Way back at the end of May, we embarked on a private safari of the Kruger National Park with African Big 5 Safaris.  I spent the following week working hard on editing the video and it’s since been an ordeal trying to get it online.  As you may have suspected, internet connectivity in rural Africa is slow and expensive (when it’s available at all.)  Livingstone, Zambia was the first city we came across since wrapping the edit that was big enough (and touristy enough) to have a worthwhile connection and it still took me three days to upload the 315MB video file to our website.

Yes, 315MB.  It’s a big one!

We had a fantastic time on this safari!  Really, I’m quite sure it’ll go down as one of the most memorable excursions on our year-long trip!  Because we had so many stories to tell and so much good footage to share, I couldn’t make myself trim anything else out.  The resulting video is almost 30 minutes long and, yes, I know, that’s a lot to ask from your typical internet audience.  All I can say is that Oksana and I have watched it quite a few times now and it still holds our attention.  I hope it’ll hold yours, too.

If the downloading is going slow, why don’t you let it buffer and click on over to African Big 5 Safaris’ website?  Browse around. We also have a tour review up on our Recommend Tours page. If you’re in the market for a safari in the Kruger National Park, you can’t do any better!  (And if you weren’t thinking of going on a safari before this, I trust the video will change your mind.)

Leave a comment to let us (and Marcel and Retief) know what you think!

Notes
African Big 5 Safaris
Kruger National Park
The Story of Duke
Our tour review of African Big 5 Safaris

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While driving down the Alaska Highway in British Columbia, you can’t help but spot some wildlife.  We expected to see some deer (and we did, two), hoped to see a bear (four of them; three black, one grizzly), and sort of doubted we’d see any moose (but we saw two, anyway).  It never even occurred to us that we might run into some buffalo.

The first two we spotted were slowly lumbering along the side of the road, munching on the grasses that grew on the huge shoulder between pavement and forest.  We stopped the car on the other side of the two lanes of traffic and tried to get some good photos despite the rain.  Unfortunately, those two bison were not exactly interested in us and didn’t even look up from their meals.

As we drove from Watson Lake to Dawson Creek, we kept a running total of buffalo going.  Nine, ten, eleven, twelve… and still no better opportunity for a great photo. That is, until we rounded a curve and gave up completely on our count.  Spread across both sides of the road, a herd of at least 40 bison were slowly walking the shoulders.  We saw bulls moving among the cows and newborn calves; a whole social dynamic was on display for us.

We took a lot of photos out both windows.

When one lumbering bull approached my side of the car, I focused in close on his head and snapped a few like this one.  Look into his eye.  I think he’s wondering what sort of a dent he could put into our Jeep…

Canon 5D Mark II
Date: 1:40pm, 3 July 2010
Focal Length: 200mm
Shutter: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/2.8
ISO: 250
Photoshop: Auto Contrast