Follow Me Tour: Bluster and Chop

Juvenile African fish eagle

Day 4 (29 August) started with a wind that promised two things: it was going to be cold on the water, and the animals were going to hide away from us. And it was windy! We didn't see many animals, although the birds were out in full force.

Who says an African fish eagle doesn't hover? The wind was so strong that this bird had to hover for several seconds before it could manoeuvre itself to land on the branch...where it started off in the first place!

There were not many animals out, but here are some more elephant photographs. The hovering eagle is also on display. Enjoy!

PS: All my Botswana photographs (the ones that were worth keeping) will find themselves onto a board on Pinterest. Some are pinned already if you would like to take a peek.

Adult and baby elephants drinking water

The struggle of the fish eagle!

Follow Me Tour: Spectacular sunset

Sunset #1

Day 3 - 28 August - sunset

Like most people I love a beautiful sunset. The photographs you see here are not the result of any editing afterwards - they were just resized, otherwise it would take forever to upload. To be honest I cannot do much editing afterwards anyway, since I neither own a copy of Photoshop (or Lightroom) nor do I have any idea how to use these software programs.
So you might rightly ask how it is possible to take photographs that look black and white, and yet they are not. The easy answer is: camera settings.
Brendon, our intrepid photographic guide instructed us to set the ISO on the camera low and to under expose the image between 1 and 2 F-stops. And I listened :)
So here are two of those images of a spectacular sunset on the Chobe river, taken about two minutes apart as we drifted with the flow of the river.

Sunset #2

Follow Me Tour: And it gets better...

Blue heron

Day 3 - 28 August - the late afternoon

We went out the boat again. We expected the leopard to still be where we had seen her earlier in the day. She had a kill hidden under a tree that we could see and that told us that she could be around for a few more hours.

On the way to the site, we got distracted by other birds and animals, and were a little late to arrive. There were other boats already and they had spotted the leopard. While we didn't catch her drinking, we stuck around and got some more photographs of this gorgeous cat.

I also caught an African fish eagle in flight. Please forgive the lack of sharpness in the photographs as this was the first time that I have tracked a bird in flight and I didn't think it too bad for a first effort.

We also got some great shots, and really close up, of elephants on one of the islands in the river. The baby elephants were too cute as they swung their trunks around still trying to figure out what it was supposed to be used for. We saw one mimicking its mother as she picked the grass, shook off the dirt from the roots and then ate it. The baby got it right until the putting-in-my-mouth part, that didn't appear to be working so well :)

We hit some waves from the side of the boat and I was feeling a bit uncomfortable there for a few minutes, but it passed. If I had to choose between the boat trips and the trips on the vehicle over land, the boat would win hands down.

I didn't have to hold the Nikon camera with its heavy 200-400mm, f4 lens in my hand to shoot with, as the boat is fitted with a rotating tripod. On the vehicle that is not the case.

The roads are very uneven and it is not comfortable to hold on to keep your balance, hang on to a rental camera of high value and also keep an eye out for a good sighting to photograph.

Here are some more photographs to enjoy :)

Elephants

Leopard

Giant kingfisher

African fish eagle in flight

Follow Me Tour: I went on a boat!

The selfie is Francois, I am in the dark glasses :)

Day 3 (28 August) of our trip and I went on a boat today. For me that was a really big deal, since I suffer from motion sickness and it is the worst on water. So to say that I was apprehensive beforehand, would be the understatement of the year.

But I swallowed my pride/fear and climbed on board. And what an amazing experience!

Our cameras were attached to special rotatable tripods that moved with the chairs, and that was pretty cool. The best was the view we had of the animals and birds though.

Buffalo

We were so close to ground level on the river, that if felt like we were looking the crocodiles straight in the eye. Not quite literally, but very close.

Crocodile

The water birds were plentiful today, and so were the antelope and buffalo. I took almost 500 photographs today, because...we saw a leopard. It was a female that came right to the water's edge to drink. I kept pushing the button to get as many photographs as I could. Fortunately, the camera kept up with my enthusiastic finger :)

Animals we saw: leopard, buffalo, lechwe, puku, crocodiles, hippopotamus, water monitors, impala, kudu and waterbuck.

African fish eagle

Birds that spotted us: African fish eagles, marabou stork, Egyption geese, African spoonbill, yellow-billed stork, blue heron, goliath heron, large white egret, little egret, black egret, oxpeckers, squaco heron, giant kingfishers, pied kingfisher, spruce winged geese, glossy ibis, sacred ibis and jackana.

