A pause to review, recharge, renew (and some random photos)

On the road through the Free State, January 2016

When are we ever sure what tomorrow, next week, next month or the next year is going to bring?

I know that in two days I'll be in Kruger on a private trip/holiday/course and then travelling the Garden Route to Cape Town in the first 2 weeks of February.

After that..............??

It's quite liberating, hitting the pause button on life, and letting the ideas, inspirations, thoughts roll through the mind.

The only thing I know for sure is that I won't be looking for more guiding work this year - I want to spend some time exploring my country, my continent and maybe my planet.

I'll definitely want to share with you, my loyal readers, whatever I do - it just won't be as a Safari Guide.

To keep you entertained in the meantime, I'll share with you on this blog the photos from my archives that  I've been posting on my Facebook page (so apologies to my regular Facebook followers) - with the little blurb that goes along with them.

This is the selection from this last week.......

Fridays are Rhino awareness days. So I started my sequence of #animalphotooftheday postings last week with this picture taken in 2012, somewhere in or around Kruger.

We were very priviledged to witness this endangered Black Rhino drinking at a waterhole. He posed quite beautifully for us too!

Cape Cormorants at Cape of Good Hope  (November 2015)

Not the best photographic conditions but I liked how this one came out after a little editing!

A rather magnificent "hopper" found in the vineyards of the Breede River Valley, Western Cape (October, 2015)

This is an "oldie" - taken in Kruger NP in 2008, but it's still one of my all time favourites.....

Baboons by the Sabie River - July 2008

Hot summer afternoons....
On tour over Christmas, our normal 2 night stop in Hermanus was changed to Pringle Bay due to accommodation issues.
This little beach had incredible views across False Bay. On the horizon you can just make out the Cape Peninsular  (Pringle Bay, Western Cape, December 2015)

The early morning hunt..... we were very lucky to spot this cheetah (one of a 2 male coalition) on an early morning game drive!  (Kruger National Park, July 2015)

Going up Table Mountain is a "must" for any visitor to Cape Town.
This is a view from the cable car on the way up - Lion's Head on the left, Sea Point below and Table Bay with Robben Island in the distance.

February 2015

The misty sunrise one morning reminded me a little of the sunrises I use to see over the Indian Ocean when walking the dogs before work in Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique.
I plan to be back on the beach before too many more months pass!

Mozambique, June 2011

I'm looking forward to planning a diving trip to Sodwana Bay this year, so I've been having a look at some of my underwater animal pics.
Anton's Reef - at the southern end of "2 mile" reef, always has spectacular shoaling fish.

Always makes for a good photo, even with my "limited" underwater camera ;)

Sodwana Bay, Kwa-Zulu Natal, January 2007

And moving away from Africa..... I last visited the US in 2007 and I've done very little with the photos from that trip. I had an amazing holiday and had a huge amount of fun playing with my first DSLR camera.
Staying in New York with a "local" meant that we did some stuff not quite on the usual tourist check list - like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge...

New York, June 2007

I'm often asked by my safari clients what my favourite animal is.
A short answer is that I don't have one. Like most things in life, it all depends on the last encounter, highlight or experience with any animal in "the wild".
If there is an exception, it would be the African Elephant. Any day I spend in an African wilderness or conservation area without seeing an elephant seems, somehow, incomplete.
This magnificent bull elephant we saw facing off with another bull on the sand banks of the Letaba River. (I posted about it previously on this blog way back when...Shadow-fight

Kruger National Park, March 2013

A day on the road – travelling to Ponta do Ouro

In my type of guiding work I can spend days and days behind the wheel, and when being interviewed for my first full time job as a guide one of the key questions was “do you enjoy driving?”

Well, of course I do. Not just the actual technical side, but the journey it involves. No matter how well travelled a route is, I am always looking for something new. It is one reason I always travel within the speed limits – keeping an eye out for speed traps gets in the way of looking at the people, landscapes and assorted animals.......

Looking over my previous posts I realise that I have mostly covered the “destinations” and not the journeys, so with your permission I will occasionally share with you “a day on the road” to somewhere.

My most recent journey was to Ponta do Ouro in southern Mozambique.

The distance is not daunting, roughly 650 kilometres, but it is not all plain sailing highway, and it usually takes me somewhere between 9 and 11 hours to complete.

The day before - getting ready to pack the car

The following photos have been taken over several trips on the same road so you will notice differences in seasons and times – just to keep it interesting:)

Early morning start - well out of Jo'burg as the sun rises

For those of you who have been on safari with me you will recognise the landscapes in the following three photos. The first 120 kilometres (Johannesburg to Middleburg) of my journey to Ponta is the same as the journey to Kruger....... 

The maize fields, power stations.....

coal fields.....

and smoggy, clouded landscapes of the Mpumulanga high veld.

 After a couple of hours of over taking heavily laden coal trucks and dodging pot holes on the  narrow roads through the grasslands, (Middleburg - Hendrina - Ermelo - Piet Retief) one gets to the endless road works.........

When you are first in the queue you KNOW you have a long wait!

Had fun here taking photos of the reflections in the tanker

In season the pink & white fields of cosmos are spectacular

 A clear stretch at long last...... starting the descent from the wet, grasslands of the high veld towards the man made forests surrounding Piet Retief.

And before the last drop over the escarpment into Pongola .... more road works ... a good opportunity to take some photos of rural Zululand.

I estimate that on a "bad" day, having to stop at these road works adds two hours onto the journey. I learnt from watching other drivers stuck in the tail backs, that a good book close to hand is essential. 

That's for when the photo opportunities dry up!

What a relief as the last road work is left behind and it is a clear run down into the hot, humid, sugar cane country of the Pongola River valley.

