Botlierskop Game Reserve

It's a far cry from Pilanberg (see posts from last year below), but a
few days ago I went along to Botlierskop game reserve - it's the
nearest place to see 'big game' but its a very small park - feels more
like a UK safari park really.

The lions for instance are in a seperate enclosure and are not free to
roam and hunt like in Pilansberg:

You are driven round in a big truck. Saying that, it was still interesting. Didn't really get many good shots though - again look at my Pilansberg piccies for better ones. Here's a few of em:

Here's two Giraffe's fighting:

An Ostrich ...

And a white Rhino (check out the size of that horn - you wouldn't want that up yer arse!):

Woolworths

Woolworths is still one of the biggest department stores out here by
the way, it's just the UK that closed (they are in states too).

my, I am full of fascinating facts me......

Whales

Here's a picture of the whales I saw at the top of the Map of Africa -
long zoom shot so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

Paragliders have been known to actually spot land on the whales - then taking off again. Local rumour has it that the whales are being seen more and more frequently here and like playing with the pilots.

- I made that bit up.

The Map of Africa

The Map of Africa is one of the main flying sites here. It's a hill at
the back of the town of Wilderness. So called, because the river to
the back of it is sort of shaped like Africa.

The take off is not too bad, though there is the possibility of not
getting enough lift and not clearing the forest in front of you.
Assuming you do, you find yourself flying over the main dual
carriageway around 200 feet up. You can follow the road back and forth
along the ridge, and if the wind is strong enough it is forced up by
the ridge and you get lift. i.e. you can soar. With enough wind you
can fly back and forth all day.

When you've had enough you come out the lift band and head for the
beach, landing next to the car park for a lift back up to the top
again - trying not to land on the topless totty sunbathing on the beach.

Here.s the hill (we launch from just off to the right):

and the landing is just to the front of this picture here:

I've had about 10-15 flights off 'the map' so far. Problems with it are: wind needs to be pretty much SE or it is not flyable. Too light - you risk crashing in the trees, too strong you risk being pulled over the back of the ridge (like I was at the other beach site).

Sedgefield

Sedgefield is one site that has some awesome views from the top and on
the way down.

You start from the top of the hill with a sort of open river valley
below you, and in front of that, the Indian Ocean:

I posted a picture of it a few days ago too. I've only flown there once so far (2 flights), both pretty much top to bottoms (i.e. no lift - so no soaring). At the bottom is a nice big field to land in and the take off is pretty easy. Only issue is that it is pretty much a cliff face once you are in the air , full of massive pine trees - so on the one hand you want to stay close to the ridge (and hence close to the trees) to maximise lift. One other other hand, you don't want to land in a tree. It's very different from Paramotoring, where I am always >500 feet away from the ground unless taking off or landing - paragliding I'm having to get used to my arse being 5 foot above the top of a pine tree... a few times you get a bit of sink and think...'arg prepare for tree landing' which is a bit of a buttock clencher.

View from the House

So, been a bit lacking in posts for the last few days - blown out
today so I'll make up for it a bit.

From my balcony I look out over a river valley between a set of hills
and another set of hills just in front of the sea. In front of the
house is a large tree with loads of herons in it. Here are a few
photos of them:

On the right, right next to the balcony are some trees full of little weaver bird nests. They birds are bright green and they are just making their nests just now. In fact I watched one being made over the last few days. Have to say - it really is bloody amazing how they make them - it really is weaved together - not just stuck together with spit or something.

Here's one starting it's nest:

And here is the same nest finished:

cool eh ?

another blown out day

Looks like today is going to be blown out again. So setting up the
blog to email post so I can add a few more details and stuff.

here's a picture of the sky from the house today:

More details

Here are some
more details then....

I'd been flying above the ridge for about 40mins and was getting pretty high. Suddenly the
wind picked up and I was flying backwards. I had no speed bar system fitted
so I tried pulling down o. The a risers. But was still going backwards.

Next I tried big ears but by now I was behind the ridge in rotar and coming down

all I could do was try to stay out of the bad rotar and get on the ground
but there was only one small patch to land in and it had 3 trees in the middle of it

I managed to land on the ground but the wing got tangled in the trees.

After About 40 mins of tryo g to get it out a local guy turned up with achainsaw

Trees

Had great 40 min soaring flight this morning


However..... Wind then got up and I was dragged over the back of the hill


In the end I managed to land on the only patch of flat land but unforynately my wing had other ideas...

An hour later, and 3 less trees in the world -thanks to the land owner and his chainsaw and I have survived another adventure

Tuesday

Tuesday was flyable, but the wind was moving around all over the place.

