Greetings from Cape Town!
Well, I made it!
Here are a few images from the first day or so.
1. a fisheye view at sunset from our balcony door looking toward's the downtown area and Table Mountain.
2. The Virgin Active Helatclub across the road from our hotel. Is it for Active Virgins or somehow affiliated with the airline????
3. and 4. are long lens view from out hotel at sunset, the harbour and the new stadium being built for the 2010 World Cup matches.
We are off to Robben Island today, the imfamous prison.
We are happy our agent has reached his target safely, and will be able to gather more pictures for further reports to home base. :haha:
Thank you fearless agent.
great photos
The weather looks divine :)
My wife snapped this of me trying to get the sunset with my 800mm lens. Wish she had reminded me to suck in my gut!!!
Why is it that none of you Cellarites matches my mental image of you? Oh, yeah, that's right...I don't know you!!!:p
Gut? Do you mean your tripod stabilizer attachment? ;)
I take it you are something more than a casual photographer, there, Chris? :D
Keep 'em coming. For my money, living vicariously through the interesting lives of others is the best thing about The Cellar.
Here are some pictures of our funky 4 star hotel room. I really do like it but the furniture and cabinets look they came from the IKEA store or some other Danish shop and there are some very peculular contemporary light fixtures. Anyway here they are for your enjoyment:
1. view of bedroom. We have a nice big comfy bed but a really thick duvee, so we asked for a blanket which is fine. I think duvees are more of a European thing.
2. view of room and bath area
3. Toilet and shower, the walls are all black frosted glass. There is a door but it is open for the pictures
4. Shower for very tall people with faucet control in an out of the way place.
Is that the entrance into the room, right next to the bath tub?
5. Acrylic Sputnik model lamp by bed.
6. Bathtub and mirror for tall people again. Black glass sinks sure don't look good after you brush your teeth!
7. Bar area with uglu print on wall and very mod swag lamp!
8. Close up of way cool lamp; be careful in the dark not to poke you eye out on it!
You can adjust the shower temperature without being under it... that's a plus. Is that a tub in the far corner?
Whoops, yes it's a tub.
Is that the entrance into the room, right next to the bath tub?
No the entrance to the room is to the right of the funky bar lamp.
Are you traveling with that large flatscreen monitor?
Are you traveling with that large flatscreen monitor?
I've been known to carry a lot of photo gear but never a monitor! That is the bedroom TV and DVD player.
These are 2 last shots of our room, namely the sitting area complete with TV, armchair, flat panel TV and a lamp that looks like a hair dryer.
3. Hallway that is very dark and with green accent lighting, reminds me of the hallway at the end of the first Matrix movie where Mr. Smith meets his match!
4.Reception area near elevators, like a timewarp fromt he early 60's!
Interesting decor, great photos!
I like the way they ran the flooring up one wall, makes me think of Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly. :D
It's a really interesting room. I've never seen a layout like that, and the decor is wild.
Room 420 is non-smoking?
As far as I know!
But what about Room 1408?
Room 420 is non-smoking?
That's just not right.
The mysterious first floor???
Americans always make floor #1 as the lobby/ground floor but SA is like most European countries and G is Ground. We accidendaly hit the button for #1 and this is what we got... a sheet of plywood. Apparently no one goes to the first floor here...
This morning it was birds... I went to a nearby bird refuge with the big lenses; the 800mm and the 100-400mm. Here are 4 out takes. Not many intersting migratory birds yet, these are mostly stay at home birds.
I'm still really jealous Chris. Thanks for the pics!
I went to the top of Table Mountain today on the cable car. I never did that before and I felt like a real tourist. It was colder then shit up there and really windy, it's about 3050 meters above sea level.
I had no idea it was so spectacular there. Thanks for all the pics!
I ended the day shooting images of the kite boarders up at Blue Dolphin Beach. Very windy!!!
Good night! I'm off to J'Burg tomorrow for 2 days. Report back afterwards!
I went to the top of Table Mountain today on the cable car. I never did that before and I felt like a real tourist. It was colder then shit up there and really windy, it's about 3050 meters above sea level.
That sure doesn't look like 3,000 meters - maybe they meant 3,000 feet?
That sure doesn't look like 3,000 meters - maybe they meant 3,000 feet?
You're rignt, about 3040 feet.
Here's the real news... I got up at 1:30 to pee pee and looked out the window and the mountain was up in flames. Apparently there was a fire somehwere that got out of control and now they've had a huge fire storm that was pretty spectacular to watch. I used my 12 x binoculars and you could see flames going up a few hundred feet in the air. I'm a few miles away and the fire covered a third of the mountain. Glad we got to go up there because now I imagine it will be closed for awhile.
Wow, that must have been quite a sight, hope it didn't singe the cable car.
