Kurashiki (Okayama) is a time capsule of life in the merchant quarter of a small town in Japan in the 1600’s. Its perfectly preserved shops and temples are a great place to wander about and imagine you have stepped back in time.
Mount Koya-San is a unique region in Japan. It’s a sacred mountain covered with ancient towering cedar woods that is full of incredible Shinto Shrines and Budhist Temples. It’s a massive complex interspersed through the forest that would literally take you a week or two to see it all.
Here we stayed with the Monks in traditional Tatami guesthouse rooms, its like stepping back in time (but taking a bit of electricity with you). We had an early rise and joined the Monks for the dawn fire ceremony and chanting.
Text credit to Adam Monk (slightly edited)
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
Our Port of entry was Kansai International Airport – Osaka for a start of our second trip to Japan. 13 days visiting the most popular places including Kyoto and Tokyo. Plenty of photos taken and hard to choose what to post and why. Final thought on that was just to take what I personally liked not even trying to give justice to the many wonderful people we met and the magnificent places we saw.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
Last day of our safari in Amboseli we were mocking our terrific guide Solomon that we did not see cheetahs and of course no pangolin. We could not believe five minutes after leaving Tortilis Camp four cheetahs crossed the road and started tolling around. Nearly forgot to choose a few of the best shots to post.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
After Amboseli our last safari for this year: Masai Mara. Thanks to some rain grass finally started growing and the green Masai Mara motivated gnus crossing Mara Mara river to Kenya for better food. After sighting of two crossings of course time for some shots of other animals too.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
Without any doubt the star of Amboseli is Craig, a 51 year old super tusker. We had the chance to be with him for more than one hour without any other car bothering us and Craig. This gave us a chance for low wide angle shots we will never forget. Of course we saw and photographed many other beautiful animals and people. Some pictures are shown in this post.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
End of August is no migration time here and we did not expect to see something special. And then it happened one early morning. We met a big lion pride with two males, three mothers and ten cubs. Plenty of nice shots taken but these two are different from all lion photos I have ever taken. So so lovely.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
A mother was calling out to find her four cubs after a kill. She found them and led her to the kill to feed. Later on a wonderfull male lion appeared and tried to find the feeding family but the wind was in their favour so they could finish their meal without getting chased away.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
Close to Krueger National Park and with an open border to it Timbavati Game Reserve shares all wildlife roaming freely in this huge area. We stayed at Makanyi Lodge and at Bateleur Camp enjoying amazing wildlife. Here some pictures.
Photos: Ulrich Jobs
Ulrich Jobs Photography 