I Sing to Africa!
Image by Sheree (Here intermittently)
Hello everyone,
Are we having a good time in Africa? In spite of the fear of spiders and snakes? Oh, yes!
I am sitting in a cafe on the Knysna (pronounced ‘nize-nah’) Lagoon. I have just returned from a boat trip — didn’t see much — a few shearwaters and gannets, and a cape seal. But no great white sharks.
We are on the Indian Ocean, very near Cape Town, and great whites are a real potential here. I would like to see a great white, but such is not to be the case today.
The bird in the image was shot in the charming little village of Nieu Bethesda. I had the most wonderful cup of coffee there, brewed in my own little red enamel pot, by a man as old as dirt named Neil. Lovely man with the bushiest eyebrows on the planet.
Then I ambled up the street to shoot day-to-day stuff like flowers, birds and people. I decided against the the lady in the Owl House which was the touristy place we were really supposed to visit, but alas…I prefer the backstreets.
Could you travel with me?
I usually wake up around 4 AM. I shoot the low light of the rising sun about 4:45…and then the sunrise around 5:15.
I like shooting people over flora and fauna, so the quaint farmer’s market that we visited this morning netted me a small collection of wonderful new images of lovely strangers, who are now friends.
I am pushy when it comes to getting a shot; David thinks that on the truck I am a window piggy — I, on the other hand, think he lacks ambition. But I usually get my shot. And manage to retain him as a husband, even when he is one of the people I tromple over to get the picture.
Would I return to to this continent? Most likely, but I think I will leave the true bush camps to the less arachnid and creepy-crawly terrorized. Apparently, according to our guides, they check for snakes in sleeping bags, and scorpions under sleeping gear. Not to mention avoiding the lions that attack impalas not more than 15 meters from the fire. That all sounds like fun, but I should have done that 10 years ago. For now, this tour of South Africa is perfect.
We have stayed in quaint inns, stone cottages, hobbit holes known as tent cabins, large tent cabins, rooms in rustic lodges, and now we are sleeping in a lodge 8 kilometers into the middle of a dense forest. Sometimes, we have drinkable water, sometimes we have electricity, sometimes we have a pillow, and sometimes we have a mattress that can actually pass as a mattress. But we always have an adventure.
Food? We are fed better than we eat at home. Three meals a day, and dishes that would make a chef cry tears of sheer pleasure. Karoo lamb, gem squash, barbecued steak, spicy sausage, and hot bread.
Coffee can be a little weird because on the road and in most of the places we’ve stayed, it comes in dry granules out of a tin. I rejoice when I see an actual coffee percolator.
I love our time on the road. I use my wide angle f2.8 lens on my Rebel, and can shoot most anything from my vantage point at the front of the truck, shooting backwards. No photographs, but great documentary shots.
Time to stop my ramble — it’s nearly time to meet our truck and our very fresh-faced 25-year old guide named, Wilco. Lovely kid, full of life and so very patient.
Many more — and I mean many more images to come. I have shot over 5-thousand images.
Love to all,
Sheree
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