We’ve been back from Kruger for almost two weeks, and I’m only just getting started on editing some photos. There a lot of them and it’s not going particularly well.
Here’s how far I’ve got so far:
This is the sunrise on our first morning game drive. Not even light enough to get any photos of anything else, and – being honest – a bread and butter shot because I was still a bit asleep.
But the sunrises and sunsets up North are pretty special, and this one was no exception.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen some RBOSS (click here if you need an explanation, and here to see other posts about RBOSS), but it’s back with an absolute classic, a stone-cold banger, a perfect example of the genre. Not least because it’s actually of Ramsey Bay, and that’s the R and the B sorted immediately.
And just look at the O and the S. Wow.
It’s dreamy.
And next up, the photographer’s disclaimer:
not done a lot to it TBH
Ja right.
Of course you haven’t, mate.
The yellow is from your pants that are on fire after that statement.
And all that orange was the early morning nuclear test in Cumbria. A bang so big, it made one end of your photo go down. The Lake District is a whole lot less hilly now, and it’s sloping downhill strongly to the left.
It’s a shame that someone took a video of the same sunrise from about 300m to your left. And that it looked like this: Ramsey Bay No Saturation Society.
Although you can still see the black smoke from the explosion.
See, that’s how a pro works. No dehaze (see the telltale white haze around the lighthouse on the left above), no silly saturation, straight horizon.
But while it might be more accurate and a whole lot less aggressive on the eyes, it doesn’t get you as many LIKES: the true currency of the RBOSSer.
And that – sadly – is why RBOSS will continue forever.
A really great night last night, but more on that later, because we woke up to thick fog this morning. And while thick fog doesn’t really make for great photography conditions when you’re in it, if you can get over it, then suddenly, everything changes.
And so I grabbed the drone and headed out, and I did manage to get over it, all 80m of thick stuff lying over the Southern Suburbs, and what’s more, I managed to do it just as the sun came up over the Hottentots Holland Mountains out beyond the Cape Flats.
Looking first that way:
And then turning to see the Mountain sitting like some majestic island emerging from the low clouds:
Glorious light. Horrendous rush hour traffic.
Cape Town showing off, if you could only get to see it. Anyway, always nice to slip in an impromptu photoshoot before I get on with my very busy day. Which, having done, I must now do.
Nice little 9km morning hike on the mountain yesterday. I don’t usually get up early on a Sunday, but this was definitely worth the effort. What a pleasure.
Lovely sunrise, and great views across the misty Cape Flats before coffee and breakfast on a rocky outcrop near Rooikat Ravine.
Then back for a few jobs at home (including editing the photos: nothing too strenuous) before an evening braai.
More “Damaging winds” and “Disruptive rain” are expect today and this evening. The wind is already here, and while it hasn’t done any damage yet (that I know about, at least), you can see how it might, because it is quite strong and gusty. And those are two of the main attributes of wind that can cause damage. On the plus side, we did get a beautiful pre-frontal sunrise this morning, which my phone did its best to capture:
But didn’t really do it justice.
This cold front is not going to be as big as the last one, which – for the record – deposited a total of 154mm of rain into our back garden. That’s a lot, given that our annual rainfall here is 1150mm. It also raised the Cape Town dam levels by a very welcome 5%. I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations and that means that over the past few days, the net inflow into the dams comes in at 44,911,050,000 litres or 45 billion litres, give or take.
Your occasional reminder that a small percentage of a very big number is still a very big number.
According to my best sources, the rain will begin at about 8pm, peak around dawn tomorrow (poor Dawn), and continue on and off for most of Saturday, ruining any local rugby matches that you couldn’t buy tickets for anyway. Sunday, on the other hand, looks like it will be full of equal amounts of sunshine and freezing temperatures.