Waiting with bated breath for your next installment, so please be careful. :D
The
Telegraph has a picture.
*Adding another thing to my list of things to do before I die*
from dar's link;
Bush fires are a regular occurrence on and around Table Mountain, which is home to the unique fynbos vegetation, taken from the Afrikaan’s word meaning “fine bush”.
The seeds of many fynbos plants can only germinate only after the intense heat of a bush fire, which are common during the summer months.
So this is a good thing.
So this is a good thing.
For the plants, sure. But I bet those two burned homeless dudes don't think so.
Back in Cape Town from a few days seeing a cousin in Johannesburg. He took me to a small but nice game reserve there where we saw several large Sable, Hippos, Cheetah, Wild Bush Dogs, Wart Hogs, Eland, Bontebok, Springbok, Wildebeast and Heartebeast. HEre are a few processed images. The Sable have the most beautiful large horns that are about 36 inches long.
We saw some wild bush dogs and vultures which are highly endangered. The dogs are in a very large enclosure of several hundred acres and the vultures are fed with local carcasses from nearby farms to keep them healthy and in the area.
Outstanding! Griff needs a couple Sables to confuse his goats. :D
I wouldn't mention the bacon thread to that Wart Hog.
I would love a few of those on my walls. They are so beautiful.
The pictures or the heads?
The Heads. Off with their heads!
Saturday we drove to the Cape of Good Hope, the place of many ship wrecks and rough seas. However yesterday the weather was nice and calm and sunny. 1 and 2 are of the Cape beaches and 3 and 4 are off wind surfers who brave the big waves.
There is a colony of South African Penguins (Aka: Jackass Penguins) near by. They like to lie out in the sun at mid-day after a morning of swiming
Street singing group: They hang out near the parking lot for the penguins and do some singing and dancing to make money from tips. They were pretty good and we gave them 100 rand!
Last post before bed! Beware of the Baboons!!! Even if they look like some kind of antelope.
:D
Wild animal crossing preferred by springboks and baboons.
Chris - my 'rents are wonderful.
BUT.
Fancy adopting me?!
Fantastic pictures, you have a talent there.
More please.
Fantastic pictures, you have a talent there.
More please.
And some really good camera equipment. I am with SG. Keep those pics coming. Very good. Do you have a picture posting website like Picasa?
A few morning shots. Sunrise over Table Mountain is a beautiful thing! The strong warmer winds sweep up from the Indian Ocean and as they go over Table Mountain they meet the colder winds from the Atlantic and beautiful clouds are formed. The result is referred to as "The Table Cloth".
Here are some shots from today's sunrise and just after breakfast. Also one of Lion's Head which is supposed to resemble a lion lying down and looking to the left, the peak is his head and the hill to the right is the rump.
FTR, a friend of mine grew up in S Africa.
He lived in Scotland as child, but developed an SA accent by the time he moved back.
He had some pics. But nothing like yours.
Yesterday we stopped by the Taal Monument. It is a monument made to the Afrikaans language which is sort of a Africanized Dutch. Beautiful modern style mounument and a beautiful day in Paarl (Pearl) not far from Kaapstad (Cape Town).
Some kind of bird dance ritual thing. I don't know what they were doing but it involved on Sacred Ibis sticking his big beak way down the other bird's throat and then pulling some kind of slime out! Yuck!!!
I was just thinking how that monument would look here, with safety rails, non-skid surfaces, and warning signs. :haha:
I think the Ibis is feeding a juvenile.
I was just thinking how that monument would look here, with safety rails, non-skid surfaces, and warning signs. :haha:
I think the Ibis is feeding a juvenile.
Yes I agree, but when my wife saw it said gave a new meaning to "Deep Throat"!
The monument had many curved surfaces and would make a great skate board park!
Do not throw flowers on the dog! Or, most probably it means don't pick the flowers or bring dogs to the monument but I really love the international signs.
Last post before bed! Beware of the Baboons!!! Even if they look like some kind of antelope.
Chris, this was in the Philly paper today. I said to a cow orker, " Hey, their Baboons look like antelopes". He looked at me very strangely [SIZE="1"]while backing away.[/SIZE] Hard to keep the Cellar and real life separate sometimes. :haha:
Yes there are signs everywhere in the park warning people against feeding or teasing the baboons. About baboons, I've always wondered one thing... how come they have such a big red ass? Always looks like a bad case of diaper rash!
Decisions, decisions...