We went to a site called 'sedgefield' for the morning. Awesome views from the top of the hill of the bay in front then the indian ocean.

Got 2 flights in there, but not much soaring - the wind just wasn't strong enough coming up the hill most of the time, though a few people did manage a top landing.

We then grabbed some lunch and headed back the the Map of Africa site but it wasn't great conditions either, however I did manage to get one quick top to bottom flight in.

More cool was the 7 Southern Right whales we saw. They were all playing with each other near the beach for at least 30 mins.

We then decided to hit the town for cocktail hour... which sort of extended into a pissup...

I woke up lying in a field at 6.30am....

When I got back to the house, I went straight to my bed and slept for the next 24 hours.. missing wednesday completely... thankfully I didn't miss anything as it wasn't flyable.

Tests

Pissing down rain and blowing a gale today - so a day for the theory.

Today I learned stuff like what can fly:

- birds

- planes

- paragliders

- witches

- little stones

I believe I am well on the way to my south african pilot license.

I also hired a quality ching Deathmaster car for the 2 weeks - bargain at 10 quid a day. It has seats and everything.

First videoed flight and landing - Map of Africa

Hill launch followed by 15-20 mins of soaring the cliff wall above the road, then landing on the beach. sweet. This was my second flight of the day (and second free flight in nearly 10 years). Also the first 2 flights on my Ozone Geo light weight mountain glider which flew really nicely too. Hill is 'Map of Africa'. Landed on the beach ok right next to car to go back up again!

Next launch went fine though

Just to prove I'm not a total muppet, the next one went fine.

How not to launch a paraglider

Ok, here's the video.

Basically a reverse inflation, but when I turned round I screwed it up and didn't get on the left brake quick enough. The result was that the glider started moving to the right. Not usually a problem... however more of a problem when there is a bloke in front of you to the right also about to launch his glider....

My muppet like brain decided that the best thing to do under the circumstances was not to abort the launch.. oh no... I decided that the best thing to do was to continue, leap over the bloke's lines trying to launch, then try to straighten out the wing and take off....

Somehow I actually did manage to jump over all his lines, much to his surprise.. however by the time I landed the wing had collapsed.

Moral of this story: god knows - my brain makes these decisions with no active input from me... so if it happens again, so be it !

Serf Africa - oct 2009 the return!

Well, I'm here! Arrived late sat night in joburg feeling pretty much worse for wear after taking advantage of the free BA booze a bit too much... well 6 miniatures, 5 bottles of wine and a beer.

I think it was a bad beer.

Arrived in George at 2pm, got to Wilderness at 3pm, and was airborne at 4pm!!

Didn't video first flight, but did the second and will post some video tomorrow from a faster connection.

Managed to persuade Jan and Kobi that I could control my glider and they were happy for me to go for a flight.

Ozone Geo flew well - got a decent amount of life and ridge soared for a while before landing on the beach.

Then went up for another flight.

Had a wee mishap that time, as there were a few folk on the hill and I had to jump over one of them... cough... video to follow.

For now, here is a picture from the top of the hill.

Airvault, France

I was just over at Airvault in France weekend before last - first time flying my new PAP paramotor, and fiirst flight since my knee op back in April.

Great flights, and one perfect one flying in/round/through clouds which was awesome.

here's a pic

2nd holiday in sharm

So, day one of the 2nd time I've been in Sharm in 4 weeks.

A day by the beach. Excellent snorkelling in the house reef just outside the hotel (which is very very nice, but a wee bit expensive for food and stuff). Lunch with a few beers cost us 50 quid.

Here is eugene being attacked by a little parrot fish that later bit him on the ear.

last post of the night ... probably

Well, I'd have to say, overall Sharm ain't a bad place. It's certainly not Egypt - its very similar to Cancun in Mexico in terms of it's western centre in the middle of a foreign country.

But is does it better than Cancun. Perhaps because of the lack of americans, there isn't the chain mentality of cancun (no Outback, no Hooters, etc). There is still a genuine blend of egyptian with 'english' and it sort of works I think.

If yer a bit of a 'sit at the bar and watch the folk go by' kind of person, then it is hard to beat. Everything from yer working class family from 'oop north' struggling to cope with the singular choice of mcDonalds, KFC or Rock Cafe... to the middle ground folk for holiday.. perhaps the first time in egypt, trying some new things, to the russians - still wearing mickey mouse t-shirts and clothes that wouldn't look out of place on liberachy. (it is a constant mystery to me, how they can invert the globe and not notice that the rest of earth's population has moveed on from gold tops and leg warmers...)

last camel bar post

it is good to see that the camel bar is still full of the same hardcore dive folk (i.e. blokes and fat munters) that is was 8 years ago... some things never change.

time to move to somewhere else now that I've done the 'reminiscing' blog...

the music ain't changed either... commitments has just finished, and we nw have love shack... it's like frecking Chicagos!!!! (sorry ipswich in-joke).

