Five Assagai Hike Machadodorp South Africa

Five Assegai Hike

This weekend I am going to join 25 other friends and do some of the 5 Assagais hiking trail. Last year the guys did the 2 day backpack hike and really enjoyed it. The weather was cold and miserable but it did not stop them from having fun . This year we have chosen the base camp option but it looks as if the weather will be the same.




The trail is a moderately difficult trail so with a minimum amount of fitness most of us will be able to enjoy the trail and not suffer the consequences. There are some non hiking people in our group and they have already said that they refuse to hike so they will stay at the base camp and do whatever lazy people do.



There is no need to bring hiking boots for the trail is very easy. It is recommended to bring a costume because there are a couple of streams with plunge pools that are deep enough to swim in. Since we are hiking from a base camp we need to take picnic food for the hike and since there is a refrigerator in the camp we cam bring perishables. In the evenings we are going to eat together. We have to bring our own meat if we want meat and then we have been divided into groups of 5-6 people where we bring a vegetable or starch.



The general plan is to get there on Friday night and hopefully the people that managed to get there early managed to get a fire going so we can start to cook. On Saturday we would like to do an hour or so walk until we get to a pool where we can swim and play around. I have bought a bottle of wine to drink whilst at the pool. Those people that feel energetic can continue to hike. I am going to do a geocache called Old Mac. In the evening we are going to have a friends Christmas party where we will give out gifts. We were told to buy a unisex gift for R30 ($3.50). I managed to find something fun and something practical and I went for the practical gift. On Sunday we will get up, have breakfast and leave for home in the late morning or early afternoon.



I will have a lot of pictures of the area to put on the blog when I get back.



The GPS Coordinates for the Lodge are S25 48.985 E30 22.291



Maps of some of the trails in the area.

Photos of Jupiter

My first attempts of astrophotography really didn’t work out as planned. In the past I have taken photos of the moon but never with a telescope and I have never tried to take a photo of any of the other planets.




I wanted to see how much photography I could do with a simple digital camera, a carton toilet roll to hold it in place and a very simple video camera. It was quite fun setting everything up, finding Jupiter, aligning my telescope and then trying to film Jupiter and take pictures of the giant.



My telescope is a simple Celestron SLX 130, which is a dream starter telescope that is very easy to use. I still believe that it was one of the best purchases that I have ever made. I have a Fujifilm Finepix S5600 camera that has taken fantastic photographs over the last 7-8 years that I have owned it but has never taken a picture of a planet so is just as inexperienced as me. The final devise is my Canon MV750i digital video camera. I also tried to use my helmet came because it fitted better into my make shift camera holder but all it took was Jupiter and I could not see the moons.



My original plan was to take pictures of Jupiter for the week leading up to the 19th and for a week after the 19th so that I could see how Jupiter moves into its stationary position and then out retrograde motion. I know the theory behind retrograde motion but I have never tried to photograph it. The plan did not work due to the cloud cover all week until Sunday the 21st. On the 21st I was so excited to test out my equipment that I took the photos even thought the even that I wanted to follow had passed.



The first thing that I did once I had setup my telescope was look for Jupiter which was very easy since it is so bright and very hard to miss. Then I aligned the telescope and spent a good 30min to hour just staring at the amazing planet. I could see the 4 Galilean satellites clearly with Io on the one side of Jupiter and Ganymede, Europa and Callisto on the other. I didn’t waste too much time with my helmet cam because I don’t have an LCD attached to it so I could not see if I was filming anything. Once I had finished with my helmet cam I took my Canon Video camera out and tried to film Jupiter. It was not easy, I tried with my 25mm lens and then the 5mm lens and I really struggled to track Jupiter but I did take some clips which are attached. I had better success with my Fujifilm Digital Camera where most of the pictures came out well enough to see Jupiter and the four Galilean moons. The pictures were slightly blurred and you could see that my telescope was vibrating when I pressed the shutter button.



I have placed the various photos on this blog and I have also added photos where I inverted the Black and white colours. The inverted photos show a lot more detail of what I took. Unfortunately my photos do not show the great red spot and the atmospheric bands that I could see when I looked through the telescope. I have to learn how to create longer exposures with my camera to see if I can get any more detail and I have to get a couple of filters to see how they change my photos. Next time I get a clear sky I will take photos of the moon and see how those photos come out.

Torrid Taurids

The weekends Taurid meteor shower display did not work out exactly the way I had planned. As mentioned in my previous blog the weather predictions were not that great. The weather predictions were spot on for the weekend and the bad sky viewing has continued through out the week. On Sunday I got excited because the weather was good during the day but starting clouding over in the late afternoon.




