tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64291281928397237122024-03-13T15:13:14.312+00:00Martin Tyler's BlogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00935324018190114881noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-17208192818032418252013-11-24T14:07:00.000+00:002015-07-28T16:51:22.542+01:00Leopard Hills Safari Adventure<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">In August I went on a Safari in South Africa at the fantastic Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Day 1</span></span></h2>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Our Leopard Hills experience started when we were greeted by Hugo, our ranger, at the air strip. My wife Sarah and I had flown in on the small Fed Air plane along with Sandy, a Canadian woman, and her son Trevor. We didn’t know quite what was in store for us at this stage or that we would be spending a lot of the next few days with Hugo and fellow air passengers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">On arriving at Leopard Hills we were greeted by the friendly staff, who made us feel most welcome. We were given drinks and then shown to our suite. We had seen photos of the suites prior to our arrival, but in reality they exceeded our expectations and the views were breathtaking.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirX3uTlFjJrhFk0eWcx43cLhuT6zQPfmyz4WoSWxygMAgusEmhDjuylhU_U6Od83t3k4gFir8USN1Mu5wzcIXhv5cOQEBEECtF93myFhcwnJF2MEqCwUq6tgY5yBjoZGftuDm301KBJUcl/s1600/leopard_hills_room-martin_tyler-0014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Leopard Hills Room" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirX3uTlFjJrhFk0eWcx43cLhuT6zQPfmyz4WoSWxygMAgusEmhDjuylhU_U6Od83t3k4gFir8USN1Mu5wzcIXhv5cOQEBEECtF93myFhcwnJF2MEqCwUq6tgY5yBjoZGftuDm301KBJUcl/s640/leopard_hills_room-martin_tyler-0014.jpg" title="Leopard Hills Room" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">After settling in we headed back to the main building to meeting up and set off on for our first game drive. Hugo, and Eric our tracker, took us out for the evening drive and so our adventure began. Hugo asked us whether there was anything in particular we wanted to see and they went to work finding us something interesting. Luck was upon us and it wasn’t long before we were given the chance to see two leopards mating within a few feet of our Land Rover. It was a surreal experience being so close to these magnificent creatures. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2r4-m0RLNgIzDz1TcoMaeI8kiSU7fEPIPk-GVlToEg7EvMsJeAWv6lH9WwGHbPFg7Rgh8cBe0qNIAceo4Eo6sE8CqeeS-CgsayOLJkdrsA2Lt3DER0Cj_EMyRFCxdDGq2lt1oya8Argsc/s1600/sabi_sands_leopard-martin_tyler-0098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sabi Leopard" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2r4-m0RLNgIzDz1TcoMaeI8kiSU7fEPIPk-GVlToEg7EvMsJeAWv6lH9WwGHbPFg7Rgh8cBe0qNIAceo4Eo6sE8CqeeS-CgsayOLJkdrsA2Lt3DER0Cj_EMyRFCxdDGq2lt1oya8Argsc/s640/sabi_sands_leopard-martin_tyler-0098.jpg" title="Sabi Leopard" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWl_HQKFr4MmVsidQ56s_xsmUFMioMu3Ktlo4dqZV2y8Wz5djFs7Cvh54p4WddTcPNrArDliQs2niB2q3Hn_rhFE3RaZks8N-0VTVDF9vrASQjsZMC3LndV53Y7LiCf1exqeQhPtb71f-/s1600/mating_leopards-martin_tyler-0108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mating Leopards" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWl_HQKFr4MmVsidQ56s_xsmUFMioMu3Ktlo4dqZV2y8Wz5djFs7Cvh54p4WddTcPNrArDliQs2niB2q3Hn_rhFE3RaZks8N-0VTVDF9vrASQjsZMC3LndV53Y7LiCf1exqeQhPtb71f-/s640/mating_leopards-martin_tyler-0108.jpg" title="Mating Leopards" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We stayed in this spot for about twenty minutes, and then moved on when another vehicle arrived. One of the big differences about a private reserve is the number of vehicles, they have a rule of a maximum of three at a sighting, but I think this was just about the only time we had to move on because of this.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsLzUk-L9np49BJrsbyjHkeGXT9buF5BVn78Z5uoes9l4EvKxQ2nPdPI4fo5rrVPMODSTgbJiraVQYJ_avLjDPCQonW6UiFIxtsLsjKxdbaMN0kZ4hmFLqJI_NiBRIybp__lpmbZaP74Y2/s1600/sabi_sands_lone_zebra-martin_tyler-0153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lone Zebra" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsLzUk-L9np49BJrsbyjHkeGXT9buF5BVn78Z5uoes9l4EvKxQ2nPdPI4fo5rrVPMODSTgbJiraVQYJ_avLjDPCQonW6UiFIxtsLsjKxdbaMN0kZ4hmFLqJI_NiBRIybp__lpmbZaP74Y2/s640/sabi_sands_lone_zebra-martin_tyler-0153.jpg" title="Lone Zebra" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">As we continued on our drive we bumped into a few zebra before heading to a river bed area to stop for a sundowner. This is when Eric opens the bar and offers you a drink and selection of snacks. We got to stretch our legs, slightly nervously, not knowing what might be lurking nearby.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">By the time we started to head back to the lodge the sun was coming down, but that didn’t stop Eric spotting the first of our lions, one of the Selati coalition. It wasn’t long before one of his brothers joined him and we heard and felt the mighty bellows as they called out to a third brother somewhere in the darkness, quite an experience.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkXD5APtFDYu1FbizsLRVjGCx8Fc0BqWnzG8VDTvouqPLywdOTewKTR1TG_8Blf0CyxdleRoEE01zp1jhbgXFe_Ni7byQDuzueDD0zJv-o-G_gcF208rN63KtWc20PaG3QxHo-RAWv31x/s1600/yawning_male_lion-martin_tyler-0264.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tired Lion" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkXD5APtFDYu1FbizsLRVjGCx8Fc0BqWnzG8VDTvouqPLywdOTewKTR1TG_8Blf0CyxdleRoEE01zp1jhbgXFe_Ni7byQDuzueDD0zJv-o-G_gcF208rN63KtWc20PaG3QxHo-RAWv31x/s640/yawning_male_lion-martin_tyler-0264.jpg" title="Tired Lion" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">That evening we dined as a group in the main building along with Hugo, Sandy and Trevor. The meal was fantastic and we really enjoyed the company, discussing the days events and getting to know either other.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Day 2</span></span></h2>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">The 5:30am wake up was always going to be a struggle, but it was soon forgotten as we drove off on the Land Rover with blankets and hot water bottles to ward off the chilly morning air. The sun was soon up and it wasn’t long before Eric spotted some tracks leading down the road, he walked on ahead and stopped a hundred yards away having sighted two of the Selati lions again. This time the light was better for our photographs and although they seemed somewhat subdued like they had just woken up they were happy to pose for us.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5Gluew6iM0JYj40QAl3fkAYGCzGskdguKVcR1CKgSVD6n6QSkQ-uO-cyq0gA0GszWBlj9nhb_VHn8I3a_UKUaIMmJ1apguhygZlL5WuL_nmZAPeu6cePSypvJJ6N7csoMW0EHp1WiPTa/s1600/adult_male_lion-martin_tyler-1021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="King of Kruger" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5Gluew6iM0JYj40QAl3fkAYGCzGskdguKVcR1CKgSVD6n6QSkQ-uO-cyq0gA0GszWBlj9nhb_VHn8I3a_UKUaIMmJ1apguhygZlL5WuL_nmZAPeu6cePSypvJJ6N7csoMW0EHp1WiPTa/s640/adult_male_lion-martin_tyler-1021.jpg" title="King of Kruger" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Our next sighting was another leopard. This time on its own, waiting by a termite mound for something to kill. Unfortunately for both of us, no warthogs appeared, but we did see a hyena wander past and for a moment we thought we might see some action.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HXRwvLUKxLluTZ3RKWDt3I1XwiNYkS6OWOaJkWCudezRF42VYgM5ONrfuYWcoyk6mUhm2F0z0p5H3OG_Bar-1GBxHAPAN_yE47RZYZfb8FJLXAFuL7RJvdrtITHZtHQ9sFftNk2ZtJj2/s1600/leopard_sun-martin_tyler-1045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Leopard in the Sun" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HXRwvLUKxLluTZ3RKWDt3I1XwiNYkS6OWOaJkWCudezRF42VYgM5ONrfuYWcoyk6mUhm2F0z0p5H3OG_Bar-1GBxHAPAN_yE47RZYZfb8FJLXAFuL7RJvdrtITHZtHQ9sFftNk2ZtJj2/s640/leopard_sun-martin_tyler-1045.jpg" title="Leopard in the Sun" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We moved on and headed for an area to stop for a morning drink. Once again Eric pulls all the stops out with his special coffee, hot chocolate, Amarula and muffins to keep us going.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">The next encounter was with a white rhino. These are impressive beasts up close and luckily we found this one in a fairly open area.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaa4aBAhF2a1zRLwMit6Id68rNx0GZQ1flIk6hEbWxwdqnlYHV7vQO12Qe-J-MXeTfF8bpk9rxP_y3RtTaMPk2nmkX95s-UQwDqWeb1i8mZldXLaJPOTTHwwJ3VzJpUAEuDnTV7zBULN5G/s1600/feeding_white_rhino-martin_tyler-1114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Feeding White Rhino" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaa4aBAhF2a1zRLwMit6Id68rNx0GZQ1flIk6hEbWxwdqnlYHV7vQO12Qe-J-MXeTfF8bpk9rxP_y3RtTaMPk2nmkX95s-UQwDqWeb1i8mZldXLaJPOTTHwwJ3VzJpUAEuDnTV7zBULN5G/s640/feeding_white_rhino-martin_tyler-1114.jpg" title="Feeding White Rhino" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We were nearly back at Leopard Hills when we stumbled upon this elephant strolling along on his own. Only our second drive and we were up to four out of the big five already. Just the buffalo left to see.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKsnpWRLTOxSknzN7TZ-XkULwxIW_Kax2HZUjONbQKwitjlymTy0j4gUwZIaF2dSGb7rLSFXhWZnHgpvfP80l976Aon2KucRtebcpfpQ4u_DXpZWYOe1U6Ag4GL6UerKQ6odwnbjQApwG6/s1600/sabi_sands_elephant-martin_tyler-1122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sabi Sands Elephant" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKsnpWRLTOxSknzN7TZ-XkULwxIW_Kax2HZUjONbQKwitjlymTy0j4gUwZIaF2dSGb7rLSFXhWZnHgpvfP80l976Aon2KucRtebcpfpQ4u_DXpZWYOe1U6Ag4GL6UerKQ6odwnbjQApwG6/s640/sabi_sands_elephant-martin_tyler-1122.jpg" title="Sabi Sands Elephant" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">After a great breakfast back at the lodge we decided to try out the spa facilities, both enjoying excellent massages. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDBqdLDpSy9znnAQYJmvEEn-x205MmKMd_PYJtWz7z94zeGWvqlYMzRyxNfammJnwtqYapj-q1u0bY8nWpZHRkQtm6bzOg5pzXNWES6QREAjfnf58GK651jxoR3JGiZLTrqo6TX8i9jow/s1600/leopard_hills_sundeck-martin_tyler-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Leopard Hills Sundeck" border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDBqdLDpSy9znnAQYJmvEEn-x205MmKMd_PYJtWz7z94zeGWvqlYMzRyxNfammJnwtqYapj-q1u0bY8nWpZHRkQtm6bzOg5pzXNWES6QREAjfnf58GK651jxoR3JGiZLTrqo6TX8i9jow/s320/leopard_hills_sundeck-martin_tyler-.jpg" title="Leopard Hills Sundeck" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Time flies at Leopard Hills and despite the great suites, you don’t have hours to spend enjoying the deck and the views so it wasn’t long before we were back in the main building enjoying lunch overlooking the watering hole. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">The timing was perfect as an elephant came down to bathe and keep us entertained.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnOD_th_-aIY-q3fxEHO8T6GnG_nqq8IILLpKkxUc2sUsSREgBFkiWJDsSib5VrhdXGzYrEUT6DNezWETzwlcUlEuU5TyD0_jeAPMwWSokSyrsYkRoW_vFRbgmDwpbf8QllNIpxabjYlv/s1600/leopard_hills_lunch-martin_tyler-1207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Leopard Hills Lunch" border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnOD_th_-aIY-q3fxEHO8T6GnG_nqq8IILLpKkxUc2sUsSREgBFkiWJDsSib5VrhdXGzYrEUT6DNezWETzwlcUlEuU5TyD0_jeAPMwWSokSyrsYkRoW_vFRbgmDwpbf8QllNIpxabjYlv/s320/leopard_hills_lunch-martin_tyler-1207.jpg" title="Leopard Hills Lunch" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Later that afternoon we headed out for the evening drive, this time there were six of us as we were joined by a German couple. Anyone that has been on a safari will know that the impala is not the hardest animal to find, but they often run off before you can grab a good shot of them.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg27Jdi3vqUTxkC-5DXG-yXtRJvvm-UFzBDp4yQTpdJDfa5jOmLPddUpkKVyHoJNz7aW6QkPVpLb8rC_ShUgVh5abwj6uSyblwmltEOpRVk-fESHIspQPmey4r2Pt1Jt4JKvrA6oHYOLo2/s1600/sabi_sands_impala-martin_tyler-1223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Impala Duo" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg27Jdi3vqUTxkC-5DXG-yXtRJvvm-UFzBDp4yQTpdJDfa5jOmLPddUpkKVyHoJNz7aW6QkPVpLb8rC_ShUgVh5abwj6uSyblwmltEOpRVk-fESHIspQPmey4r2Pt1Jt4JKvrA6oHYOLo2/s640/sabi_sands_impala-martin_tyler-1223.jpg" title="Impala Duo" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Our first big sighting was a large herd of elephants, including a number of young calves. We watched these guys for a while and had a close encounter as we left when one of the mothers got over protective.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV63WWqvyWa1ez9N8RUlv0pjnU_8uT1GrqSRffIdWVrZC722VMTgswpNp4n5p3UHrI8478h2yEdoPCjcevri5QlnCR09bFA7fIF1zW047m8F7R5t1zcXNky3Y8l_TUrlT8hksGHcTbFE98/s1600/sabi_sands_elephant_duo-martin_tyler-1281.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Elephant Duo" border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV63WWqvyWa1ez9N8RUlv0pjnU_8uT1GrqSRffIdWVrZC722VMTgswpNp4n5p3UHrI8478h2yEdoPCjcevri5QlnCR09bFA7fIF1zW047m8F7R5t1zcXNky3Y8l_TUrlT8hksGHcTbFE98/s640/sabi_sands_elephant_duo-martin_tyler-1281.jpg" title="Elephant Duo" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">That evening we enjoyed the Boma dinner outside around the fire with the soundtrack of bellowing lions nearby. Once again the staff were all superb and friendly and the food and drink excellent.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Day 3</span></span></h2>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">A few drinks and a slightly later night had, but when 5:30am came again we couldn’t wait to get out there. Our first experience was a fast chase through the trees after some wild dogs, too fast for photos, but we caught up with them again and one stood still long enough for a snap.