Ep11: He’s Back: The Buffalo Outside My Tent

Well, I just had quite a big scare! My heart's still racing! Tonight, from in my tent, I spotted a VERY close Cape Buffalo! He was so close I just thought, ‘OK, this is how it ends. I get cleaned up by a buffalo’.

In this episode, I’m reporting from my first week back in Kenya, and it’s been an absolutely wild start! When I’m not teaching photography, I get to take my own little Suzuki out on solo adventures, tracking the magnificent tusker elephant Fred and having some truly spectacular encounters with giraffes in a storm. But the biggest thrill (and shock) has been a certain buffalo who seems to be making a habit of waiting for me in the dark.

I also sit down with some of the incredible people I’ve met in camp. You'll hear from Abby, a 19-year-old intern who reveals what it’s like to grow up on a game reserve with a very unusual pet. Then, you'll feel the rush of a first-time safari through the eyes of 14-year-old Archie, who witnesses a dramatic life-and-death struggle between lions and hyenas on his first-ever night drive. It’s been a crazy week and this is only the beginning!

Get in touch via social media:
Instagram: @bobbyjosafaris
Facebook: Bobby-Jo Safaris

And to explore upcoming safaris: Bobby-Jo Safaris

If you love wild stories, hit play, leave a review, and share with your fellow safari lovers!

This is a Podvan Media production.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Safari Life with Bobby Jo, where you'll get a
front row seat to some of the most breathtaking wildlife
experiences on the planet. Bobby Jo's a wildlife
photographer and safari guide, leading photography tours to
incredible destinations like theSerengeti, Patagonia, India,
Antarctica and beyond. In this podcast, she shares

(00:21):
expert photography tips, behind the scenes stories, and insights
into Wildlife Conservation. If you'd like to learn more
about her tours and workshops, visit bobbyjoesafaris.com.
G'day honey Badges, it's itchy Honey Badger, Bobby Joe and I'm.

(00:42):
Connecting with you. From Nairobi in Kenya, so I've
just spent over 30 hours gettinghere from Dubbo in NSW and
arrived around 1:30 in the morning last night.
So it's the third of July. I can't even think of what day
it is. It's been many, many hours
trying to get here and I'm just starting three months of African

(01:05):
travels. So I've got three months away
from home and I'm going to be working for a camp in the
Maranof Conservancy, Alex Walker's camp, it's his original
camp, it's called Sarian, it's where I first started to work
for Alex back in 2023. I've got a month in camp and
then I'm going on to run and host my own photographic safaris
under Bobby Jo Safaris. So it's a jam packed few months.

(01:29):
I'm going to be doing some really fantastic things like
working with an anti poaching team in Zambia and also working
with my favorite team on the planet Kobe line.
But for now I'm getting ready toget on a small Bush plane.
It's the last flight for a monthand I'm heading into the Mara N
Conservancy, which is a reserve that's above the famous national
reserve, Nasai Mara. But it's private, so there's

(01:49):
fewer camps there, fewer people,and you get to drive off road,
which is quite nice. And that landscape's also shared
with owners and their cattle. It's a fantastic place, lots of
really great big cat action, great giraffe elephants and some
of the wildebeests do make theirway up into the Mara N.
So my job for the next month, and it's very hard work, you're

(02:11):
going to really be feeling for me, is to pretty much be in camp
and go on safari and teach guests how to use the camera,
get the best out of their cameras.
If they're open to learning about photography, joining them
at meals, so lunch and dinner and basically hosting them with
the wonderful team that's already based at Syrian.
And I'll also go on game drives with them and help them, Yeah,

(02:32):
with their photography. But when I'm not required, I
actually get given my own littleSuzuki open top Suzuki.
I can go on my own safaris and own adventures.
And last time when I started to get the hang of it, I loved it.
Something so liberating about being on your own out in the
wild and coming across these magnificent animals.

(02:53):
And last time I actually found my own line.
So I got up in the morning went out looking for tracks.
I'm not the best tracker in the world, but the thing I'm good at
is listening and also watching the movements of other animals.
And last time I actually heard aroar right on sunrise.
I was able to track the lines down just from listening to the
roar and that was such a great feeling so reinforced forever.

(03:14):
This time I I would really love to find my own lipid.
That would be really cool. But yeah, it's it's a really
wonderful adventure that I get to do.
Feeling a little bit homesick already.
This always happens to me. A lot of people sort of go, your
lifestyle's amazing. I'm so jealous.
Like what a life does come at a cost sometimes.
I mean, I feel like I'm living 2separate lives.

(03:37):
I feel like I'm everywhere but belong nowhere, if that makes
sense. Or that two things could be
right at once, right? So I can be belonging here and
also belonging home and leaving my mum and my family and my dogs
and my friends and my work colleagues.
It can be tricky. I want it for a big chunk of
time. So I was a little bit sensitive
when I left Dubbo and the wild crazy weather that was happening

(03:59):
in Sydney actually delayed my first flight by several hours.
And we almost, I almost didn't make it to Sydney.
But once I got there, the weather was starting to calm and
things were quite smooth the whole way here.
And this time I chose a different route to get to Kenya
and only I would go through the Middle East.
But a few months back I decided to go with Qantas via
Johannesburg. So I flew Sydney to Johannesburg
direct and he had like a three hour layover and then flew with

(04:22):
Airlink, a smaller plane from Johannesburg up to Nairobi.
And it was actually a really great way to get here.
So keep that in mind if you're thinking about booking future
safaris. If you go it that way, you can
still explore lots of things. Lots of people want to go to
Victoria Falls, Botswana, Kruger.
They can also incorporate that into their East Africa holiday
and go with Qantas direct out ofSydney, Melbourne.
It's a great way to travel. And this time for the first time

(04:46):
in my life, I've been flying since I was probably in my, I
think around 20 was the first time I've ever got on a plane.
I've been flying a lot since then and.
I was actually able to upgrade to Business class which was a
real splurge. It's my first ever business
class flight on a decent plane and it was a good one because it

(05:06):
was a 14 hour flight. A few months ago I became an
adult and actually got a credit card and had been using my
credit card to pay bills to purchase my new camera and I was
able to accumulate points quite quickly.
That allowed me to upgrade to business with Qantas.
It's also depends on how many seats are left.
So I found out the day before I was flying that I actually was
successful with the upgrade. Don't know how I'm going back to

(05:27):
economy. Everyone says that it was
amazing to be able to lay down on the flight and sleep with
everything stretched out. The food service, the actual
service was ridiculously good and it did make me uncomfortable
thinking about the difference between economy and business.
I mean, we're all paid a lot of money to be on that flight.

