I was fortunate this weekend to camp with my family at a very secluded camping spot near Greyton. As usual my son was having the time of his life building shelters, catching fish with no bait on his hook and swimming in the river. At some point I heard a cry and realized that he must have hurt himself. Expecting the worse I rushed down to him while he was still sitting halfway in the water crying. After he explained to me what had happened I tried to calm him down and make use of the opportunity to teach him about the dangers of jumping into shallow water, especially when you cannot see the bottom. I carried him back to the camp while explaining to him that he might not be able to walk for a while. He gave it a long silent thought and then replied: "Dad, it was still the best camp ever!"
I had to smile. How many times do we still say those words ourselves? We go on holiday and come back complaining about the traffic, the poor service and the weather that did not work in our favour. I thought the safety lesson on jumping in murky water was a valuable one to ponder over, but the lesson he gave me on the day left me with more to think about. Why can't we enjoy every opportunity we have with the same enthusiasm and excitement than what children do? No matter how it ends can we still say in the end "Wow, this was the best one ever"?
I have various creatures in my garden that help with insect control. I prefer to live in peace with them, but they do have their own habits that sometimes make me wonder what the easiest is to live with, the insects or their predators.
Twice in one evening my security alarm was triggered at around two in the morning. If you are in a deep sleep and the alarm suddenly goes off the first thing that you think of is a possible intruder in your house. In South Africa this is very common, that is why most people have alarms that they set at night before they go to sleep. I took me some time to discover the culprit though, it was a home gecko that was walking across the Passive Infra-red Sensor, or PIR. When the security company installed it they told me that animals won't trigger it, but the gecko for sure does. Although I appreciate the gecko's efforts in combating insect invasions, I had to take it outside hoping that it would not return.
As I was leaving the house I nearly walked into a different insect pest controller. This time I got the fright of my life. Hanging on one of the most perfect webs I have ever seen was a large white spider looking very intimidating. My first thought was the kids and if it would be safe to have him hanging around in my neighbourhood where the kids play. Is this spider dangerous or not? It for sure looked rather venomous. I know my mom always killed everything with six or eight legs without asking questions first and this one surely would not have survived in her house. My mom was not going to take the chance of finding out if it was dangerous or not, so no benefit of the doubt for the poor creatures. Myself on the other hand first want to find out, and despite my effort to identify it on the Internet, a friend of mine eventually did that for me and told me that it was one or other Orb Weaving Spider. I then did some reading up on the spider and what was quite interesting, apart from the fact that it is as harmless as a mosquito (not the malaria kind), is the fact that the spiders spins a web every night and then breaks it up in the morning. So despite leaving his web where I have to walk every day, the next morning the web is gone. Compared to the geckos that mess on my wall and never clean up this creature has the decency to remove all his insect trapping devices in the morning. Such a nice gesture from a very ugly looking creature. Now can you imagine if I had to kill that dude just because I "wasn't taking any chances"....
When you are approaching Pemba in Mozambique from the south and you are sitting on the right hand side of the plane, this this is basically what you see before landing.....
I was fortunate to be at the Red Bull King of the Air
competition which was held in Cape Town recently. The event which went into a
dormant stage for 8 years because of the lack of sponsors was brought alive
again by Red Bull. Choosing Cape Town as a venue cold probably not be matched
easily. Most pro’s are “hibernating” in Cape Town during the “off” season in
the northern hemisphere. I guess most of
the participants were not invited, they were here already. This also gave the
opportunity for some locals to enter as “’wild cards”. Talent there is in South
Africa, they just need a stage like they had at Big Bay. Well done to the
Saffas who competed and did exceptionally well against some of the world’s
best.
The jumping was amazing. Unfortunately I cannot say the same
for the photography. I realized that a photographer cannot be a spectator at
the same time. I went early to get a nice spot with a good view over Big Bay.
That is where I stood most of the time trying to get a good snap of some of the
jumps. It wasn't long before I experienced the difficulties of taking action
pics from one spot over a long distance. Apart from the fact that the distance
was a bit more than what my lens could handle, focusing was also a problem.
Secondly the backdrop of the ocean was also “interfering” with the outcome of
the detail. I have certainly not
mastered the skill yet of capturing kite surfers from a distance. I guess in
the end one has to decide what is more important; getting nice shots of the
action or keeping your spot where you can view the action.
Whatever the outcome of the pictures, the day
was still awesome. It is amazing to see what some guys are capable of doing
with their kites. Maybe I should work on my own jumping skills and leave the
photography to the people who know what they are doing.