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifx1FTW1zd0f-DihphAPZNNFkaRaYNsg0BIODEC1PugiqyPgxQc4bwddqjPMXpVE8RrLpb99WMsbn_2jYjEK0oNoGtYTo6i1AGZKBNeA88EzzkO2Y_aEoqgUDaw6NZLiiG1-nluFmNebcg/s1600/sabi_sands_african_wild_dog-martin_tyler-2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="African Wild Dog" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifx1FTW1zd0f-DihphAPZNNFkaRaYNsg0BIODEC1PugiqyPgxQc4bwddqjPMXpVE8RrLpb99WMsbn_2jYjEK0oNoGtYTo6i1AGZKBNeA88EzzkO2Y_aEoqgUDaw6NZLiiG1-nluFmNebcg/s640/sabi_sands_african_wild_dog-martin_tyler-2020.jpg" title="African Wild Dog" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Next was one of my favourite sightings, a rhino with a young calf. At first they were concealed by the trees, but we were in for a treat as they crossed the track right in front of us.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB0Qn3tEan5gFZGJAO3_AUl7CIB9avb61m-duQW9BN4t-yzBqXF0_YH3kFogD29AjkYxozNl6FsEgU8IA2cPFi4HQ4RrNgjCO6Qe-2QriXG7cllIzqgQKSMATISABqn7hkW6GofEcyMB53/s1600/mother_and_baby_rhino-martin_tyler-2046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Strolling Rhinos" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB0Qn3tEan5gFZGJAO3_AUl7CIB9avb61m-duQW9BN4t-yzBqXF0_YH3kFogD29AjkYxozNl6FsEgU8IA2cPFi4HQ4RrNgjCO6Qe-2QriXG7cllIzqgQKSMATISABqn7hkW6GofEcyMB53/s640/mother_and_baby_rhino-martin_tyler-2046.jpg" title="Strolling Rhinos" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Our next encounter was the closest we got to witnessing a kill. Vultures, a hyena and a leopard with the remains of an impala up a tree.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOeybaU2HiKrFbW2y_dG-2afBd4Vq3FkIA11WV_StK4aFnAS94D_xazCJ5Cjs4vcFAeXAvqE7PsIhWGusRWbxZaBMuw9eaiOwScMWtv_1EQ-CqLXqPEQOB4JvgJ17xFJV4yTsWaBFQNBF/s1600/sabi_sands_hyena-martin_tyler-2062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Peering Hyena" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOeybaU2HiKrFbW2y_dG-2afBd4Vq3FkIA11WV_StK4aFnAS94D_xazCJ5Cjs4vcFAeXAvqE7PsIhWGusRWbxZaBMuw9eaiOwScMWtv_1EQ-CqLXqPEQOB4JvgJ17xFJV4yTsWaBFQNBF/s320/sabi_sands_hyena-martin_tyler-2062.jpg" title="Peering Hyena" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibJB5iymBvQOx_O2vHqHZ2uj9gtL5m-grJ_N-wN00JfbsMEeUPxzE7poDl6dCiBMlykrpp8UlMxzta05URxyxYDAw4sXkXM_nZ_kgXES1x_-rM5cK75aOsddgEgFjRn_Hwpm_er1EYy7S/s1600/leopard_grass-martin_tyler-2093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Leopard in the Grass" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibJB5iymBvQOx_O2vHqHZ2uj9gtL5m-grJ_N-wN00JfbsMEeUPxzE7poDl6dCiBMlykrpp8UlMxzta05URxyxYDAw4sXkXM_nZ_kgXES1x_-rM5cK75aOsddgEgFjRn_Hwpm_er1EYy7S/s320/leopard_grass-martin_tyler-2093.jpg" title="Leopard in the Grass" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUr7TNjffOn7eqBRX9D6LqdMM9YxWX8tAIDCUJHB4GRvwGZdmzi9JKrDAHaKXLQgXyduiR3qssdcosoL8tPz1Mj3POLYTwp5tPrUqDsB126fzrh9OmjgAMYb4v84rPLzgrBhXAtjG6xVXT/s1600/stalking_leopard-martin_tyler-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Watchful Leopard" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUr7TNjffOn7eqBRX9D6LqdMM9YxWX8tAIDCUJHB4GRvwGZdmzi9JKrDAHaKXLQgXyduiR3qssdcosoL8tPz1Mj3POLYTwp5tPrUqDsB126fzrh9OmjgAMYb4v84rPLzgrBhXAtjG6xVXT/s640/stalking_leopard-martin_tyler-.jpg" title="Watchful Leopard" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Elephants graced us again as we were returning to the lodge, a large herd chomping away on the trees by the site of the road, including this young calf.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-xYaoemudH7_Kmdk3nWIDNqn4LFmMdJve4DjZ2Gwlv4VOJ1_H22Ok8JtaxeRam943GwqJsEDXgWnWkYsYu634jKyVK9MHSBDDhyphenhyphenfVpv6eH8V7GIQE9KTxNPC0oebly8Lyp-J-CfruSVH/s1600/grazing_baby_elephant-martin_tyler-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hungry Baby Elephant" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-xYaoemudH7_Kmdk3nWIDNqn4LFmMdJve4DjZ2Gwlv4VOJ1_H22Ok8JtaxeRam943GwqJsEDXgWnWkYsYu634jKyVK9MHSBDDhyphenhyphenfVpv6eH8V7GIQE9KTxNPC0oebly8Lyp-J-CfruSVH/s640/grazing_baby_elephant-martin_tyler-2.jpg" title="Hungry Baby Elephant" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">On the evening drive we all decided to head for a pride of lions that had been seen in the north. I think this was our favourite experience of our time at Leopard Hills. We drove along a dried up sandy river bed and eventually got to the pride of lions, consisting of three females and six cubs.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Of2-GFWCtakXzMzL_FjIghxoSsDQ7F887Sp_MdhS4zSbqsdgYwNB4Hbw3_4D5PsK5AKCoziRVsqx-2Dwj5OWX4mr2YKWY18ofhEzFN_6swgazIGSaF0_NIlQKCAyH9InA2WTg554RaWX/s1600/sabi_sands_female_lion-martin_tyler-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mother Lion" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Of2-GFWCtakXzMzL_FjIghxoSsDQ7F887Sp_MdhS4zSbqsdgYwNB4Hbw3_4D5PsK5AKCoziRVsqx-2Dwj5OWX4mr2YKWY18ofhEzFN_6swgazIGSaF0_NIlQKCAyH9InA2WTg554RaWX/s640/sabi_sands_female_lion-martin_tyler-.jpg" title="Mother Lion" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">The females headed off just as we arrived, as they went to find something to kill for dinner. The cubs played around right in front of us as the sun came down.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUTZk5HGiFrzHvliuSiSh1gGo2oRxyHfYyMqZFwh0gSR_HqjBf87xtkXdnwLCyFLml7sqrCIbiGR1RiU8TVi2ETSMOBS4lm6RPQUkmkPm5vm1xGNRThqtKsDWCCQ-jalsFLyfMUi1Q4X-/s1600/sabi_sands_lion_cubs-martin_tyler-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lion Cub Trio" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUTZk5HGiFrzHvliuSiSh1gGo2oRxyHfYyMqZFwh0gSR_HqjBf87xtkXdnwLCyFLml7sqrCIbiGR1RiU8TVi2ETSMOBS4lm6RPQUkmkPm5vm1xGNRThqtKsDWCCQ-jalsFLyfMUi1Q4X-/s320/sabi_sands_lion_cubs-martin_tyler-.jpg" title="Lion Cub Trio" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmFCvM6-E5LWhcAq-G_f8ju1ZetjKfxtlhwXs0U9Yq497Y2sGspPwOAqblyXrf4qR1D7Li4nSKLNiDaXud1B6KSHSXpzGq0XchixElK3JKwt4GAgSIFx3os7caQDb4FgHc5sc8FHdgLySW/s1600/lion_cub_siblings-martin_tyler-2369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Lion Cub Siblings" border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmFCvM6-E5LWhcAq-G_f8ju1ZetjKfxtlhwXs0U9Yq497Y2sGspPwOAqblyXrf4qR1D7Li4nSKLNiDaXud1B6KSHSXpzGq0XchixElK3JKwt4GAgSIFx3os7caQDb4FgHc5sc8FHdgLySW/s320/lion_cub_siblings-martin_tyler-2369.jpg" title="Lion Cub Siblings" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaRj69X0xprcwgDGCjIpdCV47g-4ljHux2cIF9X9jne6QxTY2chjtxiVpJ5doM3M8IOGaXoeM3Xx-gyv0cln3Q22aZ6AJeL1esYkCZ87q2N6DF9CDSpZaMXmjE58wwGsEMXD_T_puEQqd/s1600/watchful_lion_cub-martin_tyler-2460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="I'm watching you" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaRj69X0xprcwgDGCjIpdCV47g-4ljHux2cIF9X9jne6QxTY2chjtxiVpJ5doM3M8IOGaXoeM3Xx-gyv0cln3Q22aZ6AJeL1esYkCZ87q2N6DF9CDSpZaMXmjE58wwGsEMXD_T_puEQqd/s640/watchful_lion_cub-martin_tyler-2460.jpg" title="I'm watching you" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">One of my favourite photos was when this cub sat on his own on this rock.