nature sauvage

2009.99 x-country

So 2009 is almost up, hope it has been a good one for you. This year-end is again in the hills with the snow. White Christmas seems more christmassy... the stomach will need a holiday.

There actually isn't that much snow around, nevertheless the little-in-laws put on their tights and took in some cross country skiing. So what does cross country look like? It could be graceful or fluid. It sure requires technique, and a little muscle. When you're at it, it feels like you heart is tying to escape your chest. The nose is burning cold, but the rest of you is burning hot. It can feel a little off balance (if you're  a beginner like me), but if you know what you're doing, it looks effortless. Unless you're racing, then it seems effortful. Since I'm normally not looking around, and following those more skillful, to me this is what cross country looks like, skaters in the snow:

When one is able to stop and take in the lovely views, one realises it a great way to get around in the white hills.

Wishing you a great 1% of the 2009 that remains, and a wonderful year ahead. I hope it is more than just head down, and it is you who will leave the criss-crosses.

musée guimet

Right now there is quite a nice exhibition on Bhutan at Musée Guimet. Lots of little Buddhas, in just about every incarnation, and painfully detailed thankas telling many a story. One thing is clear, I don't understand what I am looking at.

The museum itself is quite interesting though. That, I don't need to understand, just shoot.

And the avenue alongside. It looks sunny, but it's coooold!

cape of good hope

I never did finish the South Arica trip. We had made it down to Cape Agulhas, from there it was on to  Cape Town and its surrounds.

Stellenbosch, nestled in the Hottentot Holland mountains, with the Cape Dutch architecture. A university town, but also home to great wines, restaurants, golf courses, olives, strawberries... the list goes on.

devolution

Sitting in a plane the other day, I decided that I believe in a supreme being. It has nothing to do with the awe that is still there for each take-off, nor the particularly nasty turbulence I wished we weren't going through. It was more of a negative argument that lead me to god.

When one feels like killing the ambiance of the dinner party, you can always bring up evolution and creation type topics. In general the camps seem mutually exclusive. I'm not exactly sure why it has to be so black and white, but it is. So what has this got to do with my hallelujah moment?

reading

I have proof that the Norwegians drink too much. One can find odd stuff in hotel rooms, but this has to be one of the more puzzling; a bottle opener (like those wall mounted bar ones) in the bathroom on the wall next to the toilet. Go figure? Does one really have to replenish that quickly?

I prefer to have some good reading material.

stiff men on bicycles

Been seeing a few airports of late, and each has its own little peculiarity, but yesterday made me laugh. Imagine having a nice big airport and the possibility to cruise around the place like a madman on a bicycle... now that sounds like fun. Hmmm, not according to the men with well kempt beards and straight postures that cruise the halls of Frankfurt airport on their little wheeled bicycles. I had to giggle.

home

I share home with starlings, daisies and a construction site. On the way home from Paris Photo the crane next door was packed with starlings on every possible surface, the noise made me think of Stephen King's Dark Half, although these weren't sparrows, and they were just sitting there.

I rushed back outside armed with camera, but by then they had flown... so you will have to make do with a picture of just a crane. Paris Photo was a bit like the crane, but for people. Half of the city must have been there. Gazillions of galleries had their little booths, some really great photos, but stacks of... hmmm... well... crap! I think you have to not only be taking something to create them, but equally to enjoy them. It is nice to see that photos can generate so much interest though.

toys

So I mentioned new toys the other day. I am very spoilt. I am now the lucky owner of a Nikon D300s for which I opted to get the Tamron 17-50 mm F/2.8 VC. Last time around I chose the kit lens that gave the largest zoom range, and after a few years with that I decided it wiser to go for something faster and not the all rounder. I haven't done a huge amount of shooting with it, but so far I like the combination, and think the VC is up to Tamron's claims. This together with the decent higher ISO performance of Nikon's latest DX body should make for some fun indoor shooting.

seine

Paris winter grey can get one down a bit, but then there are those sparkly winter days. Not the usual view of the Seine. Apparently, it is from around here where the water for Versailles' fountains are pumped.

Not too schabby for a stroll during lunchtime.

Wishing you a sparkly winter day.

Hoostin

Not a bad place, but I don't think it is my favourite either; the sprawling Houston Texas, where the trucks are huge and the portions even bigger.

The weak dollar makes it an ideal time to shop, so here are some of the first photos from my new toy. Go gently on the criticism, I haven't a clue what I'm doing yet ;)

Garden Route

Between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town on the southern coast of South Africa one finds the Garden Route. Home to indigenous forests, a sea with character and the town of Plettenburg Bay, Knysna, Wilderness, George and Mossel Bay.

