The Maasai of Kenya

I was setting up my tent behind the park office in Amboseli NP and didn’t notice a local teenager approaching. His earlobes hung down to his shoulders weighed down by special little copper-colored weights, the rest of the earlobe wrapped in beaded tubes. On his right hip was a sheathed knife, and on his left was a cellphone. “Do you maybe want to visit a Maasai village?” he asked.

Finding the Mandrills in Gabon, Africa

I ground my teeth but kept on going. Gently securing the camera on my back, and making sure more dirt doesn’t get in, I plowed through the swamp and cursed under my breath when sharp serrated grass blades cut me deep enough to draw blood. By now, I looked like I’ve been whipped. “Think about it as of an exfoliating treatment,” said my husband walking behind me. I could hear him smile. I turned around,... [Read more]

Visiting the Simien Mountains with the King of Africa

His eyes are in the shade of massive brows. A ridged muzzle, small angular nostrils, and a round jaw with the top lip curling back suddenly to expose sharp fangs set in wide pink gums. If I didn’t know better I’d be convinced his get-up is skillfully sewn of lion skins, so splendid is his costume, from mane to tuft. A cocked fur hat, and on his chest — a bleeding heart, set right in the middle, like a... [Read more]

Sof Omar, Ethiopia

Never go caving with a whiner – he’ll scare off all the bats.

I entered Sof Omar cave with a mandatory guide in tow – a teenager in a leather jacket. As soon as I turned the corner my respectable guide began whining. Was I going to give him a tip? How much? “A tip,” I said, “is determined by how well a job is done,” and he, my guide, is already not doing a very good job. At that... [Read more]

Bale Mountains

Just as the little bastard had probably planned it, only a few kilometers later I’ve discovered that the basket of berries he sold me was half full with banana leafs. Cursing aloud, but smiling inside, I had admit to myself that it was kind of clever and my own fault for not checking.

I was on my way to the Bale Mountains. African scenery is often monotonous and rarely overwhelming with few exceptions like... [Read more]

Love Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the most interesting, memorable, and difficult countries in Africa, and I’m happy to say I was in love with it at first sight.

The countryside is lovely. I never knew if the subject of my next spontaneous rural shot will give me a big smile and then come see what’s on the screen, or will bend down for a rock. On that note - tired looking women with enormous heaps of straw, grass,... [Read more]

My Peak, Climbing Mount Kenya

It finally happened. I got there first. I’m never first. Not when it comes to mountain peaks. No, I’ll make it, to this day I only have one “white whale” and it stands above six thousand meters high in Bolivia. On the bright side, I now know the limits of my body when facing elevation sickness.

I’ve decided to climb Mount Kenya as independently as possible. Just with a guide, no porters,... [Read more]

“Messiah” Mara in Kenya

It hailed on the way from Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara. Tiny, but vicious hailstones bombarded the pavement, bounced of it, and lived, if only for a few seconds, to make their mark. Can one really forget hail on the African Equator?!

Later, the sky cleared in a most heavenly way, with sun rays piercing fluffy but angry-looking clouds. It looked like maybe the messiah read the address wrong, and will be beamed down... [Read more]

Ah, Madagascar

Ah, Madagascar. When I mention places I visit, I am often met with question marks or that sucking sound accompanied by a tense wrinkled spot between the eyebrows. But Madagascar always gets an “Ah.” An “Ah” and a dazed dreamy smile only the purest of fantasies get.

People think Madagascar is magic, and in many ways it is. In the right spot, it’s a colorful heaven –- dancing lemurs... [Read more]

What About Kenya? (video podcast)

I would love to say I have something important to say here, but I don’t. Okay, so I haven’t been there. However, I recently caught up with Jennifer Jacobson of the Kenyan Tourism Board (who has been there a number of times) to learn about the variety of safaris and some of the reason why travelers from the US should check out Kenya.

We are also on iTunes, Youtube, Current TV, and Google video. And be... [Read more]

Psychedelic Underwater

I am back underwater. In salt water. Where I should be. This is my special little quiet place – the ocean. I can soar above the reef, or hang upside down peeking under overhangs, or meditate to the only sound around – my breathing.

Yes, this would be time well spent relaxing. Trouble is, my nirvana is constantly interrupted by fantastically colorful creatures of all shapes and sizes. Even though my underwater... [Read more]

On Africa’s People

It has just occurred to me how little I’ve told you about how beautiful African people are. But photographing them, I cannot escape the repulsive thought that doing this without their prior consent I treat them a bit like the animals in the national parks I visit. I sneak up to a watering hole and lay in wait, camera ready, until a graceful impala stretches her neck, or a careful mother baboon gently carrying her... [Read more]

A Lion’s Kill

Every African National Park is full of surprises. On one inconspicuous morning in South Luangwa I got out of my car to photograph some rare to the area lovebirds only to find out a pride of lions was killing a buffalo only a few hundred meters away.

