Monday Flying the Umzimkulu River

Monday morning dawned clear and calm so Jeff and I headed out to the Himeville airfield armed with the video camera to try to film the starting point of the canoe race on the Umzumkulu. We took off and headed up over the Sani Pass hotel then turned left parallel to the Drakensberg and flew over Cobham camp site. The air was so still we headed towards the Bushman's Nek area and landed on a new farm strip out that way.

On the way back we headed up the valley to the bridge where the race starts and got some good aerials. Back at the farm I edited those shots onto the start of the material I'd filmed the day before and now the race organisers have a nice aerial tracking video of the river.

Our province is so lush and green at this time of the year. Other parts of the country are experiencing lower rainfall than usual and do not look this good.

See the videos here.
(Update: the video has been removed because it was reported by somebody as being inappropriate and misleading and I had my youtube account suspended for 6 months. I was furious about the incident and appealed against the decision stating that it was no more inappropriate than some of the junk one finds on youtube. I explained the reason for the video i.e.as a guide for canoeists but added that it was very old and no onger needed and if they really felt like it they could delete it. I complained that I had not been given any chance for an explanation and was treated like a naughty child. Youtube reinstated my account but I was unable to upload videos for 6 months.
Shame on you youtube.com

Last Underberg Adventure

Well, this may have been my last Underberg Adventure for a while. My friends at Pevensey Jeff and Brigid are moving back to their town home soon. I drove to the farm early on Saturday morning to spend the weekend.

On Sunday morning we finally had good flying weather to video the Umzimkulu River for the Drakensberg Challenge Canoe Race organisers. We headed up towards Drakensberg Gardens, but the Bantam fix winged microlight encountered nasty turbulence at the entrance to the large valley where the canoe race starts on the Umzimkulu River. We turned round and concentrated on filming from a bit further downstream where the air was more calm and would make low level flying safer. The 2 day race ends at Umzimkulu River Lodge about 60 kilometres from the start.

After flying the Umzimkulu, Brigid packed a picnic lunch for us and we headed up Mahwaqa mountain behind the farm on the quads. Low cloud was starting to roll in from the Bulwer side of the mountain, so we didn't stay up there all afternoon. We stopped and looked at waterfalls in deep ravines, flowers and skittish buck. Lunch was at a small stream. We were looking for 

one waterfall in particular, but didn't locate it because the mist was getting thicker. We turned round and went exploring on a lower stretch of the mountain, before heading for the farm house.

That afternoon a very mean thunder storm came up, but passed in the distance.

Happy New Year!

First of all, a very Happy New Year and may everything you wish for in 2009 happen.

Secondly, the neighbour's dogs saga ended well this morning. The tennant next door contacted me after reading the note I left stuck to his door and we managed to get all 3 dogs home. They just need to block the hole in the fence where the dogs got through and hopefully they'll stay home.

I didn't go flying because it was overcast and a bit misty earlier on. We'll have one day with perfect conditions soon.... I hope... it's been over a month since I last flew. The summer weather's not conducive to microlight flying.

New Year's Eve with a Difference

I've never been one to have the need to wait up till late just to observe one day tick into another, especially not on the last day of the year. This year was to be oh so different...

My friend Leon who does pyrotechnics and special effects for movies had asked me to join him at the New Year fireworks display at which he was doing in Durban. Due to a venue change he was doing an indoor event at the Convention Centre, so we decided as there was limited access I wouldn't go.

So I settled in at home to watch a very drab lineup of programmes on TV. (I think TV lineup organisers purposely keep all the best programmes off New Year's Eve because most people are waiting up to usher in the New Year with a bang and much drinking!!)

