Exploresouthafrica on The Singemonkey

February 08, 2020

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 09:54:50 +0000

Certain adventures in my youth impressed on me how fynbos details track seemingly infinitely in - gross structural detail reveals smaller structures which reveal near-micro structures and so ad infinitum. This particular one has stems on the “flowers” (if they are flowers and not clusters of flower-arrays as I believe some fynbos flowers really are) with fine spiky leaves that make them look like the braided wire insulation on old fashioned electrical wiring.

November 19, 2019

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 19:58:19 +0000

Sometimes we have to venture into weird little SA village pubs and meet the locals so you don’t have to. Throwback to a few years back on a winter night in Nieu Bethesda. Apart from the TV there’s not much to tell you it was taken after 1955.

September 29, 2019

Sun, 29 Sep 2019 10:48:09 +0000

I’ve been taken with a real hankering to use my Pentax 645 again. Such a great camera. This was in 2012 at the little airport outside Beaufort West that was a bnb at the time. Hence @withoutaleaf hanging out on the air traffic control tower. When we were next there a couple years ago the runway was in action again training Chinese pilots for their indentured servitude in China’s commercial aviation industry. Worse jobs to be enslaved to, I guess.

September 03, 2019

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 09:31:26 +0000

The blue wobbly bit around the edge of South Africa.

September 03, 2019

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 09:29:04 +0000

The Southern spring is go.

August 15, 2019

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 13:01:30 +0000

#throwbackthursday in more ways than one. This is the skin of the lion that jumped Harry Wolhuter - a hunter turned The Kruger National Park’s first game ranger. The lions ambushed him and he was thrown from his horse. He came to being dragged by the shoulder between the animal’s legs. He reached for his knife, praying it hadn’t been thrown clear as it had on two previous occasions. It was there. He then had to awkwardly reach around with his left hand as the lion’s jaws had completely incapacitated his right arm. He stabbed the lion thrice where, as a hunter, he knew its heart to be. It grunted and released him. After an awful night tied up in a tree by his belt, he was rescued by his retinue and they tracked the blood trail to the lion’s body. The puncture wounds are clearly visible. On a visit to England he went to buy another of these knives. He told the guy at the counter that he’d killed a lion with one. The clerk said sarcastically, “Yes sir. Here we use them to kill sheep.

April 21, 2019

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 09:57:46 +0000

What the heck was in my morning coffee?

January 12, 2019

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 16:48:40 +0000

Touristing today at the South African Constitutional Court - the beating heart of South African democracy. It did not succumb to the treachery of our former president and his foreign paymasters. It stands against the vicious tyranny of our past and the sellout traitors of our present and future.

January 09, 2019

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 11:30:45 +0000

Crested Barbet. Not uncommon to see in Johannesburg gardens. I managed to photograph a few things that got close enough for my Pentax 67 film camera. I’ll have to wait and see whether any of them worked out. I might try it again though. It’s a lot of fun to use and the clatter of that enormous shutter is very satisfying.

January 09, 2019

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 11:27:38 +0000

It’s our last day in Kruger. So lucky to get to stay so long, and yet it seems to always be over so fast.

We saw this smart little Black-Backed Jackal yesterday. Just taking it easy in the twilight.

January 06, 2019

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 16:18:04 +0000

One more for today (had no signal this morning). We came across a hyena family - including the littlest hyena. Full of fun and playing with its siblings.

January 06, 2019

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 16:15:32 +0000

We finally saw a spotty cat. This was yesterday. Quite a scrum of cars. We saw one better today though that @withoutaleaf got some nice pics of.

January 06, 2019

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 16:09:53 +0000

The Nahpi Boulder in late afternoon with beautiful post-rain skies. In my head this kind of scene is as South African as it gets.

January 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 08:32:01 +0000

We’re in Pretoriuskop after a bit of an exhausting day yesterday. Got up to go driving around at 4 AM and didn’t settled down in our new place here until 5 PM.

December 31, 2018

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 08:08:52 +0000

We’re taking a camp day today. No driving out. Just seeing what wildlife’s in Skukuza and the river and checking out some of the old exhibits.

December 31, 2018

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 08:05:49 +0000

We took it pretty easy yesterday after our early starts. We haven’t really had time to really just relax since we left Cape Town. Aparna spotted this orchid growing in one of the bushveld trees - which we thought was pretty amazing. And just right for my 1970s 105mm lens.

December 29, 2018

Sat, 29 Dec 2018 14:40:17 +0000

I hate to brag… actually I love to brag about stuff that’s inconsequential… but this was lion sighting 4 out of 8 so far since Wednesday. Four of those were today. First up was a set of heavy boys who were shaking up the morning bush with their calls.

Photographically speaking, not the best day. But I used some 19th Century style photo printing techniques to make the most of this. Only it’s a lot easier on digital where you don’t have to wave bits of card under enlargers for set numbers of carefully planned seconds.

December 29, 2018

Sat, 29 Dec 2018 14:31:37 +0000

The Sabie River just after daybreak.

December 28, 2018

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 12:28:36 +0000

“Hail the jewel at the heart of the lotus.” We saw a lot of amazing bird behaviors today. Dancing Mourning Doves. This African Jacana bowing to this water lily while its mate looked for twigs as presents. And rollers bobbing and squawking at each other. None of the pics I took of this extraordinary behavior were any good though. Naturally.

December 28, 2018

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 12:21:18 +0000

A damp vulture. You probably can’t see on instagram, but the heat finally broke this morning and the rain came down. From 30C at dawn it’s now a comfy 23C with the delicious sizzle of rain with occasional thunder.

December 28, 2018

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 12:16:11 +0000

We got up at 4 this morning to go look for these lions in the hopes that they’d be doing something in la crepescule du matin. Well, at least they weren’t hiding under a bush.

December 27, 2018

Thu, 27 Dec 2018 15:06:22 +0000

The car thermometer peaked at 48C this afternoon. So the lions we saw were asleep under a bush. But at Lake Panic, this killer was undeterred. We probably have little furry ancestors that hung from the jaws of this Squaco Heron’s dinosaur ancestors like this doomed frog.

December 27, 2018

Thu, 27 Dec 2018 08:37:34 +0000

It’s hot in the Kruger Park. Yesterday was 42 degrees. Today is predicted for 44 (as usual, I have no idea what that is in loony units - join civilization and go metric). Everything we saw on our drive from Malalane to Skukuza was moving slow in the boil. Birds were panting in the trees. If anyone can say what this dark brown eagle is, I’d appreciate it. Brown eagles are my Waterloo.

December 26, 2018

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 13:55:21 +0000

About to sign in to the best place on Earth.

December 24, 2018

Mon, 24 Dec 2018 17:01:08 +0000

We have made it to lovely Jozi with thunder, great friends, gin, collies, and pink flamingos.

December 24, 2018

Mon, 24 Dec 2018 12:39:29 +0000

This place has some amazing biltong, droëwors, and pies. Plus we’re getting lamb chops. You don’t find butcheries like this in Cape Town.

October 18, 2018

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:37:25 +0000

#tbt to the last time I tried to shoot wildlife on a medium format film camera. And by luck we encountered this scarred old veteran close enough for the Pentax 400mm lens with a 1.4x extender.

October 11, 2018

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 15:02:07 +0000

#tbt to when we drove past this tall kitty strolling down the road.