Smithfield in the Freestate

After a long days driving from Centurion we eventually arrived in Smithfield at about 4h30 on  a Saturday afternoon in December last year.

Smithfield is on the main route to Port Elizabeth and a popular stopover. The are numerous b&b establishments and even a few restaurants etc. We stayed in 'Rusties place' for the night and we had a very unique two bedroom apartment all to ourselves . . .

B&W Freestate Landscapes

In December 2012 my wife, Cheryl, and I went on a four day road trip through the Freestate and Eastern Cape.

We left our home in Centurion, Gauteng early the Saturday morning with the idea that we would motor without stopping until we reached Bloemfontein, the Freestate capital. From there we would take a slower drive until we reached Smithfield, where we would spend the night . . .

Nature with a Small Camera & Close up

Last weekend I joined some friends at a resort called Millstream close to Dullstroom.

I only took one camera with me,  my small Leica X1. Whilst my friends try their hand at fly fishing I try my hand at photography...I got ten 'keepers' and they got two...which they had to release...

12 minutes in Booysens

Yesterday I had to see a potential new client in Booysens, in the south of Johannesburg.

I hate to be late so I gave myself an hour and a half to get there. I stay in Centurion which is about 50 km from Johannesburg. With all the lovely 'controversial' new four lane highways I got there a good half an hour before the time. I stopped in front of the building and walked into the reception just to make sure I am at the right place...when I left the reception two minutes later I slammed my finger in the door. It was something I haven't done for twenty years or more and it was excruciatingly painful....

Molteno

In December last year we traveled through Molteno on our way to Hofmeyer...

It was a Sunday afternoon and a typically summers day. Molteno lies in the Eastern Cape and the town has some interesting architecture most noticeably the Dutch Reformed church that was build by Italian craftsmen. 

Portraits of Poverty...

This group of about 21 poor and unemployed people stay in a 'white squatter camp' near Pretoria. They all live together in a fenced off plot. Each person lives in their own 'tin shack' made of corrugated iron sheeting . . . 

Gladys...

Two minutes with Gladys

I photographed Gladys early one morning as I was walking around the small village of Hofmeyer in the Karoo region of South Africa.  I asked if I could take her photograph and took about 10 photographs in 2 minutes. I think she was a bit shy that I had caught her not quite appropriately dressed because she quickly asked her son to bring her a jersey. She was sitting on her 'stoep'  (veranda) in full view of the passing parade in any event so I am not too concerned showing her here like that...She is having the standard South African breakfast of 'oats pap'  (oats porridge)...and it almost looks like she has some traditional marking or 'paint' on her face or maybe it was just a face mask

Hofmeyer

Hofmeyer lies on the road to Cradock from Burgersdorp...

Its a very small little typical Karoo town. It has not seen much development and everything looks like it probably did 30 years ago if not longer.

Kalk Bay near Cape Town

Kalkbaai lies between Muizenberg and Vishoek near Cape Town...

My wife , cheryl and I just spend a couple of days there. We rented a holiday cottage on the mainroad across the beach. Well, it not quite a beach, more a rocky coastline with a tidal pool and a short stretch of sand . . .

Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo region of South Africa

Two nights and one and a half days...

Nieu Bethesda has a very small population of about a thousand people or so. The last time I was here was in 2000, and in the preceding 12 years the town has definitely taken on a more touristy flavour. The are over twenty guest houses and almost all of them were full over the long weekend in December 2012. There are at least two restaurants that are open at night and quite a few more open for lunch...

24 hours in Zurich

On my way back to South Africa I stayed over in Zurich for 24 hours.

We arrived in Zurich by train from Milan. The route by train through the mountains and tunnels were truly spectacular. Our train broke down on route and we had to run to catch the next one with standing room only for the duration of the journey...so much for legendary Swiss punctuality and efficiency...

A tiny Lucerne hotel

Everything is just a bit more expensive in Switzerland than anywhere else...

When we looked at hotels to stay in we were quite surprised at how expensive it was. Eventually we found the inexpensive  'Etap Hotel Lucerne City'. It is situated at the back of the railway station and one has to walk over a bridge that spans across the railway lines as they converge at the station.

Lucerne, Switzerland Continued...

In my previous post I talked a little about how difficult it was for me to photograph in Lucerne...

Maybe it was the weather or maybe it was just me or maybe it had something to do with the aesthetics of the place...

Lucerne, Switzerland

I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to visit London, Paris, Barcelona and Italy.

So when my wife, Cheryl, invited me to join her for a few days in Lucerne, after her business trip there,  I was a bit hesitant at first. I always had this picture in my mind of mountains and orderly little towns and cities. 

Mozambique accommodation

Tiger fishing in Mozambique

Towards the end of last year my wife Cheryl and I were invited by our very good friends, Johan and Margie to go with them to Mozambique on a fishing safari. We travelled there by car and it is about 550km away from our home in Centurion, close to Pretoria. The trip itself turned out to be quite an adventure as the last 100km's or so was very slow going as the road was very muddy and wet from recent rains and I was not sure if my trusty Volvo Cross Country was going to make it at times...

                                  

Mozambique Landscapes

The landscape on the Mozambique side of the Kruger National Park is mostly bush veld. 

Two weeks before our arrival a massive veld fire had crossed from the South African side into Mozambique and to say the least the veld looked bleak. I was a bit worried that I might not get any good landscapes photographs...

Mozambique, a still life.

When on holiday, there are often long moments when I have absolutely nothing to do.

 Here in Mozambique on our 'safari' these moments occurred between activities...after breakfast and before lunch, or after lunch and before our sunset game drive...After I have been at a new destination for a day or so, I am acutely aware of these long moments in time when I have nothing to do...I get very bored and then I start wandering around with my camera looking for something to photograph..

Mozambique Portraits

 November 2011 my wife, Cheryl and I were invited by my very good friend, Johan  and his wife Margie, to a weekend of adventure in Mozambique. 

We were to go tiger fishing on the the Sabie river where it crosses the border of the Kruger National Park, in South Africa into Mozambique . . .

A Moment in Milan....

Next to the Duomo in Milan there is a ornate and posh shopping arcade, called the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II.

Also know as 'Milan's drawing room' the arcade was designed by the architect Guiseppe Mengoni, who unfortunately fell to his death from the scaffolding a year before the shopping arcade's completion in 1877 . . .

On the beach, Ballito

Its not the easiest thing to walk around beaches and just point ones camera at half naked people..not here in South Africa anyway...and at this time of the year when the beaches are relatively empty, its even more difficult.