(05:47):
Whether you played economy or business.
The contrast was incredible, thedifference in service from those
two seated areas. Anyways, hopefully I can go
business again because it was unreal, but for now I'm back in
economy as I'm jumping all over Africa and look forward to
updating you from the Mara N Conservancy as my role as a
photographer in residence for Alex Walkers.

(06:09):
Good day, honey Badgers. I am connecting with you from
the Mara River. I'm sitting above a big pod of
hippos. It's a lot of action.
It's my first morning here and Istarted the morning really
nicely. We've had a beautiful sunrise.
And now I'm with, yeah, a huge pot of maybe about 50 or 60
hippos. I haven't counted them all yet,
and I'm with Sammy. Hello, Sammy.
Hey, and you can hear all the hippos.

(06:32):
All the hippos are here as well,guys.
Sammy's been a photographer in residence here for the month of
June. And how's your time been here?
Awesome, Just awesome. Incredible, to be honest.
And Sammy, how long have you been a photographer for?
This will be my 10th year since I started way back in 2015.
Amazing and I'm so glad we got to lap over by one day.
So we shared a beautiful game drive this morning and driving

(06:53):
around getting to know each other and sort of collaborating
and talking about photography. What has been your highlight
while you've been photographer in residence?
I think it's just interacting with the staff and also getting
photos for Alex Walker, Syria, literally the whole it's a whole
match to be honest. So nice to see Kent young Kenyan
photographers coming up the ranks and getting really
artistic storytelling out in thewild, sort of documenting

(07:16):
nature. What's sort of an advice that
you would have for a young Kenyan that wants to get into
photography? To shorten it, I'll just say
discipline. Yep, consistency and also
finding a unique way to tell your stories.
Where can we follow you on social media?
Instagram is more of the major platform where you can find me
surrealist tales. Surrealist Tales.

(07:36):
I'll put the link in the in the show notes.
Surrealist Tales so you can see all the stories and also some of
my posts. And what's next for you?
Where are you headed to today? You're going back home and.
I'm heading back to Nairobi. Sad city life, but I'm also
excited to also meet up with my family and nails.
When you're out here taking photos, say of the of the
animals, what's your sort of favorite species to be around

(07:57):
like? What's something that you really
enjoy photographing? To I'll say the elephant.
It's very amazing to me. And the leopard.
The leopard. Everybody loves leopard.
Even though you guys say leopard, Leopard.
That sounds so cool. We've just been.
I've forced Sammy to come and sit with the hippos this
morning. I love.
We've had some great action. Right now we're watching a young

(08:18):
male hippo. He's across the other side of
the bank. We're not sure what's going on
with him, but he's got a bit of beef with another male I think
in the water and they've had a few interactions of fighting.
But hippos will do what they canto avoid fighting.
A lot of vocals, mouth open and they rarely come to big blows
because they can do some seriousdamage with those teeth.
We've been watching a young hippo on its mother's back,

(08:39):
which I'll post some videos of. That's so cool.
You always hear about stories about how they ride on their
mum's back and we've been watching that this morning and
it's such a beautiful morning. Good morning, honey.
Badges. I'm connecting with you from in
a little Suzuki Maruti, the samekind of safari trucks that you
would use in India. I'm bumbling along the road

(09:00):
here, all on my little lonesome,looking for animals.
It is close to 6:30 in the morning.
The sun hasn't come up yet. And yeah, I'm on a mission to
find some critters to photograph.
And I just wanted to share with you the sense of freedom I have
doing this. I mean, everyone gets stress in
life and everybody feels overwhelmed at times.

(09:21):
And what am I doing with my life?
I know that's me. Believe it or not, I do not have
much together. And you wake up and you come out
here and you're on your own and you're in the wild.
And nature has this way of feeling.
And you just feel like nothing else matters.
I mean, right now I feel freedom.
This is to me, this is what the afterlife must look like.

(09:43):
I'm hoping. Yesterday I spent most of the
day with a beautiful Mexican family and one of the young
daughters was right into photography.
So I went out with her and she had a Nikon camera.
She had some basic knowledge, but we captured some amazing
creative stuff with giraffes on sunrise using silhouettes and
that kind of thing and telling her to override her camera, make

(10:04):
it darker, which she was a bit like protesting about to start
with. Like that doesn't seem right.
I'm just just trust the process,the creative process.
So we spent the day up until about 2:30.
We found cheetah, big herd of Buffalo lines.
And then I helped her do an editing session with her photos
and she was blown away by what she could achieve.
She already had light room on her laptop, so she's pretty

(10:25):
serious. So that was a fantastic day.
But some days when I'm here, notall the guests are into
photography and someone doing activities like going fishing or
walking. And so I get given this little
vehicle which I love and it's a little 4 wheel drive and I get
to go out and basically be my own guide.

(10:45):
And this is something that I'm not that experienced with.
Like I'm getting experience. I could easily guide and drive,
but why would I do that when I've got perfectly great guides
in all the places that I visit like India, Tanzania,
Madagascar, Sri Lanka? Yeah, I'd like to be a passenger
Princess. But it's something really cool
about going out and trying to find my own stuff with my own

(11:05):
knowledge. And believe it or not, I've
actually shocked myself. I'm quite good at it and haven't
found a leopard yet. So I'm keen to find my own
leopard. But you know what, I don't find
the leopard. The leopard will find me.
So hopefully this morning that will happen.
But yeah, so far I've had a really wonderful start to the
photographer in residence month.So I'm here for the whole of
July and yeah, I've caught up with giraffe Buffalo, huge herd

(11:29):
of Buffalo. I love getting around buff.
They're just the Buffalo here are quite relaxed and yeah,
anyways, I better stop talking so I can find some animals and
I'll catch up with you hopefullysoon with with some critters and
some stories. OK, that didn't take me long.
I found something incredibly special.
I'm going to share it with you in just a second.

(11:49):
But first of all, I want to talkabout some zebra.
I've come across a huge herd of zebies and they weave topi which
is a really funky looking antelope with that looks like
it's wearing leggings with yellow socks and also some
eland. Now the interesting story about
the zebra. Every night they go to Marianta,
which is a town next to the MaraN Conservancy now.