I got my hopes up on Friday when I got home and the sky was clear. I got my telescope (Celestron 130SLT) and my binoculars ready for action. I also took out my video camera and my digital camera just in case I wanted to take pictures. I have not used my digital camera to take pictures of astronomical events for a long time and the only pictures I have take in the past are of the moon and its phases and a couple of constellations.



I did not get to see any meteors on the short period that I had clear skies on the Friday, I don’t know if it was bad luck of the light pollution in my area but I was a little disappointed to miss out on the meteor shower. Even thought I was there to look for meteors I used my time constructively by looking at the Pleiades, the various stars in the Taurus and Orion constellations and I had a good look at the Orion nebula.



My photography didn’t turn out that well in the sense that I don’t have pictures to post on the blog but it was good for I managed to test out various things like my home made adapter for my telescope. I still need to make a couple of changes to the adapter and I cannot use my digital camera to take the photos because it is too heavy for my little telescope but I can use my webcam and my helmet cam. My other video camera didn’t help at all for what I wanted to do.



There are a lot more interesting astronomical events that I would like to see before the end of the month but the weather looks like it will be overcast for the rest of the month. It is hard to believe that a month ago I was telling people that we need rain and now I wish that I could get a clear sky so I can see certain astronomical events.

Friday's Northern Taurid Meteor Shower

I have not been to one of my local astronomy club meetings in quite a while so I thought that since there in one tonight I would catch up with what is happening in the world of astronomy. The first thing that I did was look at events that are going to occur in the near future and I was surprised to see that I was about to miss the Taurid meteor shower. I love meteor shower and I hate missing out on them.




Because of our location and the time of the year we are about to observe the Northern Taurids. The frequency of the shower should be anything from about 5 to 8 meteors coming from the constellation of Taurus - hence it's name. The showers will start on Friday and end on Sunday morning with some stray meteors that might be seen in the weeks before and after the main stream. The content of the shower is actually larger than just dust and sometimes we can see bolides with spectacular light shows and if you are in a place that is quiet enough you can even hear them.



The Taurids are said to be part of a large comet that came close to earth sometime in the last 30 000 years and that has slowly broken up into the debris that we see and the comet Encke. Currently most people say that the cause of the shower is the comet Encke and they are not wrong but there was a larger source as previously mentioned.



There is actually much more to the shower than I have mentioned. Due to the break up, over a long period of time, of the original comet it has caused a very large stream of matter which is considered the largest in the inner solar system. It is so large that the Earth takes a couple of weeks to pass through it causing an extended period of meteor activity.



Due to the trajectory of the original comet and gravitational effects of the planets the Taurids have spread over time creating what we call the Northern and Southern Taurids. We have also got the Beta Taurids that occur in June/July that fall part of the mentioned band of matter.



The Taurids have peaks every 300 years but there are smaller peaks that occur every once in a while that cannot be predicted. So every time you go out to see a shower you don’t really know how spectacular the shower is really going to be.



I have looked at the planned weather for the 3 days of the showers and it does not look good for me. The weather forecast is for rain from Friday evening until sometime next week. If I am lucky, this cold front will only hit in the early hours of Saturday morning so at least I will have Friday to watch the showers.

 
 

Great White Sharks - Simonstown

A friend of mine recently dived in Simonstown in the Western Cape, South Africa. She took these pictures. The visibility was not all that good so the pictures are terrible. Her opinion of the dive what that she was amazed by the 4 great white sharks that she saw but she is not that big on the cage diving experience. She would prefer to dive with Bull Sharks (Zambizi Sharks) or Tiger Sharks just because they are not cage dives.




There are places that in South Africa that you can go to and dive with Great Whites without doing it in a cage but they cannot guarantee that you will see the sharks and they don’t bait the sharks.

 
 

Magaliesberg Madness - Van Gaalen's Trail

Last Saturday, whilst people were recovering from their hangovers or getting ready for the Amazing Race, I went for a little wilderness jog at the Van Gaalens farm in Hartbeespoort. There were two races a 20km race that I stayed well away from and a 10km race that I decided to do. The prize giving for all runners was a chicken prego roll. Some very fast people got money.


It was my second trail run and I wanted to see if I had learnt anything from my previous run.

Lessons supposedly learnt:

Lesson 1: Don’t start at the back.

Lesson 2: I am fitter than what I think.

Lesson 3: 9 year olds are extremely fast so don’t let your male ego get to you when one smashes you by 10min.

