Exploring for Lights

Thursday March 23rd was the start of three nights of exploring for lights on our own. We set off with plenty of warm clothes, a flask of hot tea and the phone number of a towing company just in case we got stranded. We started with a drive on the local ice road to the small community of Dettah just 6.5 km on the frozen Great Slave lake or 23 km by road in the summer. 

We stopped several times on the side and John persuaded Sara to lie down in the middle of the road for a photo which turned out really great. 

The next three nights followed a similar pattern. We bundled up in multiple layers and warm boots and drove out of town and up the Ingraham trail. The road is paved for about 65 km then becomes the world's longest ice road going 600 km north to three diamond mines. The ice road has to be constructed each year and is only open for 8-9 weeks. There is a lot of traffic on both roads, as the mines try to get all their fuel and supplies shipped while the road is available.  We decided to stay within cell range given we were out until 3am and -20F temperatures and only drove 30 km north. There are many tankers and trucks on the narrow road and everyone is told to only stop at the official parking areas. 

We checked out a number of the snow covered campgrounds and decided we liked Pontoon Lake the best. So for the next three nights we parked on the frozen lake and for 3+ hours were treated to amazing views of northern lights. They are different every time and never get boring! John had fun with all his cameras, and was able to also get a good time lapse video. (First video in the album) Sara enjoyed walking around on the frozen lake and staring up at the lights that were right over us.  A few times we got really cold and sat in the car with the heater full blast to warm up. No warming huts for this part of the trip! Luckily we had no problems with the car starting and didn't need the towing service.

We spent a few hours each afternoon exploring the town of Yellowknife. John had hoped to photo some great grey owls, but after a drive on the only road going south we weren't able to spot any. We did find some very cute ptarmigan birds, little fluffy snow quail that were very entertaining. 

One afternoon we visited the snow castle - an annual event with snow carvings from artists from around the world. It was a fun afternoon, and we got to meet the "snow  king" the local man who has led the effort for over 25 years. It was a lovely sunny day and we were amused to hear the snow king shout at a local child "put your shoes on" since she was running around in just socks!

We were incredibly lucky to see stunning lights every night. There were a lot of solar flares the week we were in Yellowknife and it was certainly worth the effort to bundle up each night and venture out until the early morning hours. Hope you enjoy the photos!

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Dog Sledding Fun

Wednesday March 22nd we had a dog sledding adventure. We were picked up at the house and driven to the kennels where about 50 dogs are cared for and trained to pull different types of dog sleds.

We chose North of 60 Adventures a family owned business. They offer different tours to share the cultural traditions and teachings they learned from their grandparents. The young men running the sledding were a lot of fun and took great care of us.

We had enjoyed the Norwegian dog sledding experience so much we decided to select the 'you drive' option again. This time John had a more comfortable sled with a few cushions, although it was still on the bumpy side. Sara was "Musher Girl" again!

We had a wonderful time cruising over the frozen lakes and through the forest. Luckily the dogs were kind to the rookie musher and kept to the trail. We got some cool video from the GoPros. One fell off right at the start after a big bump, but the lead guy kindly picked up and took some excellent video from his snowmobile. Here's Sara's first video editing attempt: Click for Dog Sledding Video. 

After the dog sledding we warmed up in a cabin and enjoyed some hot drinks and bannocks (Canadian like scones). It was really a wonderful experience!

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Fantastic Yellowknife Auroras

We enjoyed last year's Finland aurora experience so much we wanted to take another northern lights trip. John researched and found Yellowknife, Canada in the Northwest Territories is a prime location with visible lights over 240 nights a year. Yellowknife has crystal-clear skies, ultra-low humidity, and is in a perfect location beneath the "Auroral oval", a band of maximal Auroral activity.

Sunday March 19th we flew north almost 3,000 miles to start our adventure! We rented a small house which was perfect as we were up until 3am most nights and could enjoy the peace and quiet during the mornings. Monday we started with the grocery shopping for the week and then took a quick drive to explore and enjoy the sunny day. Yellowknife is next to the huge Great Slave lake, and there are smaller lakes everywhere. All currently frozen, and many with temporary roads connecting the one main road to cabins in the back country. We drove down one of them in anticipation of our time alone later in the week.

