May 26, 2025 • 44 mins
What’s it like to fall asleep to the sound of lions roaring—every single night?
In this episode, I’m back home in Dubbo, fresh from hosting three back-to-back safaris in Tanzania, India and Sri Lanka. But today, I’m taking you deep into the Southern Serengeti, where I kicked off the 2025 safari season with a dream crew of first-time Honey Badgers.
From a brand new mobile camp nestled in lion territory to witnessing a cheetah hunt unfold in real time, this safari had it all—including a just-born baby elephant and the most wildebeest I’ve ever seen in Hidden Valley.
You’ll also hear all about:
• The launch of my first solo photo exhibition, A Wild Life
• My favourite off-road moments in Ndutu and the Central Serengeti
• The incredible wildlife sightings—including black rhino, caracal and flamingos at sunrise
• Why I’m already counting down to Feb 2026 (and how you can join me!)
This one’s a love letter to the place I’ll never stop returning to.
Come join me! 🦁 Instagram | 🐘 Facebook | 🦡 Safari Tours
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(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.
Good day honey Badgers. It's your chief honey badger
here Bobby Joe, and this time I'm connecting with you from my
(00:43):
kitchen, my house, my home, my property.
For those that don't know, I live in a small country city or
large country town called Dubbo in western NSW.
So I've been living here since 2014.
It is where I come and relax andget my energy back, back after
safari. But also I work here at a zoo, a
(01:03):
big open range zoo here in Dubbo, which is almost 50 years
old actually. So I've been working for the
zoo, Taronga Western Plain Zoo since 2014.
So this is where I come home andsort of get my energy back.
I get to be around my pets. I've got dogs and a cat and
chickens, loads of Kangaroos. So I'm still surrounded by
wildlife. As I'm talking to you now, I'm
(01:23):
looking at Kangaroos in the backpaddock.
It's raining a lot here today and it's just beautiful, just a
lovely place to connect with youfrom.
I have just returned from a heapof safaris.
I have my first 3 safaris back-to-back, Southern
Serengeti, India and Sri Lanka and I'm going to be talking
about all those trips in the future.
Podcast today I'm going to be talking about the Southern
Serengeti but it's been very busy.
(01:45):
I've come back. I arrived around mid-april just
before Easter and when I got back I hit the ground running.
I was straight back to the zoo working and also preparing for
my first solo photographic exhibition called A Wildlife and
one of my very clever honey Badgers, Janet come up with that
title and I absolutely love it. So just had the launch.
(02:05):
The launch happened on Saturday night so I have just come back
from Sydney and the Central Coast and happy birthday to my
sister as well. It was her 40th birthday.
So it was great timing. But a fabulous week of hanging
out with honey Badgers, family, friends and the exhibition
launch was one of the best nights of my life.
I mean I can't even describe about getting too emotional how
(02:26):
much support was in that room. We had about 80 to 100 people
come to the gallery, Northern Beaches Gallery in Cromer, and
they all looked beautiful. They all turned up great for the
occasion and it was just so muchlove and support in the room
that night. Everybody was having the best
time, and I most certainly was. I felt very overwhelmed.
Normally I'm a pretty confident person.
Like I'm talking to you guys right now from my kitchen, and
(02:49):
my sister still can't get over that.
I can speak for 27 minutes straight without drawing breath,
but here I am. But on the night, I was really
nervous. I had all my artwork, my photos
on the wall for people to look at, to look at the settings, to
read the stories, to really get up close and have a look and
critique, I guess. And also, they're for sale, so I
have to put a price tag on each one.
(03:09):
And most artists I know feel uncomfortable about this because
your artwork doesn't really havea price.
I mean, if I wanted to number crunch, each of those photos
would have cost thousands of dollars.
If you think about the energy and time and the camera gear,
the flights, the access to get those shots.
I mean, they're quite expensive photos, but I saw a handful of
prints on the night, which is fantastic.
(03:30):
And just really blown away by the support from everyone.
And I'm super keen in the futureto have another exhibition,
hopefully maybe in 2026 or 2027 and it's going to be a honey
badger exhibition. No, I wish it was a exhibition
full of honey badger photos. That would be amazing.
But it'll be all of my safari guests, past, present and
hopefully future, so we'll be able to get everyone's work
(03:51):
together, choose one or two of their best photos and have a big
joint exhibition. I would love to do that.
There's a lot, lots of people that couldn't make the opening
night. Many of my supporters and fellow
safari guests are living overseas or Interstate and
couldn't make it. But I have created a virtual
exhibition and I'll put the links in the show notes and also
(04:11):
across my social media. You can visit a gallery and you
can actually enter the gallery virtually and go up to each
photo, select the photo, it willenlarge it for you.
You, you can read the story, seethe photographic settings and
learn more about the shot and how you can purchase it.
Or if you like the show dot but you want a bigger size or you
want different framing, you can also, there's a button there to
(04:32):
hit contact the gallery and you better talk to Wayne and the
team and they'll be able to organise that for you.
For those that bought prints on the night, they'll be available
for pickup or delivery after theexhibition's over, which is at
the end of May. So it's running to the end of
May. If you're in Sydney, go and see
it. And I would love to get photos
of you guys at the exhibition with my photos.
They'll be really cool. So I want to talk about the
Southern Serengeti today. It was the first safari that I
(04:55):
hosted this year. 8 honey badges, all brand new to
Tanzania, 4 of them first time Africa visitors.
It's the best crew because you get to see this place through a
new set of fresh eyes. And that is a glorious thing,
you know, to witness Africa through new eyes.
All these little things that sometimes you take for granted
when you're on safari after safari, like stopping and really
(05:18):
paying attention to the smaller antelopes like Impala and Dick,
Dick and Thompson's gazelle. And also little things like dung
beetles, rolling ball walls of wildebeests, poo along the road.
Even seeing like the different scats and dung and animal
prints, the smells, the sounds, all that is really enhanced when
you've got new guests. And I, I live for it.
(05:39):
It is my favorite type of guest as a brand new guest.
So we went out to the Southern Serengeti and this trip is
probably my favorite. Like I am a little bit biased.
I had exceptional encounters there on my very first safari in
Africa in 2004. So definitely attached to the
place. If there was a safari God that
came down to earth and told me Icould only pick one safari for
(06:01):
the rest of my life, it would bethe southern Serengeti in
February. It is just a magical place.
You have got the open plains, you can drive off road and you
have millions of wildebeest all in one spot all giving birth to
their babies. Depending on your time, if you
can get your timing right, you may be lucky enough to see a
birth this year. Unfortunately the wildebeest had
given birth in December, so really early.
(06:24):
But that's OK, we still got to see some really young babies.
The mass number of wildebeest was still in the area.
It's every predator in the Serengeti turns up on the
southern plains because it's basically a big buffet for them.
So you get your best chance of seeing cheetah, hunting good
prides of lions, which are territorial, but you get to see
them living their best lives full bellies and not coming into
(06:45):
conflict with cows, Maasai cows.So that's great news.
And also the smaller cats like caracal and serval African
Wildcat. Yeah, it's, it's a special place
and there's a reason why my trips that they sell out my most
use of the Southern Serengeti. It is my most popular safari.
And whilst you're listening to this report or I guess download
of what happened on this safari,Please note that I am running
(07:06):
the safari again in February. It's now open for bookings.
All the information's on my website.
So for this the Southern Serengeti Safari in 2026 is now
open and it's going to be running from the 1st of
February. So check that out, but let's
just start with the safari. So we always kind of get people
to fly into Kilimanjaro Airport and the best way to access that
if you're in Australia is through the Middle East.
(07:27):
So travelling with Emirates or Qatar and stopping in Doha,
that's the quickest route. If you go Sydney, Doha, Doha,
Kilimanjaro, you can also get there going via Asia with
Ethiopian Airlines. There's lots of different
options. Or also if you're wanting to add
like a South African extension to it, a lot of people want to
go visit Victoria Falls or go toKruger or go on to other
destinations. You could come via Johannesburg.
(07:50):
So there's a direct flight sitting to Joburg and then you
can head up to Kilimanjaro. Normally recommend people arrive
a day or two in advance. This is to help you if your
flights get cancelled or delayed, but also to climatise,
get over your jet lag because it's quite tiring.
If you're coming from Australia or anywhere else in the in the
world except for maybe Europe and so UK, it's a long journey,
but it's well worth it. So we normally start the safari
(08:12):
in Arusha and we stay in a gorgeous little country inn
called River Trees and it's lush, I mean, and when you enter
this place, the gardens are phenomenal.
There's up to three species of monkey you can see as you're
pulling into the car park. So you've got black and white
colobus. They're the really cool monkeys
that look like they're from the band Kiss.
They look like they're wearing big long jackets with sort of
(08:32):
the white hair on the end. You've got the blue monkey, the
Sykes monkey and you also get the odd vervet monkey in the
River Trees Country Inn. You also have different types of
birds, so you can be sitting there and just be doing a whole
heap of birding whilst you're having your coffee in the
morning. So quite regularly you'll see
black and white cask hornbill fly in as well and silvery cheap
torn bills. So it's really lovely place to
(08:53):
start the trip. The rooms are very comfortable,
all the guests love it. You've got massive menu.
So guests like to, you know, have wood fired pizzas, pasta
and try some local sort of African cuisine.
We kind of always use that place.
So normally the 1st morning whenwe travel into the Southern
Serengeti, it's a bit of a drivenow.
I think we've a lot of safaris that people might book.
They do a sort of a family package where they go to Arusha
(09:15):
airport and they actually fly into the Serengeti or fly into
Ngorong Goro, wherever they're going.
It's about an hour flight. But if you're really missing
out, I mean, if you can drive into the Serengeti, it's so
worth it. You see Tanzanians living their
lives. You go through lush sort of farm
areas. You go up the Great Rift Valley,
you get these incredible sites of Lake Benyara and some great
(09:37):
shopping along the way as well. But you get to experience this
feeling of feel like you're in Jurassic Park.
You pull up to the Gorongoro gates, this huge big set of
gates and it's it's like the Jurassic Park gates.
And sometimes, sometimes there'sthe boons floating about in the
area and you start to see wildlife.
When you go through those gates,there's no greater feeling.
It's like the sealed roads end and then you're on dirt road and
(09:59):
look, I'm looking a lot of the dirt Rd.
It can be hairy at times. There's a lot of wash boards,
you know, corrugation on the road, but it's all part of the
adventure, right? A lot of dust.
But when you go through those gates, this sense of freedom and
it's like you're entering a wilderness area, you're leaving
civilization. So it's always a really amazing
starting point for the guests aswe go through there.
And this time we went through and we stopped at a really
(10:20):
wonderful spot for lunch and it's right above them, Gorongoro
Crater. So we take our guests to this
lovely lunch spot and their minds are blown when they sit
down because they're just in front of this huge window
looking. It's got their first view of the
crater and it's just exceptional.
And quite often when we're sitting there, I take some
binoculars down and we, I've spotted at rhinos, black rhinos
from our lunch table in this restaurant, elephants, Buffalo
(10:43):
eland water buck really close next to the lodge.
I've had elephants next to the lodge.
