Mike and Amy's Blog

Early last Sunday morning I meet with Brooke and Andrew for their engagement session. Brooke and Andrew travel across from Tamworth to have their session. It was lovely to be able to finally meet the. After much discussion with brides and grooms via email or the phone it’s always nice to be able to meet with them before the wedding and get them use to working with the camera.

Brooke and Andrew’s wedding is in just 14 days time in Quirindi – just near Tamworth. I’m really looking forward to sharing their special day with them and capturing all their beautiful memories from their day.

We have an awesome time on the engagement session. Brooke and Andrew and country through and through so it wasn’t fitting to use the beaches that surround us rather we head out of town where Brooke and Andrew felt a little more at home. You both are just so cute together. I can’t wait to see how gorgeous Brooke will be in her wedding gowned. I think Andrew must be looking forward to that too.

Here are just a few images from the shoot that I would love to share and am looking forward to sharing their wedding photos with you all.

Amy xx

Mike and I have now come to the end of our 5 and a half weeks in Africa. We are leaving Kenya this evening. The trip didn’t go too fast and certainly didn’t drag! Overall it’s been a fantastic trip. We have mixed feelings to come home… excited to get home but sad to leave Africa.  People often say what was your favourite part of the trip…. it’s a bit hard to say as there were so many places we really enjoyed!! Our favourite place would have to be the Serengeti! Camping in the unfenced camp ground was an amazing experience. The Hyena’s come in at night and you can hear the lions roaring… it was certainly something we will never forget!! The hot air ballon ride over the Serengeti was really beautiful! Our favourite country visited was Uganda. The Ugandan people were so really welcoming! The worst part of the trip was the car accident we were involved in… very sad!!

The last week of our trip we visited the Masai Mara National Park. One our first game drive into the Mara we seen elephant, Leopard, giraffe, zebra and just a few wildebeest. Most of the wildebeest have now migrated over to the Serengeti! We also seen lots of antelope and ostrich. We camped on the outskirts of the Masai Mara- just a few hundred metres from one of the entrance gates. All the camp sites in the Mara are on the outskirts of the National Park. It wasn’t fenced and was pretty cool to have a Masai men guarding the campsite at night with his spear!! It was funny when we woke in the middle of the night and heard the guard having a stand off with a Baboon. We didn’t need to use the restrooms at night but others on our tour did and said that he followed them to ensure their security! Our Masai security guard didn’t speak any english… we soon discovered this when michael tired to introduce himself to him! It was very funny.

Our second game drive in the Mara started at 6. 30am. I was very excited as the lighting was just magic that morning. We got some really beautiful images of the antelope and the buffalo. The water buffalo is the second most dangerous animal to humans in Africa besides the hippo!! There was a large herd of elephant that we were able to get very close to…. it was touching to be close to such a large wild animal!

This trip to Africa has been something special…. we do plan to return to Africa at some point possibly to see South Africa and than also the middle east and west Africa. Mike and I will get back to Australia on Tuesday…. we will be able to be contacted on Wednesday! We look forward to our 2012 wedding seasons and also look forward to catching up with our friends and family when we return home!!

Amy xxx

We are nearing the end of our trip now. We just have a few days in Nairobi before we start our journey home on Sunday night which is Monday morning at home!! This week was our final week on tour. We visited the Masai Mara National Park this week. It was a real highlight of our trip. On the way into the National Park we visited a Masai Village. We did visit a village in Tanzania  but it was a commercialised village and wasn’t functional. It was interesting to compare the two experiences. Only Mike visited the village as we didn’t think it would be much different from the village we had already visited.

The village near the national Park was functional… people actually lived there. It was a more authentic experience. The welcoming dance performed by the Masai man went for much longer and all in the group participated which is a nice touch. One of the villagers demonstrated lighting fire the traditional way and they took them into the hot little houses they have. At the village in Tanzania the people were very pushy to sell their crafts but at the village in Kenya they were happy for everyone to just look. Mike really enjoyed the visit to the village and I think he got some awesome images. – I had to share them with you all before we blog our last entry for this trip of the Masai Mara National Park.

Mike and I are getting home next week. We have really enjoyed our trip – like any trips it has it’s ups and downs but it certainly has been an experience we will never forget!!We will be able to be contacted by phone from Wednesday but should have good internet access up until we fly home on Sunday, so feel free to send us through any inquires.

Amy  xx

Mike and I are now back in Kenya. We crossed the border from Uganda yesterday and are now back at Lake Nakuru. We are here for one night before moving on to our next national park. We have three more national parks to visit before we return home. Only 11 days until we are home and I’m looking forward to getting home.

Since our last entry we have visited a school for disadvantaged students. The school was marketed as an orphanage but by definition an orphanage is “An Institution that houses children whose parents are deceased or whose whereabouts are unknown.”- We felt that it was more of a school for disadvantaged students as many of the children still had at least one parent and no children had their residence at the school. Visitors to the school are able to sponsor children and make donations. The students were on school holidays but come in to perform for our group and show us their school. The kids were rather cute! The school was near Lake Bunyoni. On our last day at the lake we visited the school and then were taken back to our camp in a dug out canoe.

From Lake Bunyoni we headed to Kampala and spent two nights there. We stayed at a camp called Chilli Peppers. Mike loved this camp site as they did Pizza that he was looking forward to having a pizza but thought he would have to wait until Nairobi!  He said the pizza was awesome expect he had to wait three hours for it as they were so busy and a little disorganised.