Bugger me, I was in the right place afterall

Tings ave go a big bigger in the last 9 years....

but the old camel bar is still in the middle of it like an old kernel.

I am sitting in the same spot as I was 8 years ago. Sort of rubbishly, 8 years ago I was also sitting at the bar with a laptop around the same size as the one I am writing this one now ( now: acer aspire one, then: sony vaio picturebook). So.. not a lot of progress in some ways tech wise either!

Last time I was here with 3 mates from Pixelpark where I was working at the time: 1 diver, and the 3 of us learning. It was a good week.

I'm looking at the wall, covered in notes from around the world and flags, wishing I contributed something that I could see now, but I didn't unfortunately.

Here.s a piccie of how it is today

Mother and Daughter week ?

I dunno if this is unusual or sharm is always like this, but there is a weird high number of mother and daughter combos wandering about... I mean 20% or so...

I never even knew 'holidays for yer mother and daughter' was even a thing.. but apparently it is.

Christ Knows what they do all week, 'cause they don't seem to be divers.

The Camel Bar

How things change!!!

9 years ago, the camel bar was the place to be for all the divers.

It was upstairs off the main street, sort of englishy with postcards from round the world posted on the walls.

All the dive instructors and students hung out there at the end of the day - mainly cause it was one of the few bars that existed.

Now we move on 10 years.... it's now like freckin vegas... more pubs, clubs and restuarants than you can shake a stick at.

I'd been warned it was very 'seedy' with russian hookers everywhere and folk offering you drugs every 10 yards.

That I have to say, is mince!!! it's a family place - lots of families wandering around. It's changed from being a dive only resort to a family resort, and I have to say I reckon it's done a pretty good job of it (ian if yer listening - wtf is the problem with sharm??)

Anyhoo, the upstairs corner bar, is now one of the biggest bars on the front.. so much so that I missed it when I tried to find it after 10 years...oops actually i've just realised that Im still sitting in some other bar and not the camel.. so will move on my next drink!!

All in all quite pleasant.

relaxin'

Just relaxing the last few days by the pool.

Might go down to central sharm tomorrow (last day)... or might not :-)

Still about 100 degrees here, so easier to just bum around.

Reading 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre. Can recommend it - good read if only to confirm all I knew (and hopefully u did too!!)

Worth a read if only for some ammo to fling back at folk who think that the latest pomegranate juice or whatever fad is current has any scientific basis... (hint: it doesn't)

Another drift dive

Another drift dive in the afternoon - basically you jump off the back of the boat and let the current take you around the reef. When you ave used all your air, you wave the ship to come and pick you back up.



This is a sandfish. It sort of sits on top of bits of corral, not moving. If you are careful, you can sneak up to it like this. It spends most of the time burrowing in the sand for stuff.



Trumpet fish... dunno why on earth they are called that...



more of the brass section.



Some nice corral formation around 15m. Usually look a bit green./blue at this depth, but the light rays just caught it nice.

Ras Mohammed

Earlier start today as we were going to Ras Mahammed - one of the national parks. About 1 1/2 hours away in the boat.

Morning dive was one I did 9 years ago over the wreck of a ship which scattered its cargo of bog seats all over the reef.

There are also some pretty strong currents around here, so you can really find yourself fighting against getting dragged into the reef on one hand, and on the other you get to a bit where the current sucks through the reef to the ocean floor... 300m deep...so you need to keep yer wits about you!



Ideal if you forgot to go on the surface.



These look cool the way the light catches then ad they sort of move as one mass.




kind of flourescent fish, dunno what its called.




A few of your intrepid camera man.

Manta

On the way back from the last dive, the captain spotted a manta ray. First time I've seen one of these so dived in with scuba gear to swim with it. It was around 15-20 feet deep though, so I had to dive down to get the video - hence not very much of it.



Here's a piccy of another fish.

Tuesday - first big dives at Raz El Sid

First day on board ship tuesday. 2 dives over a Ras El Sid. Saw some cool stuff including a big moray eel about 7 feet long, with a mouth big enough to bit yer head off in one gulp.

I'm a bit heavy on my air... out of practice. So my dives are lasting about 10 mins less than some others on the boat.



