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.

A mini tornado as part of a very fast moving thunderstorm swept through Hillcrest, Forest Hills and Molweni leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Low-cost houses in Molweni were flattened killing 8 people.
In Hillcrest and Forest Hills, tiles were blown from roofs and branches snapped off huge trees, some even being up-rooted. The storm took 7 minutes to cause this much devastation.