At about 10 pm I had a call from a neighbour to say another neighbour's 2 dogs had arrived at her back door in a state because of fire crackers which were being sporadically let off before midnight, and what should she do. Now these dogs are not really my favourites, the one has a rather irritating bark and barks loudly when it sees me walking around in my own garden, despite me going up to it to say hello. I knew the owners were away and the house sitter was also out, so I climbed over the fence to look for the 3rd dog which I found still at home. It followed me to Jan's house to join its siblings and Jan was quite happy to keep them there for the night. I went home only to find the 3 dogs had followed me a little later. I found them a spot to sleep in my outside laundry room. They settled down on the floor, but were suddenly disturbed and went thundering out across the garden, chasing my cat. She disappeared up a tree somewhere, 2 of the dogs ended up in Jan's yard again, and the other was still with me.

By this time it was getting close to fireworks hour, but I managed to get the dog to calm down and believe it or not, from sheer exhaustion, it fell asleep. It didn't even hear the cacophony of exploding fireworks at 12 o'clock. They're supposed to be banned, but people ignore the rules as usual.

I tiptoed out the laundry at about 20 past 12, wished it a Happy New Year, and went to bed. My thoughts of having a good night's sleep before getting up at 4 am to go flying had been dashed...

Monday Morning (attempted) Flying

Apart from spending Christmas with friends in such a wonderful setting the other reason I went up to Underberg was to assist with some filming of the Umzimkulu River for the organisers of the Drak challenge canoe race in February. They'd asked Jeff to film the river for them to play at the start of the race.

The day broke calm, but not completely clear, so at 5 am we went off to the airfield in Himeville anyway. Both windsocks on the field were blowing in different directions. A whisp of mist rolled over a near by hill... not really encouraging signs.

Then the windsocks hung limply for a while so we took off in the Bantam. Once a few hundred feet off the ground the Berg wind bumped us around so we decided not to risk the low level flying in the stew along the course of the Umzimkulu and landed again. We'll give it a try next weekend. The long term weather forecast shows partly cloudy, but light winds. That's what it said for last weekend!

I wasn't looking forward to the hour and a half drive home, then on to work....

Thanks Jeff.

PS. We eventually got round to filming the Umzimkulul River. See Monday, 5 January 2009

On the Mountain

Jeff's learning to fly a Robinson R22 helicopter. He did some mountain training recently and gave me the pics he took.

(Click on the pics for a larger view).

Mountain training involved landing in some tight spots, like on bridges and small hills. More about that later.

We took the quad bikes up a farm road to the top of the mountain behind the farm house... just because it was there... and... the views from the top are awesome ... etc.

We rode around on top taking in the vast open grasslands and were lucky to spot a few buck, a Cape Vulture, Stanley's Bustards, and a pair of Secretary birds.

Colourful mountain grasses

We drove the quads up a 45 degree hill to see the spot where Jeff put the R22 down during his training session. The hilltop, now called "Helicopter Hill" wasn't very big as can be seen from the pic on the left. We stopped here for a bite to eat, relax and soak in the Berg scenery. A very strong northerly wind was howling up here and one had to brace oneself against it.

Iris on the Mountain

Lazy Saturday

We didn't do much today. We contemplated gutting the fish caught the day before for supper, but neither of us were too enthusiastic about that, so eventually Jeff decided take the fish to his maid's house. She stays on the farm too, but a short distance away.

We took the quad bikes (ATV) and spent nearly two hours out riding. We delivered the fish after having a battle with one of the young girls living in the compound who was being blatantly unenthusiastically unhelpful about finding the woman we were looking for. The gate to the compound was locked and this young girl was being so stupid!!! Typical! Finally after much explanation from Jeff, she reluctantly took the fish and went away. Whether dear old "gogo" (isiZulu for grandmother) got the present or not remains to be discovered.

We went off the farm and down the district road to a small quarry and tried to play around there for a bit on the quads, but there'd been so much rain the night before it was a bit slushy, so we drove around in the Polela river to wash all the mud off the quad bikes!! Boys and their toys!!!

We drove back to the farm, scratched around for something for lunch, stared out across the dam from the veranda, then had a 'power nap'.





Later in the afternoon we watched a storm travelling past.

Another hard day in Africa!!!!!