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!!!!!

Boxing Day - Day of Goodwill in South Afirca

On Friday morning Jeff had a booking to take a family of Dutch visitors down the Umzimkulu River on inflatable rafts. Of course I went along too! Although when we left the farm it was cloudy and chilly. It was a 3 hour trip down a section of the river with a few gentle and 2 tricky rapids and some nice gentle stretches of water. We all enjoyed it, I got quite sunburnt! Yes, the sun came out and it warmed up. Forgot to put the sun block on!!!

That afternoon we all (Robbie, Louisa, Jeff and I) went fishing for bass on one of the farm dams near by. Well only Jeff and Robbie got their rods out, I sat huddled on the shore in the grass because it was so cold. After trying differnt spots around the dam, Robbie gave up and took his family back home, Jeff managed to catch one bass. We'd been invited back to Robbie's bungalow for roast pork supper. Mmmmm, much better than fish!

In the mean time they'd had a family drama of some sort, and we never found out what it was about except that the girls (10 and 12 years old) had been cheeky... a magazine... and were given a lecture and sent to their rooms. Without enough clues, Jeff and I couldn't decipher what it was all about!!!!

By the way, we didn't let the rabbits out today, so we didn't have to race back home before it was dark!

Christmas 2008

I drove up to the farm at Pevensey near Underberg in KZN early on Christmas day. I arrived to find Brigid, Jeff's wife in tears because some animal, probably a civet cat got into the rabbit hutch and killed 1 rabbit, and 2 guinea pigs. All that was left of the 1 guinea pig was it's nose. The rabbit was draped over the roof of the hutch with a bite out of its neck and blood everywhere. Brigid said the rabbit was very old and sick and full of sores, and she was going to take it to the vet where she was working over the Christmas weekend in Durban and put it to sleep.... sniff, sniff. So she wasn't too happy as she drove down to Durban on her own, minus the bunny.

Jeff and I joined another of our microlight flying friends and his wife and 2 girls for lunch at the Bushmans Nek hotel. They were staying in a bungalow near the hotel for a few days on holiday. So that was quite nice - the food was pretty ordinary though! We went back to their bungalow in the afternoon and left quite late, in a bit of a hurry too because we wanted to get back to the farm before it got dark because the other 2 remaining bunnies were still out of their hutch!!!!

I had a call from my sister in Canada, wishing me happy Christmas as we were racing back to the farm on a dirt road trying to beat the clock. I can't believe a year has gone by since I was with them. See Visit to Canada 2007/8. While driving an owl took off from the side of the road and flew in front of my car and I hit it. I felt rather bad about that.

When we got back to the house, Jeff went in to unlock and I drove the car round to the back to see if the rabbits were still there... alive. They were thank goodness. Both huddled inside their house. I fed them and shut the door.

Flying Victoria Falls - Zambia/Zimbabwe

Surfing the web today I came across this video...

(For an even better viewing experience, after clicking the play button, click the HD IS OFF icon and click "watch this video in high definition on Vimeo". Full screen view is awesome.)


The Smoke that Thunders from 'Flying the Falls' from Free to Adventure on Vimeo.

From my window...

Summer in the southern hemisphere brings hot sunny days with the temperature rising above 30ºC some days. Most days this past month have been overcast with drizzle and mist. Today is lovely. The Christmas beetles (cicadas) are singing - the sound of Christmas. It's my day off work today and I'm enjoying the day, because the forecast from Wednesday to Friday is rain again. Clear on Saturday so I may go flying if it's calm.