A big puffer fish. These seem to be under the impression that they are invisible. You can more or less poke yer camera up there arse and they'll just sit there looking at you with a sort of 'silly man... he hasn't even seen me here' kind of look to their face.



About 20m deep this one. Just following the coral.



more from the brass section.



These are called trigger fish. Dunno why. They crunch through coral a bit like parrot fish (sometimes you can hear the crunching). They are about 2-3 feet long.



Jumping in off the boat to start a drift dive.

Gooper and Angel Fish

Here's a couple more pics. One of a big grooper (about 3 feet) with some teeth showing, and some angel fish swimming about a rope that looked pretty cool.

jars and relaxing

Finished off the dive with some jars (??) and some relaxing at the pool.

40 degrees (>100 F) today. very nice. :-)

First Dive

It's been 5 years since I last dived, so I had to do a sort of min exam before I could go out on the boat again.

started with a trip to the beach, and some paper quiz questions...

1) why does a duck float

2) do little stones float

3) why does a witch weigh the same as a duck.

Next... practical so into the water!

Day 1: On the beach for a scuba review

Well.. it's 8.15am... on holiday !!!!! and I'm waiting for the bus to take us down to the beach for a scuba review.

Since it has been 6 years since I dived last, I need to do a written test, and also a practical review to check I can still breath in and out at the right times... so no boat today.

Kinda glad, as it is a more relaxed way to start the holiday.

Doubt I'll get any underwater pictures today, but I'll post some of sharm later.

in egypt!!!

here we go.. first blog entry... sunday night - just arrived. bloody hot. met some folk at the bar and chatting to em. It's gonna be a good week.

Bedroom Home Cinema

Just finished building a home cinema in my bedroom.

I did have my old 42" plasma in there, but it didn't really fit on wall properly and I wanted to move it to the conservatory anyway (so I can watch it in the hottub).

So, I had a widescreen projector anyway. I just bought a screen and mounted it.

Also, fitted a yamaha 5.1 speaker system I had spare - hid the wiring in the roof.

'wall rug' hides projector wiring as well as giving the room a bit of a focus.

screen is about 8 foot diagonal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJTtEEghFc

http://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=powerlord&vc=false

Kilncadzow Flight 14th September 2008

Now I'm stationed in Livingston for the next 3 months, I took the
opportunity to ship my paramotor up.

Apart from the sheer bo1ocksing up citylink made of that forcing me
and my dad to have to drive from edinburgh to birmingham and back to
pick it up from their 'hub'.. it does mean I can try to fly at the
weekends.

And against all odds, the weather suddenly changed sunday morning
around the village (Kilncadzow), and was ideal.

I took off with my two wee neices watching first time (whew), and had
a great flight down over Carluke, down to Crossford, and following the
Clyde up to New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde, then over Lanark over
to the wind-turbine farm near Shotts, back over Carluke and finally
back to Kilncadzow.



75 min flight and 8 litre on the parajet.

It's one my my attempted comentary videos, however the throat mic has
slipped down a bit I think, so you will have to be a dab hand at
understanding mumbling scottish to work out anything I am saying.

And I just posted all my non-blurred piccies rather than selective
editing, as most of them were house shots for neighbours, friends and
relatives for them to download, so you'll have to skip by lots of them.


Still a few decent ones of the clyde and New Lanark and the
wind-turbine farm, and some decent take off and landing video.

I landed at the right time, as it was just starting to get a bit
blustery, and you'll see when I came into my final coming out the dog
leg. it just looses 20 feet suddenly. nice. Still... landed on my feet.

No great adventures to report.. nice clean sky.. a wee bit of
turbulance here and there, but nothing much. Mostly flew hands off on
mid trim.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/gallery/5966871_aD6rJ

and video here (headcam and some ground footage):

http://www.vimeo.com/1731422

Sible Heddingham

Well, it's a paramotor blog too, and on friday night I had my first flight for about 5 months!

Parajet still away being repaired, but a fellow Lemming (the paramotor club) Steve kindly loaned me his brand new PAP top80 paramotor for a flight.

Obviously a bit nervous what with it being so long. Plus the wind was light and swishing about 180 degrees.

Still, I sorted myself out for a takeoff, and pulled the wing up. It didn't come up very quickly, but I perseveired and kept pulling and applied full power.

jeez... loads of gyro effect from the big prop that I'm not used to, and it flung me towards a row of 10 feet high hedge.

Still, I got control of it and was now gaining speed for a takeoff.

Unfortunately I was now running towards the 10 feet hedge.

