Category: flickr

Boomslanging

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All is going well Chez 6000. Mrs 6000 may be overseas, but we are perfectly capable of looking after ourselves and while she’s living the grand life, we’re going to have some fun too. This was going to be achieved by going on a trip to Kirstenbosch and having a go on the new treetop canopy walk – the Boomslang – until the older half of the children got invited out to the cinema.
Then, of course, the younger half of the children wanted to go to the cinema too. That was until it was pointed out to her that she could be the first of the family to go on the Boomslang. The younger half of the children is six and when you are six, being the first to do something is a Big Thing. The cinema was soon forgotten and suddenly every second word was Boomslang. I’ll be honest here, the pronunciation may have been a little iffy on each of those occasions.

Heading in to the bottom gate at Kirstenbosch leaves you quite a climb up to the walkway – you have to traverse the concert lawn, which is much emptier, but somehow also much steeper when there aren’t thousands of people sitting on it. And then, tucked away at the right hand side of the path, there it was: a rather unassuming entry onto the Boomslang.

14759418842_d6d5bdf7a3_zFirst on. (Not sure what the guy in the background is doing)

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d heard mixed reports from “spectacular” to “underwhelming”, so I guess I went in with an open mind. I was quite impressed though. It wasn’t too busy and while the views weren’t as good as they could have been (because of the weather), the way that the gardens open out beneath you is quite something. The name (meaning tree snake in Afrikaans for our forrun readership) is apt, as it does wind through the canopy like its namesake. It also moves. Quite a lot. Not up and down, but side to side. It’s difficult to say how much, but I’d guess at a few inches at most. Still, it’s an interesting sensation.

And, because I’ve already been asked twice, did we feel safe? Yes, completely. You’d have to work very hard (and be very foolish) to fall off it.

So, would I go to Kirstenbosch just to go on the Boomslang? No, I wouldn’t. As a standalone attraction, it’s just not “wow” enough to go just for that.
But it’s something I’m sure that I’ll do each time I visit and I think it’s a great addition to the gardens.

Some few photos here, tacked onto the end of the Aquarium tour we did on Saturday.

Aquarium Tour

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With the cat away (the cat is mostly in Budapest this week), the mice will head down to the Two Oceans Aquarium and learn about the progress of their new exhibit, before going on an excellent behind the scenes tour.

For a start, the passion of the staff is clearly evident. From the friendly greeting, through to the knowledgeable and infectious enthusiasm of Mike de Maine, the Technical Manager, everyone was keen to educate the visitors and answer any queries. Breakfast was served, my kids ate about seventy-four croissants each and we looked at technical plans and 3D renderings of the new section of the aquarium. Mike – who is project managing the work – showed us photos of the new build and shared some of the difficulties that they have experienced: from the unusually varied rock structure underneath the site through to the metalworkers’ strike, which is threatening to push the opening of the new tank back. We were given some startling numbers about cost, concrete and steelwork (I’ll have to look these up, but suffice to say that they were all very big). Also big are the stats on the new tank, from the huge, single-piece 350mm thick acrylic windows to the 10m long tunnel.

And then curator Michael Farquhar gave us a quick run down of the complex operation coming up when they will have to transfer the fish from the current tank to the new one and the challenges that they face in doing it. One of things I didn’t realise is that the old tanks (the Kelp Tank and the Predator Exhibit) are leaking and need repairs. There will need to be some shifting around of stock in order for these repairs to be done – all while the aquarium remains open and the public enjoy their visit.
Tough ask.

Finally, we headed backstage and had a look at the surprisingly shabby roof areas, including the top of the predator and kelp tanks – complete with penguins chilling out on the roof. Sadly, the light wasn’t great and my camera has gone to Hungary with the cat, so please excuse the photos.

This is the top of the I&J Predator Exhibit:

      
And part of the filter room, “something” in the lab and a kitchen shopping list.

You can see some more of my photos here, and some of Mike’s from the building site here.

All in all, a pretty cool and educational couple of hours, and if you are members at the aquarium (and if you’re in Cape Town and you have kids, you really should be) then get yourself along to the next members breakfast – really interesting stuff, nice people and a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Cape Storm

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What an amazing weekend. There was wind, hail, rain, sunshine. There were waves, floods, brooding clouds, open fires and numerous glasses of brandy.

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While the subject matter for great photography was obviously all there, the weather and/or the light, together with a distinct lack of skill (perhaps exacerbated by the brandy?), made it difficult to translate it into pixels. Doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun trying though: here’s the flickr set with some stuff I did manage to get.

Also now up in the Stuff from June set – photos from Giraffe House.

Belated Flickr Update

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We found ourselves in the midst of some ridiculously mild weather for the midwinter’s weekend, and thus we headed up to Rhodes Memorial to sample some views and some nature.
Yes, I took a few photos, the kids spotted a quagga or three and there may have been the bonus of tea and cake at the little restaurant up there.

It was only when I did a quick upload this evening that I realised that there were some photos from last month (OMG, no?!?) (But actually OMG, yes!) that had yet to be uploaded to Flickr as well.

This I have now done. And suddenly, I have a whole new raft of potential quota photos!

I promise to use them sparingly and only when necessary.

I tacked the old photos from last month onto this album, and I put today’s stuff here. Go see!

Weekend Flickr Set (with free octopus)

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More quota photos than quota photo, here are the pics from a pretty cool forty hours down in Agulhas, all contained neatly in their very own flickr set:

This flycatcher(?), singing us back up from a walk on the beach this morning is probably my favourite photo (bigger here), but shipwrecks, a giant starfish, an epic sunset (as mentioned here), some mice, plenty of fun on the beach – and yes – an octopus in a rock pool (seriously), will have to compete with one another for top spot in the memories category.