At the end of July, Nobel's documentary reflecting life in Sudan was finally completed. Because Chen Xing and others wanted to see the African savannah, Professor Nobel did not buy them air tickets. While packing their things, he said: "Be careful when traveling there. Listen to the guides and drivers. They are all experienced. Don't It’s too close to the animals.” Laif Bode hung his Leica camera on his chest, nodded confidently and said, “Don’t worry, professor.” They were interns in this crew, and every day they were either helping with things or resisting the camera. I had almost forgotten that I was a free photographer. Now holding a Leica, Laifbode felt that his soul was back.
Chen Xing and the others also went to say goodbye to their colleagues. In addition to them in the crew, the sound engineer also wanted to go to the prairie, but his route was different from Chen Xing and others.
They went to Tanzania to shoot the video. The sound engineer wanted to go to Kenya, which is considered a relatively safe place in the interior of Africa. If you drive around the city, you will definitely see soldiers patrolling with guns within five minutes.
At ten o'clock in the morning, Chen Xing and the others boarded the plane to Tanzania. Ford said: "We definitely don't understand the official language of Tanzania, but because they have the experience of being colonized by the British, English is considered their second national language. Under normal circumstances, we can still communicate with them in English." They invited Director of Photography Ani yawned and put on an eye patch.
"Call me when we're almost there." He has never been to Africa before, but he still has some experience in photographing wild animals, so he is not worried about any surprises this time.
As for safety. Chen Xing had already asked the crew guide for the contact information of a Tanzanian guide, and also decided to hire five professional security personnel and two vehicles to ensure their travel and filming process in the past few days.
The plane was not full. Sudan is still in the process of developing the country. Only a few people have the idea of traveling, and most of them are on official business trips.
After squinting his eyes for a while, Chen Xing felt that the plane began to lose altitude. Chen Xing opened the shutter of the porthole. The clouds outside were thin, the grass below was clearly visible, and there was a huge mountain peak in the distance.
"What a high mountain!" Chen Xing said. This mountain seems to be piled directly on the flat ground, and it looks very abrupt in the environment of the prairie.
Anni couldn't sleep either. He glanced out the window and said, "This should be Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. Chen, I heard that you have also done mountain climbing before?"
"Well, the entry level to Snow Mountain is very simple."
"It's also possible to climb here. Many people come here specifically every year." Chen Xing looked at his figure and felt that he didn't look like someone who exercised regularly.
He smiled and said, "Look what I'm doing? Our TV station has filming on this aspect, I just came into contact with it. I also know a few very powerful professional mountaineers, and they have been here before."
"Oh, that's right." Chen Xing nodded and wanted to have an in-depth chat with him about this topic, but he would be arriving at the airport soon.
Laif Bode was very excited. He unbuckled his seat belt and stood up and asked: "Hey, Chen, what should we do first? Do we want to take a day off?" Before Chen Xing could speak, Ford shouted: "The security team is very excited." Expensive!"
"Haha, it's true that the guide and security team are charged on a daily basis. We can take pictures first." Chen Xing said.
As soon as the plane landed, they saw a man holding a white sign that said 'Chen Xing' in Chinese as they stepped out.
Beside him were several black men wearing field uniforms and holding AKs. They were all very tall. It feels safe at first glance.
Chen Xing and his group were the only Asians on the flight they were on, and the guide quickly confirmed his boss.
Chen Xing shook hands with him and said, "Hello, I'm Chen Xing. Just call me Chen."
"You can call me Abu." Abu is a black man who looks thirty years old and has a hearty smile.
"Let me introduce these great guys. This handsome guy is called Boka Moshaw. Although he is only 25 years old, he has been in the industry for almost ten years. His driving skills are also very good. He is the captain of this team." Chen Hoshiya shook his hand.
The hand holding the gun was calloused, but it also gave Chen Xing a lot of sense of security. Sure enough, I still have to come to Africa less often, and I no longer have that relaxing travel feeling.
Work is about to start today, but on the first day I don’t just turn on the camera to shoot, but I check out various locations.
