Easterm winds. Flat Sea

Sdot Yam, Israel. December 2010

When I left Masai Mara after years of driving around the biggest Savana plains of Africa, I missed exactly that. The feeling of being in an open place where you can drive hours without meeting anyone, the feeling that the sky and the land below them are endless. One almost wishes to go and look for the end of the world.

Israel has its deserts and as small as they might be, they can give you this feeling, but I found that the sea replaces much of that need in my life and that Kayaking is almost like taking the jeep for a drive in the sea of grass. Israel does have a problem to stand in line with Masai Mara when it comes to wildlife, but it has its spots and its moments. Again, much of it I found in the sea.

Yesterday morning, I went with my Kayaking club mates for a safari. On the rocks, just where we entered the sea there were the most Cormorants I had ever seen together. Using the skills I learned from the Leopard in Serengeti  J (4 posts ago), we stalked these birds. We gently came eastern to their rock and the wind did the rest. Within no time a huge cloud of birds was up in the air.

How did that woman say it? Happiness is when you are being nostalgic about the present…watching that cloud of birds was pure joy and a great moment of happiness. I am not sure that the fish farmers growing fish in pools along the coast felt the same about that massive cloud as it approached their pools...

A hot dry December in Israel

Sdot Yam, Israel. December 2010

So... We did have the mother of storms just this month, and I had my first attempt of editing anything. And now I am playing again. That major storm was an empty promise. While Europe is in the Ice age, we have a strangely hot and dry winter. Flat sea with eastern winds every morning, and almost no waves for play.

Perfection

Ayder, Turkey. September 2008

I got to Ayder with a lovely group, 6 guys that were celebrating their 40^th birthday. The tour, like most of our tours, spent 2 nights at the village. On the afternoon of the full day we had there, I 'deposit' my whole group for a treat at the hot springs of the village and went to meet with a friend. Ayder is a Swiss looking village on the slopes of Kachkar Mountains, facing north to the black sea. It has 300 rainy days a year and most of the summer it still keeps cool which makes it a very touristic place. In fact, during the years more and more people keep hotels and pensions rather than their own place. I met Ayder the first time at the end of the summer of 1993. It had a muddy path crossing the place and it was not very developed. All had changed there but the atmosphere stayed the same. It is a place to visit withut a spesific plan. Endless possibilities going up the mountains and any kind of accommodation one could ask for.  

That was my second season guiding in Kachkar and I knew the routes we were using during our tours, but I felt like I know too little. Mehmet my friend promised to take me to a special place and he kept his promise very well. We went up to a Avuzor Yayla (a temporary village used only during the summer time) that I had never been to before. It was a beautiful afternoon and after guiding nonstop for several weeks I finally had some time alone. Climbing up the steep road there was this one single moment that I cherish. We stopped in a good view point looking at the thick forest and for one split of a second, the sun went out of the clouds sending one of its last rays for the day, touching the trees with soft light. Then it was gone. Collecting itself to light the other side of the world and I felt that I miss the moment a little before it was gone. Someone once told me that happiness is being nostalgic about the present. I was a happy person that afternoon, surrounded by all the beauty of the world.

The next morning I took the group up that road. Mehmet was suppose to join us but he said yesterday was just too perfect. The air was as clean as only high mountains air can be, visibility was amazing and we took great photographs. But it was just as he said it, yesterday was just too perfect.

Rising Before the Sun

Sahara, Morocco. October 2010

Early morning we got up to walk in the Sahara dunes. I normally tell the clients that I get up half an hour before the sun does and if they want they join me for a morning walk to see the sunrise and photograph the sand dunes. After the sun is up there is a very limited time in which the contrast of the dunes and the shade is great, then when the angle of the sun no longer gives that contrast there is nothing to look for with a camera. Sometimes the opening for great photography is over an hour; sometimes much less, all depends on how clear is the air.

