17 September, 2016

4x4 trip in Wolkberg

This is the road - 4x4 only.  

Nice place to camp

Didn't quite make it. Had to saw off a branch stub to get through. 

Wolkberg mountains.

I like this shot - almost like a wide-angle lens view.

Lovely camping.

Sunrise.

Tent view not long after sunrise.

Tutankamon exhibition




Amazing exhibition. Everything is a copy. This is how they first found the tomb.

It's only a model, but absolutely perfect. It looks like real gold and perfect detail.



15 September, 2016

Dad visited us March 2014

Spent a few days hiking near Bronkhorstspruit, sleeping in a stone 'hut'.

What! No Bicycles! Spoilsports.

Slight rain at times.





Nice roadside display of Cosmos.

Kruger Park.

Olifants River resort.

Stuck half-way across the river on our way to a lone Baobab tree attraction. Middle of lion country. Rocks to jack the bakkie up just got pushed deeper and deeper into the sand; tried lots of them. We were there quite a while.
A small car came in behind us and Dad told the driver that we were having a spot of bother. Dad's got no regional UK accent, almost like the old BBC accent, so he was taken aback when the English-speaking, white, South African tour guide (with client) asked him if he spoke English!!!! Dad asked me to talk to him. He told us to wait and he would call the Park's rangers - and be expected to pay a fine for driving down a closed road (the sign had fallen over). Luckily we got pulled out by a 4x4 half an hour later.
Thomas said that that episode was the highlight of the trip.

At our various camp-sites elephants and hyenas would patrol the fences at night.  





At the nearby Crocodile Farm reptile room.



Our back garden.

14 September, 2016

First chick


June 2013 - Our first chick, incubated in my self-designed incubator.

14 October, 2012

Final sculptures


Finally - the heads in concrete...
Left to right:
Mine - totally blindfolded from start to finish. The kids made me clay sausages and put them in my hands. The result was quite a shock - it really felt like a face; must try this task again sometime, spending more time on details.
Alex's - Sometimes blindfolded, the hair was all done blindfolded and Thomas and I told her where to put her clay sausages.
Thomas - one eye was blindfolded most of the time.

20 November, 2009

Blind sculpture and hike

Here I am with Alex and Thomas when we all tried to do a clay head while blindfolded. A very strange experience; a lot harder than we thought it would be.
Thomas did most of his without the blindfold, but tried it anyway.
Alex did some of the face and all the hair blindfolded but with our vocal guidance.
Here the kids are making clay sausages for me:


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Here we are half way through our hike near Rustenburg.
Very hot both days, 38 degrees all day, very little cloud, only one water spot each day.

Very nice huts, very nice cold showers : a bucket with a sprinkler on the bottom, hoisted up by a rope.
Strange insect:

I found a terrapin. I've never heard of one wild in this country, never mind in the Magaliesberg. No-one had heard of one. A very big surprise, but they do live here and there according to my nature books.
Sunday: we had some nice swimming in some great pools just above the top water in this picture. Still too hot to sit in the sun though.
First hut was tucked away in the trees; two sleeping huts and a nice eating area: