Tropical Weather.

Well haven't we had some real tropical weather here in Perth over the last few weeks. It built up over a few days thanks to a stationary trough off the west coast then exploded into 3 days of storms. I was fortunate enough to capture some of it on camera, starting with this time lapse from my back yard.

The storm then carried on for most of the night and I was able to get this great footage from my GoPro at the front of the house, unfortunately due to the housing the sound is not great.

 I took my dog for a walk the following morning and took my camera with me as it looked like another storm cell was rolling down the coast. We set up between Ocean Reef and Burns Beach and I was lucky to capture a couple of lightning strikes before the rain drove us back inside.

The following day the trough slipped inland and we had a welcome reprieve from the humidity in the form of a cooling afternoon sea breeze. I was thankful for the cooler weather but I do like the opportunity to take some good storm photos and video when it crops up.

Bullsbrook Bushfire

Last weekend I was sitting in my lounge room watching TV when I noticed a huge pall of smoke, it was enormous and darkened the sky. I could tell just by looking at it, it was out of control and would no doubt threaten homes and lives. I decided to go to a nearby park and take some pictures and video of the fire.

Strong Easterly winds spread embers well ahead of the main fire causing it to burn out of control and move at an alarming speed, hundreds of people from numerous suburbs were evacuated.

By late afternoon the fire had jumped roads and burned a huge swathe of bush-land, the pall of smoke seemed to be getting closer to my house by this time even though it was some distance away.

Overnight the winds settled down and allowed firefighters some relief but they still could not control the fire, there was an eerie orange glow in the east all night and I wondered if any houses had been lost.
The following morning my son and I went out to get some fish and the smoke cloud was still looking menacing, I took a short video with my GoPro when a willy willy of smoke,and embers separated from the main fire and moved from right to left across our view (it is just visible in the video).

By the next morning the fire was under control but still burning, miraculously no houses or lives were lost, but a few sheds and outbuildings were destroyed. 

The Stromatolites of Hamelin Pool.

I recently took a friend to Visit the Shark Bay area and we took the opportunity to stop in and see the Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool. More detailed information on these amazing wonders of nature and the history of the Shark Bay area can be found at the following links.
http://www.sharkbay.org/stromatolites.aspx
http://www.australiascoralcoast.com

Here is a short video I shot that captures the beauty and tranquility of the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites.
The damage to the Stromatolites caused by early 1900's wool wagons is still visible today as wheel ruts across their fragile surface, damage caused in a time when we knew no better. Thankfully times have changed and the importance of these wonders of nature has been recognized and the area now has the protection of a World Heritage listing.

                                        

Our final days in South Africa, Madagascar here we come!!

Having had a very adventurous trip so far we decided to take a rest day before flying back to Johannesburg, Natalija wanted to do some last minute shopping so we headed to a nearby crafty town called Sabie. Greg was still keen on a bit of adventure so he went tubing on a nearby river with Chris and Garth, we would meet up later in the afternoon.
Sabie had a wonderful array of shops catering for the tourist and at very reasonable prices, so we had no trouble finding plenty of souvenirs to take home. We ate lunch at one of the many fabulous restaurants, where we had a platter of local game meat and Bobotie (a mild African curry) that was absolutely amazing. We then traveled along the Panorama route back to Nelspruit where we met up with Greg, Chris and Garth at the game reserve, here we were introduced to Emma the baby Hippo. Emma spends her day divided between playing with the dogs in her water hole and playing with the dogs on dry land, not a bad deal really.

Greg meets Emma the Hippo.

Emma the Baby Hippo.

Greg, Chris and Garth had had a wonderful day tubing and Garth mentioned that recent floods had cleared a lot of the driftwood and weeds from the riverbank making the ride far more scenic and safer to exit almost anywhere. Greg had a wonderful time and thought he had some great footage on his Go-Pro unfortunately the SD card malfunctioned and it failed to record most of the day.

That evening we all had a BBQ at Chris's house as we would be leaving for Johannesburg in the morning. We ate some monstrous Blue Bull steaks, plenty of fresh local vegetables and fruit, then with our bellies full we sat out on the veranda taking in the night view of Barberton over a couple of beers for the last time. 