We had one full day in Kampala for fee time so Mike and I decided to go to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary. The chimp island is about 23km Southwest of Entebbe in Uganda. It was about 30min drive from our camp site and then about 45min on boat to the island. The island is about 100 aces of which 95 is forest for the chimps. It was established in 1998 and is home to about 45 orphaned chimps. The chimps are orphaned for all different reasons mainly local people killing their parents when they raid their corn crops. I didn’t realise how aggressive chimpanzees could be. When they were being feed they were hitting the ground, the trees and each other. It was pretty funny. You view the chimps from a viewing platform which is protected by an electric fence. The guide we were with said that one of the chimps when he is angry will throw rocks so if this happens turn so that your back is facing him because it is better to get hit in the back rather than you face. We thought it was pretty fun. None of the chimps throw rocks thou!

We hope that everyone is well at home and we look forward to getting back, chatting to you all and see you also.

Amy xx

We have been looking forward to sharing this entry with you all. Other than our Balloon ride in the Serengeti National Park the gorillas have been a real highlight of our trip. There are predicted to be less than 800 mountain gorillas left in the wild. They are all found in a little section of Africa that boarders Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. Before heading on our gorilla trek I was a little naive about what the experience would be like. I envisioned that the gorillas would be in the forest that would be accessed by a tarred road and that we would go through a stroll in the forest and than suddenly there would be an opening and there all the gorillas would be just sitting there- yes it sounds funny but in my wild imagination that’s what I thought the experience would be like… it was nothing like it. Mike had a more realistic expectation of the gorilla trekking….. he thought it would be trekking through dense forest and that they would be difficult to see them… and he was right. I guess mine was just wishful thinking but than I think Mike must have looked it up on the internet or his just not naive like me.

The day we headed to the gorillas we woke at 4.30am. Our guide had prepared lunch and we set off in our transfer vehicle at 5am. It was a 2 hour drive on bumpy mountainous roads. We firstly went to a briefing area where all the gorilla trekkers meet to have their permits checked and than assigned a guide. We did out trekking in the Briwindi National Park. There are three main Gorilla groups that are visited here. We visited the Mishaya gorilla group – which consisted of only 14 gorillas, some of the other groups had up to 45 gorillas in the area they visited.. I guess that was a little disappointing to see so few gorillas. The gorilla groups are named after their dominate silver back. After our briefing we met our guide, her name was Rita, she had been a guide for just a year and was fairly young. Our transfer car than took us for about an hour drive to where we would start the trekking. On our way we got bogged….. who knows why we had just a van and not a 4×4… the roads were so muddy and not suitable for normal 2WD’s – It was pretty funny watching the local villagers help get the car out.. ours wasn’t the only car that got bogged. There was certainly others that did. While we were waiting for our car to be moved out of the mud we were able to speak to some of the local children, some were happy to just say hi, wave and practice their english, other just wanted to ask for money. It’s a rule in Africa on our tours that you don’t give children any money or food- it encourages begging in the local communities. One little girl kept looking at us and crying…. we asked Rita why… and she said it is because we are “Mzungu” (white people/person in Swahilli) and that the little girl is scared of us. It did upset me a little, our guide said  to us  as she gets older she will be taught that tourism is vital if the gorilla population if it is to survive. The $500 odd dollars per person for the permits go to help the protection and research of the gorilla population.

Before we began out trekking, two trackers are sent out to find the gorillas- this increases the chances of seeing the gorillas but also reduces the hiking time. After we got confirmation that the trackers had found the gorilla family so we started our trek into the forest. The first hour or so was all up hill through local farms than we got into the forest. The first part of the forest was similar to forest at home, but about half an hour in the forest got really lush and very thick, we were trekking through a track that doesn’t often get used our guide and armed escort used a machete to clear much of the way. It was so high the forest and very slippery.. I fell on my bottom a number of times. The only things I would have done to make it more enjoyable would be to wear gaiters and a long sleeved shirts as there are so many fire ants and prickly bushes. I have a number of grazers and cuts on my arms and legs from the hike… but it was worth it. After about three hours of trekking one of the trackers came and found us. The forest we were in was called the impenetrable forest because you literally can’t see anywhere…. the gorillas and the trekkers were only a few metres away but you couldn’t see them as the forest is so dense (so much for my opening to view the gorillas). Once we were with the tracker we were told to take off all our backpacks and to leave any food and water behind. We walked only a couple of metres and than the tracker pointed and below us was the biggest Sliverback we had ever seen. He was just sitting there eating… we only got a back view of him until he looked up at us. It was the most amazing feeling see such a big creature look up at you… he looked so peaceful and friendly… you just wanted to go give him a hug. After a few minutes he got up and walked over to another feeding spot so we shifted position. The forest was so dense it was difficult for the eight of us that were on our trek to get a good view of the gorillas. To be honest I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get a clear view to be able to photograph them more efficiently… but really it’s only because photography is our job. To see the gorillas in the wild was really something special. In the hour we were with the family we seen four gorillas in total, the rest must have been hiding. The baby was so playful. The experience of seeing them in the wild will be something that I will always treasure. The trackers have a pretty cool job. The two guys we were chatting too visit this gorilla family 5 days a week which another two trackers visit them the other two days. There job is to check the safety of the gorilla families, monitor their behaviour and to track there movements so that they aren’t lost. The tracking protects the gorillas from local poachers.

Mike and I in the future do plan to visit Africa again so we hope that we can maybe go to Rwanda or the Congo to see the gorillas there. We would love to see the western plains gorillas in Congo as they aren’t in such dense forest … but that will depend if we can visit the Congo safely!!

Here are the best images we could get of the gorillas. If anyone is planning a trip to east africa the gorillas are a must!! We have lots more stories and experiences to share with you all so look forward to doing this.

Amy xx