Monday evening we started our three evenings at the Aurora Village, a local Aboriginal-owned location providing five viewing hills located throughout their wilderness property. They also provide traditional teepees with wood stoves and hot drinks when the -10F temperatures become too much!

Each night we bundled up and walked a block to the bus pickup point at 10pm. We were driven 30 minutes out of town to the village where we stayed until 2:30am. Most nights we stayed out taking photos until 1am, and then popped into a teepee to warm up and get a hot drink. Then back out to catch some more lights. We were very lucky that each night was clear and the aurora was out in full force for most of the 3 hours we were at the village.

It was brutally cold every night. John got excited the first night and was changing cameras and lens, which meant he had his gloves off for far too long. He ended up with frostbite on five fingers, three of them pretty bad. Change of approach for the rest of the week. No camera lens changes and a trip to the local outfitting store to buy some electric heated glove liners which worked great. 

We saw incredible lights every night at the Aurora village. Very vivid and on many occasions we were mesmerized to see the curtains of lights moving across the sky - something we didn't seen in Scandinavia. To the naked eye the lights are a very light green, almost white with the occasional red hue. The camera however picks up the vivid colors, and the altitude the solar particles collide with the atmosphere determines the green, red, pink or occasionally purple colors. 

John recently won a camera modification from a virtual Night Sky Photography conference he attended and was excited to use the camera that can now see Hydrogen Alpha (H- Alpha) wavelengths. This camera now sees red colors much better and the results were spectacular.

Click here to see the photos!

Our Last Days in Africa

Thursday September 29th John visited the Dassanech tribe, about an hour and a half drive from our base in Turmi, Ethiopia. They are nomads and are agropastoral. They grow sorghum, corn, pumpkins, and beans. They also raise cattle and goats. The morning we got there they were celebrating the marriage of six families daughters. Each morning for one month the mothers and fathers come out of their huts and put on special clothing made from animal furs and skins. All of the families and other tribe members gather to sing, dance and celebrate.

We started Friday September 30th with an explore of the local market in Turmi. It was fairly quiet in the morning, and we enjoyed walking around taking photos. While Sara was standing in the shade of a building a young boy of about 15 starting talking to her. Eventually some older men joined and asked if she would buy him a book. Turned out the young guy was in school and really wanted an Amharic-English dictionary. After some back and forth with a starting ask of $50 we had purchased the dictionary for $20 - the only cash we had on us. With frequent requests for money from people it was nice to help someone with their goals. 

John headed out later to camp with the Karo tribe. Sara, still not feeling great after four days started some antibiotics and stayed in the lodge. After driving about two and a half hours on dirt roads he arrived at Kara Dus, a Kara tribe village. Their village was next to the Omo river. The Kara tribe was John's  second most favorite tribe primarily because the men do some extraordinary body painting.

After spending the night trying to sleep with the noise of the screaming monkeys John headed back to the lodge for lunch before visiting the last tribe -  the Arbore. They have permanent villages and grow crops and raise cattle and goats. Their huts were made from long reeds which was the first time we had seen that approach. The black and white photos in the album are from the Arbore. 

Sunday October 2nd we were up at 5am to drive to Jinka, with two and a half hours on more mountain roads before arriving at the very small airport with plenty of time before the daily flight to Addis. We were sad to say goodbye to Fitsum, Israel and Tuko, especially John who had just completed a long time wish to visit the tribes of Ethiopia. 

After spending a leisurely Sunday afternoon in the hotel in Addis we had an early start on Monday to get to the airport for our flight to Zanzibar. After checking in our bags Sara went to try and retrieve Barry's binoculars from custody. After asking a security guard where to go he kindly walked her over to the other terminal and after asking several people and providing the required paperwork managed to find the right people to help. Unbelievably after paying about $30 the binoculars were found in what looked like a disaster of a storage room and returned to Sara. She was then personally walked back through the security lines and watched as we both passed through the immigration checkpoint to ensure no sneaking back into the country was achieved!

We arrived on the island of Zanzibar totally worn out and spent an entire week just relaxing, eating great food and enjoying our lovely beachside cottage. We also enjoyed a few days of scuba diving and plenty of sunsets over the Indian ocean - just perfect.