(12:10):
Zebras are so. Smart.
I've been working with them for a big chunk of my career and
they have learned that if they go to town at nighttime, they'll
be safe from predation, and that's pretty amazing.
So they follow the road out of town around 6/30, 7:00 at night,
and they come back in the morning to the Conservancy to
eat. So I've just.
I've just caught up with them. They've just arrived from their

(12:31):
night out in the town, you know,big night out in the town in
Marianta. Now what I've found, and he's
listening to me right now, so I have to be very careful with my
voice, is I found Fred. Fred is a tusker elephant.
He's got the most incredible tusks and he lives in Mara,
North Conservancy. He's watched very carefully by
the Mara Elephant Project here and I've just found him and I

(12:54):
think I'm going to stay with himwhile the light gets really good
and photograph him and share some photos with you all.
Pretty pumped to see him. Freddy's got a collar as well so
they can keep track of him. So let me go and spend some time
with. Fred.
And I'll get back to you. Yay.
So I've lost Fred. I mean, how can you lose a huge

(13:16):
tusker elephant? Pretty easy.
Apparently he doesn't really like safari vehicles.
He's pretty friendly, but he is shy, so if too many vehicles
turn up, he will disappear. And that's exactly what
happened. A few safari vehicles turned up,
spotted him and he's gone into the bushes.
So I've gone off road. It's very rocky terrain, so I'm
being very careful and I've comeacross a hyena den.

(13:38):
So right now I'm actually looking at hyena.
There's a clan of hyena, mostly adults and some sub adults.
And yeah, they're pretty relaxedand they're just watching me,
and they've got a nice little den here and the zebra all
surrounding them and the elim and the topi, and everybody
seems to be cohesive and bit of peace up here on the Ridge.

(13:59):
But I'm going to keep looking for Fred.
So I just stopped to do a bit ofa scam.
When you're driving around on safari, the best thing you can
do is just stop every now and again and just have a scan.
I just had this feeling that something was watching me.
And of course it's always a giraffe.
Like you stop and you just look around in the thick bushes
looking at right now it's just giraffe head just popping over

(14:21):
the Bush staring at me. It's kind of cool, but the good
thing of giraffe is that if theyspot a prototype, you'll know,
like they if I'm looking for predators, lions, leopards,
cheetah, giraffe will definitelygive them away.
So if you can see, especially ifyou've got a herder giraffe and
they're all staring in that One Direction, you generally know
something's there. It could be a person moving
about to a human because we're predators, basically.

(14:44):
Yeah. This giraffe is having a good
old nosy Parker at me. He's coming out now.
He realises I'm not a threat, sohe's coming down the hill.
They're the best. So I didn't manage to find Fred
again, but I found Flopsy. Flopsy is an elephant from the
Mahara N. He's got a floppy ears.
The cartilage in his ears damaged his lefty and it flops

(15:08):
forward, hence the name. He's also missing his tail.
Now he can be a bit aggro. The guides reckon he's chilled
out a little bit, so I'm sittinga bit back from him and just
watching him graze. There's something really
beautiful about sitting with an elephant and listening to it get
clumps of grass up out of the earth and be grazing and the
sounds and something I find verysoothing and, yeah, flops.

(15:31):
He's just chilling out right nowunder a tree and he's grazing
his heart out and he has moved maybe about 5 meters in the past
hour. He's going around in circles
grazing. And sometimes he does hang out
with Fred. So I'm hoping I can I can snag
Fred this afternoon again. But yeah, still blows my mind
that I can lose a giant elephantout here.

(15:53):
But that's a good thing too, right?
So I love the fact that elephants can just completely
disappear and people don't see them.
That's amazing and very much needed.
Important update, peeps. Found Fred.
He has emerged from the Bush andhe's hanging out.
With a younger Bull, the youngerBull seems to be really
following him like a bit of a piss to be honest.

(16:15):
Yeah, he's coming down the hill,so hopefully I'll be able to.
Get some nice footage and video of him, but unfortunately the
light is against me. The light has changed now, but
I'm pretty stoked for him to make another appearance.
He's an incredible elephant withthe really nice tusks.
So it's the afternoon and I'm back out on safari in the Suzuki

(16:39):
and a storm, a massive storm is brewing and it is like
spectacular. I feel like I'm in Twister.
You know, there's colours in thecloud formations in the movie
Twister. I am driving across an open
plain. I can't see much.
And I just had the most creepiest feeling like I drove
through this forested area looking for leopard.

(16:59):
Of course, you know, and becausemy ego won't let it go, I've got
to find my own leopard. And as I'm driving through this
area, I just get the heebie jeebies.
Like it's dark. It's low light.
I had to drive like right along the edge of the forest and in
tall long grass and Oh my word, it was creepy.
Now it's poor. It's raining.

(17:20):
I'm going to have to stop the car and put the canopy on
because it's about to piss down and I'm got all my camera gear
out, so stand by. OK, I am back.
I just had to put up the canopy because I'm about to get rained
on. I've been screaming like this
day away properly. OK, back on the road.
And yet I was in the most feeling so creepy, like no one

(17:45):
is around at all. It's just me in this really
thick forest. And I just had a feeling of
getting out of here. Why are you here?
Anyways? I'm back in the open plains now.
I feel a bit more comfortable. I'm just trying to get to a main
road. But yeah, again, I can't begin
to describe the feeling of awesomeness it is to be on your

(18:06):
own out here. Like all on your own with
wildlife and the weather and theplains.
It's pretty spectacular. I'm not having too much luck
with wildlife this afternoon. That's OK.
It's still a really wonderful experience.
Hello, honey Badgers. I'm happy to report that I am
back in my very bougie tent, nice and warm, showered because

(18:28):
I got caught in a hell of a storm.
It turns out the Suzuki is not very waterproof.
And I was saturated from head toe.
There was pools of water, you know, around my feet in the
vehicle. Clearly no drainage holes.
And I am so thankful that I carry with me.
It's a hot tip. Here we go.

(18:48):
Hot photography tip for you all.I carry a Cedar Summit
waterproof bag, I think it's called the Big River.
It's a huge big bag which one ofmy guests actually gifted to me
in India many years ago. It fits my whole 400 mil lens
and camera body in it and lots of other things and you can just
quickly fold it over and it seals it completely waterproof.