So it's a great way to view the crater for your first time.
It's exceptional. So this trip we had a lovely
lunch and then we left there andwe actually took a road called
the Andolan Road. And it goes through it's, it's
sort of like a back way to get to Ndutu, which is in the sort
of southern Serengeti. And this area I'm referring to
(11:04):
is called Ngodongoro. And it's not just the crater,
it's a whole massive landscape. The crater is a very small part
of Ngodongoro Conservation Area.So we drive through Andolan and
you're going through Masai communities and it is a real
visual feast. Like you're driving along and
you've got this normally lush green grass because the rains
have come. And you have cattle and zebra
(11:24):
living side by side, coexisting together.
And you have splashes of beautiful Reds from the Maasai
clothing. So they're sugars that they
wear, they're jewelry. You'll see them in the
landscape. It is stunning and great for
photography. So you get an idea of people
that are living in this landscape and coexisting with
wildlife. And obviously I am a massive fan
(11:45):
of supporting that and a lot of the conservation projects such
as Copiline, which you have heard on previous podcasts,
they're living and working in that area.
So I love to take the guests through Endolin so they can
experience and go through these in Maasai communities.
Now, as we hit Endolin this time, I quickly noticed that the
wildebeests were very much present.
So you don't find wildebeest andMaasai normally together.
(12:07):
And the Maasai don't want their cows around when the wildebeests
are giving birth, something to do with a disease that the
placenta or the after birth can have that can affect their
cattle. I'm not super knowledgeable
about that, but you generally start to see the wildebeest once
you leave. So the Maasai area, and this
time we saw thousands and thousands of wildebeests.
It was very obvious that they were in the southern Serengeti
(12:28):
as sort of we hit the plains, our first line of sight, our
first little landmark that we always recognize is called Twin
Hills. And it's just these two peaks in
the open, the sort of in the plains.
And it's popping up above the Savannah woodland area of
Indutu. And it's quite funny because
their names, their local name isMatiti, which means boobs, which
(12:48):
means breasts. And they do stick out like a
pair of boobs across the, the landscape.
And as soon as I tell my guests that, they're always like, ah,
my titi, my titi this, my titi that.
And my titi becomes one of the favorite words of the trip.
We're all just children at the end of the day, aren't we?
I love it. So always sort of sets the, the
mood for the safari. So we had a lovely drive in, we
saw loads of game, we saw giraffe, wildebeest, and we also
(13:10):
did spot a few lines in the way and they're resting.
Wasn't too worried about spending much time in them
because I knew we're going to catch up with active lines over
the next 5 days. So we spent five nights in
Andutu. I trialled a new camp, this time
a mobile camp. It's called Library Camp by
intimate camp Company and this camp had recently set up for the
Southern Serengeti season. I'm so glad that we booked it
(13:32):
because they pack up their camp and they head to the Northern
Serengeti around late June, early July and start setting up
there. So we're actually going to be
staying in this camp this Augustwith the guests.
So it's kind of nice. The whole team packs up.
The camp takes them about a month to pack up.
They move it up north and it takes you know about a just set
up. So it's a mobile camp and my
first feelings when I arrived was I'm home.
(13:54):
The staff were incredible. The setup was amazing.
It was kind of just above Lake Masic, which is in the Indutu
Woodland area and we had views of Lake Masic.
But the best part about the campis we are literally on top of
the Twin Hills Line Pride main territory.
I know this Pride for a long time now, since I've been going
to Indutu since 2016, and I've been following this pride for a
(14:15):
long time. And I was excited to be
basically sleeping on top of their territory.
So for the five nights that we were there, it was intense.
The lion roaring was unbelievable.
And I always have this little hope that when a safari guest, a
new safari guest is camping in Africa for the first time, that
they're going to hear a lion roar.
And this was to the point where it was starting to get a little
(14:36):
bit annoying, I've got to say. Like you just couldn't get to
sleep. The Twin Hills Pride were
roaring nonstop from the first night to the last night like
clockwork. The guests loved it.
We're all very sleepy and didn'twe didn't get much sleep because
the lines were roaring so much. They must have been just below
us. We did view them in the
following days lounging around the trees.
The Twin Hills line pride is is really renowned for tree
(14:58):
climbing and hanging out in the trees and due to so that was a
lovely bonus for those who want to know about the camps, they're
luxurious as hell. I mean, people think camping,
we're going to be in swags and roughing it.
This is this tent is better thanmy houseman.
Like you walk in there and you've got this big queen bed.
Mosquito netting comes with it. That's just a stock standard for
Africa. You have these beautiful
(15:19):
carpeted floors. You walk into this area that you
know, there's the tent sort of flaps come down and it's this
little private area at the back of your tent.
You've got this lovely shower that has access to hot water all
the time. It's like a normal shower.
They've set it up at the back ofthe tent.
You can have a shower whenever you like.
Pretty good pressure for a mobile can, flushing toilet, all
these little luxury. But something that really tipped
(15:41):
me over the edge this time is wehad Wi-Fi in our tent.
I thought that was a really coolmove by the camp.
So you didn't really get Wi-Fi when you're in communal areas,
which I guess forces people to actually talk to one another and
connect. But you could actually connect
to the web from your tent when you got back to the room.
And I thought that was such a great idea.
So I was well impressed with this camp.
So over the next few days we decided to get out there and
(16:01):
explore. Now Feroz and I, we know and do
too very well and when we alwayshave a rough plan of what areas
we want to cover and Dutu's quite large.
You can go out onto the plains to catch up with wildebeest,
your best chances of seeing cheetah to go South onto the
plains, big open areas. If you want to see lines, you
sort of stick to the woodland areas, you go to the big marsh.
That's the kind of areas you're going to catch up with, leopard
(16:22):
line, that kind of thing. So our first morning we decided
to go back towards Twin Hills Matiti and see what we could
find out there. And the first thing we actually
came across, which was awesome, was a very large herd of giraffe
just out on the planes. Like it looks spectacular.
I mean, when you see giraffes moving, you refer to it as a
tower. And that's exactly what they
were. So it was a great opportunity
(16:42):
for us to get these really cleanshots of the giraffe.
And here's a photographic tip for you.
When you've got shots like that and it's safe to and your guard
is OK with it and you can be definitely sure that there is
nothing around, we'll pull up and we'll actually pop out of
the car, staying next to the carand being safe and get down on
your belly and take a really lowshot.
And that way you've got this really clean shot of a zebra
(17:03):
from its head to its toes. And that, that's what I love
about the planes, is you've got this very clean situation for
animals and you can create silhouettes.
So as the giraffe come past us and they had the sun behind
them, I was telling the guests to underexpose their shots, fast
shutter speeds, small apertures,low ISO, and have a really clean
giraffe silhouette shot. Now on this trip, we run 2
(17:24):
vehicles. I had eight guests, I had four
people in each. And it gives you lots of space.
So what I do is I remove the 2 middle seats, so the two guests
in the back have got lots of legroom and all that space for
their camera gear. And the two in the front also
have huge big windows, lots of legroom.
The big windows at the back, they're removed completely and
you have a pop up roof. And what I love about the East
African Safari vehicles is they're sort of designed for all
(17:47):
weather. Being in the southern Serengeti
in February is going to rain. You're going to experience rain.
That is why the wildebeests there and that is the magic
about it. And you need to be able to pull
that roof down quickly. And also the car has these
canvas sort of windows that can be rolled down very quickly so
you can be protected your camera, you can be protected,
affected if the rain starts, also dust.
It is a very dusty place. So I love these vehicles for
(18:10):
this reason. So another cool thing is when
you've got a second vehicle, youcan get some really cool shots
of the other vehicle with wildlife and out in habitats,
which is awesome for my marketing.
But also it's great for scale and giving people an idea of how
close you can get to animals andsort of what the safari
situation is like. So it was really cool to capture
photos of my guests enjoying themselves from the other
(18:31):
vehicle. And I've got a really nice shot
of the giraffe walking past the the vehicle.
So there's lots of food out there.
There's lots of animals eating. All the birds of prey are there.
So the best time to see big different species of vulture
eagles, all the birds of prey isin the southern Serengeti
because what they do is they come in and they're flying
around the plains and they're basically living off after
birth. And wildebeest placenta, so that
(18:54):
the ultimate clean up crew, theycome in and they clean the whole
southern Serengeti. So in one morning we could be at
a siding with, you know, 3 or 4 different species of vulture.
You've got the Rupels vulture, the lapid face vulture, which is
the biggest vulture in Africa. That's the one with the really
sort of pink skin, really big head.
It got hooded vultures, which are the smallest and they love
to eat predator poop. Generally when you find a hooded
(19:15):
vulture flying around, a predator might be nearby because
they're constantly watching where the predators are.
And this time we've even seen a white headed vulture, which is
one of the rarest in Africa. So lots of species of vulture,
20 eagles, step eagles, loads ofdifferent black shod kites.
It's incredible. And in the morning, at first
morning, we came across a wildebeest kill out of
(19:36):
wildebeests had been killed and there was a pair of black
jackals and they were having a fight and a standoff with the
vultures and the guests. And I got some great shots.
So I was telling the guests at fast shutter speeds, give
yourself a smaller aperture so you can focus, get a lot in
deep. Because we had the light, the
light was in our favor. And we watched these two jackals
having a standoff with the vultures.
And the jackals would charge thevultures and the vultures would
(19:58):
lift off because they're quite aheavy burden.
A couple of times the Jackal would nip at the, you know, the
tail feathers of the Vulture. And it was some spectacular
action. We've got hyenas moving around.
We've. Wildebeest, parts of wildebeest
in their mouth, taking her back to their dens.
So now a really cool part about the Southern Serengeti is that
every morning we have breakfast out in the wild.
So Feroz designed his vehicle sowell, part of the floor actually
(20:20):
pulls out and becomes a table. And we can set up a beautiful
picnic every morning out on the southern Serengeti plains.
So generally we have our our packed lunch boxes from where
we're staying. And Feroz makes, you know,
coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and we sit out there and we can
watch thousands of wildebeests just like walking in in front of
us. It is, it's really quite
(20:40):
special. One of my favorite parts a bit
being on the southern Serengeti is that early morning breakfast
on the plains. Now, one of the mornings we
decided to go to a place called Hidden Valley.
And this area is right on the border of the Serengeti National
Park and Gordon Goros. It's right on the sort of the
border and it dips down into this sort of secret valley.
So you can't actually see it as you're driving towards it.
(21:01):
You can just see the plains heading into the Southern
Serengeti. It dips down and it's it's a
little Oasis in the middle of the plains.
There's water down there. It's quite lush, but it's also
quite dusty, so it's a really good spot to go to view mass
migration. Wildebeest and zebra.
And we got whoa, like we got probably the best sighting I've
ever had in Hidden Valley out ofall my trips.
We had about 10 to 15,000 animals in the Hidden Valley and
(21:24):
they were all congregating around this water source and we
just got amongst it. Our car was like just parting
the Red Sea. It was unbelievable.
And we said our vehicles sort ofbrightening where the water hole
was and they all came in and they were going across this and
they water and it was spectacular.
