Iguaçu and the Pantanal: Brazil 2016

One thing you learn when you try to feed an addiction to photo tourism is that small-group photo tours fill a year or more in advance of the departure date. I missed out on a couple of tours in 2014 due to this, and would prefer not to do so in the future.

So even though I have yet to see the sweeping vistas and salmon-fishing bears of Alaska, I've booked into a photo tour of Brazil's Pantanal. And to make that tour a little more interesting, I'm planning a side trip to Iguaçu Falls.

The scheme, as I envision it, is to travel first to Iguaçu, soak in the scenery and be mist-ified by the falls for a few days before proceeding to Ciuaba and the journey along the Transpantaneira highway into the hinterlands of the Pantanal.

If all goes to plan, I'll spend a few days at the Hotel das Cataratas at Iguaçu before joining the Joseph Van Os' Jaguars & Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal.

My Wildest Dreams

The link below will convey your browser to the YouTube video that is a QuickTime export of the multimedia Keynote slideshow I unleashed on my relatives during the holidays. Sight, sound, and motion, but without a soundtrack, so it's not a proper "entertainment" video. When I show it, I provide bits of narration where helpful.

Titling the preso, "My Wildest Dreams" plays on the fact that this may well be the most complex and robustly adventurous trip I ever embark on, and the fact that the malaria prophylaxis, Malarone, induces "vivid dreams" in some users. It certainly did for me. Never "vividly good", of course.

My Wildest Dreams: Dean’s African Adventure 2014
June 13 - July 11

1. Machaba Camp, Botswana ·  June 16-20
Outdoor Photography Safaris

2. Kalahari Plains Camp, Botswana ·  June 20-23
Wilderness Safaris

3. Chobe Pangolin Photo Safari, Botswana ·  June 28-July 2
Outdoor Photography Safaris

4. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe ·  July 2-4

5. Elephant Plains, South Africa ·  July 5-9
Outdoor Photography Safaris

Africa 2014 [Remastered 2026]

2014 06 Africa - Gold***

2014 06 Africa - Silver**

2014 06 Africa - Bronze*

2014 06 Africa - iPhone

African Finalists: In Progress

I'm not done fiddling and fussing with my images. And I need to have a thorough going over of my days at Elephant Plains. But in the meantime, here's my collection of African Finalists. Many of these have found their way through my printer and onto the walls at school. Printing the panos was a new experience, and was not without technical difficulties.

Eventually, I will choose the African Champions from this set.

If you've got an AppleTV, you should be able to access these on Flickr (account name: phyzman). The best they'll ever look is on a nice big LCD/plasma digital display.

2014 06 African Finalists

Elephant Plains Day 5: Sleepy Lions, Marking Leopard, and a Posing Roller

My last day in the bush.

We began with a sleepy pride of lions (mostly lionesses and cubs) just beginning to stir. The males had been roaring quite a bit the previous night, near the camp. If I hadn't mentioned it before, there's nothing quite like the roar of a male lion piercing the silence of a camp in the bush in the black of night.

Then we followed Salayexe (female leopard) as she walked her territory and marked a stand of bushes.

On our way back to the lodge, we stopped for a Lilac-breasted Roller who was posing nicely for portraits.

ODP Blog - Elephant Plains: Wild Dogs Successful Hunt

Elephant Plains Day 5

Elephant Plains Day 4: An African Wild Puppy Pile

Our first sighting today was of a pride of lions feasting on a freshly killed baby giraffe. We learned that the facial scaring seen on older lions is the result not of fierce battles with enemies. Rather, it's the consequence of dinner table territorial disputes. If two lions are munching away on some tasty baby giraffe ribs and get too close to one another, the claws come out and some swatting is done to establish feeding domains.

We made our way, rightly or wrongly, to an African Wild Dog nursery. Puppies were piled into a tight formation, doing their best to sleep. But a few remained on full alert.

At our sundowner, no one (other than me) had any interest in this scene.



Thankfully, I'm not a slave to small-group social dynamics.

ODP Blog - Elephant Plains: Two Prides of Lions, One Kill, – and 10 Hyenas

Elephant Plains Day 4

Elephant Plains Day 3: Leopards and the Last of My Big Five

The early morning drive was a fairly complete bust. Lots of driving. No seeing. It was cold and overcast. But then we came upon a clan of hyenas. That led us to a female leopard (Salayexe) wobbling in a tree with a freshly killed impala. It was too much cat and not enough tree, but she wasn't going to let those pesky hyenas feast on her meal.

Then we got a call to return to the Big Dam, where we came upon two well-fed males who seemed to be occupying the same space. Each one seemed agitated, but neither was in the mood for a fight.

Before we embarked on the afternoon drive, our ODP leader, Brendon, asked the assembly of photogs if all was well with our cameras and gear. For the first time all safari long, I raised my voice with a concern. "I have a problem with my camera. It doesn't seem to have a photo of a rhinoceros. I checked it out quite thoroughly. Is there a way you can fix that?"

Not long into the afternoon drive—as if on cue—a rhino crossed our path. I watched it for a while, thinking "How did you escape extinction when your fellow dinosaurs died out?" It really seemed to be in the wrong geologic epoch. But I got my rhino; my Big Five was now complete!

We ended the day with some more spotlit lions before returning to Salayexe just as she finally descended from that wobbly tree.

ODP Blog - Elephant Plains: Dominant Male Leopards Confrontation

Elephant Plains Day 3

Elephant Plains Day 2: Leopards and backlit lions

Here's my room at Elephant Plains. A "roundel". The roof is authentic thatch, inside and out.



At night, we found lions. Eventually, a family gathered to drink from a shallow pool. Later, we arranged our two trucks to share backlighting duties. One truck's ranger would light a lion while photogs across the way in the other truck would shoot away, then the duties would be traded.

ODP Blog - Elephant Plains: An Amorous Young Lion gets a Swat for his Interest