That time it was going to be great but before the sun came up I had all the girls of the group walking on the face of the dune. The sand was cold and we were too early so we were walking and moving to try and get warmer. It reminded me of the days I would look for an angle to have a Giraffe standing between me and the sun to create a good silhouette, or a Lion for that matter. One of those typical photos that was always hard to get. Try and explain the Giraffe to stand still exactly when you need it to…

Well, the girls did very well. Already the morning hunt for a good photograph was successful.

Winter is here, at last

Sdot Yam, Israel. December 2010

Winter finally arrived with impressive winds and huge waves. Not so much rain though… I just returned from Tanzania and had time to play with my new underwater camera. These are the results.

Mother Leopard

Serengeti, Tanzania. December 2010

 She came down the rocks slowly, walked between the vehicles that were standing there and prepared herself for a kill. Up the rocks she just came down from were waiting her 2 cute cubs. We were on our way out of the Serengeti and surprisingly the group was quite disappointed. We saw much but the Lions were always far and everyone else seemed to be talking of a Leopard that we didn't find.

Well, this morning we did and after playing with her cubs she was going to get some food.

Predators are much liked by tourists and photographers. And while you can learn the movements of Lions or Hyenas within their territories, you can't really learn the Leopard. It doesn't have its own territory but moves much within a range. 1 Leopard can move above 20km a day or stay up the tree as it pleases.

She didn't need to run much and the Gazelle was already in her mouth. As much as people want to see a kill when they come to Africa, they very often lack the "stomach" to watch it. Maybe it was the fact that we had just seen her cubs up the rocks but this time my group was all for the Leopard. Kids, parents and grand moms. And of course, me and the drivers. I must say, even as I lived in Masai Mara as long as I did, I had never seen a Leopard kill before. I saw the moment after, or the moment before. I even saw one huge male Leopard, trying to hunt at night and failing repeatedly. But I had never seen an actual kill.

When it was all done and the Leopard was sitting comfortably on her rock again, while her kill was on the tree waiting, I heard the kids asking the drivers how rare it is to watch such a thing. 'Maybe once a year', said one of the drivers. I sneaked a look and said in Swahili for him only to understand that for me it was a first. Slowly the 3 of them had to admit that it was a first for them as well…

Yolldash

Cappadokia, Turkey. May 2008

Yolldash was, or still is, a Turkish dog. He is a mixture with Kangal, a Turkish dog very much loved by the Turks. I met him on the streets of Kaimakly, a small town in Cappadokia, on the way to check a route we wanted to add to our 4 by 4 tours. He was very young and very much alone. We stopped by him and couldn’t resist taking him along. A dog with the Kangal's 6^th finger shouldn't miss a chance to find a home in Cappadokia, we thought. We took him to a vet in Urgup and checked that all was ok with him. He was just a little too thin, apart from that he was well.

I gave him the best Turkish dog's name that I knew of. Yoll-Dash, A partner for the road, and so he was. As the guides team in the middle of preparations for a very busy season, we couldn't find the time, or didn't want to, to find him a home nor did we have a place for him. So he came with us everywhere and at night, as we stayed at one of the big hotels in Cappadokia- Tourist Hotel, we left him in the car, in a box we fixed for him, with hot bottles under the towels to keep him warm. It was May in Goreme and the nights were really cold. Somewhere along the second week, the team of the hotel has noticed us rushing at night to the car. As they learned about Yolldash, he became everyone's favorite dog.  The hotel team gave him an empty pool in the middle of the hotel grass to stay in, and we started to keep him there during the days while we all went guiding our groups.

Yolldash was growing fast in that small pool and slowly managed to have a pick at us above the pool's wall as we left him. He wasn't a happy dog when being left alone but he never stayed alone for too long. Soon he was famous among our groups and the kids would come to play with him.