And it was quite dusty and windythat day.
So these huge big dust devils were blowing up into the air.
(21:44):
And it was really quite dramatic.
And we got some great shots. But the best thing about this
safari is that there is no greater place on earth to see so
many animals in one spot. It really is just the most
beautiful thing to observe. Everyone has to see this amount
of animals once in their lifetime.
Now how are safaris operators? We normally go out in the
morning for a few hours, we comeback and we have lunch and then
(22:06):
I normally do a photographic lesson and we learn about
different things. Like on this trip we covered
lots of different compositional sort of rules and we did panning
and we practised our depth of field and we ran through little
scenarios and normally we go back out in the afternoon.
It is a jam packed safari. People normally leave my
safaris, I think needing anotherholiday to relax, but I want you
(22:27):
guys to get the best of the best.
So I will push you to get out there and enjoy and to get
amongst it. This is not compulsory.
If you come on one of these safaris, you can choose to stay
at the camp for one afternoon and relax.
But most people get FOMO, you know, fear of missing out.
So people don't want to miss out.
They're always on safari. So we go out in the afternoon.
It's a much shorter drive. It's about, you know, two to
three hours, probably about 3 hours.
(22:48):
We sort of catch the afternoon light Now one of the things I
like to do in the morning and Dutu is travel down before the
sun comes up. So it's still dark.
We normally leave camp around 6:00 AM when it's dark and we
head down to Lake and Dutu and we sort of drive along the
shore. And normally at this time of
year you've got big concentration of greater
Flamingo and lesser Flamingo. Now the lesser Flamingo is the
(23:09):
one that everyone wants a photo of.
It's really beautiful hot pink, very pink, but it's much smaller
than the it's greater relative, which is a bit more white, still
has a bit of pink, but both verydifferent looking Flamingo and
you get down there. There's also the all the waders
and black winged steals and loads of other species of bird
on lake and do too. And what we do is my guests love
it. It's one of the favorite things
to do is we basically set ourselves up and we wait for
(23:31):
that sun to rise and we get these beautiful backlit shots of
Flamingo. So nice, beautiful, clean
silhouettes and sometimes they're coming into flies.
We practice our panning and the shot the colour that the
Flamingo with the sun on their feathers.
The pink is just beautiful. It's art, it's lovely.
So a lot of the guests and myself included, we love
(23:52):
spending. Most mornings we'll go down
there and we photograph the Flamingo whilst Feroz is getting
all the gossip on the radio, where all the carnivores are and
where the action's at. So we normally start our day
with Flamingo, which is always really peaceful and a really, I
guess favorite part of being in Dutu.
Now the highlight for me, and I think the guests will agree, was
on one of our first days in Dutu.
(24:13):
We decided to drive out to the big marsh and we come around the
corner. We got there a little bit late
because we had spent a bit of time with the Flamingo and we
come across a small herd of elephants.
And then there was a big female and a younger female who I
assumed was her daughter. And it was a tiny, tiny little
elephant calf on the ground. And I didn't think much of it at
first. We pulled up, got ourselves into
(24:34):
a good position about a bit of adistance to get in lots of
space, and they're really fussing over this calf.
And I said to Farrell, this calflooks like it's just been born.
And turns out it had just been born.
So it had only been born about an hour or two before we had
arrived. How he confirmed that was we
could see placenta and after birth on the ground next to it.
And then the mother, she had blood sort of all running down
(24:57):
the backs of her legs and the inside of her legs.
So she had just given birth justbefore we had arrived and they
were trying to get this calf up to its feet.
So I'm pretty confident that this little thing had not stood
yet. And so we watched over the next
hour this little calf get to itsfeet, and it was one of the most
spectacular things I've ever seen.
I mean, the guests were all like, nervous aunties, like, you
know, come on, little fella, getup.
(25:18):
It was very obvious that it was a boy early on, but he finally
got to his feet. It was so wobbly, and he'd fall
back over. And it was really lovely to
watch the guests become completely smitten by this
elephant calf and worried, you know, so invested in this
elephant calf. And the coolest part about the
sighting was the auntie, or I guess his older sister.
It must have been her first calfthat she's experienced.
(25:39):
And she was basically a helicopter mum.
She was hovering over this calf like she was not letting it,
like she was obsessed constantlytrying to get it up.
The mum was, it obviously wasn't, you know, her first time
giving birth. She was very relaxed and calm
and browsing and not really too worried about the calf.
But the auntie was just obsessedto the point where it was
starting to starting to annoy usa little bit because she kept
(26:02):
getting away the shots. But no, that's fine.
She did this behaviour which blew me away.
I've never ever seen this in a while.
Now I've been lucky enough to experience it in my zookeeping
job. So many moons ago, I worked with
elephants in what we call a freecontact environment, which means
I'm working in with their in their space with them.
And one of our elephants Pack Boone.
She gave birth to a little girl called Tupta.
(26:23):
And I was lucky enough to be at that birth and with my, my boss
at the time and my work colleagues and help get the calf
up to its feet just to help her assist basically like a herd
member, pack boot and come up next to her.
Since she, she's a big elephant.She put her head right down next
to Tukda and I bald Tukda. And it made me nervous because
(26:44):
her giant head's right next to me.
And I'm thinking, what is going on?
Is she trying to squish this calf?
Like what's happening? And then Gary, my, my old boss
said to me, she's bonding with it.
She's making eye contact with it.
That's how she's making this connection with her calf.
And as soon as you said that andI watched her, I mean, I can't
100% prove that was, you know, that's what was going on.
(27:05):
And she stayed down there for a while to get to look at it.
And then when I saw this young female in due to she did the
same thing. I managed to capture a
photograph of it. And that for me was the
highlight, like watching that behaviour in the wild.
And she just wanted to really have a good look at the calf and
make eye contact with her. It reminded me of a big whale,
you know, Moby Dick looking at you like it was it, it's, it was
(27:26):
incredible. And and it was a memory I'm
never going to forget. And we were that invested in
this elephant herd that we sat with them for about 3 or 4
hours, I think, to the point where the light was that harsh
and the sun was that hot. They totalled up off the hill
into the Bush. And the next day we went looking
for them, vanished. They'd completely gone.
You'd think you'd be able to find an elephant herd and a tiny
(27:46):
calf in that landscape. You know, they can't move too
far in 24 hours with a tiny little calf.
Nope. We never saw them again.
So incredible sighting. Now we spent a fair bit of time
of cheetah and we had three cheetah brothers that were next
to our vehicle and that sort of,you know, lounging about was
sort of on dusk. And one of them got up and
walked towards us and made pretty intense eye contact with
(28:09):
us. And as they were approaching, I
knew straight away this cheetah is looking to jump on the
vehicle. Now some of you might remember I
had a cheetah on my vehicle in 2013 and I captured incredible
set of images that I'm still love and one's hanging in front
of me right now. And I had a cheetah hop up in
the vehicle and basically puts face almost right in front of my
face. I could have touched it, it was
(28:30):
that close. I shot photographed this cheetah
with a wide angle lens and I gothammered pretty badly on social
media about that was unethical and that we should have
encouraged that cheetah to jump off the car.
At the time I was really annoyedand thought, hey, give me a
break, like it's not our fault the cheetah jumped onto the car.
But I guess we've maturity and experience and travelling to
Africa now for well over, you know, I've been travelling here
(28:52):
since 2004 and it's been a long time since 2013.
I've been around a lot of cheetah.
I have realised that it is a dangerous thing for people and
animals. So I'm quite aware of what
cheetahs when they approach vehicles.
And I'm normally onto it to tellthe guests that we're going to
move, tell the guide to move andmake it a little bit
uncomfortable for that cheetah to get onto the car.
And I'm ready for it. And I guess that's come from
(29:14):
growth and from learning and, you know, listening to my fellow
peers and photographers. And so yeah, that he came close
to jumping on the car, but we'reable to avoid that situation.
But the guests got some great shots as the cheetah walk
straight towards it. Did I love the cheater in my car
in 2013? You betcha I could changed my
life. It it was such an amazing
(29:34):
encounter that that went on to push me to get to do more
safaris to run safaris. It was kind of a catalyst at the
time of my life. Wow, like wildlife is amazing
and these encounters are amazing.
And I'm very happy to say that I've I have learnt from that
lesson and now, yeah, I don't want cheetah on my car.
But we had a really awesome cheetah encounter just on the
planes behind the Indutu airstrip and we come across a
(29:56):
female with two young Cubs. The Cubs were playing like crazy
around the vehicles. The mum was very focused on
other things that were happening.
She was looking at probably prey, also looking out for other
predators. Got to keep a close eye because
her shady Cubs are playing and she's so vulnerable to other
predators attacking her and her Cubs and also stealing her food.
(30:16):
There's so many cars there. I mean, Dutu is getting very
busy for good reason. It's a great place to go.
And I said to Ferraz, we both agreed that let's just wait this
out because we think she's goingto hunt, you know, we think
she's going to make a kill. Too many cars around.
So we sat there and we waited and we waited and there was like
1 car left and we waited the mountain.
Then they left and we waited some more.
I think the guests were getting a little bit like, OK, you know,
(30:38):
it's gin o'clock TNT time. Let's get back to the lodge,
push them a little bit more to wait.
The sun was starting to set. The colors are amazing.
Then she clocked a big male Thompson's gazelle.
So she saw it and pretty much chased it.
And we caught the whole thing. We watched it from start to
finish. And when she took off, you never
(30:58):
realize how fast a cheater is. You think, wow, that's fast.
Like, that's really fast. And then just when you think
they're going at their full speed, it's like Vin Diesel and
Fast and the Furious. You know, the nitrous button, he
hits it and boom, like it's likeanother level.
It's like she just the turbo kicks in and she goes even
faster. And this animal is the fastest
animal on Earth and it's chasingthe second fastest animal on
(31:20):
Earth, a Thompson's gazelle. So this gazelle, you know,
sidestepping, but her big tail and the way she kind of
manoeuvre and sort of balance herself is just incredible.
And for me, I just tell my guests in that situation,
especially if it's their first time seeing a cheetah run at top
speed, just spray and pray, babyspray and pray.
Set yourself up like 4 thousandth of a second shutter
(31:42):
speed, put it into like TV or shutter mode and just spray and
pray that time of day. The light was so low that nobody
was going to capture anything super sharp or of great quality
with the low light. But she just to watch it.
I also say just watch it. The first one, just watch it.
She tackled it and then when we got there she was in the middle
of suffocating the poor guy. It was all pretty quick and the
(32:04):
guests were full. Like it just gets her adrenaline
going. The guests were so, so revved up
from it all. And the two Cubs, they came
running over and she basically dropped it for them and walked
off and sat down and was painting and, you know,
exhausted whilst her cubbies were getting stuck into the
Thompson's gazelle. So like guests first time to
Africa and also their first timeto Tanzania, and they're
(32:26):
watching a cheetah make a successful hunt at top speed as
the sun setting on the Dutu planes.
I mean, come on. So in Dutu, we caught up with a
really old lioness called Cassandra.