(19:09):
That saved my camera gear this afternoon because everything
else was completely wet and I was a little bit nervous driving
across the plains not being ableto see properly that black
cotton soil. If that gets wet enough water on
it, you're going to get stuck. And I'm not a super experienced
4 wheel driver getting better, but I managed to, in the very

(19:31):
heavy rain, find myself back at camp.
Thankfully, once I hit that mainroad, I was very happy and
started to relax and laugh and enjoy it.
But before I hit the main road, when I was out on the Savannah,
I was a little bit nervous of what happens if I get stuck out
here in the pouring rain. And as I'm talking now, it's
still raining outside. So it's a huge storm that's hit

(19:53):
the Mara North and rain is very much needed in the Mara N
Conservancy. So it's really quite beautiful
listening to the rain hit the tent roof right now, feeling
very relaxed and happy to be back in camp.
And yeah, I think the best sighting of the afternoon for
everybody else was the saturatedMuzungu driving the Suzuki
across the plains. Tomorrow is another day.

(20:16):
I'm heading out. We have some guests from
California in the morning to teach photography and to see
what we can find out in the Mara.
N Hello there. I'm back in the pouring rain
again. Same time, same place.
It's the afternoon. The rain is here.
I'm actually sitting in the backof the vehicle, but in front of
me is the most fucking spectacular sight I've had in a

(20:39):
while. I have got a huge big breeding
herd right now there, a tower ofgiraffe.
I've got 12345678910 giraffe alllined up just perfectly.
And the sun was out, the rain was out.
I got down low out of the car. It was safe to do so and I got,

(20:59):
I think I got some pretty spectacular shots.
So it's all worth it. I'm absolutely saturated again.
Hopefully my camera gears OK because I was shooting in the
rain And funny story, but I think I recognize one of the
giraffes. She looks very familiar to a
giraffe, but I watched give birth in 2023.
She's got a floppy left ear. I'm going to check her markings.

(21:20):
And because each giraffe has a unique pattern coat pattern,
just like a fingerprint. Same for zebras and lots of
different animals. Us as well, we've got our own
unique fingerprint and I'm pretty confident it's her, so
I'll be able to match up her patterns with my photos from
2023. This is quite a specky sight,
getting giraffe in the open plains, Clean, beautiful

(21:42):
backgrounds. There's two young babies around
the same age. I'm pretty pumped about the
photos. I can't wait to share them with
you guys. And up until now it's been a
very quiet drive for me and I'vebeen working out.
I could see the the giraffe and the planes from maybe about a
kilometre away and I was trying to work out how to get here.
Had to go off roading so now I'mstuck on the plains.
I'm not far from the main road though.

(22:03):
Just got to work out how to get back to camp because the rain
has set in and I can't see some of my landmarks.
Totally worth it though. Guys.
Guys, I'm so excited. I mean I might be a total nerd
here, but guess what? It is the giraffe.
I've just identified her from like an X patch on her neck.
It is the same giraffe that I photographed in 2023.

(22:24):
She had a baby and then that lion half tail ate her calf.
You might remember if you've been following me for a while,
you might remember that story, but it's definitely her.
Like I am so pumped on my giraffe IDs.
Super chuffed that it's her. She's got the bent ear and she's
got the X marks, the spot she's about to walk past my car.

(22:44):
She's a love giraffe. OK, sorry.
I just have to, I just have to say one more time.
That is phenomenal that I found that same giraffe that I
photographed in 2023. I mean, with a big breeding
herd. I don't know if she had a calf,
it looked like she might have going off her memory
development. But wow, what a moment.
I mean, people are too busy chasing leopards and lions and

(23:07):
all the rest and just give me a big herd of giraffe any day.
They are spectacular creatures and they're just the best.
I am biased, but whatever. Hello honey badges.
Another day here in the Mara andI'm on an afternoon drive on my
own. This morning I spent several
hours with a gorgeous, hilariousBritish family.

(23:27):
They were spectacular and their son Archie was really into
photography. So we we had a wonderful morning
spent with lions and we also caught up with elephants and it
was a great morning. Lots of laughter.
The Brits and the Aussies, God we get along well.
I'm now out of my own and I'm. Very happy to.
Report You are going to get sickof my obsession for elephants

(23:48):
and giraffe, but I found Fred ina spectacular location out on
the plains and I'm going to see if I can spend the afternoon
with him. There's not too many places he
can hide. He's on the plains, so let's see
if he'll allow me to spend the afternoon with him and capture
some really awesome images of him.
I've got him all to myself, so let's see how we go.

(24:08):
For those that if you don't remember, Fred's the big tusker
elephant in Mahara N Conservancy.
He's a big, gentle giant, but I will also respect him and give
him his space. Guys, I'm having an amazing time
with Fred. It's just me and him and he's
pretty relaxed. I've given him some.
Space, but he's just. Like posing beautifully and
eating grass. He's very content and that's

(24:29):
rare for a big bull elephant. To be fair, he's quite
spectacular. I wish you were all here with me
right now enjoying him. I'm just listening to him.
He's circling his trunk around and pulling up huge clumps of
grass and then slowly putting them into his mouth whilst his
tail's moving a little bit. His ears are flapping maybe
every minute or so. It's pretty cool temperature.
Here so he's. Maybe one of my favourite

(24:51):
elephants I've ever spent time with.
Hello honey Badgers. I am out in the Mara N
Conservancy currently driving through a herd of about 300
Buffalo. It's incredible and I've got a
special guest with me. I've got Archie all the way from
the UK. Good day.
Good day. Hello.
And how's safari life been? Safari life is fantastic, Thank

(25:12):
you, as Chief Honey Badger said down in the Mara N here, driving
through an amazing patch of Buffalo.
Well, I've been down in the MaraN for two days and it has just
been amazing. This is your first Safari, yeah?
Yes, completely. First Safari.
And who are you travelling with?I'm travelling with my amazing
parents, my my dad Rupert and mymum Vanessa, who are sitting in

(25:35):
front of me in a Ute as we speak.
Let the Honey Badgers know how old you are.
I'm 14 years old. 14 going on 22.
Nice. Tell us about some highlights
that you've had. We've been really, really lucky
so far. We started off in Laikipia,
north of here I'm pretty sure and that's a lot drier than the
Mara and we saw loads of giraffe, elephants, couple of

(25:58):
lions. But down here in Mara N we've
seen a loads more cats. We've been here 2 days.
We've already seen a lions kill the gazelle and then being
chased off by hyenas, which beenreally, really.
Was your heart racing with that like.
Absolutely. Yes.
Really. And tell me more about.
That earlier in the morning we had spotted the Sarian pride of

(26:20):
seven female lions and we were on the night drive the same
evening. We thought why don't we go and
try and find them? So we went back to the location
where we saw them last. They were just about to move on.
So we travelled down with them until it got properly dark.
We found them hunting. It was really, really
interesting to see how they all worked independently and weaved