Lesson 4: Bring your own beer either in a hydration pack or leave it at the finish if you can wait that long.


First thing that I did wrong was start at the back. I thought that since the race was longer than my previous race the people would be a lot fitter. I was wrong. Once again I was stuck trying to get past people on a single track. There was a benefit here; there were some beautiful young ladies that I had to pass. Not the easiest thing to do and it slowed me down a little but I am willing to make some sacrifices. The bloody slow blokes in front of me were just irritating but that was my fault from starting behind them and not their fault.

Second thing that I did wrong was assume that I was relatively fit due to a 5km race I ran previously. The truth is that I AM NOT THAT FIT. There are loads of pictures on the race website of people that look like the course is a breeze and only one picture of a person that looks exhausted and as if he is going to die. The course was covered with photographers and they all took pictures of me. This morning they found it in their hearts to put one of the pictures of me suffering on their website. I did finish in the top 20% so I guess that I am not as bad as I make myself out to be.

What I did learn was how to stay ahead of the 9 year olds. Due to the distances there weren’t any 9 year olds. The other lesson that I learn was to make sure that there were beers at the finish; they opened the bar first thing in the morning. I also went to look for the chef before the race started just to make sure that the chicken breasts for the prego rolls were cooked correctly.

An added attraction to the race is that you can get the family to join you and make a day of it. There are things to entertain the kids like a jungle gym, two old tractors, farm animals and large fields for the kids to run around and play in whilst the adults picnic or eat at the restaurant. My little godson’s highlight was when a helicopter landed on a helipad in front of the farm's restaurant.

Trail running is becoming like a drug, I cannot wait for the next race. Unfortunately I have got a slight tear in my left calf muscle so I am not sure that I will be fit for the next run on the 7th November. Ryan Sands had better look over his shoulder, next year he will have a new challenger.

Sharks, Sharks, Sharks

One of my favourite hobbies is scuba diving, I try to get into the water as often as I can but living in Johannesburg makes it very difficult. My favourite dives are shark dives. I really get a huge kick out of diving with sharks, any sharks.


Don’t get me wrong, I am not a crazy daredevil that is trying to kill himself. Sharks have got a bad reputation because they are misunderstood. I have just watched an episode of “Ultimate Survival” where Bear Grylls was on a raft and some Tiger Sharks came to investigate his raft. He made a big deal about how dangerous they were and how he has to be careful or he could be eaten. Stories like this are what give sharks a bad reputation. Tiger sharks are dangerous and they can kill you but it is very rear. From what I saw in the documentary they were only investigating his raft, since they are curios animals, and in not point was his life in danger. Of course Bear Grylls is a professional and he knows that he is safe so he is just going for some drama in his program but is his warning totally invalid?

No, it is not. He spoke about being careful when you jump into water from your raft without knowing what is around. Last year in June a lady was killed by a White Tipped Oceanic Shark because she saw a huge shadow in the water and dived on top of the shadow to see what it was. The white tip is an aggressive shark but it is safe unless you jump on top of it. So sharks are dangerous if you do stupid things without thinking about the consequences. You have to remember that you are in the shark’s territory and the shark is not in your territory.

I have dived with Zambezi sharks (Bull sharks), Tiger sharks, Black tips, white tips and manta rays. I am not the most experienced but I am very aware of the dangers and I am not going to put myself into a dangerous situation or do something without thinking that will put me into a dangerous situation.

To help me learn about sharks is a group called Sharklife, a NGO that concentrates on protecting sharks. One of the ways that they raise money is with shark awareness. In these courses you learn about sharks, how to identify them, feeding habits, where to find them, etc. To fully qualify in each course you have to dive with the shark that you are studying. You have to study a minimum of 5 sharks and do 30 shark dives to become a master shark diver. These courses are recognized by PADI as specialty dives. The money raised by Sharklife goes towards studying sharks in their natural environment, shark conservation and furthering shark awareness.

We are lucky, in South Africa, that we have three of the best places in the world to dive with various sharks. They are the Protea Banks and Aliwal Shoal on the Kwazulu Natal coast and then Cape Town is a fantastic place to dive with Great Whites, mainly False Bay where you can watch them breach.

My Christmas present to myself this year is to sign up for the Sharklife courses and write about them on this blog. I cannot wait and I am going to be upset if I am not able to get to the coast where I can see the sharks and complete the final part of the various shark qualifications.

The Bang Bang Club

I have recently finished a book about a group of amazing photographers called the Bang Bang Club that worked in a difficult period in South African history. Many people from all over the world have heard about these guys due to the fact that a movie in honour of them is just about to be released. I am sure that is has got a Hollywood twist to it but that doesn’t mean that it will not be good.