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiniQC1CqiNYpdwYE6sxjD3u-PPWPcOb3pNq_ZPtOHWZPTY0zX__6rS_x9EdiqH8ubbFKfGTvCiS2yI6YFN1SMEZYN33nxZ8DxSY9Ptnj2WMTzBTGzMh0mGySVPa3N3U6PuyZEAuD1UVHHE/s1600/lone_lion_cub_rock-martin_tyler-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lone Lion Cub" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiniQC1CqiNYpdwYE6sxjD3u-PPWPcOb3pNq_ZPtOHWZPTY0zX__6rS_x9EdiqH8ubbFKfGTvCiS2yI6YFN1SMEZYN33nxZ8DxSY9Ptnj2WMTzBTGzMh0mGySVPa3N3U6PuyZEAuD1UVHHE/s640/lone_lion_cub_rock-martin_tyler-.jpg" title="Lone Lion Cub" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZDgWGpiU7dWx1Rk9pwYpWuGIjaFLKgQHiFXMJtCR5GZHGaRGnshjsQmhhUp7f-7gQd5CZCMGlZgu15XGUqZ7o9npBjISkJNiX_8q7bkkjtQAg9mxqocL9hOFMX00l1soXDNaEWXYGKbN/s1600/leopard_hills_ranger-martin_tyler-2490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Hugo Ranger" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZDgWGpiU7dWx1Rk9pwYpWuGIjaFLKgQHiFXMJtCR5GZHGaRGnshjsQmhhUp7f-7gQd5CZCMGlZgu15XGUqZ7o9npBjISkJNiX_8q7bkkjtQAg9mxqocL9hOFMX00l1soXDNaEWXYGKbN/s320/leopard_hills_ranger-martin_tyler-2490.jpg" title="Hugo Ranger" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZDgWGpiU7dWx1Rk9pwYpWuGIjaFLKgQHiFXMJtCR5GZHGaRGnshjsQmhhUp7f-7gQd5CZCMGlZgu15XGUqZ7o9npBjISkJNiX_8q7bkkjtQAg9mxqocL9hOFMX00l1soXDNaEWXYGKbN/s1600/leopard_hills_ranger-martin_tyler-2490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZDgWGpiU7dWx1Rk9pwYpWuGIjaFLKgQHiFXMJtCR5GZHGaRGnshjsQmhhUp7f-7gQd5CZCMGlZgu15XGUqZ7o9npBjISkJNiX_8q7bkkjtQAg9mxqocL9hOFMX00l1soXDNaEWXYGKbN/s1600/leopard_hills_ranger-martin_tyler-2490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZDgWGpiU7dWx1Rk9pwYpWuGIjaFLKgQHiFXMJtCR5GZHGaRGnshjsQmhhUp7f-7gQd5CZCMGlZgu15XGUqZ7o9npBjISkJNiX_8q7bkkjtQAg9mxqocL9hOFMX00l1soXDNaEWXYGKbN/s1600/leopard_hills_ranger-martin_tyler-2490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Hugo did a great job of positioning the Land Rover, which included some handy off road driving skills and some excitable swearing from the female passengers, but we all managed to stay in the vehicle!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Eric came good on his Big Five promise and found us our buffalo, a herd of about twenty, including these two butting heads.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj4CXx_Ubs4BkIWmdoZxbPfuqr08IhZ5o8GZPSYmDPj0SErgwtQ8e3CGN66ud8t3X5Jiazk0RSEUi3ubG3F2xjOWWHxCJjLnhOVC6Xads25zmBJwXYvuEsVF9Qe3Q5Dt_qWeuqe-GluvhZ/s1600/sabi_sands_buffalo-martin_tyler-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Buffalo" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj4CXx_Ubs4BkIWmdoZxbPfuqr08IhZ5o8GZPSYmDPj0SErgwtQ8e3CGN66ud8t3X5Jiazk0RSEUi3ubG3F2xjOWWHxCJjLnhOVC6Xads25zmBJwXYvuEsVF9Qe3Q5Dt_qWeuqe-GluvhZ/s640/sabi_sands_buffalo-martin_tyler-.jpg" title="Buffalo" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_3RHu_OvYW9hAujBFwfluCBPVDnrVcyhLRPv4yOjDRpF1OcNmfRpER0n8TL_vknTrNk55gCoCLtIGAvKX5q1Fg7-PME8mrL6tw9cE2aTHNHJrXdmuj6u4-HgvKi55owo86FtvjoHawfJ/s1600/sunset_buffalo-martin_tyler-2515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sunset Buffalo" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_3RHu_OvYW9hAujBFwfluCBPVDnrVcyhLRPv4yOjDRpF1OcNmfRpER0n8TL_vknTrNk55gCoCLtIGAvKX5q1Fg7-PME8mrL6tw9cE2aTHNHJrXdmuj6u4-HgvKi55owo86FtvjoHawfJ/s320/sunset_buffalo-martin_tyler-2515.jpg" title="Sunset Buffalo" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rw7ksFo4mQqzS0MKCgUkL07rfp51Wb7T6kT-fGEoA0ZhUDG_KLsuPQmkW5eM9qnfthf6_rEC5cSe1vPeMigznRpPLGRrEF4GiBp7IvPIc2IEcdE8ASi7gYzv56p7rV_c5IG0AQXKDaz9/s1600/leopard_hills_sundowners-martin_tyler-2541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Leopard Hills Sundowners" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rw7ksFo4mQqzS0MKCgUkL07rfp51Wb7T6kT-fGEoA0ZhUDG_KLsuPQmkW5eM9qnfthf6_rEC5cSe1vPeMigznRpPLGRrEF4GiBp7IvPIc2IEcdE8ASi7gYzv56p7rV_c5IG0AQXKDaz9/s320/leopard_hills_sundowners-martin_tyler-2541.jpg" title="Leopard Hills Sundowners" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We stopped again for sundowners and as we sipped on our gin and tonics Eric told us stories of being charged by buffalo.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Day 4</span></span></h2>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Our last morning started the same as the two before it with a spectacular orange sky and the expectation of another drive.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_vi8E6lC1vai9buMogtSFSkC1qc0jLbiaUMGtfiUaT6I4hzjDlINpKE8WaWE-_HOcLToaE5Cmwnkjl_MZBkKwAECeOn-E3RgqTQkIp5F9HX_Ns8uQUPraU_BxCknmPg7Y3KO96nSDDne/s1600/sabi_sands_sunrise-martin_tyler-3000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sabi Sunrise" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_vi8E6lC1vai9buMogtSFSkC1qc0jLbiaUMGtfiUaT6I4hzjDlINpKE8WaWE-_HOcLToaE5Cmwnkjl_MZBkKwAECeOn-E3RgqTQkIp5F9HX_Ns8uQUPraU_BxCknmPg7Y3KO96nSDDne/s640/sabi_sands_sunrise-martin_tyler-3000.jpg" title="Sabi Sunrise" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We spent some time tracking a leopard and also some drag marks left by hyenas and their kill.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXayJIvET4wBISrrAUbmwG3DwboH4oZxeojww84NR9ir5UKGZ3B0bs_0bSfSn2QiL3u-0ECTq5kp9fpajehmZkeUf5CAh5Ca5NV2tR9Rz_dTKkLjMkaxfeecPS2Io5gD2JEmnO9HROX08t/s1600/early_hyena-martin_tyler-3027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Early Hyena" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXayJIvET4wBISrrAUbmwG3DwboH4oZxeojww84NR9ir5UKGZ3B0bs_0bSfSn2QiL3u-0ECTq5kp9fpajehmZkeUf5CAh5Ca5NV2tR9Rz_dTKkLjMkaxfeecPS2Io5gD2JEmnO9HROX08t/s640/early_hyena-martin_tyler-3027.jpg" title="Early Hyena" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm4hgDIr7pdz4_ia_pqCnB0i4-ldUIUsqsYxGqQCVIqXYXfvcew9CdgyEEfw9D5Do-h0QvUXQNc-WJW_o31tdVIGH2SytX1DnaQ3uCr6d8w9LSb05Drm31NGyzYWrTY3B3aFjZ-5BG1rIE/s1600/leopard_hills_tracker-martin_tyler-3033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Eric Tracker" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm4hgDIr7pdz4_ia_pqCnB0i4-ldUIUsqsYxGqQCVIqXYXfvcew9CdgyEEfw9D5Do-h0QvUXQNc-WJW_o31tdVIGH2SytX1DnaQ3uCr6d8w9LSb05Drm31NGyzYWrTY3B3aFjZ-5BG1rIE/s320/leopard_hills_tracker-martin_tyler-3033.jpg" title="Eric Tracker" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We actually left Eric for about twenty minutes while he tracked on foot, and thankfully found him again unharmed. We then worked our way towards the hyena’s den.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We found two adults with two excitable puppies, happy to perform for us.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtsxcUtIoz4aSEYeRloxFpotYg3WNvQKejEbwV8EJ31LFrzI89N8g14fufidfmj2bAAUg2zjGX9pCV4BAeVE2f6Vp9OpN7PybY0a7p-g_NBMOXLI9aCw2-JwElt36YRf1O_t-mN17F5lW/s1600/playful_hyena_cubs-martin_tyler-3067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Playful Hyena Cubs" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtsxcUtIoz4aSEYeRloxFpotYg3WNvQKejEbwV8EJ31LFrzI89N8g14fufidfmj2bAAUg2zjGX9pCV4BAeVE2f6Vp9OpN7PybY0a7p-g_NBMOXLI9aCw2-JwElt36YRf1O_t-mN17F5lW/s640/playful_hyena_cubs-martin_tyler-3067.jpg" title="Playful Hyena Cubs" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvtoAufUMbNvd8iWXtIzQ5S2yV0ltVawLofuiDxDy0wZk6CwzK7-kmrU6kOD_zNv6mi0iekxVK1EfHWfUVN89i9u3XJE-ZGMc-tS_KtHQ1c576SI6YrDI6szK_5mnoeJpv-eYtM5eQ-yy/s1600/hyena_cubs-martin_tyler-3077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hyena Cubs" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvtoAufUMbNvd8iWXtIzQ5S2yV0ltVawLofuiDxDy0wZk6CwzK7-kmrU6kOD_zNv6mi0iekxVK1EfHWfUVN89i9u3XJE-ZGMc-tS_KtHQ1c576SI6YrDI6szK_5mnoeJpv-eYtM5eQ-yy/s640/hyena_cubs-martin_tyler-3077.jpg" title="Hyena Cubs" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">Our final experience was to get out of the Land Rover and track a giraffe on foot through the trees. Hugo told us not to run if something came towards us, but my wife said she couldn’t make any promises. Unfortunately the giraffe was quite skittish and kept running away as we got close.