Since their small crew was too poor to afford a camouflage camera, any close shots had to be shot with a telephoto lens.
This needs to be photographed by someone. For their safety, we had to find several shooting spots that were both suitable and safe.
The two cars were quite intimidating. The pickup truck is modified with a crash barrier in front and barbed wire in front of the windows. The rear compartment of the pickup truck is directly surrounded by steel bars. Even if the latch is not opened, even an elephant will not be able to do anything to the compartment.
"However, it's better not to mess with elephants." Abu said,
"After all, the safety of the carriage does not mean that our vehicle is also safe. An adult elephant can easily overturn our vehicle and render us incapacitated."
"Don't worry, we won't get very close to these animals." Chen Xing said. We found a restaurant in the city to have dinner, and in the afternoon the two cars started driving, raising smoke and dust on the road and driving towards the depths of the grassland.
Chen Xing saw many similar looking cars on the road. Whether it is Kenya or Tanzania, there are a large number of tourists during this period, but there are very few people like them who have specially hired a security team. Most of the tourists are local tour groups.
Once on this grassland, everyone has to obey Abu's command. He also started working as a guide to make money when he was in his teens. He likes to explore new things and communicate with people.
At the same time, he also has a deep understanding of the animals on the prairie. He has followed his father to play in nearby forests and grasslands since he was a child.
This experience naturally made him one of the best among the local guides. Seeing that Chen Xing had been deep in thought, Ford asked, "How is it? Is there any clearer text?"
"The picture hasn't been taken yet, what kind of text do you want?" Chen Xing said speechlessly, but the environment here is really beautiful. After the documentary is filmed, he will definitely use a lot of words to introduce these scenery.
The grassland in July is full of green grass. There is a white bird flying everywhere in the sky, and there is a herd of zebras in the distance.
This group of zebras was the first group of wild animals they saw after leaving the city. Many vehicles were parked nearby, allowing tourists sitting in iron boxes behind to take pictures. Each of them had a camera, which was more expensive than those holding mobile phones. need more.
Boka Moshaw asked, "Want to stop here?"
"No, keep moving forward." Abu said. He knew that these bosses were here to shoot a documentary, so the route he planned was different from that of ordinary tourists. Coupled with the presence of five security guards with guns, they could go to some places with better viewing angles, but a little bit dangerous. Area.
On the way, he was also introducing the geographical environment of the grassland to Chen Xing. An hour later, Chen Xing saw a huge stone mountain.
This stone mountain here is as abrupt as when they saw Mount Kilimanjaro from the plane. Why is there such a big boulder on the plain?
It doesn't look like it was formed naturally at all, as if someone had used a pair of big hands to insert these slender boulders into this land.
Chen Xing's eyesight was relatively good and he could still see the baboon squatting on this rock. Baboons and monkeys are very different. Their heads are thick, their lips are prominent, their brows are raised, and their ears are small. Monkeys are smaller, with rounded heads, flat lips, smooth brows, and big ears. It is obvious that monkeys have Better looking than a baboon.
But baboons belong to the suborder of great apes, and monkeys belong to the suborder of apes. Generally speaking, great apes are the ones closest to humans.
Abu said: "Although baboons are small in size on the grassland, they are still very powerful. Sometimes they are more dangerous than lions. At least lions will not come to us for no reason. These stupid baboons will, even if we can easily Run them over." This route is relatively remote, with fewer people coming and going, but precisely because of this, there are more animals.
They were about to leave here when Chen Xing suddenly saw two clothed people in the middle of the rocky mountain.
Chen Xing was afraid that he had seen something wrong, so he picked up the telescope to look again. It was indeed two people, a male and a female white man, about twenty to thirty years old, fighting bravely against some baboons that came to harass them.
The good news is that they have safety ropes for free-hand climbing, so they can't fall off easily. The bad news is, baboons are plentiful and getting more numerous.
Chen Xing gave the camera to Abu and said, "There are two people up there, can we go and help?"