And she's 15 years of age. So she's the dominant female of
the big Marsh pride. I've been photographing her
since 2016 and she's the ugliestlioness I've ever seen in my
(32:50):
life. Very short muzzle, very easy to
identify. So it was great for the guests
to catch up with probably one ofthe oldest lions in the region.
And she's actually got little Cubs at the moment.
So she's has, you know, producedso many litters.
She's a very successful female. After spending time with
Cassandra, we had to leave and do 2 Saudi and drive to the
Serengeti. So I like to do five nights in
(33:10):
and do 2 and that's all. You're off roading and sort of
focusing on the migration. And then I always love to add 2
nights in the central Serengeti.The Central Serengeti is
absolutely stunning. It's amazing for animal escapes.
So animal in the landscapes, you've got big copies, these big
rock formations and bolders where you can get leopards and
lines resting on. It's just a spectacular place to
visit and you have to go to the Central Serengeti, you have to
(33:32):
experience that. So we decided to go to the
Central Serengeti via a road that will take us through
Cuisini, which is a really lovely place with lots of great
line action. And then we travel through the
Modern Copies area where I took that famous line tree shot
that's actually on part of my exhibition right now.
And Moru is just a stunning Dr. And we were so lucky that we
actually came across a leopardess in a tree all to
(33:55):
ourselves for about 20 minutes or so.
So the guests got to get really lovely close up shots of her and
that was probably our best leopard for the trip.
And yet it's very rare to have aleopard all to yourself.
A lot of the herds were startingto move to the N via Cuisini
Maru copies. So we were so lucky on this trip
that we actually caught up with the herds in three different
spots. So when we first arrived in
around Andolan area like Twin Hills, then also again in Dutu
(34:18):
and then up towards Hidden Valley and then on to Cuisini.
So four times we've got to catchup with the Great Migration.
So when we stay, we stay in the central Serengeti.
It's a really prime location forbig lion Prides and also the the
main reason we stay there and wechoose to spend time there is
hippos. It's a great area to photograph
(34:38):
and observe hippopotamus and there's two pools in the area
that we go to visit. So the first one we normally go
first thing in the morning in the golden hour and great hippo
action. You know, you've got hippos that
have come home from the night and they're sparring in the
water. We've got young ones playing and
you can you can actually get outof the vehicle at this hippo
pond and spend time with the hippos from a similar safety
distance. But it's really great for
(35:00):
photography. And then in the afternoon, we
always go to the stinkiest placeon Earth.
It's like if you've seen Labyrinth the movie, when
they've got that sort of cesspitpond that makes farting noises.
It's the best way to describe this hippo pool in Serenaria.
And it's just like you've got about 50-60 hippo that is all on
top of each other and the fighting that happens.
Quite fascinating, but it makes for great photographic action.
(35:22):
So we go there in the afternoon and the thing that we want to
photograph the most is those bighippo yawns and males.
They start getting territorial. There starts to be a bit of
movement on dust and they all start yawning and they're
basically showing off people. They're not tired, they're
showing off. And it's a territorial thing,
right? So you've got to set your camera
up fairly fast shutter speed, got to be careful of the light.
The light's normally quite low then.
(35:43):
So you're normally having like ahigher ISO, like 800, a thousand
shutter speed, probably 2000 would be fine.
And it's just a matter of learning the behaviour, learning
the signs of when a hippo is about to do a really big yawn.
And sometimes they're so dramatic with it that they throw
their heads back and it's like their jaws are going to come
apart. So the hippo pools are the
highlight of Serenira, but also the rock formations, the
(36:05):
landscape shots loads of zebra around.
At the time we had lions that had killed a zebra quite close
to our camp. We had giraffe walking through
camp. I had a hyena come up to my
porch one night when I went to Central Serengeti.
I don't know what they were looking for, but obviously
thought it had food in there. It's a beautiful place and the
camp we stay at, we stay there all the time.
We have a great relationship with the team that works there.
(36:27):
It's a permanent camp, so it doesn't move, but if it needed
to move, it could pack up. But it's got a little a little
bit more luxurious because it's permanent.
So you have sort of things that are wooden sort of floors,
you're under canvas, but you've got a wooden platform and the,
the tents are raised up off the ground and it's a lovely spot
with the most beautiful look here.
So we spend a couple of days in Serenira and then we drove back
(36:48):
to and got Ngoro Highlands. So we're going back to where we
started from and normally we make it a full day sort of game
drive. So we head along out to what we
call goal copies, which is a really important habitat for
breeding for cats, lions, leopards, cheetah.
We saw a few cheetah along the way and lions and elephants.
We basically make this slow drive back towards Ngorongoro
(37:09):
and normally have lunch at the gate before exiting back into
Ngorongoro. And then on the way back, we
always have an optional visit toa Maasai community.
And the Bomer that we choose is 1 we we've been going to for a
very long time. They know us.
It's like visiting friends. And I always hear a lot of
negative things about visiting Maasai Bomas.
I think it's really important that people go and see how the
(37:29):
Maasai live. It's not a show that is how they
live. They're going to benefit from us
tourists. We do pay a small fee to visit
and take photos. And if people were to come and
look at where we lived here in Australia and you weren't
benefiting from it, why would you bother?
So I have no problems in supporting the cultural bonus or
Maasai people that want us to come in and, and see how they
leave and teach us about their lifestyle.
(37:51):
And it's great. It adds a really lovely cultural
layer to the trip. And the guests always leave
there on such a high. I mean, they're dancing with the
Maasai, they're going into theirhouses, they're socialising with
them, they're asking questions. I mean, the, the Messiah are
some of the most friendliest people on earth and they're more
than happy to teach and educate about their culture.
And the hardest thing about visiting Maasai village, to be
(38:11):
honest with you, is the hagglingthat you have to do at the end.
If you want to buy a trinket from them, they're going to do a
hard sale, They're going to pushthe sale onto you.
I mean, why wouldn't they? They're looking to make a sale
with their beautiful trinkets that they've made and they're
wanting to make a bit of money. So the hardest thing for me is I
always get separated pretty pretty early on.
So I can't bargain too hard for the guests.
I'd try my best, but that's going to be the hardest part
about your visit is if you want to buy something, you are going
(38:33):
to have to haggle. But that's worldwide and it's
all part of the fun as well. So we normally leave the Maasai
village and we head back to our accommodation up towards the
crater rim and we stay in a permanent tented camp there as
well. And we have a bit of a view of
the crater. And the first thing the guest
notice is, oh, it's old. It's you're at elevation, you're
just around 2000 metres. So you feel it when you're
(38:54):
walking around. You're finding yourself a little
bit out of breath and you are colder.
So you get these lovely hot water bottles in your room at
night, lots of big thick duvet and you're super warm.
It's very comfortable at that place.
The Bush is very thick. So you have to be very careful.
You get escorted back to your room each night as you do at all
the camps, but this place in particular because there's a lot
of Buffalo that move around the on the crater rim.
(39:14):
And then we prepare for the final day.
Now we're quite lucky that I'm good friends, Ingola Mama Simba,
who you might have heard on a previous podcast from Kopi Line,
and she normally joins us for dinner and the guests get to
meet her and hear all about KopiLine and it's always a lovely
experience. And then we follow up with going
into the crater for the day. The crater is spectacular.
Again, I hear a lot of negativity about the crater,
(39:35):
that it's become like a zoo, andit is not a zoo.
It is one of the most wild places on Earth.
It's just highly dense with wildlife.
Animals can come and go from thecrater.
It's very steep walls, so you get certain species that can't
get down there, like giraffe. Female elephants and their
babies never used to be able to go down there, but now we've
built really lovely sealed roadsin and out of the crater that
(39:55):
the elephants can access the crater, especially the forested
areas. Via the Ascent Rd.
It's a wonderful place and there's no better light on
Earth, maybe mana pools in the blue hour of the golden hours
than in the crater. Especially in the morning.
You get down there and you get these clouds because you're at
altitude, the clouds are rollingin over the edge of the crater.
(40:15):
The walls are this bluey green colour like haze.
It's kind of like if you've beento the Blue Mountains in Sydney,
it's got that look about it and I can pick a photo from the
crater. Anyone can show me a photo and
you just know it's a crater. Some of the best light I've seen
in my whole life life. And again, it produced, as
always, the action always happens in the first hour.
And that is why Feroz and I willbe leaving.
(40:36):
We leave really early. We leave at about 5:45 to get
to. We want to be one of the first
people down onto that crater floor because we want the
action. And this time, Yep, didn't let
us down. We drove down the crater and
there was the Saneto lion pride,the lionesses and their Cubs
taking on Buffalo. It's quite funny.
There was one particular lionessthat was really stirring up the
(40:57):
Buffalo. She had no intention of hunting
them, and she was creeping up onthis Buffalo, and this Buffalo
just charged her. And the guests and I, we all, it
was quite funny to watch, but wegot some great shots of this
Buffalo charging her and her just running away.
That was our opening scene of entering the crater.
Then the next scene was a first for me and probably a second
time for Ferroz. And we saw a caracal.
(41:17):
And I've seen lots of caracal over my safari years, but never
in the crater. And this confident little thing
just walked across the road and sort of stood near the car and
it looked like he was looking atthe birds on the shore around
the sort of the Salt Lake. And yeah, we've got some lovely
shots of that. That was the first.
So the crater, I see something in the crater every time I go.
I did go back to the crater a week or so later when I was
(41:38):
working with Kopi Lyon, and I actually saw a huge African rock
Python swimming in the water around the water birds, trying
to hunt them. And that was another first.
So you always see something different.
The crater never disappoints. And a good friend of mine once
said it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
So that's why we always end our safari with a full day in the
crater. Huge flocks of Flamingo and
Pelicans, big bull elephants, like some of the big biggest
(42:00):
tuskas you're going to see in Tanzania are in the crater and
there's always a rumour that they go there to die.
Becomes like an elephant graveyard, pretty much.
They're in the marsh. It's really soft vegetation.
They're probably in their last set of teeth, which would
indicate they're maybe fifties, 60s.
It's just an easy place to eat and that's the association with
older elephants being down there.
But yeah, some of the biggest tuskers I've seen in Tanzania
are on the crater floor. And also one of the biggest
(42:22):
highlights of the crater is there is a very healthy
population of black rhinoceros down there.
It can be quite hard to spot, but you normally need your
binoculars to get them and if you're lucky you'll get one
close to the road. They're quite shy.
That's just the nature of the beast.
But this time we saw about 8 black rhino, most of them in the
distance. But towards the end of the day,
it was our last kind of hour in the crater, I spotted with my
(42:42):
binoculars a mother in calf. So we managed to get a fairly
close shot of them as as close as you can get to a black rhino
really. And to guess we're thrilled.
So it was like a really great way to end our day in the
crater. So this trip, you can see why
it's my favorite. Hey, it's it's spectacular and
it brings something different every year I go and I'm super
excited to offer it again and again and again.
(43:02):
So February 2026 is the next trip.
So jump online, check out the safari, all the information's
there. You can now book your spot.
It's now open for bookings. So get in contact info at Bobby
Joe Safaris dot com. Thanks for joining me today.
It's been a long one. I'm super passionate about the
Southern Serengeti and I look forward to having on the next
podcast a group discussion live from India.