However, I figured I might just clear it, and my brain tends to switch off at this point and is committed to a take off whatever the hell.

So, now I am airborne, about 20 feet from the hedge. hmm.. aint gonna make it.

got about 10 feet of height, and just managed to pull the wing round into a sharp right turn to miss the hedge by mms. Well.. I didn't miss it actaully and ended up with a few bits of hedge in the prop cage... but I am airborne!! yeh!!!

Awesome to be in the air again. Steve's paramotor is great. far quiter and smoother than my parajet. I gain some height up to 500 feet or so and start to get my bearings - I didn't bring any instruments with me, so I have no GPS, no vario (for altimeter), no compass and not even a camera.

I remember I have my casio watch though which has a (crap) compass on it, and try that.. hmm.. better than nothing.. if I take 3 or 4 readings in might be within 45 degrees.

From the take off field, I fly west for 15 mins just enjoying being airborne again. I keep looking back trying to remember the lie of the land and where the landing field is, but it is tricky as it's flat as a pancake and no real landmarks around. Eventually it gets to the point that I look back and can't see it anymore, and then I have no idea what the hell way it is.

At 1000 feet one little village and windy road looks much the same as the next little village and windy road, so figure I'd better try and work out where the hell I am.

10 mins of flying in circles later, taking multiple readings from the compass and I finally work out my position, orientate myself towards Coyne railway and Heddingham Castle, and fly on.

After a total of about 30 mins I get to the steam railway and fly low over the locos for a good view, then up again and on to heddingham castle.

Heddingham Castle is a big square turret:

http://www.ecastles.co.uk/hedingham.html

I flew over it last year, and it's a pretty cool place to fly around. A few people around waving. I circle a few times, and fly over the lake, and then figure I'd better head home.

Steve said there was enough fuel for about an hour. I've been flying 35 mins and figure it'll take 15 as the crow flies to get back.

So I turn round, but can't resist goingback over the railway again.

I get near the take off field again. Beyond that is an RAF glider airfield we need to stay north off - it's being heavily used and quite a few planes and gliders have shot by me while I've been up.

Been about 45 mins now, and really don't want to land. I gain some height up to 1500 feet or so, so I can do a few 360 spirals... get a good 2Gs or so, and stomach into the mouth when I come out of them.. woohoo. sweet.

Humph.. well.. don't want to run out of fuel, so better land.

Set up my approach, and come in to land. It is a centrifugal clutch on this paramotor, so with no revs it doesn't turn anyway, but I still want to power off before I land - one less thing to worry about.

The landing approach is a bit awkward - the wind has changed direction (I can see the directions from the others kiting their wings), so I need to come down really low over a few cars and trees to land in the field if I don't want to be walking miles.

Engine off, glide glide glide... apply brakes a bit early at about 3 feet from ground, so flare stops me about 6 inches in the air and I land on my feet, but then just go down on my knees anyway as I'm not going anywhere. colapse wing. acceptable landing.

I strap out, and find that I have only used 3 litres of fuel (would be about 8 with my parajet) and could have easily stayed up for another hour at least !

Can't thank Steve enough for the flight, and I am now seriously considering upgrading to the same paramotor as his - it only has a little 80cc engine (mine has 185cc), but a bigger prop (1400cm cage rather than my 1000cm). End result is about the same power, but about 1/2 the weight on my back (I ran around with it on my back when I landed!!! I'm lucky to be able to stand after a flight in the parajet), and a max flight duration of 3-4 hours rather than 1 1/2.

Anyhoo, should get the parajet back next week so might get a flight with it too soon.

sweet to be back in the air.

- pilot stu

Kaiser Chiefs

Well, here ends another week in SA. Sorry no updates to blog, but nofink happened and I'd prefer not to bore you with 'today was ok the weather was good, I had a crap at 8.20am, etc'.

Got back to hotel to find the Kaiser Chiefs are here tonight in the bar.

Unfortunately that is the SA football team and not the band.

So, after some contractural screwups my 2 week stay has been cut short and I am back on the plane to blighty tomorrow. First class again, which is nice. Though I'd have to say on reflection that business class is just as good if not better in some ways (less of the yes sir/no sir/fluff your pillow sir)...though I must admit being in the nose of a 747 with 3 windows either side of you is pretty cool.. you feel like you are in an airship.

I hummed and hawed about some other adventure tomorrow, but in the end decided that a day by the pool with a few beers is what I need. So this could be the last blog entry until I take to the skies next time...

...but I'm hoping that will be next week in my cutting edge paramotor rather than in the arcane 747 'jet' I have had to slum it in recently.

talking of which, a fellow Lemming (my paramotor club) just completed flying from lands end to john o groats in his paramotor (a parajet like mine). good on im.