A last climb, up and over the Lebombo Mountains at Jozini

The final stage of the journey (from Pongola to Jozini, on to Mangusi/Kosi Bay and then through the border to Ponta in Mozambique) usually takes me about 4 hours - depending on how busy the border is of course!

I've searched though my archives, I promise, and cannot find ANY photos of this area of Maputaland (aka the Elephant Coast)

I must admit that this is fairly flat, featureless terrain, notable mostly for cattle, goats and lala palms. It is also quite densely populated, and I am always hesitant to stop and blatantly take photos of people. 

I will try next time though.......

Destination Ponta do Ouro!

“Doodling” in Mozambique

Stretching north along the coastline from KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) into southern Mozambique are some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the Indian Ocean. They are generally  deeper than 12 metres which means that although snorkeling is very limited, the reefs have mostly escaped the catastrophic effects of the major El Nino-related ocean warming events of the last 15 years.

 

In South Africa the reefs have been protected to varying levels for many years now, and in Mozambique MPA’s are in the process of being implemented.

This means that some awesome diving can be had if one is prepared to make the long journey to Sodwana Bay, Ponta do Ouro and beyond.

Over the last 4 years I have made several trips to Ponta do Ouro, and recently I have been fortunate enough to work there as a Dive Master during the peak holiday seasons.

One of the best known reefs of Ponta is “Doodles”. It is about 17m deep and is the closest reef to the Ponta launch beach. So it is very easy to get to!

But of course there is far more to Doodles than it’s proximity to Ponta. It is in a zone that attracts a lot of shoaling fish. During April one could hardly see any clear water for all the shoaling “bait fish” and during the summer months there are usually small shoals of squid at the northern and southern ends of the reef and always the blue lined and yellow snappers.

Doodles is not the best reef in the area for hard corals, but it does have some pretty outcrops on the northern side and various impressive sponges and soft corals.

What draws most divers to Doodles are the Potato Bass, sting rays and my favourites, the lion fish.

 

My favourite “drop” on to Doodles is at the northern end. There we descend slowly through clear blue water on to white rippled sand. Quite often the Potato Bass, 4 or 5 of them will curiously approach whilst we are still orienting ourselves on the sand, and in this wide open space they look truly impressive. I suppose that because they are similar in size to us they are not shy about approaching, and sometimes the smaller ones get very close. A few months ago, a diver in my group had a small panic when a younger potato bass thought his hair wafting around his head looked rather interesting, perhaps tasty? And wouldn’t keep away…….. 

As we drift with the current towards the reef we start looking out for the blue spotted rays, sting rays and other large fauna. Only two weeks ago we had a large Leopard Shark resting under a small ledge. Not a common sighting in these waters!

Of course, as with any coral reef there is any number of smaller creatures to find as one works southwards with the gentle current.

A couple of remoras have been hanging out recently, though after a quick inspection they realise that divers are not a good “host”. Then there are the nudibranchs, urchins, anemones, shrimps, plus the lion fish and devil firefish around every corner.

Even in relatively poor “viz” the reef always delights! There is something for everyone.

Diving our East Coast

The mighty Whale Shark

I hope you are all well and enjoying the change of seasons in your part of the world. Here, as always with a “late” Easter, winter made a fleeting appearance on the Tuesday, briefly disappeared, but now the cold fronts sweeping up from the Antarctic via the Cape are starting to make regular appearances again and the night time temperatures have dropped significantly and the wind has a distinct chill no mater how sunny the day.

It’s even cooled down in Kruger in the mornings and evenings – on my last safari I was wearing my fleece quite regularly! I definitely have acclimatised to the hot and sticky low veld summers – any air temperature less than 25 degrees C feels decidedly Antarctic to me!

My month long break was really great. Had lots of fun helping out at the Dive School, on a Rescue course and getting back “in touch” with all my friends there. Also good practice to refresh my own CPR, First Aid and rescue management skills of course. (Applicable to the bush as well as the sea!)

Late afternoon on the beach at Ponta Malongane, Mozambique

Then I packed up my diving gear, camping equipment, food and booze and lit off for the coast! Ahhhh…. how I love the deep blue Indian Ocean and those glorious, endless green sand dunes and white beaches of the African east coast. 

Looking over Sodwana Bay, KZN, South Africa

The first four nights were at Sodwana Bay in a wooden chalet with a stunning tree top view over the bay itself, and 3 days of diving on it’s pristine coral reefs – in my opinion the best in the Indian Ocean. 

 

Two bar anemone fish

Teardrop butterflyfish

An incredible underwater sighting of the Whale Shark

We were incredibly lucky and had a whale shark cruise in over the top of us on dive number 4, and then first thing the next morning we snorkeled with another whale shark and then a whole school of dolphin on the way out to “7 mile” reef.

Inshore Indian Ocean Bottlenose Dolphins

Afternoons I spent on my balcony, catching up on my reading, enjoying the view and the antics of the Samango monkeys in the tree tops around me. Pure peace – though I must admit to wanting to share many of the moments with some good friends.

Camping at Parc Malongane

On Day 5, I packed up again and headed north, through the border, to Ponta Malongane in southern Mozambique to join my friends from the dive school for another 4 nights of sand dune, beach and coral reef diving. This time we were camping - a lovely, densely treed camp ground hidden behind a low sand dune from the beach. It was hot and screaming with mosquitoes, so our anti bug juice was fully utilised – but only when we weren’t diving or relaxing on the beach.
The last day we had to pack up in the rain and we all considered ourselves very lucky that was the only rain we had!

For the last part of my months break I headed back south, down the KwaZulu Natal coast to Durban, where I spent day a few days each with various members of my extended family. The previous 15 months had been so hectic on safari that I found it very hard to believe that it had been that long since I had last seen everyone.
But I was there at last and made the most of it. There was no way I could predict when I would next make it to Durban........