THURSDAY 3rd March
Living The African Dream
ALISON MEES ARPS
The speaker who was originally booked for Thursday evening was unable to attend and so, at short notice, Alison Mees ARPS agreed to join us at our Zoom meeting to give her presentation ‘Living the African Dream’.
Alison, who lives in Southend, Essex, is a self taught photographer who was, as a child, encouraged by her father to take photographs and produce prints in a dark room set up in the shed in the garden. From a very early age, after seeing the film “Born Free”, Alison fell in love with Africa, she was attracted to the wide open plains that seem endless and was fascinated by the smallest of the big cats in Africa – the cheetah. She now had a dream – to do exactly the same thing as Joy and George Adamson.
For sixteen years before covid-19 hit the world Alison lived and worked in Africa, spending the first eight years in South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia. She then moved on to Malawi for a short time and then on to Selous and The Serengeti in Tanzania where her dream as a five year old eventually came true. After several years she and her husband moved to Kenya to the Mara North Conservancy where they continued their work as safari camp managers. It was in the Serengeti and Mara North where Alison had the chance to go out in the field with the cheetah researchers and even though the safari camps had to close in March 2020, due to the pandemic, she had to return to the UK where she still continues to volunteer for the cheetah conservation fund.
She shared with us beautiful landscapes of the areas where she worked and stunning images of the wildlife within the parks including birds, buffalos, crocodiles, hippos, lions, wildebeests and, of course, her beloved cheetahs – in fact this list could go on and on. She felt privileged to see new born cubs grow and then be left to their own devices, recording their lives with her camera. With her narrative and superb images Alison gave us a truly wonderful evening. It is obvious that she has had and still has a passion for wildlife conservation.
Should you be interested in viewing any of Alison’s beautiful images go along to her website www.alisonmeesphotography.com where you can also see details of the Mara safari workshops she will be leading in November 2022 and January & February 2023.