Here are the wines that I have purchased at various wineries in the Cape Winelands over the past 2 weekends. Today is Wednesday and we fly out of here on Saturday night. Now I have to decide how much to drink while here in South Africa before having to pack all of this into my wife and my 4 suitcase. We packed lightly and brought big bags so we could load them up but this will take some planning. You need some clothes to wrap the bottles with and to fill the voids int he bags but the goal is not to go over 23kg or about 50lbs per bag. If the 4 of us dine out the remaining evenings and BYOB and pay the incredibly cheap $2.50 or so for corkage we can probably drink between 1-2 bottles per night which is 6 bottles. We could also split a bottle or so at lunch at the game reserve we are going to so that should leave about 12-14 bottles to pack.
Yes, I think that is possible... I love a challenge!
The goal is not to exceed the weight limit or have to add another bag because the charges at the airport are pretty steep and that would defeat the logic of buying these hard to find and great priced wines and bringing them home for the collection. Incidentally, the lowest priced wine I purchaced was about $2.50/bottle and the most expensive was one at $22.00 which is way cheaper then anything from Napa or even the duty free in Europe.
So you're saying all future pictures will be blurry. :haha:
"Oh the flat plug's connected to the square plug, the square plug's connected to the round plug..."
This is the basic way we hook up to the electric here. South Africa uses a plug similar to the UK but still different enough that you need a special adapter that is not typically available anywhere but here. It looks like a heavy duty one in the states like for a large window AC unit or a clothes dryer. We use a voltage converter to drop the power to 120 and then a 3 into 1 so we can plug in more then one device at a time and then comes our puney little power cords. Luckily the computer AC adapters and my camera battery chargers are duel voltage ready which can eliminate the voltage adapter.
Some kind of bird dance ritual thing. I don't know what they were doing but it involved on Sacred Ibis sticking his big beak way down the other bird's throat and then pulling some kind of slime out! Yuck!!!
He was just helping her out with a feather-ball.
Today I am posting from JFK airport where I am held over because of a missed connection. We spent the last 2 days in South Africa at the Garden Route Game Reserve, a private game park.
They have a male and female White Rino and she had a baby about 3 months ago. She now weighs around 160 kg and will weigh well over 2 tons when grown. She was quite frisky and I got some shots of her running around and later one of her nursing from her mother as she lay on the ground. The male is in the background and the mother will not trust him around the female for some time as he could get a whim to kill her.
The baby looks almost blue. How come momma got her tusk whacked off and the daddy got to keep his? Great pics. Thanks.
The photographer on Safari! My wife took this of me with our guide, Retief Jordaan in our Land Rover. I managed to mount my big Gitzo tripod spanning the passenger side door and resting on the floor boards and the running board. That way I could take the 800mm lens out in the morning rides. The evening rides were too close to sunset and it was quite grey and not the best choice for lenses.
Once again, simply outstanding! Thanks for sharing this work, Chris!
Today I am posting from JFK airport ...
My condolences. :(
Thank you, for a stunning series of pictures, and a unique look at South Africa.
Oh, and a taste of what it's like to be the trophy spouse of a high powered executive. :lol2:
Wonderful. I love the baby rhino.
Thanks chris.
The baby looks almost blue. How come momma got her tusk whacked off and the daddy got to keep his? Great pics. Thanks.
Here is the lowdown on mama rhino's horn. A Rhino horn is actually not a horn but a type of hair that is very tightly woven to produce a horn like apendage. As you probably know, they are highly prized on the black market and 1 cubic inch can usually go for upwards of $6000 US! Sad but true and all evidence says that the horn boiled in a tea has no aphrodisiac effect as the belief goes. This animal is being poached for a desired effect that is nothing but myth! This Rhino developed a crack in her "horn" that could have hit the nerve and caused a serious infection so they darted the animal and sawed off the horn. The wildlife officials in ZA require the Reserve to keep it in a safe and do nothing with it so it never makes the black market. The horn will grow back and has already grown an inch or 2. The Rhino's actually keep it sharp by rubbing it against objects and the male Rhino here also used his to kill one of the elephants *very \unusal) last year.
Very cool! Thanks for the update. I did not know those factoids about them being like hair. Now I will have to do some research. Thanks again.
Oh, and post more pics if you have them.
Cocktails will be served on the Veranda! This is our Boma or round hut at the game reserve. We gathered each day at 4PM for a glass of the red stuff before our game drive. The view was quite good and the 800mm lens with a 1.4 tele-extender was better then my 12X binocs.
It's Mr. and Mrs. Giraffe! The reserve has 2 giraffes, a male and a female and she is very pregnant right now. Giraffes are most fascinating. They give birth standing up and the baby has to fall to the ground at about a meter or more. They believe that this helps the baby caugh out the fluids from being in the womb. Giraffes only sleep betwee 10 minuts to 2 hours a day and eat most of the rest of the time. They have a complex set of one way valves in their neck arteries to push blood upstream from the heart and conversly to reduce blood pressure to the brain when they bend down to eat plants near the ground. Without this their brains would literally explode from the blood pressure. Their tounge is about 18-20 inches long and can easily stip leaves from even the most thorny plants. These giraffes were the southern species and average between 1.5 to 2 tons and around 3 meters in height. The larger species that live in Kenya can reach 18-20 ft in height because the trees are taller there. They are vey docile and I imagine if you had enough food for them they would make a cool kind of pet!