Mine is still buggered, but I have high hopes that some garage fiddling will bring it back to life having been on the phone to parajet for some likely fixes during the week.

Lightning

Looks like Ipswich got a cool storm last night.
And the webcam caught a great lightning bolt!













And another one of sheet lighning where it looks like daylight though it was 2am.

PilanesBerg National Park and Manu. Invasion

Well, I was actually looking forward to the national park more than I thought I would be. It had started as 'something to do' after abandoning reaching anywhere decent on a motorbike in the time available. But the more I though about it, the more I was looking forward to it, and getting some good photos with the SLR-type camera and some HD video.

As I said previously, I paid for a personal guide for the day: Gert has been a guide for the last 10 years since he left the army as a Colonel. He's 64 and knows his stuff. He picked me up at 6am from the hotel, and was a font of knowledge about the animals and knew where the best chance of seeing each was at different times of the day.

Excellent weather, nice breeze, started out cold (2 degrees) but was soon up to 20 by noon or so.

It's a small park by African standards, but still more than 200 square kms, so it's no 'blair drummond'.

It's quite possible to go all day without seeing a single animal, so I was prepared to just enjoy the scenery... if we saw some animals it would be a bonus.

By the end of the day I'd seen White Rhinos, Springbok, Impala, Kudu, Warthog, Giraffes, Gnus, Monitor lizards, Crocodiles, King fishers, Ganets, Herons, Terrapins, Hippos, Eagles and Elephants!

All in the wild ! no cages, no fences, no nowt.. just 200sq km where they can go and do what they want when they want.

Had to do one quick reverse when an elephant decided it wasn't giving permission for its photo to be taken and started coming straight for the car, but apart from that, no probs.

Having Gert on hand all day was awesome compared to the trucks going by full of tourists and was well worth the cash.

Got some good photos I think, and have stuck em up in an album:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/gallery/5547366_XUC4N

I took some HD video too, but I'll need to edit that before I can post it online. I think it should come out pretty well though: the lighting was good, and I shot most of it on a monopod.

Couldn't find any lions unfortunately, and leopards and cheetahs are notoriously hard to spot. But still an excellent day.

Got back at 6pm to find the hotel mobbed! Manchester United are over in SA on a yearly tour and were playing the local team that day in Pretoria (beat em 4-0). The Manu squad were staying in the hotel too, and there was some big dinner thing on, so it was pretty busy/noisy all night with them all partying.

Power Cut

Wahee. Just having my first power cut in SA! On the laptop though, so can keep doing some work, and my server is ok too.

They are much less common this year apparently than last year, but clearly still happening.

Earlier in the year it was happening every day. They even have a name for it: 'load shedding'.

Basically every day, each area of SA would get switched for for 1-4 hours every day in order to try and let the power stations cope.

Crazy eh ?

Power is still bouncing on and off here just now.

PilanesBerg

Right, saturday sorted!

I have signed up for going to Pilanesberg game reserve:

http://www.pilanesberg-game-reserve.co.za/

It is up near Sun City, about 2 hours from Pretoria.

Rather than faff around with car hire or bikes, etc I have just signed up for a tour.

But for 3x the normal price you get a personal tailor made day, so I went for that.

Get picked up at 6am tomorrow in a car, driven to the park, then I get my own personal tour ranger and car for the day, so looking forward to getting some good pictures.

Pilanesburg is 200 square km, and has all the 'big 5' inc rhino, lions, elephants, giraffes, etc.

Glad I brought the SLR over. And I'll bring my HD video camera too, in case I get lucky and see a hunt or summit.

So, should be posting some cool pictures on sunday (where my plan is to laze aboot the hotel in the sun).

Weekend

So, Dunno what I'll do at the weekend.

I looked into hiring a bike and doing the national parks.

Problem is: apparently lions go for bikers. They are about the size of antelopes, and move about the same speed, etc.

So, bikes are banned from parks with big cats. poofs.

It is ok for a few other parks like GoldenGate and Karoo that don't have cats, but do have elephants and rhinos, etc... so not sure I get the logic.. maybe rhinos don't go for bikers ??

But they are both further away that the nearest one (Kruger).. and that was still 500Km away.

So, I reckon that too, is just too far for a weekend driving.

It's only about 500Km to the Zimbabwe border and I considered going up there for an adventure.. go over, become a trillionaire for the day, etc. However a look on the british embassy page shows they are advising against ANY travel to Zimbabwe and telling all current british citizens to leave immediately if possible... poofs.

