episode. It's episode #6 of Safari Life.
So I'll, I'll see you in your podcast.
OK, cool. We'll come Late podcast.
With Robbie. Oh hey, just before you go
little heads up, there's a couple of brand new shows that
(40:42):
are now part of the Pod Van Media family and I'd love you to
check them out. They are brilliant.
First up, beyond the tube with Phi Roderick.
This is a podcast for parents and carers navigating life with
a tube fed child. This is something Phi knows
about first hand through her journey with her son Ezra.
Five days after his first birthday we were admitted to
(41:04):
Gosford Public Hospital where westayed for five nights and Ng
was inserted 24 hours after we were admitted because he was
failure to thrive. Within about 3 weeks we saw a
huge drop. He still looked very healthy.
If I showed you photos of what he looked like at that stage,
you would think there's nothing wrong with him.
(41:26):
He's a chubby little boy and he looks good.
He did. He looked really good, but my
breast milk was all that was keeping him alive.
Even if you're not in that world, it's a really good
listen. And then there's Safari Life
with Bobby Jo. Now she's out in the wild,
literally sending me incredible stories from wherever she is in
the world. This one's from Tanzania with a
(41:48):
local guide she's been using forthe last 10 years.
And what a. Story The baby elephant came up
and started touching the car andthe mother for a good 5-10
minutes. She tried to get this calf away
and she's getting quite frustrated and we stayed very
quiet. They don't know whether it's
people or we are another certaintype of animals in the wild, but
the way she was care about. Her baby trying to pull her baby
(42:09):
away while keep her eye on us. It was incredible experience.
She gave us a look and it was like a look of she was just
definitely trying to assess whatwas happening.
Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. I just love the stories we're
getting out of these both shows alive now, so you can just
search up Safari Life or Beyond the Tube in the same app you're
in now.
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