The period that they talk about in the book is the 1990 – 1994 period. This was a difficult time for many people all over the world. With the Baltic wars in Europe, the wars in Malawi, Somalia, etc in Africa and there was in the gulf war in the Middle East, it was a time of trial for everyone. But there was also a war that was not that publicised in the rest of the world and that was the one in South Africa.

The entire period was not totally negative for South Africa. There was a huge turn around where the South African white population overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to allow a free election where the whole population can vote. It was a first for South Africa and led to parties like the ANC and PAC allowed back into the country. We also got small and large incentives from the International community who allowed our South African sportsmen back into the international scene, business was promoted in South Africa and foreign companies that had left due to apartheid moved back into the country. All fantastic things but all that were prompted by the same source, a move against racism.

This move was also that led to the war that was spoken about in the book. It was a war that was seen as a battle between the Zulus and the Xhosas but as a matter of fact it was a third force that was the dominant force they used the Zulus under the Inkatha Freedom Party to fight there battles. As a white South African we watched the news and we were told that the reason why there was this battle was because the “Black Savages” were not able to govern themselves and they were returning to their traditional warfare. This is what people from Africa do, or so we were told. They kill each other even though the white people tried to tame them, what a load of hogwash. The liberal parties and the ANC accused the ruling party for sabotaging their freedom and the work that Nelson Mandela was trying to do so we can have a clean election. During the “Truth and Reconciliation” trials that occurred years later we found out that the liberal parties were correct and the National Party, the ruling party, has setup everything and fed arms to the Zulus.

What was I doing during this time? I was just about to finish school and then I had to do my obligatory military service. I am not a brave sole and I didn’t want to join the army to fight against people that were only looking to get their freedom. My family and I believed that a war was going to break out and the ruling party would send all the youngsters into the townships to sort out the problems. Our thoughts were not unfounded, a lot of our older friends were sent in as “Peace Keepers” and some of them did not come back. I was not happy to participate in this battle and die for something that I didn’t believe in so my only other option was to go to prison as a traitor. So I left South Africa and went to live in Italy.

These guys chose a different approach to the conflict; they decided to document it in pictures. The main group consisted of four photographers but it actually included a group far. Unfortunately two of the 4 died right at the end of the hostilities, just as everything was about to end and their dream of a South Africa free from racism was about to start. The amazing thing is that thousands of poor black people died in this battle but Nelson Mandela, once he had agreed and committed to the elections, spoke about the death of Ken Oosterbroek, saying that he doesn’t want to see anymore deaths like his. That shows me two things, the first that these photographers were seen to have made a difference in the struggle and the second that still, to the end of the war, a death of a white man had a bigger sway than that of the thousands of black men, women and children that died.

This last comment of mine can be criticized and torn to pieces and I can understand that. What was amazing about this book is that the writers, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, mention a lot of names of people that took part in the freedom struggle. What I am trying to say is that the photographers remember the sacrifice that was made by the strugglers and they found it very important that they should be remembered. Unfortunately they could not mention every name they heard or every person they met.

I loved the book and I have recommended it to the rest of my family and some of my friends. It is important to know the full South African history, it doesn’t matter what colour, religion and ethnic heritage we are from we are still South Africans and we share one history. There are a lot of young and old that do not believe that what happened actually happened, they believe that it was all just an over exaggeration of the truth or just fabricated by older story tellers but it is a true history.

I spend a lot of time in townships talking and watching people that grew up in this period or that grew up from parents that suffered in this period and were still affected. It is very sad and disturbing but what really amazes me is that a lot of these people have no hatred in them. They see me as just another South African and not as a person of white skin that made their lives difficult, as some of our politicians try to make out. It shows you what an amazing country we have and what an amazing future we have the potential of creating together.






 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
El Club Del Bang Bang (Instantaneas De Una Guerra Encubierta)
The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots From a Hidden War.(Book Review): An article from: African Studies Quarterly

Pictures from Boipatong and Sharpeville



The Bus that we did our street parade in.



A kid that wanted his picture taken before the street parade

The sister of the above little boy

Sweet kids that were waiting for the street parade

A future Springbok running after our bus

Don't worry it is not real

Chicken coop or local home

Amazed by the street parade

Local industry

Local industry

Production of anything but clean air. Power station in Sasolburg

Leeuwkuil Pan

Water coming from Leeuwkuil Pan

Water coming from Leeuwkuil Pan

Street Parade for Jet Nteo, Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup Winners