by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 16, 2015 | Featured, Industry News, South African |
I was hoping that this was not true when I first heard of it.
After contacting several reliable sources, I’m honestly saddened to say that South African has turned back its policy and is once again shipping Safari / Hunting Game Trophies.
What is sad about this is the fact the SAA was leading the charge when they announced the ban in April 2015. Airlines lined up behind SAA with similar policies, but it was SAA that was the first to make a substantial stand and took the brunt of the criticism from the pro-hunting lobby.
It looks like the pro-Hunting lobby had gotten to SAA with veiled threats regarding the economic loss they’ll incur by not flying hunters to the animal’s death camps. And apparently SAA is only thinking with dollar signs (or Rand signs as it were) in their short-sighted minds.
If there was one airline that I would think would take a tough stand against the eradication of threatened animals it would be SAA. Considering the vibrant Bushveld full of beautiful critters that you’ll find in South Africa, its a shame that the nation’s flag-carrier wants to be part of the problem.
The murder of ‘Cecil’ apparently rang hollow on these foolish hypocrites…..
by Lufthansa Flyer | Dec 21, 2014 | Destinations, Featured, Travel, Trip Reports |
To continue with my Dulini Lodge trip reports, Part IV will be comprised solely of a Cheetah that within a few minutes managed to share several facial expressions. We came across her during an early morning Game Drive in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve and followed her for the better part of an hour. We were hoping for a hunt, but she had other ideas such as simply laying comfortably under a tree entertaining the ‘tourists’. Nevertheless I came away with several shots capturing her many expressions some of which are perhaps my favorite shots from the entire Safari.
You’ll notice in these photographs that I used Dulini’s logo as a watermark. The reason for this is that I had given permission to the Lodge to use these photos on their website, Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media outlets so instead of reprocessing the photos to have my ‘Aero-Shots’ watermark, I simply kept Dulini’s to save some time.
To get caught up on my previous Safari Posts, here’s is the index:
Part I: Cheetah vs. Wild Dogs vs. Warthog
Part II: A Leopard & Her Dinner
Part III: Tlangisa & Her Cubs
Enjoy!
I was hoping this stare was a precursor to a hunt but unfortunately it did not turn out that way. However this photo was voted as “Best Of Safari” by Mrs. LHFlyer.
For a moment, I thought she saw something of interest other than myself…..
Not exactly demonstrating her ‘Fastest Animal In The World’ capabilities…..
She must be bored by now….
My favorite expression of all the shots.
Ominous threat? Not hardly, just a well drawn out yawn…..
Gesundheit……
by Lufthansa Flyer | Nov 23, 2014 | Featured, Photography, Trip Reports |
I’m going to use Part III of my Safari Trip report to introduce to you Tlangisa and her cubs. Tlangisa is one of several female leopards that calls the Sabi Sand region home who earlier this year had given birth to a pair of cubs. Normally, this is a fairly non-descript event. What makes this special is the fact that both cubs have survived their early ‘childhood’ and are now moving towards ‘adulthood’. As you can imagine, there is a high mortality rate among newborn critters born in the wild and the fact that Tlangisa had protected both of her offspring successfully is actually quite an accomplishment. So much so, that the guides and rangers rate her among the best Leopards that they have ever seen as far has her ability to raise her cubs.
When we came across Tlangisa and her cubs, we spent over an hour tracking them as they moved through thick Grasslands. On occasion it looked as though they were hunting something specific but it turned out that they were scouring the area looking for opportunity. At one point they isolated a Scrub Hare, but it managed to get away from one of the cubs who was practicing his hunting skills.
This created a great opportunity for me to capture them in action. With them moving from point to point, it gave me a lot of places and positions to snap off several dozen shots of which some are my favorite from the entire trip.
Hopefully you enjoy these shots as much as I do!
Tlangisa (left) and her cub apparently see something of interest.
Tlangisa strikes a phenomenal pose. Leopards can be told apart by their distinctive ‘Necklaces’ and unique spot patterns on their heads.
One of the cubs scouring for opportunity….
I would love to know what she was thinking at this very moment….Was I too big for lunch?
This shot of one of the cubs is one of my top 3 favorite photos from among the 8,000 pictures that I took that week…..
Tlangisa walks by, fairly disinterested in us.
One of the cubs taking a brief break.
The temptation to bring one home was quite strong!
Safari Trip Report Index:
Part I: Cheetah vs. Wild Dogs vs. Wart Hog
Part II: A Leopard & Her Dinner
by Lufthansa Flyer | Nov 18, 2014 | Featured, Travel, Trip Reports |
It has been a few weeks since returning from a fantastic Safari trip to South Africa and in that time I’ve been trying to get through the 8000 photos that came back with me, hence the delay with any trip reports.