(26:43):
around and then they brought in this Thompson's gazelle.
So not much food for the. For a split bit of an appetizer
for them. Yeah.
And then as soon as they'd sort of started moving off loads, 9
or 9 or 10 hyenas came out of absolutely slap bang nowhere and
started sort of circling and chasing them off.
And then we followed them reallyfast along down the plain as the

(27:08):
hyenas were sort of coming roundnear the lions and they started
sort of having a fistfight in the middle of nowhere, which was
really amazing. And then the lions sort of just
disappeared. That's what they do.
Yeah, you've had incredible luck.
Yeah, so much. Safari.
That was your first night drive.Yeah, first night drive.
And to be honest with you, most night drives you're driving
around, you're looking at white tailed Mongoose, spring hair,

(27:30):
the small or nocturnal creatures.
But to see lions bringing down agazelle, it's pretty amazing.
Yeah. Wow.
And you've been doing a little bit of photography with me.
Have you found? That I found it amazing.
I've learned so much new stuff from Chief Honey Badger.
I've learned, you know, how to edit photos, which I never knew
how to do. And it makes your photos look so

(27:52):
much clearer and pop more. That's the magic word I've
learned, pop. Yeah.
So I've learned how to do that and also take sort of photos in
different environments, so when the light's low and how to work
with all the technical stuff. Yeah, pick it up really quickly.
What has been your what's your favorite photo that you've
taken? I.
Think it was yesterday we were following a cheetah which first

(28:16):
time any of us had seen a cheetah before.
So #1 amazing experience and #2 it came up on this overhanging
log tree thing and it looking straight at me eye to eye.
And I got an amazing photo whichwe've edited now and sort of
brought up all the things and it's looks incredible.
Yeah, and your people photography is really good.

(28:38):
Thank you. You're very good at
photographing not just animals, but people, which is a real
skill. Wow, thank you.
But it's because of your personality.
I would say you make people feelvery comfortable bringing out
the best in them. Thank you very.
Nice. And when you get home to your
mates, how are you going to describe your experience Like is
honestly words you're going to use?
I'm honestly not sure. There's so many different things
you can use to describe Africa, but there's nothing you can

(28:59):
really sort of capture in unlessyou sort of show him everything
you've seen. But I probably to explain the
Mara, I probably use Wow. It's hard.
It's really it's a hard questionbecause there's so many aspects
and elements that aren't describable.
It's a feeling. It's a feeling, exactly, but

(29:19):
probably open, amazing and spectacular.
That's my top three. You think you'll come back?
100% I'd come back. Has this inspired you or got
your thinking about things you might want to do in your future
or. Maybe I'd like to follow up
photography because I'm not the best at it, but I love it, I
think a lot. You're doing really well.

(29:41):
Thank you. And he's been very good at
giving me a hard time with my accent.
And he's just like, just like his dad.
They're just got amazing impersonations of people.
That mimicry is unbelievable. Thank you very much and.
Where are we to now? So right now we are heading to a
hyena den. It's about 6:00 now so the light

(30:01):
won't be there for very long. So hopefully we can get some
good photos, but I'm really excited to a hyena den.
And you got to photograph and observe your first big male lion
just now. Yeah.
What do you think of that? It was closer than I'd expect
and first time, as you've said, seen a male lion out of the zoo,

(30:23):
so really, really cool. It's been an absolute pleasure
getting to know you and your family and all the best for the
future and hopefully I'll see you on safari somewhere in the
world. Definitely.
Well, cheers you very much. Cheers mate.
Cheers mate. Hey honey Badgers, I've just
gotten into my tent, my bougie tent.
I just. Had quite a big.

(30:44):
Scare. My heart's still racing.
I've been walking back to my tent every night with an Ascari,
which is a basically a guard that stays up all night,
protects the camp from, I guess animals coming in and people
coming in that shouldn't be here, that kind of thing.
Security for the camp and Watchmen.
And they walk you to your tent every night.

(31:06):
They walk the guests to the tentbecause you know, you come
across animals. And I normally come across
hippos in this campsite because we're just perched above the
river here and the hippos sort of make their way up from the
river onto the plains via the camp.
And they're pretty predictable. You know, you can sort of see
them and they, you don't, they don't give you too much grief.
The odd zebra. And then I've been here for just

(31:27):
on a week and you get a little bit blase, I'm not going to lie,
you relax a little bit. But you've got the scary walking
in front of you. And tonight, about 10 metres
from my tent, I obviously get very relaxed because I'm almost
home. I just felt.
The heebie jeebies again. And I had my really cool,
powerful torch that I've just bought before I left a LED

(31:48):
lenser. It's very powerful.
And tonight I was actually bragging about, you know how
this torch is great? It can light up everything.
Well, I turned with my head and just caught a glimpse of a very
close Cape Buffalo and the eyes and the big horns and I knew
shit myself. I mean, he was so close.
Had a bit of a George Costanza moment where I just worried

(32:09):
about my own safety and there was a very small tree and my
scar. He was like, you know, he said
something in Mar and I instantly, sort of quickly got
behind this tiny, skinny tree. I thought this thing was coming
for us. And I just thought, this is how
it ends. I get cleaned up by a Buffalo
and it actually ran away from us.

(32:32):
Man, I just, I thought that thing was coming.
It's a very real danger of living here.
And that's why I have, you know,the camp has such amazing
Watchmen that know how to keep calm in those situations and
yeah, right on the almost on thepath.
So that's a new experience for me.
My heart is still racing, to be honest.

(32:53):
A lot of people ask me like, oh,what's your scariest encounter
in Africa? And I kind of say, you know, I
don't. I'm pretty good.
I don't really have too many scary stories, but it's Buffalo,
the ones that always make me quite nervous.
And yeah, he was right there. And thankfully, he decided that
we were more of a threat, and hetook off in the opposite
direction. I don't know what that skinny
tree was going to do, but that was my instinct to get behind

(33:14):
the skinny tree. Thank you, Scary for keeping me
safe. Morning honey Badgers.
It is 5:45 AM and I've been awake on and off the last couple
of hours because there's been a huge elephant in front of my

(33:35):
tent pulling a tree down. It's pitch black dark.
I couldn't see him but I could smell him.
But also, it was definitely an elephant.
And so I've just woken up and looked at my tent, still dark
with the torch, and there is a tree that's down blocking my
tent. Yeah, this is.
Yeah. All the animals are around my
tent at the moment. God, these animals are strong.