We left Africa on an overnight flight Monday Oct 7th, and after a 12 hour stop in Doha finally arriving in London late Tuesday evening.  A delightful four days followed staying in a rented farmhouse with Sara's mum Christine, sister Emma and partner Clive. We enjoyed some visits, walks and meals with her aunt Midge, cousin Jane and partner Sue who we haven't seen for many years. It was a wonderful way to end our extraordinary adventure in Africa!

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The Hamar Tribe

 

After spending the morning with the Suri face painting by the river we packed up camp and left for our next location - an arduous hot long 2-day drive south east of the Omo river. It had rained in the night and the forecast was for more rain so Fitsum wanted to get out of the mountain area since the trails become impassable in the mud. He mentioned having a vehicle stuck in the mud for three days with clients once. The drive started out on bumpy mountain dirt roads that included a fairly precarious river crossing. Our driver, Israel, was an absolute expert at navigating any difficult backcountry road or river and the scenery was beautiful.

We stopped for a late lunch in the tiny town of Tum - which consisted of one paved road for about a mile and dirt roads either side continuing on through the mountains. Fitsum said we would stay the night as there wasn't anywhere safe to camp between Tum and the next stop. We had a very basic hotel room with a bucket of water outside to wash in and some squat toilets at the end of the building. Sara was able to wash off her face paint, preventing further questions to Israel who had been asked if her face was actually that color.

October 26th is a religious holiday for the orthodox christian church and there was a big celebration in the afternoon finishing with a bonfire and fireworks. The Meskal celebration commemorates the discovery of the True Cross by the Roman Empress Helena (Saint Helena) in the fourth century after following smoke from a bonfire. We walked around in the late afternoon and were swamped by kids who were fascinated to see the strangers. Everyone was very friendly, and after the kids were reprimanded by Israel for pushing us we enjoyed talking to the adults about our trip and experiences in Ethiopia. It was definitely an interesting event.

Tuesday 27th was a long, hot demanding day. We started at 6am and after a quick breakfast were on the mountain roads again. The temperatures weren't bad initially since we climbed up to 7,000 feet, but then we dropped down to 1,500 feet and had to cross the long hot savannah of Omo National Park. The temperature was close to 100 degrees and the air-conditioner in the Toyota land cruiser didn't work. So for 6-7 hours we drove with the windows down in extreme heat that felt like a blow torch. Sara who does not tolerate heat well was suffering. A migraine headache usually follows extreme heat exposure and of course it did, so Sara who didn't feel well at the start of the day was suffering. We stopped in a small town mid afternoon for a quick break and someone after hearing we had come from the Suri asked "How was the crossing"? From that point on we nicknamed the drive the "death crossing". Turns out it is the second hottest place in Ethiopia and if you breakdown it can be weeks before someone else comes down the road. Later we found out Fitsum would call people he knew to let them know where we would be out of cell signal and they were to send a car to find us if he didn't call them back in a few hours.

We finally reached the town of Turmi and checked into the Buska lodge. Turmi is the central point to visit all the tribes on the east side of the river. We were happy to have a room with a shower and bathroom and electricity, even if it was only twice a day for a few hours.

Wednesday 26th was an early start for John, leaving at 5:30am to visit a Hamer village. The Hamer are the largest tribe n the Omo valley. They are known for their distinctive hair style where they curl and treat their hair with a mixture of butter and red Ochre clay. Sara was dealing with a nasty intestinal issue and decided to rest for a few hours. John returned for lunch and Fitsum said he had heard about a bull jumping ceremony we should attend in the afternoon. We set out in the full heat of the afternoon and started walking through the bush, up and down and along a dried river bed. What hadn't been mentioned was the village was quite a way from the road. After walking for about 40 minutes we asked again how far, and on receiving the same answer of 20 minutes stopped to reassess the situation. Given the vagueness of how long to the village, and the fact we would likely be there close to sunset and need to return stumbling in the dark without lights we turned around before becoming a cautionary story to travelers!

Thursday was similar to the previous day, John left early for photography and Sara rested still not feeling well. In the afternoon we were able to visit a Hamer village this time without the long hike. A number of the tribes have customs that introduce young men into adulthood. Bull jumping is one of these. The family of the bull jumper hosts the event, which is a big deal with relatives and friends from other villages walking up to 100 kilometers to attend.