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7443wYn8DkzLQMVefBIrdGF987ahKMK6MEApDuK5i0FeZrqlEIG1GJm9KZ8Db7T-eWh91alPbBeIZnYHkik-Xu-WjTvNTgX_jVZeQkT_Io2tmW2Z_i_shKV2GjD8_x0ZSFeyOf2g3AnWO/s1600/sabi_sands_giraffe-martin_tyler-3127.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Giraffe on the Road" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7443wYn8DkzLQMVefBIrdGF987ahKMK6MEApDuK5i0FeZrqlEIG1GJm9KZ8Db7T-eWh91alPbBeIZnYHkik-Xu-WjTvNTgX_jVZeQkT_Io2tmW2Z_i_shKV2GjD8_x0ZSFeyOf2g3AnWO/s640/sabi_sands_giraffe-martin_tyler-3127.jpg" title="Giraffe on the Road" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">We arrived back at Leopard Hills for the final time, sad it was over, but still on a high from all we had seen and done. Hugo and Eric were fantastic, knowledgable and entertaining, and the service from all the staff back at base was exceptional and they made us feel like old friends. I’m sure most people leave Leopard Hills wanting to go back and we were no different in that regard and we cannot wait to get that chance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.296875px;">A big thank you to all at Leopard Hills.</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00935324018190114881noreply@blogger.com2Kruger Park, South Africa-24.943728712051435 31.48406982421875-25.173970712051435 31.161346324218751 -24.713486712051434 31.806793324218749tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-36541434937224080752012-09-15T20:59:00.001+01:002012-09-15T21:01:36.991+01:00Facebook photo sharing frustrationsWow, how difficult could it be? Very difficult!<br />
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I posted a photo shoot of some bands to a Facebook 'group' for the record company. Now, it seems unlike every other kind of post, photo or photo album in Facebook, ones in groups, even public groups, cannot be shared. Next to the 'like' and 'comment' links there is no 'share' link at all. Looked around for all kinds of other ways and nothing.<br />
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One of the bands then asked me to post the photos to their 'page' - note that this is a 'page' not a 'group' (although I don't really know why Facebook has these two separate concepts). So although I didn't really want two copies of the photos on Facebook, I uploaded them again to an album on my own personal page. Titled and re-tagged them all and thought I was almost done...<br />
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So, I clicked on one of the photos of this band, yes, I get a 'share' link, phew. The share dialog box comes up, defaulting to 'On your own timeline', I click on that to drop down the other options.. and what do you get? Two more choices, 'On a friend's timeline' and 'In a group'. But wait, what about sharing to a 'page', nope, you cannot do that!<br />
<br />
This isn't about permissions, you can post a photo to the page if I upload a new copy, but you can't share an existing photo to the page.<br />
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I wish Facebook would sort out this stuff.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00935324018190114881noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-14185924225959980092012-03-04T22:47:00.003+00:002012-03-04T22:53:12.307+00:00AirDrop and Apple IDs - it's meant to be simple!AirDrop is a feature added on Mac OS X Lion. Before lion, if I wanted to send a file to another computer, for example my wife sitting next to me, there were a number of options - AirDrop was brought in to make this simple!<br />
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The simplest way for your average user is probably sending an email attachment. It works, but it's a bit much.. it clogs up your email, you have a number of steps too.<br />
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Another way is to do some kind of network sharing - this usually works too, but needs a bit of setup.<br />
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So when I heard about AirDrop I thought it sounded good, simple, 'it just works' etc. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work!<br />
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If my wife is sending to me, she will get an error about an invalid certificate. If I am sending to her, I get a message about it being declined - even though no message appears on her MacBook.<br />
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Apparently, even though AirDrop uses some kind of adhoc local wifi, it uses Apple IDs to help identify people. The thing that fixes the problems above is to go into my user account in System Preferences, remove the Apple ID from my account and add it back in, exactly the same as it was. Since I have only used AirDrop a few times I don't know if this always happened or when it started.<br />
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<br />
Now, to come on to Apple IDs. Recently I had to change my password on my Apple ID. I think I ended up having to change it in 4 places on my iPhone and 3 places on my MacBook. I can understand having to enter the new password on both devices, and I understand that there are multiple applications or features that use Apple IDs, and they support you using different IDs in each - However, 99% of users will be using the same Apple ID for all these applications/features - so come up with something better please Apple. You managed to do it for Twitter accounts, but not for your own accounts!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00935324018190114881noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-50697098138377305202012-02-12T23:39:00.000+00:002012-02-12T23:40:18.304+00:00Why does iMessage suck so much?I travel home from work on the London underground, the Metropolitan line to be precise, which not underground all the way, there are various points along the way where you can get phone reception. Quite often I am using my phone to let my wife know how far from home I am. Sometimes she is also on the same journey home, so at any one time either or both of us could be underground.<br />
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We used to use SMS messages to communicate, but if you don't have reception when the other person sends you a message, you don't get the message as soon as you get reception. The impression I get is the network provider attempts to resend the message, but often on a fairly long interval. As you can imagine, that is pretty useless.<br />
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Next we moved to using email, which actually works quite well. The sender knows it is sent, and the receiver can get the message as soon as they have reception. This seems good, but there are two relatively minor downsides. Firstly, email is a bit heavy weight for a short conversation - the iPhone Messages app gives you a nice conversation view, but with email you are building up a message that gets bigger each time due to the quoted text. Secondly, I don't usually have 'push' email on due to battery life.<br />