(33:57):
It's pulled out of like an incasia tree right in front of
my tent. I love the Bush.
Every day, every night is a a new thing.
Hello honey Badgers, I'm connecting with you from the
office at Syrian Original and I have the wonderful Abby with me.
Hello Bobby Doe, nice to be here.
Yeah, it's so great to be hanging out with you, Abby, and
I'm actually going to be workingwith Abby for the next month.

(34:18):
What's your role here? So I am interning here at Alex
Walker Syrian. I've been here since the
beginning of January and I'm basically here to get some work
experience, try to figure out what I want to do in the world,
what job I'm going to be doing. So it's been quite nice just to
experience a whole bunch of different roles here.
Yeah, and you're only 19, so that's amazing that you're

(34:40):
you're in this role already. Like, I wish I had thought about
having that opportunity when I was younger.
Yeah, so I, I finished school inDecember last year and my
parents have both been in hospitality for the last 30
years and they have contacts with Adrian and Rosheen, the
managers of Syrian. And basically instead of me
sitting at home doing nothing, they decided to send me straight

(35:00):
to work, which has been really great.
Good old parents, and you're from South Africa.
Yes, I'm from Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Eastern Cape, you had quite an unusual or very exciting
childhood. Yes.
So I was born in a small city just outside called Elizabeth,
and I went to Zimbabwe at two weeks old for two years.

(35:21):
That's where both my parents were born.
And then when they realized thatI would run around outside
between all the animals, it wasn't the greatest place with
the no fencing. So we moved to back to South
Africa and we've been on a smallgame reserve called Amakala Game
Reserve for the last 17 years. I've got a younger sister who
has also grown up there and we've grown up on this game

(35:42):
reserve our whole entire lives. My parents have both been
jumping between all the lodges. They've been working at all the
lodges there and I went to a small farming school, a little
rural school about 10 minutes away from our one camp, which
was a a little school for all the managers kids to go to
school before they were all sentto boarding school, which most

(36:03):
of us were. At 19, you're actually an old
hand at this. Like this is not new to you,
being around people and the safari life.
What kind of animals did you have in the reserve that you
were sort of growing up around? It's a lot different to here.
Here in the Conservancy, there'snone of the camps are fenced,
whereas our game reserve, all the lodges are all fenced off.
So we don't have big game withinthe camps.

(36:25):
Within the camps we've got zebras, bushbach, nyala,
koodoos, a lot of koodoos, lots of warthogs.
Koodoo are beautiful. I get warthogs inside my garden
pretty much 24/7, zebras eating my mom's succulents, which is so
it's safe to walk around. We've had a few mishaps with
them before. My dog's got one eye getting

(36:47):
kicked in the head by a zebra. But in the reserve, we've got
the whole Big 5, so not going tobe walking around there without,
you know, somebody to walk with.So it's a rhino reserve, There's
white rhinos. Yeah, both.
So we used to only have white rhino and we reintroduced black
rhino. So we had two of them.
They were from a sanctuary, which didn't end up going very

(37:09):
well. They were very scared of
vehicles used to flip people's vehicles.
We had a rhino horn in the back of our vehicle on the way to
school when I was 5. That was really interesting.
So we ended up moving them back to the sanctuary.
They just weren't fit for being around so many vehicles.
Yeah, and then only recently, about two years ago, we

(37:29):
introduced Black Rhino again andthey seem to be doing really
well. We've got 2 babies now.
Wow, that's fantastic. Yeah, they're very sensitive
species of rhino in comparison to, you know, I've always said
that white rhinos are like Labradors with horns, where the
black rhinos a bit more Pitbull in nature.
So if I could come and visit thereserve as a tourist or as it
for private groups or no? No so.

(37:49):
So it's a private game reserve, but all the camps are open to
all tourists. And one of the main
nationalities of the visiting. We get a lot of people from
Germany, lot of guests from the UK, not many Australians.
Yeah, pretty much only Americans.
We do get quite a bit of South Africans as well.
So our lodge specifically has South African rates.

(38:12):
Yeah, so that they feel like they aren't being pushed off.
Fantastic. To encourage locals to come and
enjoy their their backyard, so to speak.
And you mentioned to me, and I'msure the honey badger would love
to hear this, you had quite an unusual pet growing up.
Yeah, so we've got a male porcupine.
His name is Peanut. He came to us as a rescue.

(38:33):
So a lot of locals in South Africa.
Unfortunately, it's a delicacy to eat porcupine.
I did not. That seems that seems odd like.
Seems really odd, but apparentlythe meat is really delicious,
which is really unfortunate because they are the most
incredible animals. And a friend came to us and
said, you know, we have, we've got this baby porcupine.

(38:53):
The locals had pulled out his quills ready to eat it but
didn't kill it first, which is really sad because it would have
gone through a lot of pain. But fortunately porcupine quills
are like our fingernails, so they grow back.
So we took him to the clinic which the owner of our camp
owns, got it set up in there fora few months and all its quills
grew back and the whole point was for us to release it onto

(39:16):
our property so that I could go and live a semi normal life.
We wouldn't be able to release it back into the reserve.
It wouldn't really have much of a chance being with humans for
so long. Was peanut friendly.
In the beginning, not so much. He was very territorial of his
food, so the only time we ever really interacted with him was

(39:36):
when he was being fed. And then when we released him,
we wanted him to just go and, you know, gather stuff for
themselves 'cause they eat roots.
So it would it be fairly easy. And he started showing up at our
house at 7:00 PM like clockwork every single night.
So you're like, oh, that's so interesting.
So we would feed him, you know, it's kind of cool to have

(39:56):
porcupine showing up at your house.
But he was very territorial whenhe was eating, he would make
sure he was turned, his quills were facing you.
So if you came closer, he would puff up and almost walk back
into you, which is quite interesting.
You know, we've, we've come to learn a lot of the different
behaviours with him now being inthe house and. 4-5 years later,

(40:17):
he is very comfortable in our house, sleeps in the dog bed,
sleeps in my room. What do your dogs think of that?
The dogs were very curious in the beginning, but they stepped
back. You know, he had quills and
everything they knew. All of the dogs have been poked.
My whole family, we've been poked before with his quills.
Not that he's trying to do it intentionally, but you know,
he's still a wild animal. He might be friendly, but you

(40:39):
know you need to give him his space, especially when he's
eating, so they've definitely gotten used to him.
Yeah, wow. I used to take care of Indian
crested porcupines in my zoo role when I was younger.
They're very similar to African crested.
Did you ever see him stamp his foot when he was cranky?
Not so much when he was cranky, but one time he so obviously