Weather looks like being ok, and the hotel looks like it is sorting out sunbeds, pool etc so must have hit the 'spring' date over here. So reckon I might just hang about at the pool and listen to some books.

I did fancy the bike hire, but it is gonna be a pain to organise, going down to Joburg, etc and it is not worth doing unless I have a real goal.

Renualt F1 are here sunday down the road near Joburg with a street race thing. But I reckon that'll be pretty boring.

I might have a word with one of the guys here tomorrow and find out where that cooling tower swing thing is. Or there is also a 600m long death slide somewhere which might be a larf.

Possibly hire a car locally sat and do that sort of stuff, the hang about the hotel sunday maybe.

After hearing from my aunty at the weekend about people getting shot dead on a weekly basis for their cars though (only 4 weeks ago my cousins friend was in a car with 3 of her friends and the driver was shot dead in the head, 2 weeks ago another friend of hers was raped 5 times and killed. A bloke fishing last week was shot dead for his tackle box, etc), it sort of takes the excitment away a bit....

Learning to Drive

Got picked up last night by the hotel from work as usual.

But 2 of them in the car. We pull away and it is immediately obvious that the bloke driving can't. That is... he is all over the road, treats the brakes like an on/off switch, and keeps forgetting to change gear and missing or stalling it several times...

Yup.. they are 'training a new driver'.

Now, you'd think that might mean showing him the best routes through the city, taking him through the paperwork, etc. Oh no, it means teaching him how to fecking drive apparently.

I got about 2 miles and after him driving through the 2nd stop sign without seeing it, I demanded we stopped and either the other bloke take over, or I'd bloody drive, but I'm damned if I am sitting here while some numpty learns to drive a car with me in it.

Quite how they ever thought this was acceptable I can't get my head round.

Richards Bay

Went to Richards Bay at the weekend to see my aunt and Uncle.





I'll write some stuff up over the next few days, but for now, visit the gallery for a slideshow at:





http://powerlord.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=5489927&AlbumKey=FfT7Y

or just go direct to the gallery to browse at:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/gallery/5489927_FfT7Y

Sunrise and Sunset

I think I mentioned before how early it gets dark here. Sunset is at 5.30pm.

"Yeh, but it is their winter" you are thinking.

Well, true it is the heart of winter now. But even in their warmest month (january), sunset is at 7pm!

Basically we are still pretty close the the equator here, so the differences in times between day and night are pretty constant, whatever time of the year (i.e. about 12 hours daylight always).

Which takes some getting used to. I remember being in Capetown in October (dark just before 7), and you are so used to summer == long nights to do stuff, that it keeps surprising you when it is dark so early.

Quite a lot of folk seem to start work early all year round (and schools start early), so you get a bit of daylight to do stuff at the end of the day. But it is still a far far shorter day than we are used to getting in our summer... for example, length of day in the UK just now is 16 1/2 hours.

It sort of affects everything you can do, when 6 months of the year you are used to an extra 4 hours of daylight at the end of your working day (even if the weather is rubbish it is still light) which they just never get.

Change of plan

Right, so with stops on the bike, etc you are talking a 12 hour trip there, and a 12 hour trip back.

Which is totally mental. It's mental in a car even with 2 folk to share the driving. It's insane on a bike.

So I have chickened out and booked a flight direct joburg to richards bay. get there saturday 10am, leave at 1600 on the sunday.

Aileen (my neice) has went back to Varsity near Durban so I'll have to drive 100 miles or so down to there to see her either saturday or sunday, so I will see about hiring a bike in Richards bay to do that as it looks like a cool drive down the coast. But failing that, I'll get a hire car.

Even then it will be a 200 mile round trip.. so say 4 hours driving. So that's a nice amount for biking.

Dunno if I'll be able to hire a bike in Richards bay though. But I can but try.

Hmm.. it's a long long way to ...

Funny how you look at Africa, and yer sub concious I reckon changes it to 'britain'. So you look at pretoria to Durban and think: aye, thats like london to Brighton.

And you see 600Km but it's km so it doesn't mean much anyhoo.

Oh, and I need to go to Richards Bay, not Durban.. which is another 100 miles up the coast.

According to Brabys Road Map, it is gonna take 9 1/2 hours.

http://tinyurl.com/5d67g3

which is quite a way to drive in a day in any vehicle.. never mind an Enduru Dakar motorbike.

So.. having second thoughts that I have bitten off more than I can chew here tbh.

I'll need to work through it tonight I think.. but I am thinking that 10 hours each way is a bloody long way.. possibly too long to do in 2 days on a bike... might need to think again.