Leopard

Follow Me Tour: Nata Lodge

I apologise - this post was supposed to go live two days ago. Please blame my inability to deal with a slow internet connection :) There will be more coming up today, and I promise to make sure they are posted properly - Linzé

On our way to the overnight accommodation we drove behind a small truck with a bull, a cow and a small calf on the back. I don't know where the people went when they turned off, but I couldn't resist a few pictures as the animals moved around and upon occasion faced backwards, right at us.

When I opened my email, Google+ told me there was a Google+ Awesome picture. Curious, I opened the application and burst out laughing. I took several pics with my mobile phone today, but it picked one of the cattle on the back of the small truck! Awesome indeed :)

And boy are there animals to look out for when you driving this way. Goats, cattle and donkeys. Yep, thousands of them, with the number of donkeys only slightly less.

I had fun with Francois' GoPro camera on the road. He told me to put my mobile phone away and use the GoPro. I took about ten video clips starting from the border crossing to Nata Lodge.

We will charge the battery overnight and then I can play some more tomorrow.

Travel tip: Unless you are an experienced driver on bad roads (read bad potholes and uneven surfaces) avoid the George's Bridge/Martin's Drift border crossing if you are driving into Botswana from South Africa. Francois has a 4x4 and is a competent driver, and yet it was not easy to drive on this road. I would imagine that sedan type vehicle drivers had a nightmare driving this road today. It can be done, but you need to be extra careful not to cause damage to the tyres or the car when you drive too fast for the road conditions. The bad part is about 92 km from the border crossing to Palapye. Thereafter the road (the A1 main road) is much better, with only the animals and heavy trucks to look out for.

Follow Me Tour: The famous lady of Botswana

Red marker is at Nata, where we will stay overnight on the journey there and back

As I have recently mentioned I love amateur sleuth mysteries. I have to confess that I have not followed this series as one of those I had mentioned. However, the book I have read (and the two films I had watched) I really liked.
In keeping with Follow Me this week, I would like to introduce you to Mma Precious Ramotswe, a lady who has a passion for getting to the truth. She is the lead character of the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, written by Alexander McCall Smith.
The story takes place in Botswana, where Mma Precious has her office in Gaborone, the capitol of the country. While she - and her always ready to help assistant, Grace - are going about their sleuthing, while personal matters always seem to pop up to make life a bit more challenging.
While I might not be travelling in the direction of Gaborone on this occasion, I will be seeing some of the country on my way to the Chobe Nature reserve where we will be staying.

Be on the lookout for more tales and pictures of my adventure in Botswana.

Follow Me Tour: Nata Lodge Overnight

Upon arrival at Nata, I was reminded that we were going to sleep in a tent. With everything going on, I had completely forgotten about that part.

It is a permanent fixture, more so than the usual tent for camping. The tent is erected on a wooden platform. There are two beds with mosquito nets (an essential for sleep) and a nice bathroom. But the best of all? The outdoor shower! Man, did I enjoy that after we had dinner.

Francois took a shower before we had dinner while I was sorting out my stuff and getting this post underway. A few minutes later he waltzed in completely out of sorts.

He was already dressed, and smelled nice and clean, so I wondered what had happened.

He replied with, “if you have a self-image problem don't take that shower outside.”

I went, “Huh?”

“Yes,” he deadpanned, “those birds you heard just now? They were laughing at me while I was stark naked out there.”

I was hysterical. The birds he was referring to are commonly called katlagters in Afrikaans. (Minas in English) They literally sound like cats laughing at you. He just shook his head, but eventually gave out.

Wild animals we saw along the road: springbuck, warthogs, blesbuck and kudu.

Birds we saw along the road: Yellow-billed hornbill, minas, armour falcon

Follow Me Tour: On the Road

Crossing the Limpopo river between SA and Botswana

On our way to our overnight stop we drove behind a small truck with a bull, a cow and a small calf on the back. I don't know where the people went when they turned off, but I couldn't resist a few pictures as the animals moved around and upon occasion faced backwards, right at us.

When I opened my email, Google+ told me there was a Google+ Awesome picture. Curious, I opened the application and burst out laughing. I took several pics with my mobile phone today, but it picked one of the cattle on the back of the small truck! Awesome indeed :)

And boy are there animals to look out for when you driving this way. Goats, cattle and donkeys. Yep, thousands of them, with the number of donkeys only slightly less.

