Balloon

Mornings are early in Limpopo. The sun rises almost an hour earlier in Hoedspruit than it does down here in Slaapstad. And so I was up very very early to get some shots as the sun came up while I was away.

Busy busy, and not much time for looking at other stuff, but when you are placed right next to the Blyde River Canyon and the lip of the great African escarpment, it seems foolish not to grab a couple of shots as the tourist hot air balloons rise for their early morning trip.

This literally taken from car park of the main subject of my photography that morning. How they get any work done there with this as a backdrop is beyond me.

Of course, when I pointed this out, they reminded me that we have Table Mountain in Cape Town, and they’d likely have the same issue trying to work down here.

Which is a fair point.

SANBI announces new garden access membership scheme

Indeed. Now that (almost) a year has passed since SANBI (who run the Botanical Gardens in SA) called time on BotSoc members (who are people interested in plants generally, and/or people who wanted “free” access to the Botanical Gardens in SA) getting “free” access to the Botanical Gardens in SA, SANBI has launched its own “free” access programme.

“Free”, because it’s not free at all, but does offer a huge discount on their day to day pricing.

Previously, by being BotSoc members at R562 per adult, and R90 per child, we could (and did) have access to all of the Botanical Gardens in SA. Unlimited access for a whole year, nogal. That was a really good deal. But then SANBI told BotSoc that it wasn’t going to continue, and… well… it ended with any membership that expired after 31 March 2023.

The good news is that – as you may have noticed in the title of this post – SANBI has now announced a new garden access membership scheme.

It’s basically the same as the old BotSoc one, but more expensive (because of reasons, obviously). Adult memberships are now R600 (up 6.76% – ok) [thanks for the correction, Anita B!] R800 (up 42.35%) and kids are R400. That’s a very reasonable 344.44% increase.

And yet it still represents decent value for money, with a day pass to Kirstenbosch R100 for adults and R40 for kids. So six eight adult visits and ten kids’ visits and already you’re ahead of the curve.

The new tickets are available (and valid) from 1st April 2024.

Back once again

A much nicer flight home yesterday, passing over the Blyde River Canyon, OR Tambo International Airport, Ellis Park, the FNB Stadium, Fraserburg, Inverdoorn (and its nearby wind farm) and the Matroosberg Nature Reserve.

(There was a lot less snow yesterday.)
We probably went over a lot of other stuff as well, but I either wasn’t looking at it or didn’t recognise it.
As we swooped in for a northward landing, I did notice that there was Congestion Before Victoria.

Obviously.

A good trip in general, I think. I hope I got everything that they wanted. Many kilometres were covered. A few challenges, but there are always going to be a few challenges.
The cutest little airport. One dodgy hotel. One amazing hotel (thankfully in that order).
HEAT! Wildlife. Birds.

Potholes. Scenery. Friendly people. Interesting stories. HEAT! Much fruit. Some cracking biltong.

And now, back to it. A good night’s sleep last night, some catch-up at gym this morning – hard work after a week off – and while I did well over 10,000 steps each day, the opportunity and environment were wholly unsuitable for a run.

And today? Some decent coffee, maybe a beer or two, and the intention to watch a lot of football this afternoon.

Quota OBS

Since I’m away, and hopefully working hard, I’ve lined a few posts to tide you over while I’m gone.

That’s not to say that I’ll not post stuff if I get chance. It’s just that I likely won’t get chance, so I’ll pop some posts up just in case.

For example, here’s a quota photo of an Orange-breasted Sunbird (Anthobaphes violacea) at Kirstenbosch, earlier this year:

As autumn closes in (although not here), it’s a lovely reminder of those vivid summer colours.

And an easy way to preserve my post-a-day record.

Over South Africa

You join me traversing South Africa. Bottom left to top right. I’m on a teeny tiny plane, and there’s “lots of weather all over South Africa”, according to the captain.

That’s not good, because we’re also very much all over South Africa.

It has been unpleasantly bouncy so far.

The inflight magazine contains the usual plethora of advertorials: guest houses and safari lodges dominate, but there was a beautiful juxtaposition of an industrial rock crushing equipment supplier across the page from a laser tooth whitening service.

To avoid disappointment (and possibly a lot of pain), please make sure you ring the correct number.

In the same magazine, there’s the usual puff piece about the airline you’re on, and how they’re better than the other airlines. They advertise some of those differences as being “more smiles”, which I’m fairly sure aren’t objectively quantifiable SI units, and the opportunity to “say goodbye to rigid itineraries”.

Really?

Is it just me that quite likes the idea of a rigid itinerary when booking travel tickets? I can’t imagine that it is. It’s literally one of the most important things that I’m after.

For example, I’m hopeful that my accommodation for this evening is fairly rigidly booked. It really wouldn’t be helpful for them to be flexible enough to be “just a day out”.

Could you maybe pop back tomorrow please, Sir?

We seem to have finally hit some clean air, over what I’m guessing is the southern Free State. This means that I can stop thinking about flight safety statistics and engineering tolerances as mind-over-matter means of combatting the mentally challenging effects of the turbulence.

Aaand it’s back already. That didn’t last long. Quite bad. Tumble drier on a rollercoaster stuff, if you remember that post about the Christchurch earthquake that I can’t link to right now because I’m 37,000 feet up in the air. (Updated once safely on the ground.)

Really bad now. Not nice. Gasps and exclamations from passengers. I’m being stoic. Who would be listening anyway?

We’re turning. The pilots have had enough. Not back to Cape Town, but presumably looking for a bit of a clearer way around the bumpy stuff. Thank you.

Ok. About an hour to go. Agricultural landscape giving way to mining and industry beneath me.

Time to relax with some chilled electronica (it’s M83 in case you were wondering), stop thinking about that other stuff. and plan those first few shots again.

Looks like if you’re reading this, we made it.

Or at least my phone did.