Our African Safari

In September of 2002, we took a three week safari with our good friends Kris and Melissa Burkhardt, Korin Yang, and Brian Lawler.   The safari was planned with the excellent assistance of our friend Gautam Shah, who is in the business of planning exotic vacations (check out his web site custom adventures).

During our safari, we ventured into five different countries:  South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Kenya (six if you count our extended layover in London).   Our South African ventures were limited to exploring the city of Johannesburg. Our first true safari experience was in Botswana.  We visited the following game reserves and national parks in Botswana:  Makgadikgadi Pans GR, Nxai Pan NP, Xaxanaka and Khwai in the Okavango Delta, Moremi GR, Savuti, and Chobe NP.   In each of these locations we slept in tents. Our Zimbabwe experience was limited to the viewing of Victoria Falls. In Kenya, we visited the Ark in the Aberdares NP, and stayed at a lodge in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro within Amboseli NP. In Tanzania, we visited Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Olduvai Gorge, and the Serengeti.

We did keep a detailed journal during our trip, and at some point in the future we will publish the highlights on our web site.   However, we wanted to share our pictures prior to filtering our journal.   Filtering our pictures turned out to be time consuming in and of itself - believe it or not, we took 51 rolls of film during our escapades.

We have grouped all of pictures to make browsing easier.  We grouped animals by diet then we have listed the animals from heaviest to lightest.  So, if you like the big animals start at the top.  In addition we compiled some interesting information about the animals in case you wanted to learn something while browsing pictures.  We leveraged the Richard D. Estes' Revised and Expanded Safari Companion for the cool facts.   It is an outstanding book and cannot be recommended enough for anyone who plans on going on a safari.

All pictures were taken with a Nikon N60 with one of three lens: Sigma 28-105 Zoom, Sigma 170-500 Zoom, or Tokina 80-400 Zoom.  We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them.  

African Carnivores		Large Herbivores		Small Herbivores
Scenery, People & Culture		Birds		Monkeys & Baboons
Reptiles & a Millipede		Campsites		Lodges