We stayed with the ‘Dulini Lodge’ within the Sabi Sands Game Area and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about our hosts. This intimate Lodge, with only 6 ‘Chalets’ and a limit of 12 guests was brilliant in every aspect of our stay. From wonderful staff (4:1 Staff to Guest Ratio) to fantastic culinary delights along with unbelievable access to the region’s wildlife, we simply had a brilliant time. Another big advantage over other Lodges in the area is the fact that they limit the amount of people in a Safari vehicle to only 6, while other lodges pack in 9 or 12 guests.
I’ll go into far more detail about the Lodge and our hosts in upcoming posts since I’m not quite done with the Lodge photos. In the mean time I’ll share with you what we saw on our game drives and walks. Seeing these beautiful animals in their natural environment was quite a transformative experience and certainly created another perspective for us to appreciate. In fact, we’ve already reserved our dates for a return visit in 2015.
Throughout these reports, you’ll notice my pictures will have 2 unique watermarks. One is my ‘Aeroshots’ version which I use for my plane spotting efforts while the other will be a ‘Dulini’ watermark. The reason for this is that I have given some of my photos to the Lodge so that they can use it for their marketing efforts and I had put their watermark on the photo instead of an ‘AeroShots’ watermark. However, all the photos that you’ll see came through my lenses.
To learn more about the Lodge and the Dulini experience, you can visit them on www.Dulini.com, follow them on twitter, @DuliniLodge, or on Facebook: Dulini Private Game Reserve. You’ll see a lot more of my photos on their Twitter timeline and under the hashtag of #DuliniMoments.
The first set of photos involve a fantastic exchange between a Cheetah and a pack of Wild Dogs. The Cheetah and Dogs are not typically prey for each other however they are both territorial and in this rare sighting the Dogs were driving the Cheetah out of an area where the Dogs had discovered a Wart Hog den. At the end of this first set of photos, you’ll see the Wart Hog get flushed out of his Den by the Dogs. The Hog would survive the challenge.
Guests from another Lodge had a fantastic front row seat to the exchange.
You’ll notice the fence in the background. This was captured at the very boundary of the reserve and the fence is there to protect the cattle that belongs to a nearby village. The Sabi-Sands reserve itself is well over 250 square miles in size.
Cats and Dogs being Cats and Dogs.
The Cheetah and her speed were no match for the challenge from the Dogs.
After chasing the Cheetah out of the area, the Dogs would focus on the Wart Hog that they discovered in a nearby Den. In watching the dogs, you can actually see their strategy of surrounding the Den play out. Fortunately for the Hog he would live to fight another day….I think!
Wart Hog is discovered in an abandoned Termite Hill
I didn’t think Pigs can move this fast! Apologies for the blurred shot….A lot was going on and this caught us by surprise.
Running for his life at this point…..
You wonder what is going through is mind at this moment…..
Coming Next: A Leopard guards his dinner…….
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 12, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa, Trip Reports |
You may or may not have noticed, but LufthansaFlyer.com was fairly dormant for most of the last 10 days. It wasn’t for a lack of content or news regarding LH……
What created this vacuum in the blogosphere was the fact that my wife and I spent an unbelievable week on Safari in Africa. With polygraph attach, I can say that it was by far THE……BEST……VACATION…..that I’ve ever been on. What we saw, who we met and what we observed was unlike anything else that either one of us has ever experienced.
I do know that my cameras came back with 10 full memory cards and approximately 6500 photos and 4 hours of video. The prospects of sorting through all of it feels akin to putting a firehose in my mouth and turning the valve.
I’m having trouble where to start my series of trip reports due to the aforementioned statements.
The week on Safari in Africa was framed with 3 long haul flights by Lufthansa and 1 by United. I changed our outbound flight from the USA to UA since LH pilots had announced a long haul strike for the day were flying to FRA. I did not want to jeopardize our trip so was proactive but in hindsight we would have been fine on the LH flights since most long haul flights operated as usual.
As I sort through content and photos, I’ll use this post as an introduction and future installments will go in more details on our experiences. I’ll go into much greater details on the fantastic lodge, our hosts and the wonderful creatures that we saw from sun up to sun down (and later) each day!
So for now, enjoy a small appetizer of what my cameras captured……..
A Lioness guards her pride while they rest after a successful hunt…..
One of the first things we saw, a Leopard guarding his kill from a pack of Hyenas….
A monkey takes a moment…..
Taking a breather before continuing his dinner.
Of all the ‘Big 5’, the buffalo is perhaps the most dangerous.
A rare sighting as Rhinos tend not to lay down.
Kings of the jungle caught having a ‘moment’…..
One of my favorite moments as the Zebras almost appear to pose….Why does the one on the right remind me of Jerry Lewis……
A cheetah ponders her options prior to stalking her prey……
An adolescent Elephant uses our plunge pool as an open bar…….
It wasn’t all ‘claws and paws’, the scenery and sunsets were spectacular.