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So, when iMessage first came along I thought it would have the best of both SMS and Email worlds. Sadly it is actually worse than both. It seems to me that when you send an iMessage the communication is between the two iPhones rather than going via a server. Obviously it goes via a server in terms of network, but that is more routing than anything else - it doesn't seem to go to the equivalent of a mail server. This means both iPhones have to have reception at the same time. There's a fallback to sending an SMS, which seems to kick in sometimes, a bit randomly. It wouldn't be so bad if the device let you know what was happening - but what actually happens is not really that deterministic. It lets you think you have sent a message, when it hasn't, if you are lucky you might get a failure 20 minutes later. Sometimes sending a new message will flush through the previous 3 that you didn't know hadn't been successful. Sometimes you will never get a failure, but the recipient never gets it. When I get home I can check my wife's iPhone and it can look like a totally different conversation, messages missed, different order. It really is totally unreliable.<br />
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I conclude that Email is still the best form of communication for this kind of scenario - the sender and receiver are completely decoupled and the message immediately available (push or pull) to the recipient when they have reception.<br />
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So, Apple, why does iMessage suck so much?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00935324018190114881noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-25213367682135696192010-05-03T23:48:00.000+01:002010-05-03T23:48:33.944+01:00Duckworth Lewis doesn't work for 20/20!Ok, I am talking Cricket, if you didn't know that then you should probably just move along.<br />
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England just lost to the West Indies in a rain affected 20/20 match. Every time I see a reduced 20/20 match, the target for the second innings just seems way too easy.<br />
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The duckworth lewis system was designed for 50 over matches, which have a minimum of 20 overs when reduced. However, 20/20 games are often reduced to just 5 overs. When the first innings is completed and the second innings reduced, duckworth lewis will set a target that is usually a bit higher than the run rate equivalent, to account for the fact that the last overs are usually higher scoring. When you are talking about a 50 over game reduced to 30 overs, this makes some sense. For a 20/20 match reduced to 5 overs a team with 10 wickets has almost zero risk and can just throw the bat at it.<br />
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England scored a pretty decent 191 in their 20 overs. 9.55 runs/over. West Indies target for the 6 overs was 60 (thats 10 runs/over, but if you're still reading this i'm sure you could work that out). Where's the risk in that? 10 wickets to score just slightly higher run rate for 6 overs only? I was surprised it went as close as it did!<br />
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Ronnie Irani suggested on Twitter that maybe your wickets should be reduced. So you have to score 60, but with only 5 wickets, which puts the risk back into the chase.<br />
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I think a combination of reducing wickets and just adjusting the duckworth lewis formula a bit to be more appropriate to such short matches would lead to much better, and fairer, 20/20 games.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-12473272213718136442010-05-02T21:21:00.000+01:002010-05-02T21:21:53.094+01:00Getting Things Done - Cross Platform GTDGTD is something I have been aware of for a number of years and only really toyed with it until recently, never really getting over that hurdle. Maybe the hurdle was higher due to the tools I tried or maybe I just didn't put enough effort into setting it up well and using it properly.<br />
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Back to today. I use a Mac at home, and Linux and Windows at work (side by side), truely cross platform. I also have an iPhone. I'm going to blog more about general cross platform things at a later date, but here I am concentrating on GTD.<br />
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For the last few months I have been using Evernote for GTD. Evernote is not strictly a GTD application, but using its notebooks and tags you can use it for GTD without too much trouble. The best thing about Evernote is it runs on Mac, Windows and iPhone, and syncs to the cloud. Unfortunately I recently decided that the generic features of Evernote don't work well enough for me for GTD. I blogged about <a href="http://blog.boo.org/2010/04/gmail-tags-and-folders.html">hierarchical tagging</a> recently with an example of how Evernote doesn't cut it for what I was using it for.<br />
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So I have been looking at other tools. I had heard about <a href="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/">Omnifocus</a> and gave the free trial a go. Omnifocus is Mac and iPhone only. With no Mac at work I knew this wouldn't be the solution for me, but wanted to check it out. Omnifocus seems to do everything right and is built for the job, unlike Evernote. Contexts have hierarchies which work just how I want them, you can click on a parent and see all tasks with the child contexts. It also has folders for projects, which also work the same, so useful for projects with sub-projects, or having top level items such as 'Work' and 'Personal'. Another feature of Omnifocus which seems good is the parallel or sequential project types which determine which tasks are actionable. Tasks can have sub tasks, useful if you need to break something down further. Omnifocus doesn't just have the feature set, it has the UX - navigating around the app is great and data entry intuitive. If there was a windows version, or an online version, I would be all over this.<br />
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Another Mac only app that gets lots of attention is <a href="http://culturedcode.com/things/">Things</a>, but for the same reasons it's not for me.<br />
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When you run three different operating systems you often end up using web based cloud solutions. There are dozens of Task and GTD based web apps out there. I'll skip through a few I tried for only a few minutes:<br />
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<ul><li><a href="http://www.simplegtd.com/">SimpleGTD</a> - as the name suggests, simple, too simple.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.todoist.com/">TODOIST</a> - still too simple, it has hierachy but it doesn't do anything but indent.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/">Remember the Milk</a> - not a nice UI, not really GTD.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.toodledo.com/views/index.php">Toodledo</a> - Tons of features, horrible to use though.</li>
</ul><br />
