Kruger National Park, 2015: Preparing to leave....

Gina and I are preparing to leave for another trip to South Africa. This will be my seventh trip to southern Africa and Gina’s fifth.

These trips mean so much to me. I’ve been in love with the idea of Africa ever since I was a boy. I specifically remember seeing the movie Hatari in 1962 and thinking it was so cool because not only were the characters in the film around amazing animals, they were catching them for zoos, which seemed at the time to be so much more enlightened than shooting them with guns. I imitated John Wayne by sitting on the fender of our ’49 Plymouth, with a handkerchief stuffed into the back of my baseball hat to simulate his sun cap and using a broom and some string to simulate the catch pole and rope. I’d imagine riding along and catching rhino because rhino was the scariest of them all in my mind (thoroughly goring Hardy Kruger in the thigh and all). Later, I remember being introduced to Frank Buck comics (Bring ‘em Back Alive) and made my mom buy a Styrofoam pith helmet because the pith helmet seemed to signify everything that was, Africa. Never mind that it was bright white, didn’t fit, squeaked when you handled it and was hot as hell to wear in Florida. I was disappointed that somehow my parents didn't raise me in Kenya.

As I grew older, my interests diversified but I always held on to Africa. I was the guy who watched every nature film that PBS threw at us. Read many books about wildlife in Africa. And in the back of my mind I always, always dreamed of going, but it seemed so impossible. It was too intimidating, had too many terrible diseases, too far, and too expensive. I had too many obligations (like a job and a marriage) and couldn’t even seriously think about it. Where would one even start?

But in 2005, I was between jobs and single. I’d left my hospital job to become a big time auto racing photographer. Problem of course was that, while I was fortunate enough to get some work, I was not ‘big time’ by any means and had so much to learn. But I had time on my hands and somehow saw something somewhere about a program where one could volunteer to help a project researching desert elephants in Namibia. That started some wheels turning for me and I seriously looked into the program. In the end, though, the timing wasn’t right. I wasn’t reliably employed and didn’t have the income to really support that sort of adventure, so I dropped it.

In 2008 though, I’d found a niche doing contract interim leadership with St. Charles Health System and that provided the opportunity for me to again start thinking about traveling to Africa. Using the Internet, I found volunteer opportunities and focused on one doing volunteer work with an elephant and predator research program based at Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana. I did some background research and it all seemed legit. The plan was to spend two weeks at Mashatu and then a week at a small private reserve in South Africa.

My two weeks in Mashatu were probably the best two weeks of my life. It was so different than a luxury lodge tourist experience (which has never appealed to me), and everyday was different and an adventure. At the end of two weeks, I rented a car and went to the small private reserve and immediately decided that I didn’t like it (it was sort of like a fenced in safari park – not at all the experience of Mashatu). So I checked out early and drove to the border with Botswana, stopping along the way to phone Jeanetta and beg her to take me back. And she did, allowing me a few more days at Mashatu before returning to Oregon.

Unfortunately, they no longer offer the volunteer experience at Mashatu. Mashatu remains one of my favorite places in the world and has the nicest staff in the world as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been back twice since then, but as a guest and only for short visits (it’s expensive for us).

In 2009, since Mashatu was no longer offering the volunteer option, I decided to try Kruger National Park. I was nervous about it since I would be on my own, but was encouraged by veteran travelers who told me that it was a ‘no-brainer’. And they were right. It was easy to travel, comfortable and relatively affordable. And there was amazing wildlife and so abundant. It's not something that's easy for an American to comprehend. I spent a couple of weeks in the Park, then a few days at a private lodge at Pafuri in the north of the park and then a couple of days at Mashatu. Gina and I had been dating for several months and as I left on that trip, I realized how painful it was to leave her. I remember that I called her from an airport along the way and told her that I loved her for the first time. Somehow, Africa has helped me to find the best person I know. During this trip, I was able to witness and photograph the birth of an elephant in the Olifants River in KNP. I am so fortunate to have been able to experience that event. Amazing.

I went back in 2011 and spent three weeks in the Park and then picked up Gina and our daughter Aislin at the airport in Johannesburg and they spent a week in the park and a couple of days at Mashatu. It was a fantastic experience for us. Gina is great to travel with – easy going, curious and open-minded. Traveling with a photographer is not easy – or, at least, traveling with this photograph isn’t easy. For photographers, everything revolves around getting images. They’re not concerned with comfort or, really, with the experience of anyone else. I’m so lucky that Gina seems to appreciate that and seems as enthusiastic as I am to share those experiences. It was also a great experience for Aislin, punctuated by one extremely intense morning when lions drove a newborn giraffe into the side of our car (and nearly in through the open window as evidenced by the giraffe snot sprayed across the dashboard). It was frightening and intense and it’s a shared experience that we never will forget.

I returned to KNP in 2012, spending a week there with my friend and guide Albie Venter and then picking up Gina and Aislin to spend a week in the Park and then a couple of days at a private reserve called Arathusa in the Sabi Sands. In 2013, Gina and I returned along, leaving Aislin in the States with her grandparents. Aislin was a high school student now and had many interests and relationships and just wasn’t that interested in returning to Africa.

In 2014, Gina and I traveled to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park with Albie and spent a week and a half there. It’s a very beautiful part of the country and much different than KNP. And, we came back very clear that a two-week trip wasn’t long enough, given the travel time and affect of jet lag.

And that brings us to now. This year, we return to KNP for three weeks, keeping it simple and as affordable as possible. We’re working people and traveling to Africa is expensive – no getting around it. KNP offers an excellent value in that it’s easy to travel around and has great wild life viewing. There are some downsides of course. Its accessibility means that it can be crowded and sometimes to a ridiculous degree. Sometimes, you hit a home run and have a lion or leopard encounter that is private, but often when lions or leopards are near the road, it results in a complete traffic jam. And something about being in a traffic jam of tourists trying to push and shove their way up to see lions seems to cost everybody about 20 IQ points. It’s quite unpleasant (to us at least) and we’ve learned to avoid them. We’d rather go watch a vulture sitting in a tree than to fight traffic to get a glimpse of a lion sleeping in the road.

Now we begin wrapping up our preparations. Two more nights in our bed. Then travel for almost forever. Then a night at a hotel in Jo’burg. And then Kruger.

Here are a few images from past trips….

Volunteers at Mashatu, 2008