It is difficult to say one specific thing for which the area is known. There are of course the forests, and awesome hikes like Otto, Harkerville, Grootvadersbos and Whale trails, as well as beautiful beaches with the surfer's legendary Jeffrey's Bay (affectionately know as J Bay), and whale spotting to be done along the whole coast with the self proclaimed whale capital being Hermanus. On the adrenalin side of things, the south coast hosts the world's highest bungee jump at Bloukrans that disappears into one of the steep ravines, characteristic of the area, and shark cage diving at Mossel Bay and Gansbaai. If all that activity gets to you, there is always the option to chill with a fine white wine and the oysters cultivated in the Knysna lagoon.

Safari time

This time not a new experience, but I don't mind, I could do this all the time without getting bored. Off to one of my favourite spots, the bushveld, more specifically the South African Lowveld. I guess it needn't be the lowveld, just throw in wild with a couple of animals and preferably off the beaten track; a perfect mix.

This time Kruger was a bit odd we saw unusual animals. Lots of kudu males, stacks of marabou storks, quite a few ground hornbills (including a nesting site) and a couple of ostriches. In fact there is a poster in Letaba that asks one to take note of and send information regarding sitings of the following rareish or of interest birds: fish eagle, saddle billed stork, marabou stalk, ground hornbill, kori bustard and secretary bird. We saw them all except the secretary, and lots of them.

It is the most relaxing way to spend ones time, early mornings, early to bed, fresh air and not much to fret about. The perfect antidote to concrete and traffic.

It is something special being able to see the animals in the wild.

Soweto

A holiday of new experiences. Like the cage diving, something I would never have bothered with is a township tour. Mainly because I don't get the 'sit in a bus and drive through the squalor' type of tourism. Lebo, however solves this problem at his backpackers in Soweto. I'm not sure Soweto can still be called a township. It has a large social and economic diversity, parts of which are well developed, and is certainly big enough to be a city in its own right. Whatever you want to call it, Lebo's backpackers does a tour, by bicycle, where you stop now and then and take in the tastes and smells of Soweto. Everything from the shebeen near the old hostel rooms on the dust roads littered with debris and stagnant water to the upper class houses with luxary 4x4's parked out front, and of course the road where two Nobel prize winners lived. So we grabbed our bikes...

First stop the shabbier end of town, with the old hostel rooms. Here, every month, they set up a market for a couple of days. The same days that the old folk come and collect their pensions / unemployment, which is apparently about R 1 200 per month. In the market you can find just about anything, so in the hope of shocking us, the guide took us to the 'butcher', where the lazy branch waving was doing not much to keep the flies off the tripe that were spread out over a table (they were at least under an umbrella). Suddenly a few folk were feeling a lot more vegetarian than before.
























Above the hostel rooms which would have slept several miners each. Nowadays a street alongside the market.

Next was the shebeen , a tin shack strategically located alongside the market and not far front he source of cash. Our tour guide likened the shebeen's importance to that of a church; somewhere that the elders came to discuss political and social issues. Hmm... I think it looked more like a place where those prematurely aged by alcohol came to drink enough to make them feel like philosophers. With a 2 litre bucket of beer costing seven Rand (60 € cents), there where ample volunteers willing to impart their wisdom.

Another analogy shared with us whilst drinking, is that the African is like a Lion. The male sits on his backside all day, and the female needs to go out there and find food. This is one of the few things the guide sprouted that seemed to make any sense, he was definitely cycling proof that marijuana affects one's brain cells. His lion theory was born out by the man / woman ration of 11:1 in the shebeen. It would have perhaps been 100% men, if she was capable of leaving. Speaking of lions, I've never really seen one in the wild that is regal, but more about that when I write about Kruger. Lions are normally dusty, scruffy and scarred. Could it be from the drunken brawls?
























In addition to the homebrew, you can also get a carton of Joburg Beer, it must be rough stuff as the warning says, "Don't drink and walk on the road. You may be killed." Or perhaps that is a reference to the minibus drivers.

I give the shebeen experience a hard time, but it was actually quite interesting. It's a pity though that the poor madalas are spending the little they have on booze. So, once inside the tin shack, we're told the way it is done is to take a sip from the bucket and then passes it on. Personally, I think this method is just for the visiting mlungus so that the regulars can get more beer. I was very chuffed though when the bucket didn't make it back round to us. Ubuntu is one thing, but communal backwash, no thanks!

So after having seen the fly infested meat, it was time to test drive it. It was better than it looks!

