(43:25):
So I've done a couple of recordings of our India and
national anchor trip with the guests.
You're getting live action from when we're on our safari.
So it's going to be a Ripper. Take care and yeah, come on
Safari guys, you will not regretit.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to hit the follow button so
you never miss an adventure. You can keep up with Bobby Joe's
wildlife photography and safari journeys on Instagram and
(43:46):
Facebook at Bobby Joe Safaris. And if you'd love to join one of
her photography tours or workshops, you can find all the
details at bobbyjoesafaris.com.
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.
Good day honey Badgers. It's your chief honey badger
here Bobby Joe, and this time I'm connecting with you from my
(00:43):
kitchen, my house, my home, my property.
For those that don't know, I live in a small country city or
large country town called Dubbo in western NSW.
So I've been living here since 2014.
It is where I come and relax andget my energy back, back after
safari. But also I work here at a zoo, a
(01:03):
big open range zoo here in Dubbo, which is almost 50 years
old actually. So I've been working for the
zoo, Taronga Western Plain Zoo since 2014.
So this is where I come home andsort of get my energy back.
I get to be around my pets. I've got dogs and a cat and
chickens, loads of Kangaroos. So I'm still surrounded by
wildlife. As I'm talking to you now, I'm
(01:23):
looking at Kangaroos in the backpaddock.
It's raining a lot here today and it's just beautiful, just a
lovely place to connect with youfrom.
I have just returned from a heapof safaris.
I have my first 3 safaris back-to-back, Southern
Serengeti, India and Sri Lanka and I'm going to be talking
about all those trips in the future.
Podcast today I'm going to be talking about the Southern
Serengeti but it's been very busy.
(01:45):
I've come back. I arrived around mid-april just
before Easter and when I got back I hit the ground running.
I was straight back to the zoo working and also preparing for
my first solo photographic exhibition called A Wildlife and
one of my very clever honey Badgers, Janet come up with that
title and I absolutely love it. So just had the launch.
(02:05):
The launch happened on Saturday night so I have just come back
from Sydney and the Central Coast and happy birthday to my
sister as well. It was her 40th birthday.
So it was great timing. But a fabulous week of hanging
out with honey Badgers, family, friends and the exhibition
launch was one of the best nights of my life.
I mean I can't even describe about getting too emotional how
(02:26):
much support was in that room. We had about 80 to 100 people
come to the gallery, Northern Beaches Gallery in Cromer, and
they all looked beautiful. They all turned up great for the
occasion and it was just so muchlove and support in the room
that night. Everybody was having the best
time, and I most certainly was. I felt very overwhelmed.
Normally I'm a pretty confident person.
Like I'm talking to you guys right now from my kitchen, and
(02:49):
my sister still can't get over that.
I can speak for 27 minutes straight without drawing breath,
but here I am. But on the night, I was really
nervous. I had all my artwork, my photos
on the wall for people to look at, to look at the settings, to
read the stories, to really get up close and have a look and
critique, I guess. And also, they're for sale, so I
have to put a price tag on each one.
(03:09):
And most artists I know feel uncomfortable about this because
your artwork doesn't really havea price.
I mean, if I wanted to number crunch, each of those photos
would have cost thousands of dollars.
If you think about the energy and time and the camera gear,
the flights, the access to get those shots.
I mean, they're quite expensive photos, but I saw a handful of
prints on the night, which is fantastic.
(03:30):
And just really blown away by the support from everyone.
And I'm super keen in the futureto have another exhibition,
hopefully maybe in 2026 or 2027 and it's going to be a honey
badger exhibition. No, I wish it was a exhibition
full of honey badger photos. That would be amazing.
But it'll be all of my safari guests, past, present and
hopefully future, so we'll be able to get everyone's work
(03:51):
together, choose one or two of their best photos and have a big
joint exhibition. I would love to do that.
There's a lot, lots of people that couldn't make the opening
night. Many of my supporters and fellow
safari guests are living overseas or Interstate and
couldn't make it. But I have created a virtual
exhibition and I'll put the links in the show notes and also
(04:11):
across my social media. You can visit a gallery and you
can actually enter the gallery virtually and go up to each
photo, select the photo, it willenlarge it for you.
You, you can read the story, seethe photographic settings and
learn more about the shot and how you can purchase it.
Or if you like the show dot but you want a bigger size or you
want different framing, you can also, there's a button there to
(04:32):
hit contact the gallery and you better talk to Wayne and the
team and they'll be able to organise that for you.
For those that bought prints on the night, they'll be available
for pickup or delivery after theexhibition's over, which is at
the end of May. So it's running to the end of
May. If you're in Sydney, go and see
it. And I would love to get photos
of you guys at the exhibition with my photos.
They'll be really cool. So I want to talk about the
Southern Serengeti today. It was the first safari that I
(04:55):
hosted this year. 8 honey badges, all brand new to
Tanzania, 4 of them first time Africa visitors.
It's the best crew because you get to see this place through a
new set of fresh eyes. And that is a glorious thing,
you know, to witness Africa through new eyes.
All these little things that sometimes you take for granted
when you're on safari after safari, like stopping and really
(05:18):
paying attention to the smaller antelopes like Impala and Dick,
Dick and Thompson's gazelle. And also little things like dung
beetles, rolling ball walls of wildebeests, poo along the road.
Even seeing like the different scats and dung and animal
prints, the smells, the sounds, all that is really enhanced when
you've got new guests. And I, I live for it.
(05:39):
It is my favorite type of guest as a brand new guest.
So we went out to the Southern Serengeti and this trip is
probably my favorite. Like I am a little bit biased.
I had exceptional encounters there on my very first safari in
Africa in 2004. So definitely attached to the
place. If there was a safari God that
came down to earth and told me Icould only pick one safari for
(06:01):
the rest of my life, it would bethe southern Serengeti in
February. It is just a magical place.
You have got the open plains, you can drive off road and you
have millions of wildebeest all in one spot all giving birth to
their babies. Depending on your time, if you
can get your timing right, you may be lucky enough to see a
birth this year. Unfortunately the wildebeest had
given birth in December, so really early.
(06:24):
But that's OK, we still got to see some really young babies.
The mass number of wildebeest was still in the area.
It's every predator in the Serengeti turns up on the
southern plains because it's basically a big buffet for them.
So you get your best chance of seeing cheetah, hunting good
prides of lions, which are territorial, but you get to see
them living their best lives full bellies and not coming into
(06:45):
conflict with cows, Maasai cows.So that's great news.
And also the smaller cats like caracal and serval African
Wildcat. Yeah, it's, it's a special place
and there's a reason why my trips that they sell out my most
use of the Southern Serengeti. It is my most popular safari.
And whilst you're listening to this report or I guess download
of what happened on this safari,Please note that I am running
(07:06):
the safari again in February. It's now open for bookings.
All the information's on my website.
So for this the Southern Serengeti Safari in 2026 is now
open and it's going to be running from the 1st of
February. So check that out, but let's
just start with the safari. So we always kind of get people
to fly into Kilimanjaro Airport and the best way to access that
if you're in Australia is through the Middle East.
(07:27):
So travelling with Emirates or Qatar and stopping in Doha,
that's the quickest route. If you go Sydney, Doha, Doha,
Kilimanjaro, you can also get there going via Asia with
Ethiopian Airlines. There's lots of different
options. Or also if you're wanting to add
like a South African extension to it, a lot of people want to
go visit Victoria Falls or go toKruger or go on to other
destinations. You could come via Johannesburg.
(07:50):
So there's a direct flight sitting to Joburg and then you
can head up to Kilimanjaro. Normally recommend people arrive
a day or two in advance. This is to help you if your
flights get cancelled or delayed, but also to climatise,
get over your jet lag because it's quite tiring.
If you're coming from Australia or anywhere else in the in the
world except for maybe Europe and so UK, it's a long journey,
but it's well worth it. So we normally start the safari
(08:12):
in Arusha and we stay in a gorgeous little country inn
called River Trees and it's lush, I mean, and when you enter
this place, the gardens are phenomenal.
There's up to three species of monkey you can see as you're
pulling into the car park. So you've got black and white
colobus. They're the really cool monkeys
that look like they're from the band Kiss.
They look like they're wearing big long jackets with sort of
(08:32):
the white hair on the end. You've got the blue monkey, the
Sykes monkey and you also get the odd vervet monkey in the
River Trees Country Inn. You also have different types of
birds, so you can be sitting there and just be doing a whole
heap of birding whilst you're having your coffee in the
morning. So quite regularly you'll see
black and white cask hornbill fly in as well and silvery cheap
torn bills. So it's really lovely place to
(08:53):
start the trip. The rooms are very comfortable,
all the guests love it. You've got massive menu.
So guests like to, you know, have wood fired pizzas, pasta
and try some local sort of African cuisine.
We kind of always use that place.
So normally the 1st morning whenwe travel into the Southern
Serengeti, it's a bit of a drivenow.
I think we've a lot of safaris that people might book.
They do a sort of a family package where they go to Arusha
(09:15):
airport and they actually fly into the Serengeti or fly into
Ngorong Goro, wherever they're going.
It's about an hour flight. But if you're really missing
out, I mean, if you can drive into the Serengeti, it's so
worth it. You see Tanzanians living their
lives. You go through lush sort of farm
areas. You go up the Great Rift Valley,
you get these incredible sites of Lake Benyara and some great
(09:37):
shopping along the way as well. But you get to experience this
feeling of feel like you're in Jurassic Park.
You pull up to the Gorongoro gates, this huge big set of
gates and it's it's like the Jurassic Park gates.
And sometimes, sometimes there'sthe boons floating about in the
area and you start to see wildlife.
When you go through those gates,there's no greater feeling.
It's like the sealed roads end and then you're on dirt road and
(09:59):
look, I'm looking a lot of the dirt Rd.
It can be hairy at times. There's a lot of wash boards,
you know, corrugation on the road, but it's all part of the
adventure, right? A lot of dust.
But when you go through those gates, this sense of freedom and
it's like you're entering a wilderness area, you're leaving
civilization. So it's always a really amazing
starting point for the guests aswe go through there.
And this time we went through and we stopped at a really
(10:20):
wonderful spot for lunch and it's right above them, Gorongoro
Crater. So we take our guests to this
lovely lunch spot and their minds are blown when they sit
down because they're just in front of this huge window
looking. It's got their first view of the
crater and it's just exceptional.
And quite often when we're sitting there, I take some
binoculars down and we, I've spotted at rhinos, black rhinos
from our lunch table in this restaurant, elephants, Buffalo
(10:43):
eland water buck really close next to the lodge.
I've had elephants next to the lodge.
So it's a great way to view the crater for your first time.
It's exceptional. So this trip we had a lovely
lunch and then we left there andwe actually took a road called
the Andolan Road. And it goes through it's, it's
sort of like a back way to get to Ndutu, which is in the sort
of southern Serengeti. And this area I'm referring to
(11:04):
is called Ngodongoro. And it's not just the crater,
it's a whole massive landscape. The crater is a very small part
of Ngodongoro Conservation Area.So we drive through Andolan and
you're going through Masai communities and it is a real
visual feast. Like you're driving along and
you've got this normally lush green grass because the rains
have come. And you have cattle and zebra
(11:24):
living side by side, coexisting together.