Bungie Swing

The blokes at SARS think I'm a bit of a nutter with the biking thing. Plus, I suppose, the fact that last time I was here I jumped out a plane.

So one of them showed me something they thought I might like to try today...

Aparently quite closeby there is a closed powerstation that has 2 of those massive concrete water towers.. you know the ones you see with steam coming out them sometimes ?

Well some bright spark has run a steel cable between the tops of them, about 200m apart.

And half way between the 2, at 400 feet high, attached a rope and seat...

so you climb up one tower, grab hold of the rope, and jump of the tower... and feel like you are going to die, until you start swinging all the way over to the other tower, and back again.

Not particularly clear to me how you are supposed to get off right enough.. maybe there is a lake in the middle and you jump or something.

Anyway, if the biking doesn't come off, that will be a definate.

Bikes

Looked into the bike hire a bit today. There is a company half way between here and Joburg that do a BMW 650GS for 1600R for the weekend (aboot 110 quid).

So plan is to try and get that delivered to the hotel friday evening so I can get an early dawn start on saturday.

This assumes I go to Durban. I've sent my aunt an email, so I'll have to wait and see if it is convienient for that weekend. If not though, I'll still have the bike and go down to the national parks.. I reckon it will be well cool to drive through the national parks on a bike.. loads of great scenery and wildlife... clearly I'll have to be a bit more careful about where I stop than when in a car if I want to avoid getting eaten by lions or stomped by elephants, but will be a larf anyhoo.

Security

Just sitting in the bar with the laptop here while my room is cleaned (they forgot to do it today...)

The Sheraton in Pretoria is the sort of best big hotel in Pretoria, so because of that and the fact that Pretoria is the governmental capital of SA (and the embassies, etc are here) it tends to be the place all the world leaders, ambassadors, etc stay when they are here.

I think something or other must be on this week, as the hotel is fully booked.

I've been watching them set up a conference room at the end of the corridor opposite the bar.. security folk, etc all setting up... so they have this security metal detector thing.. you know the sort of doorway thing, folk have to walk through and it beeps if it detects metal, etc...

So they set it up in the middle of the corridor in readiness for the conference delegates.

They spend the next 10 minutes testing it by walking through it again and again with various metal objects... so talking it all seriously.

Finally, the staff all arrive (20+ people) and need to get in. So.. the security guard has a bit of a brain wave and clearly thinks:

"hold on, this security barrier will hold up all the staff, so I'll just lift it up and move it to the side so they can all get in".

Once they all pass, they put the barrier back up.

class.

Out to SA again!

Well, writing this from the BA executive lounge in T5 Heathrow. It's pretty special. Terminal deserted, and no queues at security.. obviously no flights on sat nights ? Anyway, 2 big lounges each end of the massive glass building for us business types :-) Really nice facilities.. every wine and spirit, beer and fruit juice under the sun..except champers.. no bloody champers.. I think I will complain.. Nice fresh sandwiches, soups, etc. Top nosh.

So now got a couple of hours to kill before the departure, so sitting in a sofa typing this on the free PCs with a glass of chablis.

I notice Gordon Ramsay has a restuarant here. It was empty. But then again, the whole place is empty.. I've never been in an airport during the day when it is so quiet. very weird.

Just watched an AirIran plane take off... could this be a connected fact ?

So, Im off to Joburg/Pretoria for another 3 weeks. 2 weekends to do summit or other... after crashing and burning on the sky diving, I have been thinking of something else I can do.. and today it came to me!

I have an aunt in Durban, which is about 650km away from Joburg on the east cape coast.

I was originally thinking of flying down, but it would be a bit much to go down for the whole weekend in Durban with my aunt and uncle.

Then it struck me... if Mr McGregor can do it, so can I !

Long way round it may not be, but I can still have 2 mini-weekend biking adventures.

So, the plan is to hire a BMW motorcycle (same one as he used) for the weekend, and blat down to Durban, see my aunt, uncle and neice, and then blat back.. so about 1200km in 2 days. Which, if you are a biker you will know is a lot of miles. An awful lot of miles.

But it will take me through the Zula Natal, through some amazing scenery I'd miss in a plane.

Assuming I am still alive, the next weekend, the plan will be to hire a bike again, but this time go to some of the national parks and see some wildlife on the bike.

I've brought my HD video camera, and my bridgeSLR, so I am all gadgeted up to take some good footage. I've even brought my satnav with SA maps, so I won't get too lost.

I've got a seperate bag with my helmet, gloves and leathers in.

Let the adventure begin!