Cooked in the pots above 'til a fairly innocuous grey, and then served with chili powder and salt to add flavour. The stomach preferred it to shark cage diving.


























Not just a protein diet, you could always get some fruit from the 'shop' next door.
























Below is one of the older houses built during the apartheid era. Pretty solid construction with the can outside. Just down the road one finds the homes where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived. Nowhere else can a road boast two Nobel prize winners.

















A fair reflection on SA is that the public transport is a mess. The train is the cheapest way to get into town, albeit overcrowded during peak hours. There are also minibus taxis, which are a mafia and law unto to their own. Horrendous drivers, whose incompetence is rivaled only by their arrogance and lack of respect. Nevertheless, the minibus taxi is a huge industry, but it doesn't properly serve the people who need it, e.g. running late into the evenings. So, the city has decided to try do something decent and put in place a modern bus system that serves Soweto. There are even dedicated bus lanes etc. As expected said minibus taxi mafia have decided to defend their turf by trying to destroy the buses and bus stops. So for the moment these are guarded by police. They're just a bunch of gangsters! Below is one of the new bus stops, I hope that it takes off so that there are less bought licenses and heaps of rusty crap on the roads.

Between Soweto and Joburg, one finds the apartheid museum. Another thing I wouldn't normally visit during my Joburg stay, but it is worthwhile. As far as museums go, I think it is very well put together. What with the history being so young, it is also nice to hear the opinions of those who played roles in the development of South Africa. Many of which are still alive today. It really is fresh. Do yourself a favour, it gives an interesting background as to why South Africa is the very interesting country it is today.

A quick glossary in the South African context:

Shebeen: (Irish origin) An illicit bar, selling alcohol without license, perhaps it's own homebrew millet beer called umqombothi.

Hostel: Living quarters for the mine labourers, often migratory workers. Normally men only. Nowadays with less mining in the area, these are no longer dormitories within compounds, but individual 'houses'.

Madala: Is an old man.

M'lungu: A white person.

Ubuntu: No, it's not just an open source operating systems, it's a philosophy: Wikipedia on Ubuntu.

Bring on the different experiences.

The Super Predator: Man

On the recent trip to deep darkest Africa, we landed up shark cage diving, something I never really imagined doing. I should qualify that 'we' and 'diving'; 'we' went on the boat, only one of us went in the cage. The other two, myself included, fed the fish. Something about being anchored in a sizable swell didn't quite agree with the inner ear... The mackerel are serious fans of chicken focaccia!

We did however see some young modest sized Great Whites, if you call 2,5 metres modest. They were quite unperturbed by us and just moseyed around. Even the skipper was surprised at how docile they seemed, perhaps they were also seasick.

Apparently all the talk of conditioning the sharks to associate humans with food is bollocks unfounded. The sharks near Gansbaai in South Africa are migratory, and spend only a short time in the area, so are not able to become accustomed to the activity. Besides, the sharks aren't fed, just attracted by chumming, which involves tossing fish oil on the sea to lay a scent trail. (did I mention that this smell goes really well with nausea?)

What I was upset to hear about is that some of the cage dive operators are less scrupulous than others. It seems wrong using shark parts in your chum and dragging lures across the cages. Unfortunately, where there is money to be made and things to sensationalize, it seems that humans are the apex predators.

If you want to do it, I can recommend Marine Dynamics, a seemingly responsible group. I also suggest you find a calm weather day, that way you may actually enjoy it.

For all those that ask, "can you swim in the sea in South Africa?", look at the stats. 5 to 15 people are killed by sharks every year worldwide! What do you think? But yes, if you smell like fish oil you may be a shark magnet, best check your hygiene...

A juvenile cruising by, quite peaceful really.

















Hmmm, how photos can lie... sea doesn't look rough huh!

















Checking out the fish on a rope.

Cage diving is a bit of a misnomer. The cage is attached to the boat and is always partially exposed. So you hold your breath and duck down when the time is right. I guess going 'cage holding your breath' isn't as cool.

Would I go again? Nope. Would I suggest it? If you have the cash to spare, sure. Are humans ridiculously irrational, bordering on stupid? Absolutely!

What a beautiful animal!

Bigger in Africa

They grow things big in Africa, and I'm not just thinking of the Springbok rugby players. Recently, we visited one of my favourite spots on this planet, the South African Lowveld, for a visit to Kruger National Park. Here's some of the 'big' that we saw:

The Southern Grond Hornbill, odd creature, despite being endangered we strangely saw quite a few.
























A beautiful Jackelberry that we came across on a walk through the bush, most things with legs seemed to avoid us (thank goodness).