And you have splashes of beautiful Reds from the Maasai
clothing. So they're sugars that they
wear, they're jewelry. You'll see them in the
landscape. It is stunning and great for
photography. So you get an idea of people
that are living in this landscape and coexisting with
wildlife. And obviously I am a massive fan
(11:45):
of supporting that and a lot of the conservation projects such
as Copiline, which you have heard on previous podcasts,
they're living and working in that area.
So I love to take the guests through Endolin so they can
experience and go through these in Maasai communities.
Now, as we hit Endolin this time, I quickly noticed that the
wildebeests were very much present.
So you don't find wildebeest andMaasai normally together.
(12:07):
And the Maasai don't want their cows around when the wildebeests
are giving birth, something to do with a disease that the
placenta or the after birth can have that can affect their
cattle. I'm not super knowledgeable
about that, but you generally start to see the wildebeest once
you leave. So the Maasai area, and this
time we saw thousands and thousands of wildebeests.
It was very obvious that they were in the southern Serengeti
(12:28):
as sort of we hit the plains, our first line of sight, our
first little landmark that we always recognize is called Twin
Hills. And it's just these two peaks in
the open, the sort of in the plains.
And it's popping up above the Savannah woodland area of
Indutu. And it's quite funny because
their names, their local name isMatiti, which means boobs, which
(12:48):
means breasts. And they do stick out like a
pair of boobs across the, the landscape.
And as soon as I tell my guests that, they're always like, ah,
my titi, my titi this, my titi that.
And my titi becomes one of the favorite words of the trip.
We're all just children at the end of the day, aren't we?
I love it. So always sort of sets the, the
mood for the safari. So we had a lovely drive in, we
saw loads of game, we saw giraffe, wildebeest, and we also
(13:10):
did spot a few lines in the way and they're resting.
Wasn't too worried about spending much time in them
because I knew we're going to catch up with active lines over
the next 5 days. So we spent five nights in
Andutu. I trialled a new camp, this time
a mobile camp. It's called Library Camp by
intimate camp Company and this camp had recently set up for the
Southern Serengeti season. I'm so glad that we booked it
(13:32):
because they pack up their camp and they head to the Northern
Serengeti around late June, early July and start setting up
there. So we're actually going to be
staying in this camp this Augustwith the guests.
So it's kind of nice. The whole team packs up.
The camp takes them about a month to pack up.
They move it up north and it takes you know about a just set
up. So it's a mobile camp and my
first feelings when I arrived was I'm home.
(13:54):
The staff were incredible. The setup was amazing.
It was kind of just above Lake Masic, which is in the Indutu
Woodland area and we had views of Lake Masic.
But the best part about the campis we are literally on top of
the Twin Hills Line Pride main territory.
I know this Pride for a long time now, since I've been going
to Indutu since 2016, and I've been following this pride for a
(14:15):
long time. And I was excited to be
basically sleeping on top of their territory.
So for the five nights that we were there, it was intense.
The lion roaring was unbelievable.
And I always have this little hope that when a safari guest, a
new safari guest is camping in Africa for the first time, that
they're going to hear a lion roar.
And this was to the point where it was starting to get a little
(14:36):
bit annoying, I've got to say. Like you just couldn't get to
sleep. The Twin Hills Pride were
roaring nonstop from the first night to the last night like
clockwork. The guests loved it.
We're all very sleepy and didn'twe didn't get much sleep because
the lines were roaring so much. They must have been just below
us. We did view them in the
following days lounging around the trees.
The Twin Hills line pride is is really renowned for tree
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climbing and hanging out in the trees and due to so that was a
lovely bonus for those who want to know about the camps, they're
luxurious as hell. I mean, people think camping,
we're going to be in swags and roughing it.
This is this tent is better thanmy houseman.
Like you walk in there and you've got this big queen bed.
Mosquito netting comes with it. That's just a stock standard for
Africa. You have these beautiful
(15:19):
carpeted floors. You walk into this area that you
know, there's the tent sort of flaps come down and it's this
little private area at the back of your tent.
You've got this lovely shower that has access to hot water all
the time. It's like a normal shower.
They've set it up at the back ofthe tent.
You can have a shower whenever you like.
Pretty good pressure for a mobile can, flushing toilet, all
these little luxury. But something that really tipped
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me over the edge this time is wehad Wi-Fi in our tent.
I thought that was a really coolmove by the camp.
So you didn't really get Wi-Fi when you're in communal areas,
which I guess forces people to actually talk to one another and
connect. But you could actually connect
to the web from your tent when you got back to the room.
And I thought that was such a great idea.
So I was well impressed with this camp.
So over the next few days we decided to get out there and
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explore. Now Feroz and I, we know and do
too very well and when we alwayshave a rough plan of what areas
we want to cover and Dutu's quite large.
You can go out onto the plains to catch up with wildebeest,
your best chances of seeing cheetah to go South onto the
plains, big open areas. If you want to see lines, you
sort of stick to the woodland areas, you go to the big marsh.
That's the kind of areas you're going to catch up with, leopard
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line, that kind of thing. So our first morning we decided
to go back towards Twin Hills Matiti and see what we could
find out there. And the first thing we actually
came across, which was awesome, was a very large herd of giraffe
just out on the planes. Like it looks spectacular.
I mean, when you see giraffes moving, you refer to it as a
tower. And that's exactly what they
were. So it was a great opportunity
(16:42):
for us to get these really cleanshots of the giraffe.
And here's a photographic tip for you.
When you've got shots like that and it's safe to and your guard
is OK with it and you can be definitely sure that there is
nothing around, we'll pull up and we'll actually pop out of
the car, staying next to the carand being safe and get down on
your belly and take a really lowshot.
And that way you've got this really clean shot of a zebra
(17:03):
from its head to its toes. And that, that's what I love
about the planes, is you've got this very clean situation for
animals and you can create silhouettes.
So as the giraffe come past us and they had the sun behind
them, I was telling the guests to underexpose their shots, fast
shutter speeds, small apertures,low ISO, and have a really clean
giraffe silhouette shot. Now on this trip, we run 2
(17:24):
vehicles. I had eight guests, I had four
people in each. And it gives you lots of space.
So what I do is I remove the 2 middle seats, so the two guests
in the back have got lots of legroom and all that space for
their camera gear. And the two in the front also
have huge big windows, lots of legroom.
The big windows at the back, they're removed completely and
you have a pop up roof. And what I love about the East
African Safari vehicles is they're sort of designed for all
(17:47):
weather. Being in the southern Serengeti
in February is going to rain. You're going to experience rain.
That is why the wildebeests there and that is the magic
about it. And you need to be able to pull
that roof down quickly. And also the car has these
canvas sort of windows that can be rolled down very quickly so
you can be protected your camera, you can be protected,
affected if the rain starts, also dust.
It is a very dusty place. So I love these vehicles for
(18:10):
this reason. So another cool thing is when
you've got a second vehicle, youcan get some really cool shots
of the other vehicle with wildlife and out in habitats,
which is awesome for my marketing.
But also it's great for scale and giving people an idea of how
close you can get to animals andsort of what the safari
situation is like. So it was really cool to capture
photos of my guests enjoying themselves from the other
(18:31):
vehicle. And I've got a really nice shot
of the giraffe walking past the the vehicle.
So there's lots of food out there.
There's lots of animals eating. All the birds of prey are there.
So the best time to see big different species of vulture
eagles, all the birds of prey isin the southern Serengeti
because what they do is they come in and they're flying
around the plains and they're basically living off after
birth. And wildebeest placenta, so that
(18:54):
the ultimate clean up crew, theycome in and they clean the whole
southern Serengeti. So in one morning we could be at
a siding with, you know, 3 or 4 different species of vulture.
You've got the Rupels vulture, the lapid face vulture, which is
the biggest vulture in Africa. That's the one with the really
sort of pink skin, really big head.
It got hooded vultures, which are the smallest and they love
to eat predator poop. Generally when you find a hooded
(19:15):
vulture flying around, a predator might be nearby because
they're constantly watching where the predators are.
And this time we've even seen a white headed vulture, which is
one of the rarest in Africa. So lots of species of vulture,
20 eagles, step eagles, loads ofdifferent black shod kites.
It's incredible. And in the morning, at first
morning, we came across a wildebeest kill out of
(19:36):
wildebeests had been killed and there was a pair of black
jackals and they were having a fight and a standoff with the
vultures and the guests. And I got some great shots.
So I was telling the guests at fast shutter speeds, give
yourself a smaller aperture so you can focus, get a lot in
deep. Because we had the light, the
light was in our favor. And we watched these two jackals
having a standoff with the vultures.
And the jackals would charge thevultures and the vultures would
(19:58):
lift off because they're quite aheavy burden.
A couple of times the Jackal would nip at the, you know, the
tail feathers of the Vulture. And it was some spectacular
action. We've got hyenas moving around.
We've. Wildebeest, parts of wildebeest
in their mouth, taking her back to their dens.
So now a really cool part about the Southern Serengeti is that
every morning we have breakfast out in the wild.
So Feroz designed his vehicle sowell, part of the floor actually
(20:20):
pulls out and becomes a table. And we can set up a beautiful
picnic every morning out on the southern Serengeti plains.
So generally we have our our packed lunch boxes from where
we're staying. And Feroz makes, you know,
coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and we sit out there and we can
watch thousands of wildebeests just like walking in in front of
us. It is, it's really quite
(20:40):
special. One of my favorite parts a bit
being on the southern Serengeti is that early morning breakfast
on the plains. Now, one of the mornings we
decided to go to a place called Hidden Valley.
And this area is right on the border of the Serengeti National
Park and Gordon Goros. It's right on the sort of the
border and it dips down into this sort of secret valley.
So you can't actually see it as you're driving towards it.
(21:01):
You can just see the plains heading into the Southern
Serengeti. It dips down and it's it's a
little Oasis in the middle of the plains.
There's water down there. It's quite lush, but it's also
quite dusty, so it's a really good spot to go to view mass
migration. Wildebeest and zebra.
And we got whoa, like we got probably the best sighting I've
ever had in Hidden Valley out ofall my trips.
We had about 10 to 15,000 animals in the Hidden Valley and
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they were all congregating around this water source and we
just got amongst it. Our car was like just parting
the Red Sea. It was unbelievable.
And we said our vehicles sort ofbrightening where the water hole
was and they all came in and they were going across this and
they water and it was spectacular.
And it was quite dusty and windythat day.
So these huge big dust devils were blowing up into the air.
(21:44):
And it was really quite dramatic.
And we got some great shots. But the best thing about this
safari is that there is no greater place on earth to see so
many animals in one spot. It really is just the most
beautiful thing to observe. Everyone has to see this amount
of animals once in their lifetime.
Now how are safaris operators? We normally go out in the
morning for a few hours, we comeback and we have lunch and then
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I normally do a photographic lesson and we learn about
different things. Like on this trip we covered
lots of different compositional sort of rules and we did panning
and we practised our depth of field and we ran through little
scenarios and normally we go back out in the afternoon.
