All images below, are uncropped frame grabs from our 6K film stock footage.

(Please note: Active words are linked to more information and trip adviser/other reviews.)

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On this filming adventure, we managed to incorporate some work and family time together and visitied part of our beautiful South Africa, that is right on our doorstep.

Leaving Somerset West with our Land Rover Discovery 4, having removed the rear passenger seats, so that we could film from within the vehicle with our 6K RED Dragon, to our first stop, that was at Intle Game Reserve. Here we enjoyed walking amongst the Antelope, watching the sunsets, drinking cocktails at the pool, playing board games, savoring a Wonderful Xmas feast, created by the resident chef, Lolly and appreciating the fantastic service from all the wonderful staff.

Our next stop was at Addo Elephant Park, where we stayed at Matyhoweni Camp and Nyati. An Elephant park it is, but it has so much more to offer. The 1,640 km2 (630 sq mi) Reserve is home to The BIG 5 and many other species. It is also great for bird watching, with a bird checklist of over 400 species, now that the park runs through to the East coast of South Africa.

The little ones have so much attitude and are not at all shy, although, getting to the water over the slippery mud is quite a challange and when they get there, they sometimes don’t seem to know how to use their trunks.

Getting back out of the water can be even more of a challange.

This was our first visit to ADDO and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay, despite the very busy peak season and a long queue to get into the park on the first day.

The Elephants seem quite calm and come very close to ones vehicle, especially at Hapoor Dam, where over a hundred Elephants come down daily, for a drink and splash in the water. From the tiny babes to the huge old males...wow, it is a sight to behold!

The above sequence proves that regardless of your size or age, there is always time for play. One of the newborns found out however, that playing with the teenagers and adults, had its drawbacks. She dashed into the water to join in on all the excitement, but, soon found herself stuck in an awkward patch of water and mud, unable to keep her head above water and gasping for air. One of the older siblings, noticing her struggle, quickly came to her rescue. He gently pushed her about 10 meters, into shallower waters and then helped her to her feet. Shocked, she stumbled back to her mother, who had moved in very close, for some love and protection.

Apart from the many antelope and Elephants that we saw, we were fortunate to see one large male Lion close up, at Ngulube Loop, many Buffalo at Peasland Waterhole, a huge herd of Wilderbeeste at Hapoor Dam, and a Spotted Hyena at Ndolovu Lookout. We also saw a few Ostrich, Yellow Mongoose, Black-Backed Jackal, Vervet Monkeys, Tortoises, a Caracal, plenty of warthog, Red Bishop’s, a few Secretary Birds, two Blue Crane, Baboons and Meerkat. We did get some really close up, slow motion, cool 6K video clips of the Black maned Lion, Elephants displaying lots of behaviour....splashing, swimming, dusting, protecting etc. and Elephant Babes suckling to name a few.

One of the other events that we were fortunate to record, just after sunset, was the a group of male Elephants jousting for position in the troop. This display continued until is was to dark for them to see……..

Returning to one of our favourite areas, Storms River, where we stayed at Misty Mountain Reserve hiking and relaxing in this gorgeous part of the Garden Route. The Tstsikamma area has been effected by fires and it was so sad to see the devastation, we do hope the area can recover fully. There are so many activities to do in this area, one can never get bored. We can highly recommend Woodfired Pizza in Storms River Village.

It was finally time to return to Cape Town and back to the office, rejuvenated and ready . We will most definitely do this trip again.

Tips for Addo Elephant Park:

Buy a Wild Card for your entrance to all Parks.
Make a Point of seeing over a Hundred Elephants at Hapoor Dam.
We were very fortunate to see a lion and two lionesses in the south of the park, at Ngulube loop.
These Elephants do seem very calm and come very close to ones car. Don’t ever block them in ...give them their space. We are the visitors in their home!
DO NOT FEED any of the animals, under any circumstances.!!
The Vervet monkeys at Matyholweni accomodation are very cheeky. Be careful as they will steal food and can get quite aggressive if one tries to shoo them away.
Stay in your vehicles !! That means ...do Not sit on your windows or pop out of your sun roof. Wild animals are used to vehicle shapes but no other extrusions!! Don’t end up being the subject of a YouTube “Unexpected Lion kill” video. However, if you insist, please give us a heads up, as we would be willing to film that stupidity in 6K :-)
Please, do NOT throw your trash out of your car!! Keep your trash until you can dispose of it where it will not litter and cause harm to animals!!!

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This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual.

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(Please note, keywords are highlighted with further information and my Trip advisor reports)

All the images below, are uncropped frame grabs from our 4K film stock

shot on this trip.

A huge thanks to our amazing dive guide Opel, at Two Fish Divers, Lembeh for finding and sharing his knowledge of the wonderful critters that we managed to capture for our RAW 4K video stock footage.

Our highlights were Bluering Octopus mating, Cowfish Courting, Clown fish with eggs where we were even able to film the eyes and hearts beating in the eggs( to complete the story of our existing footage of hatching clown fish eggs) and the newborn's.

We also saw Pygmy Seahorses, a huge Shame Faced Box Crab (Calappa spp) releasing thousands of its eggs into the ocean in a cloud, fertilized Squid eggs, a Bobtail squid covering itself with sand in disguise, Bobbit worm catching a fish, Cuttlefish hunting, a tiny Sea horse braving the raging current, a Peacock Mantis shrimp attacking the camera and loads of other fantastic behaviour and unusual critters in extreme macro.

We spent almost 4 weeks in the water here, diving 4 times a day and managed to capture so many little stories. The water temperature, weather and currents fluctuated quite a bit, but each change brought new critters.

Our filming gear worked overtime, but did not disappoint. Our RED Dragon, with Canon lens, in a Nauticam housing and our BlackMagic Production Camera with Canon lens, also in a Nauticam housing, performed seamlessly. It is so important to have reliable well built equipment in environments like this. Our 7 inch Dive and SEE monitors also made life easy when having to manually focus all the time as the critters moved around in the current.

Our hard working *Keldan Video lights* made day and night filming so easy, even when plankton clouded the lights at night.

The aerial footage was all shot with a DJI Inspire RAW carrying a Zenmuse X5R camera.

Thanks to Mark and Bev, the managers at Two Fish Divers, Lembeh and all the staff for a wonderful dive experience. A special thanks to Mark for arranging a search and recovery exercise and finding my macro lenses that I lost on a dive.

Tips:

1. We can highly recommend Two Fish Dives, Lembeh.

2.Bring plenty of bug repellent

3.Two Fish divers will efficiently arrange all your transfers and pickups

4. Drinking water is free and readily available at the Resort.

5. Ensure you have a power surge plug protector to protect your charging electronics, as there are power fluctuations.

6. Two fish divers are conveniently located, so one is able to charge batteries ect between dives, as the boat returns to the resort.

7. Free WiFi is functional and available at the resort.

This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual.