Some years ago, I was travelling though the Free State province of South Africa and came across rocks that had round lumps on them. Some were complete, others were broken. I found one possible explanation on Atlas Obscura – concretation. The images on Atlas Obscura are far larger than those I found and are not attached to larger rocks as mine are.
We went to the Tankwa National Park for a birding outing. The Tankwa is in what is called the Arid Succulent Karoo. With an average of 15 cm (6″) rainfall per annum the area is dry and water is scarce but the animals, birds, reptiles and plants survive in surprising numbers.
This is the second time we have been to Tankwa. Our previous visit is documented here.
This is the view from the front of the chalet looking out towards Sutherland where the South African Large Telescope is housed.
Because of the dust, sunrises are colourful.
The stars are beautiful but light pollution is ubiquitous. That is Cape Town in the distance – about 200 km as the crow flies.
There having been a very wet winter, the only major dam in the reserve was overflowing. We never did identify that bird.
Birds tend to be small and really difficult to photograph.
A mouse warming itself in the early morning sun.
A Spiny Agama suns itself on a rock.
A Black Backed Jackal surveys the world.
Gazanias grow where there is a little more water available.
Where there was once water. A few centimetres of rain causes wash aways an pools like this one.
This is a Sutherlandia commonly called a Cancer Bush, supposedly helps treat cancer. No basis for this claim that I know of.
This plant is still unidentified, it just grows out of the thin soil and produces these beautiful flowers.
The Orange River Canyon does a sharp turn and the resultant spur of rock is called arrow point.
This part of the canyon is in hot dry lands where the rainfall is typically 160 mm per annum.
We went to Vrolijkheid this last weekend and were stunned by the spring flowers. The birding was not great, but we got some lovely pictures none the less.
Now for the birds
Coot feeding time.
Grebe and gone
And a clicking stream frog.
And a large ant. The Afrikaans name is “balbyter” literally ball biter.
Recently I found that most creative people have a portfolio so I decided it was time I created a brag page so here we go.
I am a generalist or less politely a jack of all trades. Whichever title you want to use it means I am curious about practically anything so to save you from browsing through the entire website, I will provide a short summary. So here goes
Painting – oil, acrylics and pastels. Acrylic first
Oil
Pastels
Charcoal
Photography – photograph anything that takes my fancy, flowers, sunsets, stars, landscapes and birds.
A glacial pavement just outside Nieuwoudtville when we were part of Pangea.
And then there are the other things
Baking
Bee keeping. Bees Bearding a hive to keep it cool
Hiking
Renovating a house in Riviersonderend
I love mountain passes and actively seek them out. The one in the video does not have a name to the best of my knowledge. It is very short and possibly cannot even be considered a pass, but I believe it is the steepest I have driven. It outdoes the Botterkloof pass in Namaqualand.
Where is it? It crosses the Gouritz River about 50 km east of Herbertsdale. If you want to find it on Google Maps search for Willie se uitkykpunt.
Apologies for some bad images, but I was using a hand held camera balanced on the steering wheel and my wife was not with me so I had to do it all myself.
The Kgalagadi Park lies on the border of three states, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. While in the park roads cross in and out of sovereign territory without border posts. Only when exiting the park into a different state do border controls come into play. It is a an interesting situation that has little or no affect on visiting the park. Park regulations vary from country to country, but don’t affect the feeling of the park.
The area is in the arid grassland regions and in the dry seasons, water is scarce. Put down a plate of water and the birds and animals appear.
Although renowned for its large predators there are also a smaller mammals to be seen
The larger predators spend much time sleeping so we were delighted to spot a family of hyenas going for a morning bath and drink.
We saw numerous herbivores.
Birds however were the focus of our attention
Fires had recently swept through the park leaving a blackened, burnt environment.
The trees were spectacular in their starkeness
We went to KZN in October and took lots of pictures – as usual. Join us in a brief journey through Hluhluwe and St Lucia
The Narina Trogon was the sighting of the trip so it takes pride of place and for the purists, we saw it in St Lucia.
Burchels Cougal or Vlei Loerie or Rain Bird. Such a beautiful bird
Wild Jasmine grows all over Hluhluwe.
It rained for most of the time we were there. Kept the temperature down, but was a bit disappointing for the birding.
This buffalo was getting rid of parasites in a hollow. Looked a bit foolish
The viz was awful and the sea rough
Together Diving.
Rhinos in Hluhluwe. Family outing
Warthog and Red Billed Ox Peckers
Crowned Lapwing
The west coast of South Africa is a dry semi-desert region with an average rainfall of 280 mm (12″). For most of the years the vegetation is low scrub and thorn bushes with patches of dry dusty ground. In August after the winter rains things change dramatically. The flower come out in raging colours. This display lasts three months and by the end of October the flowers are gone and the dry dusty veld is left.
We drove up to Langebaan in mid August after good winter rains and enjoyed the glory of the flowers
The flowers spread across all the open ground and wild profusion. If you drive through quickly you only see the carpet of flowers. If however you stop and look, there is a wealth of beautiful flowers hidden within the showy flash of white, yellow and orange.
A visit to the Invasion Beaches and my tribute to the men and women who landed on those beaches. Many did not make it.
In 2019 we traveled to Europe. Included in the itinerary was a visit to the Normandy Landing beaches. Guided by a very competent guide, we saw and walked on Juno, Sword and Gold beaches. What I saw there stunned me and for the first time I understood the shear horror of those landings. I understood the blind courage required to leap out of the landing craft into the ice cold sea and wade ashore into a hail of bullets. Come with me on a personal trip to those beaches.
Phoenix Bridge: Allied Commandos were instructed to take this bridge at all costs. Three gliders landed nearby and then according to the tour guide three soldiers stormed across the bridge to silence a machine gun nest at the other end.
You can get an idea of just how long that bridge is.
I asked the guide if the bridge was wider in those days but he said, “Narrower.”
I cannot imagine storming a machine gun down a narrow alley of steel and hard road surface.
I have no idea how they survived that crazy run.
The landing craft were mainly wood with the front door being steel and the soldiers packed together shoulder to shoulder inside.
On an aside note, this is the landing craft that was used during the filming of “Saving Private Ryan”.
The tide was out when I was there so the run was longer than during the invasion but as you can see that there is no cover whatsoever.
The guns were positioned to fire directly along the beaches, not down them. There was thus no way of a soldier further down the beach from evading or stopping the the fire.
There are memorials all along the beach.