It is a jam packed safari. People normally leave my
safaris, I think needing anotherholiday to relax, but I want you
(22:27):
guys to get the best of the best.
So I will push you to get out there and enjoy and to get
amongst it. This is not compulsory.
If you come on one of these safaris, you can choose to stay
at the camp for one afternoon and relax.
But most people get FOMO, you know, fear of missing out.
So people don't want to miss out.
They're always on safari. So we go out in the afternoon.
It's a much shorter drive. It's about, you know, two to
three hours, probably about 3 hours.
(22:48):
We sort of catch the afternoon light Now one of the things I
like to do in the morning and Dutu is travel down before the
sun comes up. So it's still dark.
We normally leave camp around 6:00 AM when it's dark and we
head down to Lake and Dutu and we sort of drive along the
shore. And normally at this time of
year you've got big concentration of greater
Flamingo and lesser Flamingo. Now the lesser Flamingo is the
(23:09):
one that everyone wants a photo of.
It's really beautiful hot pink, very pink, but it's much smaller
than the it's greater relative, which is a bit more white, still
has a bit of pink, but both verydifferent looking Flamingo and
you get down there. There's also the all the waders
and black winged steals and loads of other species of bird
on lake and do too. And what we do is my guests love
it. It's one of the favorite things
to do is we basically set ourselves up and we wait for
(23:31):
that sun to rise and we get these beautiful backlit shots of
Flamingo. So nice, beautiful, clean
silhouettes and sometimes they're coming into flies.
We practice our panning and the shot the colour that the
Flamingo with the sun on their feathers.
The pink is just beautiful. It's art, it's lovely.
So a lot of the guests and myself included, we love
(23:52):
spending. Most mornings we'll go down
there and we photograph the Flamingo whilst Feroz is getting
all the gossip on the radio, where all the carnivores are and
where the action's at. So we normally start our day
with Flamingo, which is always really peaceful and a really, I
guess favorite part of being in Dutu.
Now the highlight for me, and I think the guests will agree, was
on one of our first days in Dutu.
(24:13):
We decided to drive out to the big marsh and we come around the
corner. We got there a little bit late
because we had spent a bit of time with the Flamingo and we
come across a small herd of elephants.
And then there was a big female and a younger female who I
assumed was her daughter. And it was a tiny, tiny little
elephant calf on the ground. And I didn't think much of it at
first. We pulled up, got ourselves into
(24:34):
a good position about a bit of adistance to get in lots of
space, and they're really fussing over this calf.
And I said to Farrell, this calflooks like it's just been born.
And turns out it had just been born.
So it had only been born about an hour or two before we had
arrived. How he confirmed that was we
could see placenta and after birth on the ground next to it.
And then the mother, she had blood sort of all running down
(24:57):
the backs of her legs and the inside of her legs.
So she had just given birth justbefore we had arrived and they
were trying to get this calf up to its feet.
So I'm pretty confident that this little thing had not stood
yet. And so we watched over the next
hour this little calf get to itsfeet, and it was one of the most
spectacular things I've ever seen.
I mean, the guests were all like, nervous aunties, like, you
know, come on, little fella, getup.
(25:18):
It was very obvious that it was a boy early on, but he finally
got to his feet. It was so wobbly, and he'd fall
back over. And it was really lovely to
watch the guests become completely smitten by this
elephant calf and worried, you know, so invested in this
elephant calf. And the coolest part about the
sighting was the auntie, or I guess his older sister.
It must have been her first calfthat she's experienced.
(25:39):
And she was basically a helicopter mum.
She was hovering over this calf like she was not letting it,
like she was obsessed constantlytrying to get it up.
The mum was, it obviously wasn't, you know, her first time
giving birth. She was very relaxed and calm
and browsing and not really too worried about the calf.
But the auntie was just obsessedto the point where it was
starting to starting to annoy usa little bit because she kept
(26:02):
getting away the shots. But no, that's fine.
She did this behaviour which blew me away.
I've never ever seen this in a while.
Now I've been lucky enough to experience it in my zookeeping
job. So many moons ago, I worked with
elephants in what we call a freecontact environment, which means
I'm working in with their in their space with them.
And one of our elephants Pack Boone.
She gave birth to a little girl called Tupta.
(26:23):
And I was lucky enough to be at that birth and with my, my boss
at the time and my work colleagues and help get the calf
up to its feet just to help her assist basically like a herd
member, pack boot and come up next to her.
Since she, she's a big elephant.She put her head right down next
to Tukda and I bald Tukda. And it made me nervous because
(26:44):
her giant head's right next to me.
And I'm thinking, what is going on?
Is she trying to squish this calf?
Like what's happening? And then Gary, my, my old boss
said to me, she's bonding with it.
She's making eye contact with it.
That's how she's making this connection with her calf.
And as soon as you said that andI watched her, I mean, I can't
100% prove that was, you know, that's what was going on.
(27:05):
And she stayed down there for a while to get to look at it.
And then when I saw this young female in due to she did the
same thing. I managed to capture a
photograph of it. And that for me was the
highlight, like watching that behaviour in the wild.
And she just wanted to really have a good look at the calf and
make eye contact with her. It reminded me of a big whale,
you know, Moby Dick looking at you like it was it, it's, it was
(27:26):
incredible. And and it was a memory I'm
never going to forget. And we were that invested in
this elephant herd that we sat with them for about 3 or 4
hours, I think, to the point where the light was that harsh
and the sun was that hot. They totalled up off the hill
into the Bush. And the next day we went looking
for them, vanished. They'd completely gone.
You'd think you'd be able to find an elephant herd and a tiny
(27:46):
calf in that landscape. You know, they can't move too
far in 24 hours with a tiny little calf.
Nope. We never saw them again.
So incredible sighting. Now we spent a fair bit of time
of cheetah and we had three cheetah brothers that were next
to our vehicle and that sort of,you know, lounging about was
sort of on dusk. And one of them got up and
walked towards us and made pretty intense eye contact with
(28:09):
us. And as they were approaching, I
knew straight away this cheetah is looking to jump on the
vehicle. Now some of you might remember I
had a cheetah on my vehicle in 2013 and I captured incredible
set of images that I'm still love and one's hanging in front
of me right now. And I had a cheetah hop up in
the vehicle and basically puts face almost right in front of my
face. I could have touched it, it was
(28:30):
that close. I shot photographed this cheetah
with a wide angle lens and I gothammered pretty badly on social
media about that was unethical and that we should have
encouraged that cheetah to jump off the car.
At the time I was really annoyedand thought, hey, give me a
break, like it's not our fault the cheetah jumped onto the car.
But I guess we've maturity and experience and travelling to
Africa now for well over, you know, I've been travelling here
(28:52):
since 2004 and it's been a long time since 2013.
I've been around a lot of cheetah.
I have realised that it is a dangerous thing for people and
animals. So I'm quite aware of what
cheetahs when they approach vehicles.
And I'm normally onto it to tellthe guests that we're going to
move, tell the guide to move andmake it a little bit
uncomfortable for that cheetah to get onto the car.
And I'm ready for it. And I guess that's come from
(29:14):
growth and from learning and, you know, listening to my fellow
peers and photographers. And so yeah, that he came close
to jumping on the car, but we'reable to avoid that situation.
But the guests got some great shots as the cheetah walk
straight towards it. Did I love the cheater in my car
in 2013? You betcha I could changed my
life. It it was such an amazing
(29:34):
encounter that that went on to push me to get to do more
safaris to run safaris. It was kind of a catalyst at the
time of my life. Wow, like wildlife is amazing
and these encounters are amazing.
And I'm very happy to say that I've I have learnt from that
lesson and now, yeah, I don't want cheetah on my car.
But we had a really awesome cheetah encounter just on the
planes behind the Indutu airstrip and we come across a
(29:56):
female with two young Cubs. The Cubs were playing like crazy
around the vehicles. The mum was very focused on
other things that were happening.
She was looking at probably prey, also looking out for other
predators. Got to keep a close eye because
her shady Cubs are playing and she's so vulnerable to other
predators attacking her and her Cubs and also stealing her food.
(30:16):
There's so many cars there. I mean, Dutu is getting very
busy for good reason. It's a great place to go.
And I said to Ferraz, we both agreed that let's just wait this
out because we think she's goingto hunt, you know, we think
she's going to make a kill. Too many cars around.
So we sat there and we waited and we waited and there was like
1 car left and we waited the mountain.
Then they left and we waited some more.
I think the guests were getting a little bit like, OK, you know,
(30:38):
it's gin o'clock TNT time. Let's get back to the lodge,
push them a little bit more to wait.
The sun was starting to set. The colors are amazing.
Then she clocked a big male Thompson's gazelle.
So she saw it and pretty much chased it.
And we caught the whole thing. We watched it from start to
finish. And when she took off, you never
(30:58):
realize how fast a cheater is. You think, wow, that's fast.
Like, that's really fast. And then just when you think
they're going at their full speed, it's like Vin Diesel and
Fast and the Furious. You know, the nitrous button, he
hits it and boom, like it's likeanother level.
It's like she just the turbo kicks in and she goes even
faster. And this animal is the fastest
animal on Earth and it's chasingthe second fastest animal on
(31:20):
Earth, a Thompson's gazelle. So this gazelle, you know,
sidestepping, but her big tail and the way she kind of
manoeuvre and sort of balance herself is just incredible.
And for me, I just tell my guests in that situation,
especially if it's their first time seeing a cheetah run at top
speed, just spray and pray, babyspray and pray.
Set yourself up like 4 thousandth of a second shutter
(31:42):
speed, put it into like TV or shutter mode and just spray and
pray that time of day. The light was so low that nobody
was going to capture anything super sharp or of great quality
with the low light. But she just to watch it.
I also say just watch it. The first one, just watch it.
She tackled it and then when we got there she was in the middle
of suffocating the poor guy. It was all pretty quick and the
(32:04):
guests were full. Like it just gets her adrenaline
going. The guests were so, so revved up
from it all. And the two Cubs, they came
running over and she basically dropped it for them and walked
off and sat down and was painting and, you know,
exhausted whilst her cubbies were getting stuck into the
Thompson's gazelle. So like guests first time to
Africa and also their first timeto Tanzania, and they're
(32:26):
watching a cheetah make a successful hunt at top speed as
the sun setting on the Dutu planes.
I mean, come on. So in Dutu, we caught up with a
really old lioness called Cassandra.
And she's 15 years of age. So she's the dominant female of
the big Marsh pride. I've been photographing her
since 2016 and she's the ugliestlioness I've ever seen in my
(32:50):
life. Very short muzzle, very easy to
identify. So it was great for the guests
to catch up with probably one ofthe oldest lions in the region.
And she's actually got little Cubs at the moment.
So she's has, you know, producedso many litters.
She's a very successful female. After spending time with
Cassandra, we had to leave and do 2 Saudi and drive to the
Serengeti. So I like to do five nights in
(33:10):
and do 2 and that's all. You're off roading and sort of
focusing on the migration. And then I always love to add 2
nights in the central Serengeti.The Central Serengeti is
absolutely stunning. It's amazing for animal escapes.
