Jonathan & Angela Scott’s Blog

By chance during my time at Queens University in Belfast Northern Ireland (1968-72) the Department of Zoology was very big on parasitology (Dr Threadgold was Head of
Parisitology along with Dr Arme (sp?) and Dr Halton – but Threadgold was the key). I did my Honours thesis on parasitology and not surprisingly ended up pretty interested in parasites – and what better practical laboratory for that than Africa on my overland trip in 1974. The bugs got to me pretty early on! During the trip from London to Johburg I managed to get malaria in Zaire (despite taking the prophylatic of the day called Nivaquine) and amoebic dysentery too. Since then I’ve have a number of encounters with had both giardia and bilharzia (shistosomiasis). In fact Angie and I managed to get a bout of malaria that erupted on the very same day after a trip to Samburu in northern Kenya. We woke up in Nairobi one morning feeling like death warmed up and just looked at
each other and said ‘we have got malaria’, and headed for the Casualty Dept of Nairobi Hospital.

I even managed to get a bout of’ recurrent’ malaria while waiting for a train to arrive on the platform of the London underground a while back. I suddenly felt cold and shivery and just knew what was happening – so rang the Hospital of Tropical diseases in St Pancras and said ‘I have malaria, what course of treatment should I take.’ In Kenya things are pretty free and easy and you can just go to a chemist if you feel unwell and get presecription drugs over the counter. I had to laugh when the doctor said ‘come in for a
blood test and bring your pajamas’, not just because of the fact that bush-types like me gave up wearing pajamas a long time ago!. I felt pretty awful by the time I got to the hospital. When the doctor examined my blood test he got incredibly excited and insisted that I take a look down his microscope. ‘Haven’t seen one of these for years’, he enthused. Turned out that I had Plasmodium vivax, the recurrent form of malaria. In fact I had been treated for malaria a few months earlier in Nairobi hospital, but they had evidently forgotten to give me the second course of treatment (a drug known as Primaquine) to kill off the parasites once they disappear from your blood under the onslaught of Chloroquine. Under these circumstances the malaria parasites encyst in your liver and then reappear some time later – usually when you are feeling a bit run down. The doctor sat me down and told me that I should heed the fact that Africa was ‘the
white man’s grave’ and it was about time I came home to good old England –
which was the last thing I wanted to do. They hooked me up to a quinine drip for
a day or so in hospital and followed it up with a course of Primaquine which
soon got me back on my feet, though the quinine did make me feel as if someone had stuffed their fingers in my ears.

The truth of the matter is that apart from the wildlife it was always the ‘Wild West’ element that excited me about living in Africa in the first place. There was no way I was leaving. 36 years later I’m still here.

Just sharing that with you – someone from Queens enquired about my connection to Africa and the link to Queens – but I am not sure that this was what they meant!!

Our Travel Club is almost up and running! So what is the point of it all? Well, we wanted to share with you how we live, work and travel. What does it take to get the best out of each destination? What are our main areas of interest and the places we most like to photograph? We will be drawing together all the information we can lay our hands on – and all our top tips to help you travel to great destinations and hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls we have experienced along they way.

Travelling and photographing are the things we like to do most, and we have adpated our lives to achieving that reality. We will keep feeding back our thoughts and tips about how to get the most out of locations we have visited and will be focusing intially on Kenya and India.

With this in mind we are just putting together a whole document for the Travel Club on what equipment we use and how we work as photographers in the field, everything from what cameras and lenses we like most, to our favourite backpacks and binoculars.

Talking about binoculars I am just enjoying my Swarovski Swarovision 10×42 high definition binocs in our garden. I am catching up on our Bird Checklist as we have the most amazing variety of birds on our 10 acre property, everything from African Hawk Eagles to tiny Little Bee-Eaters. Of the songbirds the White-Browed Robin-Chat is my favourite. I could go on……….

We have friends coming round for lunch any minute so better help Angie in the kitchen – pasta with our secret pasta sauce, plus fresh spinach and salad from our veggie garden. Our friends set out overland from north Africa four months ago and have recently arrived in Nairobi. They are off to the Mara tomorrow – surprise surprise at that choice! Can’t wait to hear all their adventures.