(41:00):
most of you know that porcupinesare nocturnal.
He had come to us during the day, brightest day outside and
he was quite sick. He had a bit of a tummy bug and
he came to us during the day kind of to seek safety and I
don't know if when he was agitated he would like hit his
foot on the floor and kind of bounce around, which was so

(41:21):
interesting to see. I remember Natasha the
porcupine, She loved pieces of corn.
She'd come over for corn and butthen when you got into her space
and she wasn't happy, she'd stamp her foot.
It was quite loud. And I remember going, oh, OK,
very clear indication that she didn't want you to come any
closer. But oh, they're offend.
People don't get to see them in the wild much.
It's so rare to see one. So that's amazing that you've

(41:42):
got that experience. It really, I mean, it's great
for us. We love having him.
He really is sweet. We've gotten to know all of his
tickle spots and he likes under his neck.
Where's the best tickle spot forunder his neck?
His joy, everybody. Loves it 'cause it's not too
close to anything and that's where a lot of ticks like to
lie. Which is kind of gross but loves
it under his neck. Alright, now Speaking of

(42:03):
nocturnal creatures, have you got any honey badger stories for
me? That I don't.
I've never ever seen a honey, really.
Ever. Well, I thought where you would
live down there, there would be honey badges.
About Apparently they are. We took a break from hospitality
for a year or two, and my parents did fish farming.
Yeah, and we were at a farm justoutside of a town called Port
Alfred, and apparently we used to have a lot of honey badges

(42:26):
there because my dad used to have his beehives ransacked, but
I've never seen one. Oh, OK, we'll have to change
that. Yeah, they're a little bit
tricky to see here in the Mara N, but you never know.
Just on the other side of the border in Lamai, I've seen
loads. This terrain in Mara N is very
rocky, so I have a funny feelingthey're much more adapted to the
planes and their, you know, their borrowing systems and the
planes probably. It's probably easier for them

(42:47):
now. Everyone always asks me about
encounters that stick with me forever.
What about you? Have you ever had an encounter
where you thought, wow, that that was incredible or that was
very scary? Definitely have had a few crazy
encounters, a lot to do with elephants.
One of my favorite ones, which was not like I wasn't scared, I

(43:09):
just thought it was really cool.I was about maybe 13 and at one
of the camps that we were visiting, this camp in
particular was open. Now it's all fenced.
We had a female cheetah walking on the the deck that goes
between the rooms like a pathwayand I was walking to go and
check one of the rooms and she was walking down and I was that

(43:31):
was pretty cool. She didn't seem to be bothered
at all. She kind of looked at me, we
looked at each other. She got back down and walked
back off, which was really cool.And one of the scary encounters
which happened not too long ago.I was driving with a few friends
and we had come a bit too close to an elephant bull, which, you

(43:52):
know, we probably, well, we definitely shouldn't have.
And it got a bit angry. So we decided to get out of that
situation quickly. And it was dark outside and it
had come up from the side of ourvehicle, which we couldn't see.
There was number lights at the side of the vehicle and it had
actually come and flipped our car.
So Jesus come and bumped its whole body, not with its Tusk,

(44:15):
but used its whole body to bash our vehicle off the road and our
tyre went over an anthill which caused our vehicle to roll.
Oh my word. I personally don't think that
was the intention of the elephant because after we had
rolled he had run off, which usually if if an elephant is
wanting to harm you, it's going to pummel your vehicle until it

(44:36):
is absolutely flattened. Were you injured?
What happened to you? So you're here to tell the
story. So very lucky to be alive.
Yeah, so definitely lucky to be alive.
I was with two of my friends. They they were fine, few minor
injuries, scratches. I because then they were in the
front, so it was a bit more secured.
This isn't a game vehicle. Yeah, obviously, because the
vehicle had rolled. I'd been chucked rolling around.

(44:58):
Yeah, I just. Once or like completely over
like. Completely we were so once I had
gotten out of the vehicle, whichI I had been stuck to the pole,
so I had to have my hoodie cut so I could actually get out of
the vehicle. So the vehicle was on its side
or upside down? Or was it upright?
It was completely upside down. I was lying on the roof with the

(45:18):
and the wheels were up in the air so we had completely
flipped, which was absolutely terrifying.
And that's what everyone worriesabout when they're around
elephants. Yeah.
Yeah. Do you think he was in Musk at
all? Sorry.
Sorry. It was a bull.
Right. Yeah, Yeah, he was definitely in
Musk. You know, I don't usually like
to tell a lot of people because people immediately jumped to
conclusion of, you know, it's the animal's fault.

(45:40):
Yeah, but it wasn't the animal'sfault in any way, shape or form.
You know, humans are stupid. Us kids.
It all comes with experience, and you need to be able to know
when to back away before it getsinto a gnarly situation.
And unfortunately, we weren't experienced enough to know that
we needed to not be there. Yep.

(46:00):
And unfortunately, that's the lesson we had to learn.
Did you? Did you see him before he hit
you or you just felt the the hit?
No, I I didn't. So I don't know if it was like
an adrenaline shock or it had luckily come from the side I
wasn't sitting on because it could have been probably a lot
worse for me. But we were driving really

(46:20):
quickly. It's dark, there's a lot of
adrenaline going through. It's scary.
And could you smell him at all? Yeah, definitely smell stay with
you very even. Like even if I think about it, I
can still smell that smell. And how are you going?
Obviously this happened a while ago.
What happens now when you're around elephants?
Are you nervous or are you just like super?
I mean, obviously you're super respectful, but yeah, does it

(46:42):
trigger you at all? Like has it?
What does it change within you around elephants?
Honestly, the elephant part not so much because I understood
that not all elephants are like that and it was our mistake.
And if you do something like that, you get into an animal
space, they're going to be uncomfortable and sometimes
things like that do happen. So now I've obviously learnt my

(47:05):
lesson to have a good distance but it's more of being in a
vehicle which is really being more of a trigger for me.
The first time I was in a vehicle after the whole accident
happened, I cried all the way from the 1 from 1 camp to to the
gate where I was being fetched. It was just, I just, I could
feel like the motion of the vehicle flipping because I'd hit

(47:29):
my head. So I'd passed out and I'd woken
up to my friend trying to shake me awake.
And I just remember looking around the vehicles upside down.
We're in, you know, really tall grass because we had been pushed
off the road. It was just the whole
experience. Obviously this is the first time
I've been out of the country without my parents so just

