Five years ago, my wife and I went on our first African safari with ADS. It was truly a trip of a lifetime! It was during that trip that we said to each other, We need to bring our grandchildren back here when they get old enough, and see this through their eyes! Well, our two oldest grandchildren are 13 and 15, and we felt this was the year to fulfill that wish.
After much planning to find 10 days where we were all available, our son’s family of four along with my wife and myself embarked on our Tanzanian safari. There was no doubt that we would again choose ADS as our tour company based on the outstanding trip we had 5 years ago. We were not disappointed! From our planning with Michael to our meet and greet team in Arusha, from our fantastic driver/guide Russell to the wonderful hosts at our various camps, it indeed was a trip of a lifetime!
Russell was so knowledgeable about all the animals and birds! His understanding of animal behavior and anticipating what was about to happen was amazing. He was always mindful of the animals and aware of not intruding on their space, and at the same time putting us into the best position to see and experience the animal behavior and to be in the best position for photographs! I think that is a rare combination!
Some of the more exciting things we saw were two cheetah kills! When you see these on TV, they are always in slow motion, but when you see it live, you really appreciate just how fast these cats can run!! One of the cheetahs had 2 cubs that were running and jumping on each other until the mother left to hunt and kill a Thomson gazelle. Then the 2 cubs stayed still and quiet in the tall grass until the mother returned. A hyena came soon after the kill and “stole” it away from the cheetah, so she returned to the cubs with nothing.
Another entertaining moment was watching a leopard “play” with a mongoose!
The leopard clearly had a full belly from a kill stashed in a tree and wasn’t hungry, but he chased and played with this mongoose for 90 minutes! I am not sure the mongoose appreciated the “play” part of this game, and finally escaped unharmed.
Our son elected to rent a camera and lens for the trip and chose a Canon 80D body with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens. I used a Sony DSCHX 400V 50X zoom. All of the photos included here were taken with my camera. The amount of zoom was amazing, as the black rhino was at least a half a mile away! Thank you ADS for a fantastic experience!
Curt and Nancy S.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Sam, Heather, Xander, and Sophie S.
Chicago, Illinois
Safari Dates: July 27 – Aug 4, 2016
Your photos are great! I’m looking for new camera to take on safari with ADS in April. Reviews of your camera I just looked at indicate it’s not too good for poor lighting or motion pics. Was that your experience? I also have a Canon T3i dslr I will be taking. Looking for that super zoom feature.
I appreciate your comments. I did not find a problem with poor lighting or motion. The automatic setting took care of most shots, but you could adjust aperture or shutter speed manually.
The only issue I had was when I used the zoom at full, after I took a photo, I had to zoom back out to relocate my subject, zoom in again and wait for the automatic focus to work. The movie mode worked great, but would drift easily at full zoom. Also at full zoom on distance shots, the heat of the day would cause distortion.
It was great for taking shots of birds.
If there was a piece of grass in front of an animal, it would focus on the grass. I could not get the manual focus to work–need more practice!
The zoom worked great even on close shots–note the reflection of our vehicle in the male lion’s eye!