The pride was young and strong. It tore into the still-alive buffalo eating it out through every hole they could get their fangs into, until the victim finally expired... [Read more]

Lower Zambezi, Higher Cost

Africa’s national parks differ a lot from country to country and they are run in very different ways, so I never know what to expect next. In South Africa and Namibia, the parks are over-organized operations with gates, curfews and strict rules, though I found them somewhat bendable despite constant ranger patrols. In bureaucratic Botswana, the seemingly dead plains of the Kalahari Desert are empty from any regime,... [Read more]

Private Parts in Zambia

I am far from a nun, extremely comfortable with my body, and if you describe me as “shy” in front of anybody who even remotely knows me – they’d laugh in your face. That said, I would like to think I’m all about respect. Respecting other cultures and their degrees of modesty are highly important during the sort of travel I enjoy most. However, in Africa I officially declare myself confused by modesty... [Read more]

Leaving Namibia, or How to Find a Pangolin

I hate to leave Namibia - it has been so good to me. But my last days
here weren’t without memorable adventures. I wondered if the day would
come when Columbus would drown in the thick mud it often has to go
through. And that day nearly came.

Mamili National Park was going to be the last on my list in this
country. It was almost completely flooded and looked deserted. A few
successful... [Read more]

Border-less Wildlife

On the little stretch of Caprivi, where the colonial politics of the
past have arbitrarily divided the land into Namibia, Botswana, Zambia,
and Angola, wildlife knows no borders. The river here serves as the
divide, and its name changes every hundred miles or so. Birds here are
as colorful as I’ve ever seen. Carmine bee-eaters sunbathe on low
branches, and I photograph them in all their... [Read more]

Budget Botswana

Given the cost of reaching Botswana’s tourist attractions, I’ve been
watching my budget closer than usual, though I still didn’t think it
would have come to dumpster-diving. Well, I was wrong – I did end up
at the city dump. Contemplating alternative access options to the next
and last of Botswana’s overpriced national parks, I and my teammates
were driving through... [Read more]

Back to the Kalahari Desert

I’m back to the Kalahari Desert, now in Botswana, trying to remind
myself that my feelings about authoritarian governments and regimes
are not to be confused with my feelings about Africa. Travel is harder
here. The National parks are expensive to access, and bush-camping is
dangerous – too many elephants walking around. I try not to get too
annoyed with the armed men who stop the car... [Read more]

Chameleon Africa

Africa is a chameleon. I am only a day’s drive away from Etosha - my most recent never-ending fountain of wildlife, and it’s like I’ve landed on a different planet with its own magnificent and diverse population of birds and antelopes. Reminding me of my South American darling, the jabiru, saddlebill storks rummage through the reeds with their incredibly colorful bills, spread their enormous sail-like... [Read more]

Five-Hour Photo

She lay in wait and so did I. How famished she must have been, if only
watching her hunt I’ve become so hungry I’ve risked getting out of the
car, fetching my gasoline camping stove, and cooking up a hearty meal
right there in the back seat of my double-cab truck. What torture it
must have been, to see the springbok inch towards her hiding place
near a waterhole, and keep her tired... [Read more]

Click n’ Clack

I’ve been lucky recently with good guides. It is especially pleasant when you don’t want or need one, but they are being forced on you by regulations of the place you are visiting, like in Namibia’s Brandberg — home to some of the world’s most famous rock art dating as far back as two thousand years. Gwen, a local Damara girl and our assigned guide, was the only woman guide in Brandberg and,... [Read more]

Fury Families

Africa’s furry and feathered ones remind me how good (and annoying) it feels to have mom watch over your every step, ready to burst into action when needed and to wreck havoc if she suspects her baby is in any danger. When we cross the street, my mother still instinctively goes for my hand, even if I’m already holding my husband’s. Once, I made the mistake of climbing out to the fire escape of my grandma’s... [Read more]

A Desert in Bloom

“Desert in bloom” must sound perfectly surreal; well, it looks perfectly surreal as well. From afar, flat barren meadows look like someone has been painting in the mountains and spilled a whole bucket of paint onto the grass below. “Accidents” like this are seen everywhere: orange, yellow, red blotches of daisies by the pound catch the eye and make it hard to concentrate on driving. Finally I gave up and... [Read more]

The Great Kalahari Desert

I’d walk the Kalahari Desert if they’d let me. Herds of springbok would race by, pronking in the insane and magnificent way they do, showing me how strong and healthy they are so I wouldn’t even attempt to catch and eat them. Oryx would watch me carefully, then run off, and turn back to see what I’m up to again and again. Hartebeest and wilderbeest would lie on the blonde grass in the shade of trees,... [Read more]

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