England Tour to South Africa 2009 - A Photo Essay
Well, photo-essay time for a 20-day trip. Should be interesting... Let me take you on a journey:
South Africa. A land of flat, open Veld. Massive skies. And Koppe (hills, spectacular in their sudden sharp slopes, and flat tops, looking almost like volcanic plugs). And wide, open, and essentially empty roads:
We reached Rawdon's Lodge, a cute little hotel in the Nottingham Road region - in the heart of tourist Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands. Beautiful.
The view from the room wasn't half bad, either:
The first day was a rest day - one of just 2 in the 20-day tour. Make the most of it, we did: Morning was zip-lining over & through jungle canopies (or, in Stu's case, into), and the afternoon was a nice little walk, some shopping and sightseeing.
The "road" up to the head of the canopy tour was ... rough:
But the route from there was fabulous (and scary, when you don't like heights or adrenaline!)
Later, the walk down to the bottom of the local falls was refreshing. Finally, the noise having grown minute on minute for the last 1/4 hour or so, coming down the enclosed jungle-strewn path, we glimpesd it:
Howick Falls. With all it's legends and lore - not to mention the 95m drop. (That's bigger that Iguassu! Well, in height, maybe...)
And after a day off like that, how is it possible to really focus on shooting, on performing, in a place as beautiful as Nottingham Road range?
As you can see, most of us were still in *gaggle and whooo over the sights* mode:
Or into the fly-fishing the trout dam (which doubled as the 600 yard firing point) afforded:
Some good shooting was to be had here, and some lovely people too. However, pictures just don't do justice to tricky winds, and wonderful characters...
Moving between Nottingham Road (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Bloemfontein (Free State) brought about moods of "road trip". And what better environs could you ask for than these:
A truly stunning land, and one I'd love to visit again. Preferably on horseback...
Still, we arrived at Shawu Lodge, Bloemfontein - a perfect place with a very poorly stocked bar (we drank it dry in less than 2 hours!) It's a pity we were there for a purpose - how perfect this would have been had we not had to work through the sunsets:
And the range? Again, the winds were tricky, fickle, and punishing. The temperatures were severe (typically reaching 36 C), and some dealt with the conditions better than others. Personally, the wind was fun (mostly) but the heat & the sun were too much for me. Still, the wide open spaces made for some special skies, with clouds & thunder / lightening most evenings. We had to work for the points, it's all about a team effort at this level:
Finally, Blomefontein itself. It's a strange place - not a lot to do, and a lot of security issues (probably nearly as bad as Jo-Berg). But it has it's nice bits:
And damn, but wasn't the food simply stunning. And cheap, too! But sometimes, there simply wasn't time to eat out, so take-out was done, Team England style:
Or possibly a Braii (BBQ), as per the US team, cooking the previous days kills (they did a game shoot on the rest day). Bloody hell, that was a nice bit of meat - in fact the Red Hartebeast they did is probably the most tender & gorgeous bit of meat I've ever had the pleasure of eating:
There was one other rest day, on Sunday 29/03. We had an easy day, but a few of us went to a local game drive. Oh, that was wonderful. Inside the enclosures, you can get really up-close & personal with the preditors:
And the drive itself - no preditors in the reserve (that we saw) but plenty else... This is but a small selection:
The sunset on the way back was stunning, too:
It's hard, writing (eh? creating, I guess) one of these. There's so much I want to say, but it's about the images, not about the words - the words came earlier... Still, for those that got this far, I hope you've enjoyed it...
South Africa. A land of flat, open Veld. Massive skies. And Koppe (hills, spectacular in their sudden sharp slopes, and flat tops, looking almost like volcanic plugs). And wide, open, and essentially empty roads:
We reached Rawdon's Lodge, a cute little hotel in the Nottingham Road region - in the heart of tourist Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands. Beautiful.
The view from the room wasn't half bad, either:
The first day was a rest day - one of just 2 in the 20-day tour. Make the most of it, we did: Morning was zip-lining over & through jungle canopies (or, in Stu's case, into), and the afternoon was a nice little walk, some shopping and sightseeing.
The "road" up to the head of the canopy tour was ... rough:
But the route from there was fabulous (and scary, when you don't like heights or adrenaline!)
Later, the walk down to the bottom of the local falls was refreshing. Finally, the noise having grown minute on minute for the last 1/4 hour or so, coming down the enclosed jungle-strewn path, we glimpesd it:
Howick Falls. With all it's legends and lore - not to mention the 95m drop. (That's bigger that Iguassu! Well, in height, maybe...)
And after a day off like that, how is it possible to really focus on shooting, on performing, in a place as beautiful as Nottingham Road range?
As you can see, most of us were still in *gaggle and whooo over the sights* mode:
Or into the fly-fishing the trout dam (which doubled as the 600 yard firing point) afforded:
Some good shooting was to be had here, and some lovely people too. However, pictures just don't do justice to tricky winds, and wonderful characters...
Moving between Nottingham Road (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Bloemfontein (Free State) brought about moods of "road trip". And what better environs could you ask for than these:
A truly stunning land, and one I'd love to visit again. Preferably on horseback...
Still, we arrived at Shawu Lodge, Bloemfontein - a perfect place with a very poorly stocked bar (we drank it dry in less than 2 hours!) It's a pity we were there for a purpose - how perfect this would have been had we not had to work through the sunsets:
And the range? Again, the winds were tricky, fickle, and punishing. The temperatures were severe (typically reaching 36 C), and some dealt with the conditions better than others. Personally, the wind was fun (mostly) but the heat & the sun were too much for me. Still, the wide open spaces made for some special skies, with clouds & thunder / lightening most evenings. We had to work for the points, it's all about a team effort at this level:
Finally, Blomefontein itself. It's a strange place - not a lot to do, and a lot of security issues (probably nearly as bad as Jo-Berg). But it has it's nice bits:
And damn, but wasn't the food simply stunning. And cheap, too! But sometimes, there simply wasn't time to eat out, so take-out was done, Team England style:
Or possibly a Braii (BBQ), as per the US team, cooking the previous days kills (they did a game shoot on the rest day). Bloody hell, that was a nice bit of meat - in fact the Red Hartebeast they did is probably the most tender & gorgeous bit of meat I've ever had the pleasure of eating:
There was one other rest day, on Sunday 29/03. We had an easy day, but a few of us went to a local game drive. Oh, that was wonderful. Inside the enclosures, you can get really up-close & personal with the preditors:
And the drive itself - no preditors in the reserve (that we saw) but plenty else... This is but a small selection:
The sunset on the way back was stunning, too:
It's hard, writing (eh? creating, I guess) one of these. There's so much I want to say, but it's about the images, not about the words - the words came earlier... Still, for those that got this far, I hope you've enjoyed it...