I had fun with Francois' GoPro camera on the road. He told me to put my mobile phone away and use the GoPro. I took about ten video clips starting from the border crossing to Nata Lodge.

We will charge the battery overnight and then I can play some more tomorrow.

Travel tip #4: Unless you are an experienced driver on bad roads (read bad potholes and uneven surfaces) avoid the George's Bridge/Martin's Drift border crossing if you are driving into Botswana from South Africa. Francois has a 4x4 and is a competent driver, and yet it was not easy to drive on this road. I would imagine that sedan type vehicle drivers had a nightmare driving this road today. It can be done, but you need to be extra careful not to cause damage to the tyres or the car when you drive too fast for the road conditions. The bad part is about 92 km from the border crossing to Palapye. Thereafter the road (the A1 main road) is much better, with only the animals and heavy trucks to look out for.

Follow Me Tour: We are on our way!

Today, our first day of travel, was a really long one that started at 3.30am this morning when we woke up. We left home just after 4am and arrived about twelve hours later at our overnight destination, Nata Lodge.

While we were still in South Africa we came across a quaint little place, called Proe-i-Biekie outside Baltimore. I didn't know we had a town by that name!

We decided to stop and have a belated breakfast/brunch. The owner, Ina, was very friendly and the food and coffee very nice too. Imagine our surprise when we saw espresso on the tiny menu. This type of coffee is seldom available in the remote rural areas of the country. And I had a chocolate muffin with my espresso! Francois rolled his eyes at me, but you have to have chocolate for breakfast at least once in your life, right?

Ina also offers overnight accommodation, if you are travelling in the Northwest province. She offered advice on alternative roads to travel to avoid the frustrating road works we had to deal with that resulted in our trip taking an additional 45 minutes.

Travel tip #1: Coming from Johannesburg/Pretoria - if you want to avoid the roadworks on the N11, take the N4 route via Nylstroom, and Melkrivier over Marken to Baltimore. It is 15km longer (about 20 minutes driving time) , but there are no delays on route. Thank you, Ina!

Travel tip #2: Bring a spare roll of toilet paper with you. Yeah, I know you are laughing, but trust me. The restrooms on the way are clean, and there is running water to wash your hands, but alas, the necessary is a bit lacking at most place we stopped. Nad yes, we had spare :)

Travel tip #3: Hand sanitising wipes, or waterless hand cleaner will be helpful, in case there is no soap in the restrooms. Happened at two of the places.

Follow Me Tour: Botswana here we come!

Yep, it is time for one of those again! But this time I am not travelling for work, nor am I travelling in my own country. Nope, Francois and I are going on holiday in Botswana, one of our neighbouring countries.

When he came with the idea of going on a Photographic Safari, my first thought was, yeah, so?

You have to understand, he does this ALL the time. A weekend here. A week there. Drakensberg. The Rigtersveld. Clarens. You name it, he has been there, and got the photographs to show for it.

Arching my eyebrows, I had to ask...and?

The succinct reply came, "do you want to go along?"

That was unusual, since he knows how I feel about watching photographers in action. Boring!

But this time will be different - I get to choose and use my own gear too. Surprised? So was I.

To make the pulling teeth exercise short, we are going to Botswana.

He wanted to fly (having received a sizeable bonus from his employer last year) and I said...no. I want to drive.

Sorry, there was no argument, but I won it anyway ;) I have never been to Botswana, and while flying might have been fun, I won't get to see much of the country in the process.

So we are packing our gear: cameras, toothbrushes, fresh underpants, and if there is space left, some more stuff.

Here is your invitation to follow me, while I tour a country I have never been to before, and living the experience with me on this safari!

You can read more about Botswana here.

Follow Me - The Orange River (slightly bent)

We had to entertain ourselves for one day since we couldn't change our booking for our overnight accommodation for the trip back. So we went shopping - if you could call browsing in a co-op shopping. I found some seeds for yellow tomatoes for my vegetable garden. Can't wait to plant those.
And then we decided to visit the Orange river crossing where we parked our two buses and enjoyed the view.

What the Orange River really looked like.

The photographs you see here were taken as panoramas from my Samsung S3. They came out...well, a little bent. But then who needs to see the world in straight lines anyway. Enjoy!
 

The Orange River from a "bent" perspective :)

Then I decided to bend a bridge. Ha, it was a lot of fun doing it my way!