So I finally ended up at Nirvana, literally, well close anyway. <a href="http://www.nirvanahq.com/">Nirvana</a> is great and appears to be actively developed with new features on the way. It seems designed well for GTD, great looking UI and really nice to use. I am sticking with this for a while. However there are some things that I would like it to do and hopefully the guys will implement them soon.<br />
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<ul><li>Project hierarchies, like Omnifocus does it. They are working on something along these lines called Areas of Focus.</li>
<li>Context hierachies, like Omnifocus does it - this seems less likely based on how it currently works.</li>
<li>Actionable tasks - there is the concept of 'Next' but only for non project tasks.</li>
<li>Contexts and Projects to show how many items there are in them - I want to see, at a glance, that I have some things to get done at the shops.</li>
<li>Project tags - Projects can have tags, but it's only useful for filtering the list of projects, they should work on all the tasks within the project too.</li>
</ul><br />
Looks like Nirvana will work for me and hopefully some of the features above will come along soon.<br />
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So have I missed anything? Would something else tick all my boxes better than Nirvana?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-71415007261095160792010-04-14T22:23:00.000+01:002010-04-14T22:23:20.454+01:00Gmail labels - on mails or conversations?I make use of Gmail labels (tags) to categorise my email and I like the way Gmail keeps all emails from a thread in a single conversation. However, I have never been able to work out exactly how they have implemented it..<br />
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From the interface, a label is on a conversation - either in the list of conversations, or when you open up a conversation and get the labels at the top (not on each email). This seems fine, it is how I would expect it to work since conversations are a major part of Gmail.<br />
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The problem is, i'm not sure it is really implemented as it would seem. If you label a conversation, then send a reply to that conversation what happens? Is your reply really labelled? Try this - send two separate emails and label them both from your Sent Mail. Now go into the first one and reply to it. Now click on the label and your'll see both your conversations - but what order are they in? It's the order of the original two mails, the reply didn't affect the order. It might not matter in this case, but what if you replied to an older mail in a label that has lots of conversations in it - I have often got confused looking for a conversation that I knew I had replied to on a particular day but it was actually in the list a lot further back, maybe not even on the first page.<br />
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However, if you send those two separate emails, reply to the first one and THEN label them, you get the expected order.<br />
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Maybe this is deliberate, but I cannot see a scenario where this makes sense - everything about the UI and operation of Gmail indicates that a label is on a conversation not an individual mail, but it just doesn't seem to be implemented like that!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-45070381923066602222010-04-12T23:11:00.001+01:002010-04-13T11:29:54.271+01:00Gmail tags and foldersEveryone knows Gmail uses tags (or rather labels) instead of hierarchical folders. Tags are quite common in applications these days and allow a more flexible means of organising things without the limitations of folders. Traditionally email apps have used folders though, and lots of people have got used to that - so lots of people don't really get on with gmail labels and want folders.<br />
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Some people go to the extreme of saying they don't need tags OR folders in Gmail because the search is so good, but that's missing the point - there are two use cases in play with email:<br />
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<ol><li>Finding a specific email that you are looking for - search works well here</li>
<li>Finding all emails about a particular subject - it's pretty difficult to come up with search criteria to do this for you</li>
</ol><div>Tags allow you to categorise your mails, and most importantly, use multiple tags on the same email, which you cannot do with folders. This is a key feature.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Gmail just added some hierarchy to their tags (<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_gmail_giving_up_on_tagging.php">mentioned by ReadWriteWeb</a>) but its a fairly hacky looking 'labs' feature from what I can tell. The ReadWriteWeb article seems to get it a bit wrong really.. I see no evidence of giving up on tagging - the feature simply allows you to organise your tags in a hierarchy, cleaning up your list of tags. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Proper hierarchical tagging is something I would like to see, and not just in Gmail - how about Evernote and other apps? In fact Evernote might be an easier example..</div><div><br />
</div><div>In Evernote they have a similar nod towards hierarchy that actually does nothing but organise your tag list. I have a tag hierarchy for my house project, 'House -> Top Floor -> Office' etc, but I have to remember to tag an item relating to my office with 'House', 'Top Floor' and 'Office' to achieve what I want. What is it I want? To be able to click on 'House' and get all items relating to my house, or 'Top Floor' and get all items relating to the top floor. If I just tagged with 'Office' the fact that 'Office' is actually a tag in a hierarchy is completely lost other than where I click on the tag name.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Do any applications implement a decent hierarchical tagging system?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-18798503003951170862010-04-02T10:31:00.002+01:002010-04-13T11:30:41.894+01:00Mac and Windows Backup StrategyFor a while I have been thinking about and gradually improving my backup strategy and I now think I am close to being happy with it - for a while at least!<br />
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I have a MacBook Pro, a MacBook and a Windows desktop which is mainly just a server for my music etc. So, a mixed operating system setup, which can complicate things.<br />
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Anyone reading about backup strategies should already know that it is important to have multiple backups, onsite and offsite. Different kinds of backup are useful for different scenarios - sometimes you just need to recover some files that were accidentally deleted, sometimes a whole drive may have failed, and sometimes that drive may be your main OS drive and you need to be able to get up and running as quickly as possible.<br />
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With that in mind, everything needs to be backed up, in some way or another, but some data may have specific backups. Things that are important to me are my music files, my photo files and my documents so I pay particular attention to these.<br />
