While standing on the balcony of friends’ flat this weekend on a trip to the coastal Kwa-Zulu Natal town of Illovo, I spotted these beautiful bulbous flowers. They appeared to be growing on some sort of vine creeping up a tall tree alongside his townhouse flat.
I tried searching the internet, but have not been able to identify it. I have no idea what type of tree it is either. Anyone with answers?
With Mozambique behind us, it was time to return to Johannesburg, but not before a little detour to the majestic Kruger National Park (KNP).
On all my previous excursions into the KNP which, I was very lucky to spot the famous Big Five – Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhinoceros. This turn of luck is no doubt aided by the fact that the bush is still fairly dry at this time of year, which makes animal spotting easier. Going into Summer, the African bush is more lush and dense, and animals are not exactly keen to show themselves, preferring to laze in the shade.
This time however, I not only did not sight any Leopards, the solitary Lion, Buffalo and Rhino I did glimpse, were hard to photograph. And it was overcast overhead.
Elusive Rhinoceros
However, antelope, deer and various types of buck are plentiful in the Park and quite easy to spot.. Giraffe are also in abundance…
Bucking the trend
Hellooo!
See how tall I am…
…and zebras too.
Lonesome zebra
While having lunch on the viewing deck of a restaurant at Lower Sabie Rest Camp, we were besieged by multi-coloured birds vying to get at any scraps that may be left. This one sat patiently within view of my table.
Lower Sabie Rest Camp
The lion may be king of the jungle, but out here nobody messes with the mighty elephant. We were forced on more than one occasion to back up our cars as a troop of elephants came along. The parents are especially protective over the young, and would not hesitate to pulverize anything they perceive as a danger to the calves.
Mighty king of the Park
And so ended another memorable road trip…
Being a fan of solitude, I usually embark on my road trips alone. This time however, I invited three friends to join me – the thought of driving all alone through a previously troubled African country at the back of my mind.
We arrived at Ngwenya Lodge, our stop-over point to Mozambique in the early evening, after a leisurely 5-hour drive from Johannesburg. The Lodge which is separated from the Kruger National Park (KNP) by the Crocodile River, is a sort of home-away-from-home with all the mod-cons and more. There are many features and attractions within the complex to keep the average person happily engaged for a week, even a beauty salon for the women.
My first sighting of wildlife that night was right on the porch of my chalet. I discovered the reason this bird was clinging defensively to the wall, the next morning when I spotted its nest in the porch rafters up near the thatched roof of the chalet.
Bird on a Wall
The next morning, we were visited by this rather noisy raft of wild geese who were intent on getting in on some of our breakfast action on the porch.
Kolgans
Later that morning we noticed this Common Iguana surveying its surroundings after emerging from the dam about 20 meters from the chalet. Incidently, a few years ago during one of my previous visits to the lodge, I woke one morning to find a hippo in the dam which had strayed onto the resort property from the KNP.
Iguana
Iguana at Dam’s Edge
After spending some time on the viewing deck of the resort that overlooks the KNP, and spotting no animals across the river, we spent the rest of the day driving around aimlessly around the little town of Komatipoort, and did some shopping in preparation for our departure across the border into Mozambique, the following day.
Back from another road trip, this time to Mozambique which stretches out on the East coast of Africa, bordering South Africa to the north-east.
On my return to South Africa, I decided to make a day trip into the Kruger National Park, although I’ve been there several times before. For me each experience in the KNP is totally new and it ranks as one of my favorite attractions to visit in South Africa.
I entered through the Crocodile Bridge Gate which is on the south-eastern side of the park near the Mozambique border post through which I had just exited. I caught this picture of birds frolicking in a water bath at the Lower Sabie Rest Camp in the park.
Lower Sabie Rest Camp
I’ll post more photographs and describe some of my experiences, and impressions of Mozambique, over the following weeks.
My Nikon DSLR camera got to become a little cumbersome to lug around when travelling. It’s fine when all I’m doing is observing and taking pictures, but you need something smaller and lighter, especially when participating in certain outdoor activities such as fishing, hiking etcetera, when it can easily be slipped into a pocket.
I recently purchased a Canon point-and-shoot camera which fits the bill for portability perfectly, has all the usual compact camera features and more, and does allow for quite a bit of manual control. It also has a nifty GPS built-in which allows you to track exactly where the photos were taken. It has a 12-Megapixel sensor and an effective 25-500mm optical zoom lens.
I tried it out while fishing, on a trip last week to the coastal city of Durban. Here are some results in the fully automatic mode. I have yet to experiment further with the manual settings.
I reckon I could take some pretty good photos with this little baby once I get the hang of using it. It’s therefore going with me everywhere from now on.
I love Autumn, but not as much as Winter.
However, Autumn offers a visual feast for photographers; a cornucopia of colours and sensations.
Japanese Maple from National Geographic
View more stunning Autumn photographs from National Geographic using the link below:
I joined a few friends last week on an excursion to Port St. Johns, a well-known fishing haven on the South East Coast of South Africa.
Our timing could not have been worse as it coincided with a cold front coming up from the Eastern Cape that dumped a heap of snow in areas a little more than 150 kilometers from us, and freezing rain for days where we were lodging.
Needless to say, we only managed to catch a few fish, and decided to pack it in and move further up the coast to Margate…where we encountered more rain. However I did manage to get this shot on the only day that was relatively shower-free.
Spotting the socks left drying on the tree trunk reminded me of this little ditty I heard many years ago:
I must go down to the sea again
the lonely sea and sky
I left my socks there
I want to see if they’re dry
I took another one of those little breaks last week to visit the family in Durban. It was also nice to actually be around for Mother’s Day after many, many years.
While taking some shots of my niece [brother's teenage daughter] and her new pet bird, I accidentally managed to capture this one below. There’s probably more than a few things WRONG with this photograph, but I’m quite chuffed with it, and you’ll see why.
First, I was using a speedlight [flash] for the shots indoors, and for some reason it did not go off when I captured this one – probably wasn’t charged up right. But I did manage to hold the camera relatively steady for all of three seconds while the shutter was open. I had also forgotten to change the white balance from my last photo shoot, and it was still set to CLOUDY.
But off course I’m really chuffed at what a beautiful bubbly little bird my niece is.
Shooting Data:
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikon VR 55-200mm F/4-5.6 G
Focal Length: 66mm
Exposure: 3 sec – F/4.5
White Balance: Cloudy
Terje Sorgjerd photographer extraordinaire, has done it again. This time his video is a time-lapse photographic rendition of the Milky Way galaxy above Spain’s highest mountain, El Teide.
Join me in marvelling at the majesty of the cosmos, and man’s amazing ability to visualize it artistically:
Thanks to a Facebook friend who provided the link, today I watched the most amazing video of the aurora borealis over Kirkenes and Pas National Park near the Russian border, by a really gifted photographer. Terje Sorgjerd used time-lapse photography to capture the stunning images you are about to see, in some very inhospitable conditions too.
This awesome display of lights is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the sky at the polar regions due to the collision of charged particles under the influence of the earth’s magnetic field.
After watching the video I got this strange notion that had the author’s of the bible known about this beautiful visual phenomenon, they would surely have opted to script Jesus being born under such an awe-inspiring light show. Instead we get a supposed divine entity being born under a very bright star, among billions of other very bright stars not visible to man.
Wouldn’t you rather have Jesus being born under something spectacular like the aurora borealis, than a common bright star?