Another custom that is very strange and repugnant is whipping of the women who are relatives. This is something they do to honor the young bull jumper and the family. They actually ask to be whipped and show no displeasure from it despite the long bloody gash it leaves on their back. Our guide took us to a large gathering of people where the whipping was taking place. We didn't know that was occurring until we got there. We immediately told our guide we did not want to be around this ceremony. He said it's part of the culture and we said we don't care we're moving on now. So we moved on to another area where there was a lot of people gathered. Mostly the women were dancing and they were serving everybody coffee. This went on all afternoon. One of the young men came up to Sara and asked if she wanted to be whipped. With help from our guide translating Sara suggested maybe he give her the stick and she whipped him, which resulted in the young man quickly disappearing.

Everything was delayed because they didn't have the sacred bull who had to be rounded up and joined up with the other six bulls. All this process took so long that when the young bull jumper got his chance it was dark. They lined up the bulls side to side and the jumper has to run across their backs two times each way. The goal of course is to not fall and face ridicule. Although it was dark and only lit by car lights and our cell phones the young man did very well. He did fall a few times but was given some extra tries since he was doing it in the dark. We're sure the young man was glad the whole event was over and he had successfully completed the challenge!

Click here to see the photos and videos! 

Suri Face Painting and Stick Fighting

Thursday September 22nd was a long day of travel. We left Arusha for the drive to Kilimanjaro airport for the flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For many of the airports in Africa your luggage has to be put through the x-ray scanner before you can enter the terminal and check-in. This leads to a somewhat chaotic scene, with people throwing bags on the conveyer and then picking them off the floor on the other side as the bags get pushed through. Our flight and arrival in Addis was fairly uneventful until we tried to leave the airport. All luggage had to once again be scanned and Sara's carry-on caused some consternation with customs. Barry's binoculars were given a lot of scrutiny and we were informed they were not allowed in Ethiopia due to national security rules - likely related to the civil war that has been simmering off and on since November 2020. After passing over my passport to a number of people and getting a bunch of paperwork filled out we were allowed to enter, but with Barry's binoculars taken into custody!

Friday we were back at the airport at 7am for our domestic flight to Jimma - a small town in south western Ethiopia and the starting point for our cultural tour of the Omo valley tribes. We met Fitsum of Omo Valley Tours at the airport. Fitsum was born and raised in a small Omo valley tribe and has developed excellent relationships with local tribal leaders, critical to providing a tour in this remote and wild part of Africa. We met the rest of the team at the Jimma airport, Israel our driver and Tuko the cook. After loading everything and everyone into the Toyota 4x4 land cruiser we set off. The afternoon drive was on crazy roads, dodging potholes that looked like mortar strikes, cattle, people, donkeys and occasionally motorbikes and cars. There were also many police/army checkpoints, typically a rope across the road that required us to stop and Fitsum to produce the official forms preventing a full security search of the vehicle - important since we were fully loaded with 5 people, luggage, fuel, food, water and camping equipment. We stopped for an amazing lunch of Ethiopian food, a lentil stew eaten with a teff flour pancake using our hand, followed with some exceptionally good coffee. Ethiopia is the birthplace of both humanity and the coffee bean! 

The following morning (Saturday 24th) we left the hotel at 5:30am, it was dark and raining. After a few hours we stopped for coffee and breakfast of boiled eggs and bread.  By 9:30am we hit the end of the road and spent the rest of the day driving on hard packed dirt single track trails. The scenery was beautiful, we were in the heart of the Rift valley, surrounded by mountains, lush valleys and bird song. We were stopped in the middle of nowhere by a police group and the car was surrounded by eight men all carrying Kalashnikov rifles and very interested in the tourists in the back. A challenge of traveling and not understanding the language is you never know if you in danger or people are just curious. In reality it was a novelty to see white people in the area, and the fully loaded Toyota was also eye catching - so we were the entertainment most days. Fitsum got out and talked to the senior officer and after a lot of discussion we had an armed guard in the front of the car and Fitsum sitting in the back with us. Apparently it was Donga stick fighting month (more about that later) and the police chief was concerned it wasn't safe for us. There may also have been a bit of a need to provide employment for the local guards, we were not totally sure!

After a few more hours of driving on very rough up and down mountain trails we arrived at the Suri tribe where we would stay for the next three days. The Suri are an agro-pastoral ethnic group known for their decorative painting, natural foliage head dressings, scarifications and lip plates. We were lucky enough to camp right in their small village which provided unique access to the lovely people. 