As a subscriber to CatNews I was delighted to find an editorial and review of a new book called The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. 2010. Edited by David Macdonald and Andrew Loveridge, Oxford University Press. It is said to be a state-of-the-art compilation of our knowledge on wild cats and how to conserve them. The 9 Chapters od Part 1 are reviews, starting with a complete account of all 36 felid species, followed by chapters on phylogeny and evolution, felid form and function, genetic applications, felid societies, management and conflicts, conservation and research techniques, ex situ programmes, and wild felid diseases. Part II presents 19 case studies on lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, snow leopards, pumas, wildcat, Eurasian lynx, Iberian lynx, Canada lynx, black-footed cat, ocelot, and Andean cat. As important as the list of species is the variety topics covered, which range from research and ecology to diseases, small populations and conflicts with humans, to conservation and adaptive management. The final chapter discusses the future of felids in an inter-disciplinary and farsighted approach.

Personally I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy – and it will be top of our shopping list when we hit London next month.

Apologies to one and all for the long absence – mainly driven by the lack of internet on our travels to Botswana and the Serengeti.

What a stroke of luck to bump into Rebecca at Sopa Lodge at Ngorongoro Crater. Delighted to see you Rebecca after all the great contribution you have been making to the Blog – just sorry we didn’t have more time to catch up. Next time!

The Delta was as beautiful as ever and we saw wild dogs at a den and leopard too. The Serengeti was just awesome – those plains and the kopjes are like nowhere else in the world. More on that another time.

We are off to the UK in a couple of weeks. We will be at the Bird Fair all three days (20-22 Aug at Rutland Water) – we always look forward to this event – just so much to see, loads of good camera kit on display and binoculars and outdoor wear – so a great place to network while enjoying a beautiful location with some great talks and fun events. Hope to see some of you there.

Details of our two Rekero trips (Feb and Oct 2011) will be online shortly – and we will be hosting safaris in Zambia 2011 – and maybe even Bhutan and Sri Lanka, two places we have always wanted to visit.

The Serengeti Highway is still the hot topic and we would be interested to hear more of your views on that – is it really necessary, how much will it benefit the local community, and how much will it impact the migration??

We have a referendum here in Kenya on the 4 August to decide on whether the country will adopt the proposed new Constitution. So we are all hoping for a peaceful outcome. It will be a test for us as to how our next elections might pan out in 2012.

Wishing you all a happy day!

Jonathan and Angie

Well here we are once again – familiar territory! It is getting late – or at least my eyes tell me that it is time for bed. The bags are in the hallway, the camera jacket has 15 kg of camera gear in it – I wont be wearing it but will be carrrying it over my shoulder at the airport. The car comes at 5.00am tomorrow – 8.20 flight to Lusaka then to Livingstone and Vic Falls tomorrow – next day Botswana and the beginning of the real safari.

Found a great little device for paranoid travellers – it is a pocket electronic scales – Luggage Scale by Design Co. Much better than those metal manual ones – really gives a true readout – uses a couple of triple A batteries.

Will be out of contact for a couple of weeks – but will write up my notes and post them when we get back. That is on the 5 July and then on 7 July I am off to Serengeti for Lions: The Truth.

Yesterday our great chum Keith Scholey (ex Head of BBC Natural History Unit – and originator of Big Cat Diary in 1996) came round for lunch in Nairobi. He showed us a one hour rough cut of the Disney ‘big cat’ movie he has been working on for the past 3 years. The stars are Shakira (Sita) and her cubs – and Notch (Kali) and his boys – the Disney names are in brackets. It is HD and big screen and truly awesome. Out next spring – around the time we air Lions: The Truth – so that will be great as some of the same characters feature in both – but different approach.

Ok – Little Cat has been in the house padding around. Time to say goodbye. Take care everybody – and thanks for the loyalty and enthusiasm, it really makes a difference!

You may have seen mention in the press (New York Times) about a proposal to construct a road in northern Tanzania that would cut through the Serengeti National Park. If you haven’t then take a look at the African Wildlife Foundation website for more details of the proposed ‘Serengeti Highway’.

To my mind the Serengeti (including the Masai Mara) is the last great place. I cannot think of anywhere in the world to rival the Serengeti – it truly is a window in to our past, a haven for the most spectacular array of wild animals left on earth.

It will be interesting to see how this scenario plays out – I am sure there are proponents for and against the road which will need to taken into account. In the past Tanzania has made huge efforts to protect the Serengeti and has set aside large areas of wild land as Parks and Reserves for which they should be honoured. I can only hope that the kind of wisdom shown by one of Africa’s most respected figures the first President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere (1922-1999), who was a great supporter of the Serengeti, is brought to bear in resolving this situation.

