One with the Pride

Today we got up at sunrise (6am) and headed out on the research vehicle to photograph the Ngamo pride. The Ngamo pride is a semi-wild pride that will be released later in the year. All human interaction with these lions has been stopped and now researchers are seeing how they will do on their own in the wild. This involves bringing in a kill such as a cow, zebra, etc. and seeing if the lions find it and how long it takes them to find it. This helps researchers decide whether or not these lions will do well in the wild. We sat there for 2 hours while the researchers took notes and we photographed as the sun rose. The lighting was beautiful on the lions, providing us with some great photo opportunities. Below are some of my favorite photos from the morning session...

After breakfast, we had horse induction. I was excited going in to it, and terrified coming out of it. I have ridden Western quite a lot, but never English. We went into the arena and what were we going to be riding? English. English saddles, English style riding. This was completely new for me as I had never posted before. We took turns riding as the lead stable head walked the horse around in circles. We were basically doing yoga on a horse. Touching our left hand to our right toe while our right hand was in the air and vice versa, trotting without holding on to anything, etc. After that, I decided to skip the quick induction bush ride and the horse safari because I wasn’t comfortable with that style of riding. I came into it with an open mind, and left knowing I will never do that again. But, I spoke up and I will not have to ride here again… I’ll stick to Western!

After lunch, some people went on the horse safari and I stayed back to rest and edit photos. We are active constantly and we haven’t really been able to get over jet lag. A bit later, we headed out on a sunset game drive with the hopes of capturing animals with a sunset background. As they say, TIA… This is Africa. That didn’t happen. All the animals we came across (which weren’t nearly as many as what I’m used to seeing in Tanzania) were eating and the sunset was in the opposite direction. We did see a few zebra, wildebeest, giraffes, bush bucks, impalas, and antelope but not too many. Here are a few pictures from the game drive ... 

It’s been another long day, so that’s all for now.