Standing on the white line - 180 degree panorama

Well, that is the end of this tour. Thank you for following me as I travelled my country and allowing me the privilege of sharing a few glimpses of it with you. Until the next time...

Follow Me - The Guys, the Fun and the Rescue

I had mentioned before that I work with a great bunch of people and now you get to meet some of them. While I will remember the trip for the not-so-successful outcome of our tests, I will also remember it for the fun we had together.

Derek explaining something difficult as usual

Mpho bearing his kit while inside the Badger

Eric explaining to Sam what the next test is going to be about

Thato - at least I wasn't the only woman this time!

Hennie, Willem and Tienie wondering if the fishing is any good

Willem and Paul wondering what happened to their hats

Hours of laughing while just sitting around, talking nonsense and reminiscing about previous tests where people did silly things. Some of the people we talked about I knew, others I didn't. What did strike me was the camaraderie that people enjoy, even as colleagues. Many of our test facilities are fairly isolated, making it difficult to just jump into a car to go see a movie. It is either too far away, or there is such entertainment available in the nearest town.

On the last morning of our tests, we came across a group of springbuck running down the road. We frightened them and they were going all over the place, even running into the fences next to the road.
One of the group managed to get itself so tangled up that it couldn't shake itself free.

Springbuck running

Deciding that it was our fault to begin with (the fence), it was our duty to rescue the animal. 

And so three of my colleagues and one member of the SA Army who was with us in the bus, did the honours.
My attempt at a video was unsuccessful, the sun was too bright for me to see the screen of my mobile phone, but I did manage to capture a few photographs.

Springbuck stuck in the fence and the guys on their way

Job done! Back to work now :)

The heroes - all in a day's work!

Follow Me - Harnessing the Power of the Sun

While on the way towards our destination we came across two projects under construction to erect solar panels on several hundreds of hectares on land. The first was between Douglas and Prieska, fairly close to the road (all the photographs you see here). The second was right next to the old Copperton mine. Although we could see the construction work well enough, it was too far away to take good photographs with my mobile phone.

 On our way back home we came across a third such project. While I cannot remember exactly where - somewhere between Kimberley and Wolmaranstad - it too was large and set too far away from the road for a decent picture.
And the Northern Cape is the ideal place with its high number of days of sunshine per year.
What is heartening is seeing these solar farms being constructed to help with the increasing demand on the existing and future supply of power to the national grid.

Follow Me - Life on the Road

Since it takes us two days to reach our destination, there are lots of things to see along the way.
We often spotted impala, springbuck, a snake or two and even a tortoise who was trying its level best to cross the road.
Once our convoy of four vehicles rushed past of course.
One of the more fascinating sights is a little bird that lives in a communal colony with many other birds. It is the sociable weaver that makes its nest on the poles that carry the power lines along the road.
The nests expand as they continue to build, and care has to be taken that it does not grow too heavy and break up. Many poles have stacks of nest materials around their bases where the nests had become too heavy.

Prickly pears are another sight to make your mouth water. The luscious fruit grows wild in the Northern Cape, while it is not found only around here.

Just as we settled in for the last leg of our journey, it started to rain. While rain was not unwelcome, we were concerned about our tests that we conduct outside. The weather websites were consulted, and we relaxed as the rain was predicted to move on to the eastern parts of the country.

Stay tuned as the next installment will be about an exciting development in this part of South Africa.

Follow Me - On Route Day 1

We left Pretoria on Saturday and took the route to our overnight destination in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. 

It is one of the driest parts of our country as you can see from the photographs. 

It is also one of the geographical areas that can change almost overnight from a semi-desert to a lush savannah with a single rain storm.

Unfortunately, rain is a rare commodity and very often dams are but dry patches of sand, rather than blue stretches of live providing water.

Kimberley is an interesting city with a long history of diamond mining, that I am sure you have learned about in school. It also boasts one of the oldest, if not the oldest pub in the country.

Garden of the Kalahari Lodge in Kimberley

Follow Me - Off travelling once again

I am traveling again with my colleagues from work to do some tests again. After my last disaster - killing my poor mobile phone - I couldn't post any photographs of South Africa and the things we saw and did on the way. Well this time, I am going to do my best not to destroy my phone and then you can see the wonderful country side that is my country.
Since I still work for the same company, and the same rules still apply, you won't see any of the actual work. More about that here.

As I intended before, the posts will follow my awesome colleagues (and they truly are a great bunch of guys!) with chats and quirks, and a few quips - I promise to keep those PG!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, there will be updates there too.