Leo the lion.
What can I say, I'm a Leo so I love these images! When I first reviewed these images the night after I took them I was glad I made the effort to bring along that big 800mm lens! It was a hassle but worth it. We found the lions at their watering hole and it was a hot day so he had a drink.
Mrs. Lion has a bath...
I love her eyes. And the tounge looks the same as any tabby. By the way, I've cleaned these up in Photoshop and sized them for the web but they are not cropped in any way. We were only about 30-40 feet away from them at the watering hole.
These lions were raised for canned hunts. Those are the kind of hunt where some wealthy prick pays a lot of money and gets to shoot a lion that has been cage raised. They were rescued by The Born Free Foundation and because they were never out in the wild too much they must be fed by the reserve. They are typically given a dead cow or horse or something else along that line. They are neutered because they would not be able to train their young to survive. The male doesn't seem to know he is fixed and he enjoys his sessions with the females. By the way, when non-neutered lions do mate and a female is fertile the male can mate up to 75 times in a 24 hour period! A real Cassanova!
We-de-de-de
De-de-de-de-de
De-we-um-um-a-way
We-de-de-de
De-de-de-de-de
We-um-um-a-way
Their tounge is about 18-20 inches long and can easily stip leaves from even the most thorny plants. ... The larger species that live in Kenya can reach 18-20 ft in height because the trees are taller there.
Are they trainable, because I just had an idea for a unique gutter cleaning service.
Wait... oh, you mean rain gutters, eve troughs. I was thinking gutters as next to the sidewalk, which would be too low for them. :o
One people divided by a language.
Are they trainable, because I just had an idea for a unique gutter cleaning service.
Perhaps if you grew some thorny Acacia in the muck in your gutters it might work.
Wow! Thanks for sharing Chris!! :)
For perspective, how big(long) are those thorns? :eek:
Is that an ant on one?
What can I say, I'm a Leo so I love these images!
Me too! They're all incredible though...
and a telephoto lens. And he's not afraid to use it.
[QUOTE=xoxoxoBruce;551512]For perspective, how big(long) are those thorns? :eek:QUOTE]
The ones I saw wer 2-3 inches long!
Good grief, they would do some serious damage. I can see why they would make a good stockade around your hut and livestock. :mg:
My cousin in J'berg has them next to his driveway and has to check the ground from time to time because they can cause flat tires on his car.
Today I am posting the elephants. They have 2, but they are not used to the vehicles yet so they are kept in a large fenced camp so they can acliamatize to being viewed each day and not get the urge to run off or chase the vehicle as they sometimes do. The female is pregnant but gestation is something like 2 years!
I guess we mammals are all the same. Nothing like a good butt scratching sesssion! Shot #2 is the best I could do on getting a shot of the elephant's Johnson which was hanging down between his legs. the guide explained that elephants are like whales in that they can move their penis in all kinds of directions before inserting it which helps them find the right place to put it since they can't actually see what is going on. They average 24-30 inches in length!
#3 and 4 are off the female who decided to charge us and were taken while we were racing away in reverse. Reminded me of the TRex scene in Jurassic Park.
Let's see... after elephants comes eland. The duth called them eland because that is their word for elk . They are in fact different from elk and probably closer to common cattle. They are the largest of the antelope family. I love the horns which are straight with a slight twist near the base. We found a group of about 15 and there were a few babies.
I love elephant pics, and those are some of the best I have seen in a long time. Awesome.
Impalas are wonderful animals and nothing like the car that bares their name
Mr. Wllie makes an appearance! Boys will be boys and this male rhino and male elephant are no different then human boys when they get a stify for no apparent reason!
Do have any pics of Springbok? The animals, not the atheletes (One of my fav international rugby teams.)
I sent a link to this thread, to an old boss who's retired. He's suffering a severe case of lens envy. :D
Chris, this was in the Philly paper today. I said to a cow orker, " Hey, their Baboons look like antelopes". He looked at me very strangely [SIZE="1"]while backing away.[/SIZE] Hard to keep the Cellar and real life separate sometimes. :haha:
... and they have mastered psychokinesis too!
Do have any pics of Springbok? The animals, not the atheletes (One of my fav international rugby teams.)
Here are some. We ate a lot of springbok there. Very tasty and tender.
It's Mr. and Mrs. Giraffe! ~snip~ Their tounge is about 18-20 inches long and can easily stip leaves from even the most thorny plants.
Here's why/how.