Just finalised the details of the two photoworkshop safaris we are hosting with our good friend Warren Samuels in the Mara in Feb and Oct 2011. We will put that up on the Website any day now before we head for Botswana on Sunday.

Been wrestling with a couple of articles – one on the joys of travel and the other on the wonders of the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. Now that I have put those to bed I can get back to the Blog! Mind you I have to admit I have watched a bit of football too.

Hi everyone. We fly back to the UK tomorrow and then have a few days in London before heading back to Kenya on the 6 June. So we will have been on our travels for nearly 5 weeks in total, but a great mix of work and vacation. Our son David is in his third year at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. We were fortunate to be able to see some of his work in the students Spring Show at the Academy during our visit – the standard of work was exceptional. Not sure how he does it but David somehow finds time to still run our website and he and Angie had lots of fruitful discussions of how we can grow our business and strengthen our brand. We have recently made some great contacts in the PR and Branding division and are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. The power and potential of the internet never ceases to amaze us!

Just to give you an early heads up of events to look out for that we are involved in:

Bird Fair: 21-23 August, Rutland Water, England. We will be giving a talk and signing books at this event,

Photokina: 21 – 26 August, Cologne, Germany. We will be attending this event for the first time as guests of the Canon Ambassadors Programme.

Royal Geographical Society: 14 December, London, England. We will be giving an illustrated talk on Lions: The Truth to raise money on behalf of Friends of Conservation for a patrol vehicle for the Masai Mara to help protect vulnerable species such as cheetah with young. The talk will based around the new series I am presenting on Lions for the BBC, highlighting the latest research on lion behaviour and the major challenges lions now face throughout Africa due to conflict with man and his livestock.

We very much look forward to seeing some of you at these events.

We were so sad to hear news of the latest tiger tragedy from Bandhavgarh National Park in India. Here is what a friend of ours wrote to us on the 21 May:

“Hi Jonathan,
You may have probably heard the news by now. The beautiful Rajbera tigress who we enjoyed photgraphing last year at the lake in Bandhavgarh was killed yesterday by a jeep! She had just given birth a month earlier to 3 new cubs and was often seen in the company of her 3 adult cubs!
I remember sharing those sightings of her down by the lake with you and angela last year! Its so sad!
The cubs are apparently being kept in a holding pen on the edge of the park! One can only imagine their fait!”

Anybody have an update on this? Ironically a tiger cub was fatally injured by a vehicle just prior to our visit to Bandhavgarh in April 2009. There was considerable debate as to what happened on that occasion – the cub in question appeared unwell at the time of the incident.

Some years ago another tigeress was hit by a vehicle – I think at night – and sustained a serious injury to her face and jaw. This incident received a lot of press coverage, as the tigeress in question attacked the occupants of one of the safari vehicles that approached her the following day (they did not realise at first that she was injured). She did not survive – and Raj the owner of Nature Heritage Lodge jumped out of his vehicle and ran to the rescue of the visitors. He was injured but his bravery certainly helped to prevent the visitors sustaining more serious injuries.

I do not know the circumstances surrounding the latest incident but it comes close on the heels of all the recent controversy surrounding tiger tourism. Angie and I photographed this tigeress in 2009 – and we saw her again this year. In fact we had some of our most memorable tiger viewing and photography with her and her three large cubs in 2009 at the lake where she so often used to come to drink and lie up in the water in the height of the dry season.

It is a tragedy that is for sure.

We send our salaams to all our friends in tourism and conservation circles in India

Hi everybody! Sorry to be away from the ‘desk’ for so long. Angie and I are sharing a computer right now – but we are looking at the Macbook “Air’ Laptop as it is so light (3lb) and easy to work on for me when we are travelling around (the iPad isn’t quite right for the amount of word processing I do – too fiddly having a separate keyboard). But we are waiting a few months until the updated version of the “Air” comes out.