After a late lunch Fitsum hurriedly told us to pack up and get back in the car. The Chief had told him there was a Donga stick fighting event happening very close. Donga is a yearly fighting tournament where each local village sends their top male fighters to fight each other for honor, showing their strength and masculinity. What followed was one of the craziest events we have ever witnessed. 

Each village also sends supporters for the fighters, and everyone forms a big circle and two or three groups of two men each will go to the center and try to beat the other guy into submission. It is considered a badge of honor for a man to have multiple scars on their head from stick fighting, and we saw a number of nasty injuries. The fighting goes on for about an hour and then they take a short break and do it again. Winners of each round are given a loop of beads, and the person with the most loops at the end are the overall winner. 

During the second half, all of the sudden everybody starting running away and getting down on the ground. This happened without any warning so we didn't have a clue why everybody was running away and were slowly trying to work out why we were the only ones still standing. With two knee and one hip replacements John doesn't run very well and finally was either run over or pulled down on the ground. Sara was also pulled down and was between two armed guards shielding her. Fitsum and the Chief hurried over and told us it was time to leave. Turns out there actually are some rules and a referee to keep some order. One of the fighters had broken the rules and tempers were getting hot. The men in the tribes no longer have spears for hunting or protection, about 10% of them are carrying AK 47s or SKS rifles. So the big stampede was because everyone feared there might be gunfire. Fortunately that didn't happen but apparently there have been cases in the past. In our evening discussion we decided our emergency response had been poor and resolved to do better in the future if needed - what an afternoon !!!

We had just crawled into our tent for the night (this was a backpacking tent, not the Tanzania glamping tents) when we heard some singing. We lay there for a while and then became so intrigued we crawled back out and in the pitch dark went to investigate. We found a group of young children dancing and singing and spent a delightful hour with them dancing and clapping. Sara's phone fell out of her pocket early on and some of the kids found it and started recording video, check out the album for the result.

Sunday 25th September was the start of the face painting photography. We were amazed how creative the young people were with their painting and head adornments of flowers. They had painted themselves that morning, and made the flower arrangements from what they found in the forest.  Everyone was keen to be photographed and they were natural models. John had many hours of work to ensure everyone had their picture taken. He also took time to show people the photos on his camera which everyone enjoyed. John spent some time afterwards playing with the children with some balsa wood airplanes he bought for them. 

Our last day we went down to the river which is close to the tribe village. They do a lot of the painting there because the paints are made with ground up rocks and minerals mixed with water. One of the young girls wanted to paint Sara's face which of course she was delighted to have done. We returned to the village to share our gifts with the Chief who would distribute them to the people who needed things the most. With advice from Fitsum before we left home we had purchased pain killers (ibuprofen), razor blades (for shaving and hair trimming), beads and coloring books/pencils for the children and small mirrors to be shared during face painting. We had a similar package for each of the tribes we visited. We said a few final goodbyes - and received a necklace gift for Sara before we headed out for the next location.

 What a memorable time we had with the Suri - We will never forget them.

Click here to see the photos & videos

Last Days in Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater

Sunday September 18th started very early when Sara heard a strange munching noise outside at 4:30am. She very quietly unzipped the bottom of the tent flap and stuck her head outside to see a hippo peacefully grazing 30 feet away! Startled John a bit since it was dark and he didn't know if someone or something was unzipping the tent to come inside! 

We headed out after breakfast with a stop at a local creek to video the sounds of the frogs. Sara particularly enjoyed the sounds of Africa whether it was the very loud frogs, the very loud morning birds or the lions we heard roaring every night. If you see a video with no real movement make sure the audio is turned up as it will be a sound recording.  After the frog stop we found a pride of lions on the remains of a zebra meal, and right after that a herd of understandably very agitated zebras. Listen to their barking sounds which we often mistook for hyenas. We really enjoyed watching the zebra and managed to get some videos of their carousing! It was a busy morning for elephants, we found a herd with a number of small babies. We stopped to photograph a lion in a tree and noticed the same elephant herd gradually grazing toward the tree.  The lioness stayed very quiet and still and looked carefully down as the elephants walked slowly under the tree. Since we had seen elephants chase a lion in Tarangire we were interested to see what happened, but the lion managed to go unnoticed this time. 

