Proudly supported by the Born Free Foundation
VIDEO
Precious Africa
Play one video each day to create a sense of adventure, so your children can 'travel' with us. If they have any questions they can still ask us, and that allows us to make it a 'live' adventure for them. The videos were shot, edited on iPad and transmitted from an iPhone, via portable satellite link & wifi, from Kenya.
Videos embedded from Vimeo. If you need YouTube please use our alternative page.
Day 1 - The journey to Amboseli from Nairobi (8 minutes)
Join artists John Dyer and Joanne Short on their journey from the UK to Kenya on their drive with the Born Free Foundation from Nairobi to the Amboseli National Park. The team come across a whole array of amazing African animals on their journey and discovered how the drought is impacting the people, wildlife and landscape of Kenya
Day 2 - Maasai tribal boma (17 minutes)
Discover the fantastic way of life and culture of the Maasai Tribe in Amboseli National Park in Kenya with artists John Dyer and Joanne Short. The artists are welcomed into the boma alongside the Born Free Foundation, hear the excellent Maasai singing, and watch the dancing and jumping. The Maasai explain how they make fire, build houses from cow dung and elephant grass, why they burn their cheeks to create scars and how they live sustainably with the environment. John Dyer paints the tribal village and a number of the Maasai community.
Day 3 - Painting safari (13 minutes)
Artists John Dyer and Joanne Short explore Amboseli National Park in Kenya with the Born Free Foundation team in the Born Free Land Rover Defender, looking for the perfect place to paint the wild animals from. The team discovers many amazing animals, and John completes a painting of the African savannah from 'Observation Hill'.
Day 4 - Enkii Primary School art day (13 minutes)
Artists John Dyer and Joanne Short are invited into a local school with the Born Free Foundation to meet the staff and children to learn about their lives and how they interact with wildlife daily. The artists provide school art materials and encourage the children to paint their lives, stories and wildlife encounters. An inspiring film about life in a Kenyan school
Day 5 - Maasai women's group (12 minutes)
Artists John Dyer and Joanne Short are invited to meet a Maasai women's group with Born Free to hear about their lives, struggles and stories. John Dyer paints as Joanne Short, and the Born Free team interview the Maasai women and discovers how the drought is causing issues with education and early marriages.
Day 6 - African sunset flamingo painting (9 minutes)
John Dyer and the Last Chance To Paint team return to Nairobi for a 'rest day' and John takes us through his process of creating a sunset flamingo African sunset painting. John Dyer and Joanne Short discover more animals in the savannah and share a few fun facts!
Day 7 - Painting the last two Northern White Rhino (12 minutes)
Artist John Dyer embarks on painting extinction at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The artist is allowed exclusive access to Najin and Fatu, the last two Northern White Rhinos on Earth. This moving film highlights the importance of every species and hopes to highlight the dangers of extinction events. In only thirty years, we have reduced a thriving species of Northern White Rhino to only two individuals - both female. The Northern White Rhino is now functionally extinct. This has been caused by habitat loss and poaching.
Day 8 - Farmers at Meru and the drought (9.5 minutes)
John Dyer and Joanne Short travel to the Meru National Park in Kenya with the Born Free team to meet local farmers struggling with drought and learn how human and wildlife conflict can be avoided. John paints a typical farm with mango, papaya, banana and sugar cane plants, and the local farmers tell their stories.
Day 9 - Kenyan walk to school (12 minutes)
An inspiring film that takes an in-depth look at a typical school day and walks to school with a child in rural Kenya. Artists John Dyer and Joanne Short join 'Vincent' on his walk to school, and he takes the team through tropical landscapes, across a river and finally to the school gate. The artists then work with the children, provide art materials and get the kids to paint their wildlife encounters. The team discovered how the school struggles with wildlife entering the school and the limited resources for food and fuel. The team also join the Born Free Foundation lion monitoring team in the Meru National Park and get very close to a lion.
Make your mark - Painting Lions (8.5 minutes)
John Dyer talks us through his process of painting lions in Kenya from his studio.
SATELLITES
HOW DO WE GET OUR VIDEOS TO YOU?
We travel with portable state of the art satellite systems that we keep charged with fold up solar panels and solar powered battery packs. We use one system from Immarsat for video and one from Irridium that we used for our blogs. We try to shoot short bursts of video on an iPhone during the day and then edit the footage on the iPhone in the evening before 99% compressing it (it is super expensive to use satellite), and then connect to our satellite basestation to upload the video to our streaming service. It's quite difficult to get it all working and to line the satellite base station up with a satellite in orbit, and to get enough power to keep it all running is sometimes almost impossible! The videos on this page have been replaced by the full resolution versions, but when we are 'live' you will receive highly compressed versions, but they are super exciting as they are released each day of the adventure.
