Shooting for the Stars... The Milky Way Over Africa

This morning, we were supposed to go on a bird walk, but our guide didn’t show up. So instead, we did my favorite activity… research! I only took a few photos because I was talking to the lead researcher the entire time and learning about all the different lions at Antelope Park. She was explaining how you have to be very careful with your research because any decision to put lions together or separate them messes with their social structure within the pride. We were also discussing other lion conservation projects in other African countries and what they do differently that is more beneficial. Here are a few pictures…

In the afternoon, I had a special assignment to take photos of volunteers on the bridge. Originally, we were going to go out in a canoe to get a picture of the volunteers head-on. Lucky for me, we decided that we could take the photos from another dock… I still got a little wet (and muddy)! As I was walking back, I saw one of the rescue elephants by the water.

In the evening, all the projects at Antelope Park had a presentation with all they’ve achieved in the past month—research, stables, community, hands on lion conservation and photography. Research presented facts about who roars the most and who reacts the most to human noise (cars, tractors, horse safaris, etc). Stables presented mainly on their horse therapy program, where they work with special needs kids. Community presented on a new project they hope to achieve (re-building a school that is falling down and has a black mamba roaming around somewhere… The teachers are so afraid to teach in the building that they have class outside). Hands on lion conservation presented on how many hours volunteers have spent doing snare sweeps, alien plant removal, lion enclosure cleaning, meat prep/lion feeding, and more.

Finally, photography presented on how many hours we spent editing. Then, the other photography vol and I presented videos we made showcasing some of our best photographs. At the end, we had a little competition. We each submitted three photos to be considered for the African Impact Antelope Park cover photo on Facebook. The other volunteers and staff voted for their favorites… and mine won!

After dinner, we headed off to a remote area of camp with no lights. Why? We decided to try some astrophotography—shooting the stars. We walked across the river to the end of the walking path and eventually got to a big, open field with two small cabins. There were hardly any lights, except the dim lights of the walking path behind us, but it was perfect for viewing the stars. At the sleep away camp I used to go to, we could see some stars… But not like this. The whole sky was illuminated with thousands of stars… It looked like glitter in the sky. Never before have I seen a night scene so beautiful. Below is one of the photos I took of the Milky Way—not too shabby for my first time doing night photography!

After shooting the stars, we sat by the campfire for a bit. Usually, I go to bed pretty early since we wake up so early here but by the time we got back from shooting the stars, I couldn’t feel my hands (it’s soooo cold at night). So, we sat by the fire to warm up before heading back to our rooms.

The days are winding down and it’s now my last few days in Africa. There were some ups and downs, like with any experience, but at the end of the day, this was an experience unlike any other. 

More later…