19 September 09 Camp, before the drive

The evening of the 19th is broken up into 2 articles because I took some shots of Mashatu Main Camp itself, and also got some shots I really like of a stork.

First- Mashatu Main Camp!

The pictures I have don't do the camp justice: it is beautiful, simple and comfortable.
The landscaping really fits the environment as do the buildings. Well, maybe not the pool so much, but it is easy to understand why a pool is there, and I am sure it gets a lot of use in the middle of summer.

I didn't really plan my shots of the camp well, so I will try to describe where each part fits in the overall design as best I can.

The Bar:


Pretty much open all day but mainly used for Happy Hour (after returning from the evening game drive but before dinner) and after dinner.

On the far side is the main dining area which I neglected to get a picture of or even see when it was well lit.

Next is the common room, which we never used. It does get used when the weather is bad, I expect, but that just didn't happen while we were there.



Following that is a shot of the "public" restrooms. Each cabin has its own, of course, but when people are up at the common areas who wants to walk that far? (Only a few hundred feet at most, of course, but...)

This is a shot of the main common area taken in front of the bad weather common room. The bar and dining area are down some stairs to the left, the main common area (breakfast, lunch, meeting place before game drives) is to the right. The camp's waterhole is straight ahead and below. The view is excellent.



The next picture is of the common area from the other side (taken standing in front of the public restrooms.) The pool is to the right, and further right is where the guest cabins are.

On the other side of the public restroom building is the gift shop and a covered walkway which joins to the camp offices. Through the walkway is the parking lot and entrance.








We were up at the common area having our pre-drive snack and talking when a stork flew over the waterhole. As usual, my camera was close at hand and I was able to get some great shots of the bird flying from the right side to a very tall tree on the left.




I was not done there though!
The stork had landed on a branch high up in the tree and amazingly there was a gap in the leaves that just about perfectly framed him, so I kept taking pictures. I was given a hard time for continuing to take pictures at this point, because nobody thought I had a chance of getting any decent photos still!

Below is my justification for spending about 5 minutes snapping away.

I have not done much editing of any pictures yet, but I took two of these and cropped them down to focus on the bird.

Camp

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