"Let me see..." Abu had not seen anyone before. Now he was looking for a long time with a telescope before he found that there were indeed two people confronting the baboon with branches. He thought about it and said, "We can save him. There is nothing around." It's dangerous, just don't get out of the car." As long as the car can still be driven, the baboon does not pose much of a threat to the people in the car.
Boka Moshaw took the walkie-talkie and spoke to the team members behind him, and then they left the road and drove towards the stone mountain in the desert.
There are lush plants on the ground, but the stone mountain is bare without any soil. But even so, there are some weeds and trees growing on the mountain, and I don’t know where they absorb the nutrients.
The two men were overjoyed when they saw a car approaching, and they waved branches with more strength.
Bege cried with joy and said to her husband: "Henry, someone is here to help us."
"I saw it, hey! Friend!" They were almost desperate. When I came here in the morning, I saw only some animals walking on land. There were only a very small number of baboons on this cliff. But who knew that during the day, the group of baboons would become more and more numerous, and then when the number increased, They have the courage to come and cause trouble.
They had already used tree branches to make two baboons fall off the cliff. But this behavior undoubtedly stimulated them even more, and now there were several baboons grinning at them.
The car stopped at the bottom of the mountain. Chen Xing blocked the sun with his hand on his forehead and looked up. The rocky mountain was estimated to be about one hundred meters tall and twenty stories high. The layers of rocks did not look very fragile. Lots of climbing.
What a miracle of nature. It is also an excellent free climbing spot. In the snow mountain training camp, the teacher also taught some common rock climbing skills, and a lot of equipment was given out, including the ones used by the two people above.
Boka Moxiu said to Chen Xing and others: "Boss, just stay in the car while we go rescue people." They couldn't climb up to rescue people, but they had guns and a legal hunting certificate from Tanzania, so they fired. It is not illegal to shoot an animal.
So they can get closer and scare these stupid baboons with their guns, or shoot them directly in an emergency.
Of course Chen Xing and the others would not get out of the car, but they also took pictures with their cameras. A group of professional combatants, with serious expressions and loaded guns, even a group of black Africans, Chen Xing felt very handsome.
What's cool is not the people, it's the atmosphere and the guns in their hands. The two white climbers are also worth taking a photo of. Not everyone can encounter this kind of scene in the movie. After Chen Xing adjusted the parameters of the camera, he kept pressing the shutter at the people above. .
Ford and Rifbold are no different. In the car behind them, Anni also set up a tripod, put the video recorder on it and started working... This scene is very meaningful and no one wants to miss it.
One of the young team members shouted something in a language that Chen Xing and others could not understand, and then fired several shots into the sky.
The baboons were startled. Africans like to call this creature a stupid baboon because they think this animal is stupid.
But in fact, they are comparing baboons to humans. Among animals, primates are very smart. When they saw these two human beings coming over, holding sticks that made loud noises, they knew they could no longer worry about the two companions who fell to their deaths. Revenge was taken.
The baboon king called out. The baboons surrounding the two men quickly retreated and quickly climbed to the top of the mountain.
Beggy and Henry exhaled a breath of turbid air that had been hidden in their hearts for several hours, and slowly climbed down tremblingly.
Their arms were sore and swollen, and they had no strength as soon as they landed. Two young men carried them to the car.
There are two footrests on the back of the pickup truck, which are just perfect for people to sit and rest. Now that everyone is back, Chen Xing also jumped out of the car and said, "Hello everyone."
"Hello, thank you." Henry wanted to raise his hand, but he couldn't do it at all. He couldn't feel his hand now: "Sorry, we have been working on it for several hours, and now I really don't have any strength at all." there is none left."
"It doesn't matter. My name is Chen Xing. You can just call me Chen. Are you British?" Their London accents were obvious.
"Well, thank you, Chen. My name is Henry, and this is my wife Begi. We have been traveling here for many days, and we just decided to climb this rocky mountain today. I wanted to go to the mountain to shoot a video, but I didn't expect there to be anything here. So many monkeys."
"Take a video?"
"Yes, we have our own channel on YouTube. We like extreme sports very much and have many fans."