So animal in the landscapes, you've got big copies, these big
rock formations and bolders where you can get leopards and
lines resting on. It's just a spectacular place to
visit and you have to go to the Central Serengeti, you have to
(33:32):
experience that. So we decided to go to the
Central Serengeti via a road that will take us through
Cuisini, which is a really lovely place with lots of great
line action. And then we travel through the
Modern Copies area where I took that famous line tree shot
that's actually on part of my exhibition right now.
And Moru is just a stunning Dr. And we were so lucky that we
actually came across a leopardess in a tree all to
(33:55):
ourselves for about 20 minutes or so.
So the guests got to get really lovely close up shots of her and
that was probably our best leopard for the trip.
And yet it's very rare to have aleopard all to yourself.
A lot of the herds were startingto move to the N via Cuisini
Maru copies. So we were so lucky on this trip
that we actually caught up with the herds in three different
spots. So when we first arrived in
around Andolan area like Twin Hills, then also again in Dutu
(34:18):
and then up towards Hidden Valley and then on to Cuisini.
So four times we've got to catchup with the Great Migration.
So when we stay, we stay in the central Serengeti.
It's a really prime location forbig lion Prides and also the the
main reason we stay there and wechoose to spend time there is
hippos. It's a great area to photograph
(34:38):
and observe hippopotamus and there's two pools in the area
that we go to visit. So the first one we normally go
first thing in the morning in the golden hour and great hippo
action. You know, you've got hippos that
have come home from the night and they're sparring in the
water. We've got young ones playing and
you can you can actually get outof the vehicle at this hippo
pond and spend time with the hippos from a similar safety
distance. But it's really great for
(35:00):
photography. And then in the afternoon, we
always go to the stinkiest placeon Earth.
It's like if you've seen Labyrinth the movie, when
they've got that sort of cesspitpond that makes farting noises.
It's the best way to describe this hippo pool in Serenaria.
And it's just like you've got about 50-60 hippo that is all on
top of each other and the fighting that happens.
Quite fascinating, but it makes for great photographic action.
(35:22):
So we go there in the afternoon and the thing that we want to
photograph the most is those bighippo yawns and males.
They start getting territorial. There starts to be a bit of
movement on dust and they all start yawning and they're
basically showing off people. They're not tired, they're
showing off. And it's a territorial thing,
right? So you've got to set your camera
up fairly fast shutter speed, got to be careful of the light.
The light's normally quite low then.
(35:43):
So you're normally having like ahigher ISO, like 800, a thousand
shutter speed, probably 2000 would be fine.
And it's just a matter of learning the behaviour, learning
the signs of when a hippo is about to do a really big yawn.
And sometimes they're so dramatic with it that they throw
their heads back and it's like their jaws are going to come
apart. So the hippo pools are the
highlight of Serenira, but also the rock formations, the
(36:05):
landscape shots loads of zebra around.
At the time we had lions that had killed a zebra quite close
to our camp. We had giraffe walking through
camp. I had a hyena come up to my
porch one night when I went to Central Serengeti.
I don't know what they were looking for, but obviously
thought it had food in there. It's a beautiful place and the
camp we stay at, we stay there all the time.
We have a great relationship with the team that works there.
(36:27):
It's a permanent camp, so it doesn't move, but if it needed
to move, it could pack up. But it's got a little a little
bit more luxurious because it's permanent.
So you have sort of things that are wooden sort of floors,
you're under canvas, but you've got a wooden platform and the,
the tents are raised up off the ground and it's a lovely spot
with the most beautiful look here.
So we spend a couple of days in Serenira and then we drove back
(36:48):
to and got Ngoro Highlands. So we're going back to where we
started from and normally we make it a full day sort of game
drive. So we head along out to what we
call goal copies, which is a really important habitat for
breeding for cats, lions, leopards, cheetah.
We saw a few cheetah along the way and lions and elephants.
We basically make this slow drive back towards Ngorongoro
(37:09):
and normally have lunch at the gate before exiting back into
Ngorongoro. And then on the way back, we
always have an optional visit toa Maasai community.
And the Bomer that we choose is 1 we we've been going to for a
very long time. They know us.
It's like visiting friends. And I always hear a lot of
negative things about visiting Maasai Bomas.
I think it's really important that people go and see how the
(37:29):
Maasai live. It's not a show that is how they
live. They're going to benefit from us
tourists. We do pay a small fee to visit
and take photos. And if people were to come and
look at where we lived here in Australia and you weren't
benefiting from it, why would you bother?
So I have no problems in supporting the cultural bonus or
Maasai people that want us to come in and, and see how they
leave and teach us about their lifestyle.
(37:51):
And it's great. It adds a really lovely cultural
layer to the trip. And the guests always leave
there on such a high. I mean, they're dancing with the
Maasai, they're going into theirhouses, they're socialising with
them, they're asking questions. I mean, the, the Messiah are
some of the most friendliest people on earth and they're more
than happy to teach and educate about their culture.
And the hardest thing about visiting Maasai village, to be
(38:11):
honest with you, is the hagglingthat you have to do at the end.
If you want to buy a trinket from them, they're going to do a
hard sale, They're going to pushthe sale onto you.
I mean, why wouldn't they? They're looking to make a sale
with their beautiful trinkets that they've made and they're
wanting to make a bit of money. So the hardest thing for me is I
always get separated pretty pretty early on.
So I can't bargain too hard for the guests.
I'd try my best, but that's going to be the hardest part
about your visit is if you want to buy something, you are going
(38:33):
to have to haggle. But that's worldwide and it's
all part of the fun as well. So we normally leave the Maasai
village and we head back to our accommodation up towards the
crater rim and we stay in a permanent tented camp there as
well. And we have a bit of a view of
the crater. And the first thing the guest
notice is, oh, it's old. It's you're at elevation, you're
just around 2000 metres. So you feel it when you're
(38:54):
walking around. You're finding yourself a little
bit out of breath and you are colder.
So you get these lovely hot water bottles in your room at
night, lots of big thick duvet and you're super warm.
It's very comfortable at that place.
The Bush is very thick. So you have to be very careful.
You get escorted back to your room each night as you do at all
the camps, but this place in particular because there's a lot
of Buffalo that move around the on the crater rim.
(39:14):
And then we prepare for the final day.
Now we're quite lucky that I'm good friends, Ingola Mama Simba,
who you might have heard on a previous podcast from Kopi Line,
and she normally joins us for dinner and the guests get to
meet her and hear all about KopiLine and it's always a lovely
experience. And then we follow up with going
into the crater for the day. The crater is spectacular.
Again, I hear a lot of negativity about the crater,
(39:35):
that it's become like a zoo, andit is not a zoo.
It is one of the most wild places on Earth.
It's just highly dense with wildlife.
Animals can come and go from thecrater.
It's very steep walls, so you get certain species that can't
get down there, like giraffe. Female elephants and their
babies never used to be able to go down there, but now we've
built really lovely sealed roadsin and out of the crater that
(39:55):
the elephants can access the crater, especially the forested
areas. Via the Ascent Rd.
It's a wonderful place and there's no better light on
Earth, maybe mana pools in the blue hour of the golden hours
than in the crater. Especially in the morning.
You get down there and you get these clouds because you're at
altitude, the clouds are rollingin over the edge of the crater.
(40:15):
The walls are this bluey green colour like haze.
It's kind of like if you've beento the Blue Mountains in Sydney,
it's got that look about it and I can pick a photo from the
crater. Anyone can show me a photo and
you just know it's a crater. Some of the best light I've seen
in my whole life life. And again, it produced, as
always, the action always happens in the first hour.
And that is why Feroz and I willbe leaving.
(40:36):
We leave really early. We leave at about 5:45 to get
to. We want to be one of the first
people down onto that crater floor because we want the
action. And this time, Yep, didn't let
us down. We drove down the crater and
there was the Saneto lion pride,the lionesses and their Cubs
taking on Buffalo. It's quite funny.
There was one particular lionessthat was really stirring up the
(40:57):
Buffalo. She had no intention of hunting
them, and she was creeping up onthis Buffalo, and this Buffalo
just charged her. And the guests and I, we all, it
was quite funny to watch, but wegot some great shots of this
Buffalo charging her and her just running away.
That was our opening scene of entering the crater.
Then the next scene was a first for me and probably a second
time for Ferroz. And we saw a caracal.
(41:17):
And I've seen lots of caracal over my safari years, but never
in the crater. And this confident little thing
just walked across the road and sort of stood near the car and
it looked like he was looking atthe birds on the shore around
the sort of the Salt Lake. And yeah, we've got some lovely
shots of that. That was the first.
So the crater, I see something in the crater every time I go.
I did go back to the crater a week or so later when I was
(41:38):
working with Kopi Lyon, and I actually saw a huge African rock
Python swimming in the water around the water birds, trying
to hunt them. And that was another first.
So you always see something different.
The crater never disappoints. And a good friend of mine once
said it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
So that's why we always end our safari with a full day in the
crater. Huge flocks of Flamingo and
Pelicans, big bull elephants, like some of the big biggest
(42:00):
tuskas you're going to see in Tanzania are in the crater and
there's always a rumour that they go there to die.
Becomes like an elephant graveyard, pretty much.
They're in the marsh. It's really soft vegetation.
They're probably in their last set of teeth, which would
indicate they're maybe fifties, 60s.
It's just an easy place to eat and that's the association with
older elephants being down there.
But yeah, some of the biggest tuskers I've seen in Tanzania
are on the crater floor. And also one of the biggest
(42:22):
highlights of the crater is there is a very healthy
population of black rhinoceros down there.
It can be quite hard to spot, but you normally need your
binoculars to get them and if you're lucky you'll get one
close to the road. They're quite shy.
That's just the nature of the beast.
But this time we saw about 8 black rhino, most of them in the
distance. But towards the end of the day,
it was our last kind of hour in the crater, I spotted with my
(42:42):
binoculars a mother in calf. So we managed to get a fairly
close shot of them as as close as you can get to a black rhino
really. And to guess we're thrilled.
So it was like a really great way to end our day in the
crater. So this trip, you can see why
it's my favorite. Hey, it's it's spectacular and
it brings something different every year I go and I'm super
excited to offer it again and again and again.
(43:02):
So February 2026 is the next trip.
So jump online, check out the safari, all the information's
there. You can now book your spot.
It's now open for bookings. So get in contact info at Bobby
Joe Safaris dot com. Thanks for joining me today.
It's been a long one. I'm super passionate about the
Southern Serengeti and I look forward to having on the next
podcast a group discussion live from India.
(43:25):
So I've done a couple of recordings of our India and
national anchor trip with the guests.
You're getting live action from when we're on our safari.
So it's going to be a Ripper. Take care and yeah, come on
Safari guys, you will not regretit.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to hit the follow button so
you never miss an adventure. You can keep up with Bobby Joe's
wildlife photography and safari journeys on Instagram and
(43:46):
Facebook at Bobby Joe Safaris. And if you'd love to join one of
her photography tours or workshops, you can find all the
details at bobbyjoesafaris.com.
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