Good morning from Kariega Game Reserve in South Africa.  We have seen lots of wildlife in only three days and we haven’t been worked too hard.  There are eight volunteers on site, four Americans, one Swiss, one Australian, and two Canadians. Day one was spent driving across the about 60% of the reserve to change the batteries and memory card in game cameras.  So this was primarily a game drive day.  Six of my favorite pictures from this day are below. This is just a sample of the 450 pictures I took on the first day.

 A lion cub that was born this year.

 A young lion that is a year old

 A Kudu ram with two does

 Blesbuck Antelope

 A Burchells Zebra resting after a hard day

 Day two as a volunteer was another grinding day.  We had more game cameras that needed batteries changed.  So another extensive game drive was in order.  Five of my favorite pictures from this day are below.

A Black Backed Jackal 

 A young giraffe with mom

 A cute baby elephant

 Three elephants out of the 26 elephant herd

 This elephant decided our vehicle needed a push

 

Day three was our first day of hard word.  But it took us two hours to get to the job site because of a traffic jam and poor road conditions.  Our first route was blocked by White Rhinos that refused to leave the road. So we had to back down the road and take our second route.  After the front end of the Land Cruiser sank up to the frame in a mud hole we abandoned this route. Our third route got us to the job site.  Our assignment was to chop down an invasive species called Waddle with machetes that didn’t hold an edge so it was like whacking at a tree with a butter knife.  

Rhino road block

 Don’t even think about coming this way

 A nursery of Impalas

 John Miller and an Ostrich that would leave us alone

A Trumpeter Hornbill

 

That is all for this post.  Let me know what kind of pictures you would like to see in future post.

In only three days I will be headed to South Africa.  Looking forward to catching up with my good friend and fellow photographer John Miller.  Check out his blog for some great wildlife pictures. 

http://jemillerimages.blogspot.com/2011/12/back-in-africa-1210-5.html

I hope to give John a run for his money on capturing some quality images.  As you will see on his blog he has already set a high bar.

On January 7th I will be leaving Austin for Johannesburg via Atlanta.  My first stop in Africa will be the Kariega Game Reserve which is located about 15 minutes from the beautiful small town of Kenton-On-Sea.  This will be home for about 4 weeks. They ask their volunteers to be prepared to work hard and play hard.  Looking forward to the play hard part.  I hope to post to the blog every Saturday and will include a couple of pictures from the current week. 

On February 6th it's off to the Makalalia Game Preserve near Hoedspruit.  The Greater Makalalia Private Game Preserve is one of South Africa's premier privately owned conservation areas.  As a volunteer I will be involved in research, wildlife monitoring, and habitat work.  They primarily monitor elephants, lions, and other predators. In the information they provided it says I will have the opportunity to walk and approach some of these animals on foot. I have been hitting the gym lately to assure that I can run faster than my fellow travelers. It may come in handy.

On March 5th I head back to the US with lots of memories and I hope quality wildlife photos.