I always travel light on clothes so it was a bit of a shock to the system to be greeted by chilly weather as we stepped off the plane into London. We had been holding our breath over the Iceland Dust Cloud in case we were unable to fly. It was certainly quite a scrum getting in to Nairobi airport (won’t that be great when they upgrade the facilities for travellers departing from Nairobi??). Our first talk at the Royal Institute in London was a great success – lots of familiar faces in the audience including my nephew Mark, his wife Naveeta and their son Jayan – and Nish, an old Nairobi chum and his family and friends. There was plenty of books to sign afterwards, and the publishers of Stars of Big Cat Diary (Evans Mitchell Books) and Antarctica: Exploring a Fragile Eden (Harper Collins) both donated the proceeds of the first 75 copies of each title sold to a charity of our choice, a figure matched by our good friend Nick van Gruisen of Ultimate Travel who organised the event on behalf of The Week Travel Club. Angie and I wanted to support Laurie Marker’s Cheetah Conservation Fund (I’m a UK Patron), so a cheque for around GBP 2,000 will be on its way to Namibia any day now – and thanks everyone for your generous support.

Next up was a talk on behalf of Twycross Zoo Association for their members, and again we were thrilled at the warm reception we received. There are so many people out there doing something on behalf of wildlife – every little bit counts and together we really can make a difference. Awareness of conservation issues is vitally important to ensure effective action on behalf of wild animals and wild places. So we were delighted to then travel to the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust which was the brainchild of Sir Peter Scott. I have mentioned before what an inspiration Sir Peter Scott (and his father Captain Falcon Scott) was to me – Sir Peter lived with a view on to wilderness and was passionate about helping to preserve wild places, a challenge together with his wife Phillipa they pursued all their lives: I treasure the letters he wrote to me. Once again there were many familiar faces in the audience – some who had shared a safari with us in Africa or beyond. It is always a regret that there is never enough time for a decent chat with everyone who makes the effort to come along to one of these events. “Maraman” aka Bob our Blogging chum and his lovely wife Christine were there – as was Dr Andrew Melhuish and his wife from our Mara Kicheche safaris and we are delighted to see their names on the booking sheet for future safaris with us in the Masai Mara later in the year. Our visit to Slimbridge was sponsored by Swarovski Optics – simply the best when it comes to binoculars – and BBC Wildlife magazine, another of our favourites. Between them they coordinated a wonderful day out at Slimbridge combining talks and walks with a number of birding experts and broadcasters. The weather was kind to us, the food was excellent and everyone went away happy!

We made a quick detour to Bristol along the way to catch up with our friends at the BBC Natural History Unit, including a delicious lunch with the head of the NHU Andrew Jackson (previously head of Tigress Productions) courtesy of Hilary Knight our TV and Corporate Events agent. Hilary is a marvel – a ‘National Treasure’ as HRH Prince Charles would say! She co-ordinated our travels around the UK brilliantly and offered us a home from home en route. Everyone seemed happy with the video rushes from our March/April filming shoot for Lions: The Truth and we talked at length about what the future might hold for Big Cat Diary – more on that in a day or so. Our final venue was at the Daphne de Maurier Festival down in Cornwall. I was biting my nails in case no one turned up so it was a joy to see hundreds of smiling faces when we appeared on stage. Angie worked marvels with a ten minute finale to our talk on the making of Big Cat Diary consisting of images from our travels around the world with some evocative music. The emotions this engendered underlined what an amazing privilege it is to have visited places like Antarctica, India, Oman – and of course our beloved Mara.

There was a very touching moment too when I noticed an envelope addressed to us back stage. It was a letter from Stuart and Diane Hayes who had purchased one of my first sets of four limited edition pen and ink drawings in the 1970s when they lived in Kenya. I was just starting to try and scrape a living as a wildlife artist based at Mara River Camp in the Masai Mara, many years before I became a photographer. They narrated how those framed prints had travelled with them around the world – Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Zambia (the prints stayed at home when they went to the Sudan!) and finally to England – and how the prints were on the top of a mental list of “what we would save in a fire”. The Hayes’ live just a few miles from Fowey where the Daphne de Maurier Festival takes place each year since retiring 10 years ago. And surprise surprise! “Toto” the cheetah cub was their all time favourite big cat from Big Cat Diary. So thank you to Stuart and Diane for these lovely memories – and to everyone who came to see us during our visit – it certainly won’t be our last.

In fact we will be back in the UK in mid-August for the Bird Fair at Rutland Water and again in December for a fundraiser on behalf of Friends of Conservation at the Royal Geographical Society on the 15 December to speak about Lions:The Truth. And for anyone living in Germany we hope to attend Photokina in September as Canon Amabassadors, which I believe is held in Cologne every other year.