Ryan Hellyer

Year: 2022

  • Leopard

    During our safari tour, we found all of the “big five” animals, lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and … not the last one, the leopard. We were still happy, but after exiting the park area our tour guide suddenly hit the brakes and told us to look out the right hand side. Sure enough, slowly meandering along the road was this epic looking leopard. He gave absolutely zero fucks about us whatsoever. I wound down the window and extended my arms as far out of the window as possible to get this photo. After very slowly plodding past us, he just walked on up a bank and disappeared into the green bush.

  • Basia and I in Zanzibar

    Shot from the beach in Zanzibar. The water there was incredible. I spent ages just floating about on my back. It was the perfect temperature to just relax in the water.

  • Giraffes in Tarangire National Park

    A beautiful herd of giraffes we spotted meandering their way across Tarangire National Park.

  • Monkey in Tarangire National Park

    This little rascal was running around a picnic area stealing bananas. Our tour guide said we could eat bananas when he was at the table, but that if he left or we walked away from him, that the moneys would attack. I was confused. Why would they avoid him, but not us? The answer was simple, the monkeys there are racist! He explained that they do not steal bananas from black people, but they do from white people. Sure enough, we looked over to where some white people were eating lunch without a black person at the table, and the monkeys charged over and stole their bananas. Our table was safe 🙂

  • Monkeys

    Monkeys at Cheetah Rock wildlife sanctuary.

  • Domesticated zebra

    This is one of the worlds only domesticated zebra’s. We saw it at the Cheetah Rock wildlife sanctuary.

  • Tiger

    We got to see this stunningly beautiful tiger at the Cheetah Rock wildlife sanctuary. The first image was taken as close as it looks, and no, there was no cage protecting me! We had to sit with our butts firmly planted against the edge of his cage, while the sanctuary worker took this majestic beast for a walk past us. The tiger seemed quite chilled out and happy for us to be there. My camera was maybe 30 cm from it’s face when the picture was taken. The other photos were taken safely behind a cage however.

  • Lions

    We saw this amazing lions at the Cheetah Rock wildlife sanctuary.

  • Puma

    This amazing little puma was locked in a tiny little cage at Cheetah Rock wildlife sanctuary. This looked harsh, but his carers explained that he had been injured when sent from a zoo to their sanctuary as he didn’t cope well with being caged like that. So they were training him to be around humans whilst locked in a small cage, so that he wouldn’t injure himself in transit again. He had to make another trip to his final destination in South Africa.

  • Lemur

    We saw this adorable lemur at the Cheetah Rock wildlife sanctuary.