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So where have I got to?<br />
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<b>Local backups and archives...</b><br />
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My MacBook Pro is my main machine, this is backed up to an external USB drive using <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/time-machine.html">Time Machine</a> - this gives me backup of my whole machine, with decent history, useful for those deleted/corrupted file scenarios. My MacBook is also backed up this way.<br />
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I like backups that are accessible without using any special software. I backup my photos from my MacBook Pro to my Windows server - this is my iPhoto Library as well as my RAW files, getting on for 100GB. I also backup my MP3s to my server too. Actually my MP3s are created on my server, so I actually sync them from my server to my MacBook Pro, then they sync back once iTunes has added cover art to them.<br />
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It took a while but I finally found something that does this reasonably well - <a href="http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html">ChronoSync</a>. This covers both scenarios above - one way backup, and bidirectional synchronisation. After a few hiccups in setup, this appears to now be handling the iPhoto Library package file properly. With this setup I have two copies of my photos and MP3s in forms accessible on both machines.<br />
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<b>Convenient Sync...</b><br />
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My documents - I have an extra requirement for my documents, I like to be able to access them from multiple places, including at work where I use both Linux and Windows. This is where <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/">DropBox</a> is excellent, all my documents are automatically synchronised via the cloud to all my machines. DropBox triggers the sync when any file changes. I'd love a local version of this so I could use it for larger files between local machines, my ChronoSync setup is on a scheduled basis, not triggered.<br />
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So apart from my documents all my data is still onsite, albeit in two or three places. Also, although DropBox keeps a history and deleted files it's best not to rely on this as a backup - if you delete a file DropBox will delete it off all your machines.<br />
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<b>Backup to the Cloud...</b><br />
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There are lots of places that do cloud based backup, with varying feature sets and costs. I settled on <a href="http://www.crashplan.com/">CrashPlan</a> for a few reasons: it is cross platform and the license covers multiple machines, these requirements whittles down your shortlist very quickly! Unlimited data is also important. Another feature of CrashPlan is being able to backup to a local disk, external disk, another machine on your network or even another machine over the Internet, eg a friends machine. All these cost you nothing, apart from the CrashPlan Central cloud storage itself. I am yet to test a backup recovery, but it appears to meet my needs.<br />
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I use CrashPlan to backup my Documents and photos (just my jpgs) from my MacBook Pro to both the cloud and my server. The photos is overkill and were setup before ChronoSync was setup, but it doesn't hurt. It is redundant since all the stuff I backup to my server is also backed up to the cloud by CrashPlan. So that means all my photos and MP3s, in addition to this, I also have all my music in FLAC format on my server, which is also backed up to the cloud.<br />
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So what is missing? If you have paid attention you will realise that my FLAC files are only in one place locally. Getting 200GB+ of data back from the cloud would take a long time so a local backup is needed. This is on Windows though, so ChronoSync won't help me, it's also licensed per machine which is annoying. I am going to give <a href="http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html">SyncBack</a> a go to duplicate my FLAC files to a separate disk in the server or maybe an external drive.<br />
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<b>Clone it...</b><br />
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There's also something else to try - if my laptop drive fails I have all my data, and Time Machine will get me back to where I was fairly well, but you need to have installed a new drive before you can restore from Time Machine, both of which take time of course. The solution? a clone backup. <a href="http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html">SuperDuper</a> seems the popular choice for this. A clone backup means you can boot from the external drive and be backup and running in seconds. Of course you still need to get that replacement drive and copy over, but at least you can do stuff in the mean time.<br />
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That's it. I've never needed any of this, but one day I will. The only time I have had problems is when my only backup was a Time Machine backup of my laptop. However, the backup drive failed, and a few days later the laptop drive failed! This highlighted the need for multiple backups very well! I managed to recover nearly everything though using the old trick of putting the drive in the freezer for a minute or so. Yes it works! I had to do it about 10 times as I could only copy a certain amount before it would fail again.<br />
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Think about what data you have and what would happen if a drive fails. Are all your backups local? Some people take disks round to the friends house weekly, but for me and automated system is the only way, anything manual will not get done at some point.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-76958097062570359122010-04-01T23:51:00.002+01:002010-04-01T23:53:00.513+01:00A year..It's been a year since I setup this blog and I haven't written anything since. Been married a year now and moved into a nice big house 6 months ago. Maybe I will starting blogging about some vaguely interesting things soon!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-60442131032915886502009-03-25T14:15:00.002+00:002009-03-25T14:21:23.725+00:00WeddingI am heading off to New Zealand on Friday to get married. We're going via LA to Auckland, and then down to Queenstown where the wedding will be held at Stoneridge Estate. We're honeymooning in Hawaii and San Francisco and hope to have lots of nice photos coming soon!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6429128192839723712.post-11052950966561605532008-07-16T20:19:00.001+01:002008-07-16T20:19:43.749+01:00First postI am just testing this out at the momentUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0