We stopped at a park museum for our usual enjoyable lunch time picnic, the Kon Tiki staff had the best lunches with rice and a vegetable curry for Sara and chicken for John and Ben.  We browsed the interesting open exhibit, accompanied by a very informative young guide who explained the park history, animals, plants and local tribes. We were able to see a good graphic of the annual migration and understand how important Serengeti is to the wildlife population.

Sunday seemed to be meal day for the lions as we found another pride in the afternoon eating a buffalo. We were also delighted to see more lion cubs and spent a lovely hour watching them playing with each other and the lionesses.  We headed back to camp a bit earlier than usual and enjoyed a relaxing sunset around the camp fire. 

Monday we sadly left the Kon Tiki camp, it was our favorite in Tanzania and the staff were particularly lovely. There are many options for camps on safari, and our choice was to stay with local run businesses as much as possible. The staff really work hard, living in the camp away from their family often for months at a time. 

It was noticeably greener after the rain from the previous day, it was amazing how quickly the grass and the trees grew with just a bit of rain. We stopped to watch a lone cheetah sitting on a termite mound looking out for a potential meal. The termite mounds are warm and provide a good vantage point. Speaking of termite mounds they really were interesting, each with different formations of large towers that the termites build to help cool the hive below. As an extra gift after the cheetah we noticed a beautiful serval cat hunting in the long grass. 

We began the long bumpy dusty drive out of central Serengeti to the incredible Ngorongoro  crater. To give you an idea of how bumpy there were many days our Fitbit trackers logged 25,000 steps, and all we really did was walk around camp and to the safari vehicle! At least it was good for core strengthening!

After bumping through 60KM of roads we arrived at the crater rim and descended the 4.5Km to the floor. Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest inactive and unfilled volcanic caldera and was formed two to three million years ago when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself. The crater is about 260 sq km and has different eco systems with forest, swamp and savannah all supporting a rich permanent wildlife population. We slowly drove to the main picnic area next to the fresh water lake and enjoyed another lovely hot picnic lunch. The local birds were very naughty and swopped on John several times to steal some of his food. 

After lunch we stopped to watch a large group of very stunning grey crowned cranes. Sara was excited to see one of the males performing a courtship dance, a beautiful choreography of head bobs and wing flapping with some twirls to fully show off to the female. Sorry no video of this lovely experience. Sara commented that the girls have it wrong all these years getting prettied up for the men, we should be following the bird kingdom where the men are the brightly colored ones dancing for the women!

We stopped to watch a male and female ostrich, mainly because we felt we hadn't paid the ostriches enough attention. We were rewarded to see the pair perform a complex courtship dance with a lot of wing fluttering and strutting around. The male was successful in his wooing, but we're not sharing the photos to protect the privacy of their savannah romance!

Tuesday 20th September was our last safari day. We made the most of it with a 6:30am departure so we could arrive at the crater descent gate when it opened. After the 20 minute drive down the winding road we reached the floor and immediately saw a group of sleeping lions very close to the road. We then drove into the forest and Ben's sharp eyes noticed two black rhinos in the long grass. We were very lucky to see the mother and young calf as they are quite elusive. We enjoyed this special treat for about 15 minutes before they moved into the longer grass and out of view. We spent the day driving slowly around the crater, stopping to watch the large herds of zebra who came much closer to the vehicle than in the Serengeti. We were starting to head back when we were delighted to see a serval cat relaxing in the sun, and two jackals playing with each other -  it was a perfect day.

The next day we headed back to Arusha. We stopped at one of the many shops to look at the amazing paintings and souvenirs. The local artists and wood carvers join together to sell their products at these community shops, they are all very talented and we had an enjoyable time choosing some mementos of our incredible time in Tanzania.

We very sadly said goodbye to Ben, he was an excellent guide and wonderful person and we became very close during our adventure. 

Our next update will describe the extraordinary time in Ethiopia. For now enjoy these photos and videos of our last four days on safari.

Click here for the photos and videos

(The videos have a small play arrow in the top right, make sure the sound is turned on!)

Wildlife seen: giraffe, zebra, lions on zebra kill, elephants, lion in tree, lions on buffalo kill, serval cat, hippo, cheetah, hyena, jackal (side striped), jackal (black backed), grey crowned crane, helmeted guinea fowl, arrow-marked babbler bird, ostrich, black rhino, flamingos, wildebeest, gazelles, buffalo