Tablemountainnationalpark

I overcame my trepidation and found the path up from the Blockhouse to the scout hut - most of the way to the top. I got lost and got my legs scratched up a few times. The route is very poorly marked. I can’t help thinking without other information that rescue services could save a ton of money by simply putting good markers and clear information on the paths. Anyway. Now I’ve found the path I can extend my route even to Maclear’s Beacon - the highest point on our modest little mountain.

Lots of drama on the mountain today. A big fire was raging above Kirstenbosch seemingly. Throughout my extended hike the Apocalypse Now thudding of Hugheys flying constant relays to dump water on the fire. Pic 2 shows what it looked like when I first started my walk. It’s much reduced now but I still hear the helicopters from home. @johnthevudio is hard at work on the fire line I believe.

Got up early this morning and did my blockhouse walk. Just took my phone to compare to the canon s95 digicam. The phone is definitely better. Better detail. Better colour. Easier to carry. And this is a 2020 iPhone SE - not regarded as a photographic powerhouse. I’m a huge fan of cameras over phones but I don’t think a camera with a tiny phone-sized sensor really has any advantage. The real benefit of cameras is their much larger sensors and the creative control that goes with them. Digicams are just vibes.

Trying to get some examples of pics that the digicam can do better than a phone. I was up the mountain again on Saturday morning. I’ve seen some cunning designs for telephoto lenses for phones using a mirror or prism so they can run lengthwise down the phone body. But at present telephotography on phones is minimal. Still. With a similar sized sensor, a digicam photo just has a busy crowded feeling compared to the crispness of a bigger sensor like even a micro 4/3 camera.

Back on my mountain walk this morning for the first time in a long time. Amazingly there were cultists bellowing early Wednesday morning. I took @withoutaleaf’s old canon S95 digicam. Apart from the zoom lens I’m not sure that the results are really better than my phone.

Milestones: I managed to catch some of the cultists in this first pic (for those unfamiliar with my discussion of Rhodes Memorial cultists, I use the term in the anthropological sense of a niche religious society - not to refer to toxic cults). This one distinguished itself by blowing on huge corkscrew horns of the kudu antelope like a Southern African shofar. I decided to take a pic at each kilometre of my walk. Of course Sod’s law meant there was an interesting picture just ten meters before or after I hit the mark. Still. Interesting to note where each of these markers is on my walk. The straight up climb between km 1 (at the memorial after walking up from the windmill) to 2 (just below the contour path) is where all the sweat and wheezing happens. ...

Last one for a bit, I promise.

Another from the rainy day in Newlands Forest. The D600 is just young enough to have live view for composing but old enough that it’s awful at it.

More ferns. But this time from a walk in Newlands Forest a few weeks ago during the rains. I was having a great time out there until the eyepiece of the camera dislodged my hard contact lens - sending it tumbling to the endless complexity of the forest floor. It might as well have fallen through a wormhole into another dimension. An expensive mistake.

@kanesnaps and I trying to get back into regular mountain walks. We started small with the popular Constantia Neck walk to this ferny cliff with its ever trickling water. I felt these steps coming down here had a Lord of the Rings feel. I walked up to here in my new hiking boots - a completely traditional all-leather, stitched sole type to replace my high technology Zamberlans that have finally worn out after a literal quarter century. Thing about traditional leather boots though: wearing them in is a painful trial. But experience says that once that’s done they’ll be more comfortable than any off-the-shelf synthetic footwear. I swapped to my ancient trail running shoes - a hand-me-down from @jason66c - for the second half.