Yolldash lived with us at Tourist Hotel from May to September. Then, when the days were getting too hot the whole of the company, guides and operation, moved to Kachkar. Umit, one of our Turkish guides, took him along and found him a home.  I have never seen him again but knew he was doing well and was a big dog. The owner said we have spoiled him too much and he was demanding that much attention in his new home as well. It wasn't a compliment to the dog or to the way we took care of him, Kangals are known to be very tough dogs. Farmers keep them as shepherd dogs to protect the life stock from wolfs. They normally feed them very little, the dogs always find their own food, hunting and scavenging. When I returned to Cappadokia in the end of that season to guide one single group, no one was there. Same routesthat I had known for years, same hotels and friends along the way, but all along there was something missing. Only as I returned toward Goreme in the end of the trip, I have noticed my anticipation for a meeting that will not accrue, with Yolldash.

For me, Yolldash was a true partner for the journey I had that year. One of the most difficult things for me as a guide is the fact that you are alone. Alone with the group. Alone with your decisions about the tour and so, with the filatures or the successes.  You are surrounded by people almost 24 hours a day, but you are on your own as strong as the operation behind you might be. Having a dog in such a situation is no option at all. You take very little things with you, mostly stuff you need for the tour, and you move from place to place with no real home anywhere you go. That year, having so many groups in one place, the company I worked for had all the operation team and a huge team of guides together in the center of Cappadokia. I would normally take the long tours that went out of that center and so escaped the big crowd. But in the end of every week I had a few days with friends and with Yolldash. He was a big part of the happiness I experienced that season.

Just the Right Click

Masai Mara, Kenya. December 2001

Some moments would have passed me unnoticed unless captured well enough. Such was a split of a moment in this Lions honeymoon.

Living in Masai Mara, Kenya and guiding night safaris (using night vision equipment) meant that I was following 3 different prides of Lions in the area of the lodge, and tried to know where they are at least every afternoon. Lions tend to leave their group when they are ready to mate (that is…when she is…) and mainly do what they had left for, for several days. They say they need above 100 sessions before she can conceive and that they mate every 45 minutes. All of course depends on the Lion, the season, availability of food and so- their strength. One thing is sure, they don't move much during their Honeymoon unless really disturbed so, when there are honeymooners around, tourists and photographers tend to stick around.

In one grey morning, driving back into camp, there seemed to be a new couple up the road but the area was so wet that I had stayed on a distance. I put my camera on standby and gave it a shot. Latterly, that was all I did. I had very little light and not the right equipment and I don't think I had stayed there more than 15 minutes. It was pre digital cameras so watching the results meant; waiting for a drive to Nairobi- that use to happen about once in 2-3 month, sending them to the lab and then framing and sorting out quite a lot. I think I have managed to look at this slide about a month after it was taken and it caught me by surprise. It was a moment I didn’t even remember that was there, not as excited as it appeared in the slide anyway. A moment that remained with me only thanks to a lazy click at the right time.

??? Excuse Me. Do I Know You

Biograd, Montenegro. September 2004  

I had started to work in Montenegro about 6 years ago but it took me a long time to get to know it. In the first 3 years I had taken 3 tours a year at the most, normally in the end of the season. Hence, I didn't get too involved with the place the people or my work there as a guide. The point where it had all changed was a funny moment.

During my first tour in this photogenic country, we were driving up on Biograd's most beautiful road and came across an old lady. Her eyes looked as if she was smiling with them, her lips were stained by the Blueberries she had picked and eaten and she had no problem to have her photo taken.  I loved this photo taken of the two of us and it had a place of honor on my fridge door at home.

Since then, I had driven this road every tour I had guided in Montenegro and saw the old women herding the sheep and picking Blueberries, walking easily at high altitude in serious slopes as if they were teenagers. About 4 years after my first tour, I was looking at one of the women and thought she was familiar. She had long white hair, loose, and something in her eyes made me remember.
When I greeted her one of my group members asked me whether I know her. Of course I do, I replied, this is the woman from my fridge…