(47:51):
having a scary situation and my parents are not there to comfort
me and. Being at night time, too, that's
a massive, I guess, a learning lesson of not being at night
with these animals because you can't see what they're doing.
Yeah. And sounds like he doubled back
on you like he knew exactly whathe was doing.
Yeah, definitely. Right.
I'm so sorry that happened to you.
But I guess you're here. You're healthy.
Yeah. I'm about to take you on a
drive. So now I'm going to be very

(48:13):
careful about. I mean, I'm pretty respectful of
elephants, especially if I'm on my own.
I've been getting around Fred lately in the reserve and giving
him. People get really close to him
and everyone says oh he's reallynice, he's sweet and he totally
is. But I still respect his face and
I noticed people get very they get too close to him.
But I'm always healthy, kind of.Distance from people underest
well they don't realise now you know being in an in a vehicle

(48:36):
they feel more safe yeah and that's not the case at all I
mean these animals this situation in particular just
showed me how powerful they. He bumped this vehicle out of
the road like it was nothing, you know, and and they if they
want until they can. So you just really have to be
respectful. Yeah, that's quite that's.
Quite a story. I'd be like, people ask me

(48:58):
stories, that's probably what they want to hear, like
something really crazy like that.
But I'm just so glad that you'resitting here to tell the story.
Yeah, I mean, that's the most important.
Part your time in East Africa describe to me the differences
between East Africa and southernAfrica like.
That's honestly been one of my favorite parts about travelling
is seeing the difference betweenthis Conservancy and the move

(49:21):
back home. Firstly, the vegetation.
That was the biggest thing that I realized here in Morrow N is
there's a lot of open plains with very few Acacia trees
popping up, which is it's incredibly beautiful.
But where I am, we don't have open plains like that, which is
why I think our black rhino really do love our area do.
You call the Bush the low velt, the Bush velt.

(49:43):
What is it called? We just call everything the
Bush, the Bush. You've got the thick Bush and
the not so thick Bush. Or maybe it's just me.
Maybe my I need to work on my knowledge on the Bush thickets.
We call it the thickets, Yeah. Very few parts of our reserve
are completely open, which I think the animals really enjoy.
If they want to be seen, they can go out into the open and if

(50:05):
they want to be hidden, they will go into those areas and you
will not find them. You can't even get a vehicle in
there, which here you can do offroading, which is cool at some
at some parts. There's definitely some things
that I agree and disagree with. At least with Mara N they
they're respectful with their animals.
You have to be at a specific distance.

(50:25):
You're only allowed a number of cars, which is great.
Some places don't do that, whichis pretty sad for the animals.
Also our game reserve is a lot smaller, so our number of
vehicles that are sighting is a lot lower and we aren't allowed
to off road at all. So if your animal is hiding in a
Bush and you can't see it from the road, well tough.

(50:46):
Which we have to explain to a lot of tourists because when
they come to places like these, where in the wild you're not
guaranteed to see anything, but you're more guaranteed in places
where it's a lot more open. Whereas for us it's very, very
difficult because if they go outinto those thickets, you're not
going to see them for days. And tell them you're here for.
I am here till the end of Augustnow I think.

(51:08):
I mean it could change. I would love to stay here for as
long as possible but I do need to start job hunting and
potentially looking at if I wantto study something which I'm not
too sure. Do you?
Feel like you're closer to working out what you want to do.
I mean, 19, I didn't work out what I wanted to do till, I
don't know, like late 30s, I mean, since I started my safari

(51:28):
business. But 19 like the world is your
oyster. I definitely know is 100% going
to be something in the Bush. Yeah.
What that is absolutely no idea.I've got two options.
I've always worked with my parents in hospitality since
I've been able to work so 16, which has honestly been really
amazing. I've met some amazing people and

(51:51):
it's taught me a lot with being able to work with people and
speak with people. I'm definitely not a shy kid,
which a lot of teenagers are. And then the second side of it
is working with animals. Unfortunately, I'm not a very
academic person, which is OK because nowadays it's not all
about academics. No, I I wasn't.
I just think I told the guests last night.

(52:11):
Did you hear me tell the guests how I got praised?
He got expelled from high school.
So academics is not on my side with that.
And my dream was to become a wildlife vet.
So the owner of the lodge that my parents work for, he's a
famous wildlife vet, William Folds.
And I've worked with him and histeam quite a lot doing dartings
and procedures. Yeah, which is incredible.

(52:33):
You can travel all over Africa if you've got, you know, a
veterinary background. So it's amazing.
So you're you're very switched on young lady and it's a real
pluralist to get to know you here and to spend the next few
weeks working with you. Yeah, Thank you sharing.
Stories and we're about to go ona game drive.
What do you want to see? Oh well, I'm driving and guiding
so. I might not be.

(52:53):
I'm really keen to see. When I was in here in the
beginning of the year, one of the females had three Cubs in
March, lions and yes, lion Cubs.And I haven't heard anybody talk
about them. And I'm, I'm really hoping that
they're still alive. So hopefully we can.
Yeah, I might head out towards that area.
I have seen 3 sub adults, they're about a year old.

(53:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen those ones.
Those ones were born last year, June.
Yeah. I need to find some cats, so
fingers crossed we'll have some.We'll see if you can find a
leopard. Lady Safari this afternoon all
right so let's go Can you believe in honey badges?
All those recording stories, interviews, moments all happened
in the space of a week and a half I've only been in Africa.

(53:38):
It was a week on Thursday and believe it or not, it's actually
been slow here. The rain has put a stop to a lot
of the drives today. I didn't go and drive this
morning because it was raining this afternoon only went out for
an hour and I've just come back to my tent and my old nemesis
friend foe not really sure what to make him but he definitely
needs a name the Buffalo. The big ball Buffalo was back

(54:01):
and I spotted him in this prettymuch the same spot but closer
this time. And the Ascari that was walking
me actually didn't see him and Iwent hey Buffalo and.
When he looked. He was like a little bit
startled and we spoke to the Buffalo and he turned around and
walked off. So there was no aggression.
He moved out the wafer of us. But yeah, this guy is starting

(54:22):
to make a bit of a habit there of coming in close to the grass.
Must be really nice around my tent.
I kept my cool tonight. My heart was racing again, but
not as much as the other night. But I'm changing tents tomorrow,
so let's see what wildlife gets up around Tent 8.
Anyways, stay tuned for the nextepisode of my Safari Stories
from Mara North Conservancy. If you enjoyed this episode, be

(54:45):
sure to hit the follow button soyou'll never miss an adventure.
You can keep up with Bobby Jo's wildlife photography and safari
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And if you'd love to join one ofher photography tours or
workshops, you can find all the details at bobbyjosafaris.com.