In the morning we all met up at the Nelspruit Mug and Bean for brunch, here we said our goodbyes to all of our old friends and the wonderful new friends we had made before driving to the Airport and checking in for our flight to Johannesburg. The following morning Greg and I would be heading off to Madagascar, and Natalija would be heading home to Perth. 

If you wist to follow the Madagascar portion of the trip I will cover it on my other blog 

http://www.west-coast-bluewater-hunter.blogspot.com.au/

Darting and moving Impala.

We had another fantastic opportunity the following day to help dart and relocate some Impala. It all sounded simple enough but it was far from simple, getting a dart into an animal is the easy part. You then have to follow the darted animal and once it is down it has to be moved very carefully and quickly, then once it is safe it can be given an antidote to the sedative and allowed to recover in the transport crate, before being released in it's new location. This is all very time consuming and stressful for both the animal and the people involved and must be done as quickly as possible so as not to over stress the animal. We darted from both a helicopter and ground transport and found that from the ground it was far easier to dart Impala, and the helicopter was much better for locating downed animals.  The most important part of the process is to quickly locate the sedated animal and to then keep it upright, this prevents it's stomach contents entering the lungs as its muscles are relaxed while it is sedated. All the animals recovered and were successfully relocated without injury, no small achievement considering how fragile a sedated Impala is.
The following photographs of the days events tell the story pretty well and we were fortunate to have been invited to take part.

Briefing before darting begins

Preparing the Helicopter.

Darting the first impala.

Searching for the darted animal.

Once located the animals eyes are covered and it is given antibiotics. 

It is then put in a carry sling and prepared to be moved.

The animal is then administered an antidote to the sedative and placed in a transport crate.

An aerial view of the Impala's new home.

Kruger National Park Visit.

It was raining, windy and overcast as Greg and I drove North from Nelspruit, our plan for the day was to enter Kruger National Park at the Numbi Gate and then travel South through the park and exit via the Malelane Gate. It turned out the road to Numbi Gate was closed due flood damage so we entered a little further North at the Phabeni Gate. We then followed our planned route to Skukuza
 before turning South to Malelane. It was along this stretch of road we had our first animal encounters with us seeing, Elephant, Buffalo and Zebra. I was originally a little worried the wind and rain would keep the animals tucked up sheltering in the bush, but I needn't have worried. We stopped at Skukuza and got something to eat and drink, and it was here that Greg had his first encounter with a Blue Tailed Skink.

Elephant doing a very good job of hiding, there were over a dozen of them in the group.

A fast moving Blue Tailed Skink.

After eating a little and stocking up on water then walking around a bit we continued South and encountered even more Elephant, Zebra, Giraffe, Wilderbeast, and Wild dog's. During the drive the rain cleared but the sky remained a little overcast keeping things cool, which was nice.

Zebra and Giraffe in the same location, we got lucky with this sighting.

Wilderbeast browsing by the side of the road.

African Wild Dogs.

By the time we reached Malelane we had seen an amazing variety of animals despite things not looking so good early in the morning.
We drove through an amazing array of landscapes from open plain to rocky hills and river valleys, and were treated to sightings of some of Africa's rarest animals, and some of the more curious such as a giant green Caterpillar and numerous Tortoise's.

We then left the Park and headed back towards Nelspruit stopping along the way to browse some roadside stalls selling carved wooden ornaments and fresh fruit. We ended up buying a few small carvings and a massive amount of fresh fruit for a ridiculously low price, we were all going to eat well for the next few days that was for sure.

Add caption

We arrived back in Nelspruit late in the day having had a very rewarding day out in the African bush. I was happy to have been able to share the experience with Greg, it was great to see him enjoying every minute of the day, watching the bush intently looking for the next encounter whatever animal may be just around the next bend.

We sat around the dinner table that night recounting our journey over a couple of beer's and some more of Africa's amazing food before settling in to bed for a well deserved sleep.

Final morning at Kings Camp

We were again woken early and had coffee and Juice prior to meeting Jade and Albert for our morning game drive. We boarded the Land Rover and crossed the river in the early morning gloom and noticed the wind had picked up and a cloud bank had moved in overnight. As we came over a small rise we could see rain in the distance and hoped we would not get wet. We were going to be looking for Rhino this morning and the wind would make it hard, as they would be tucked up in the bush keeping warm.
We drove for a while searching the bush when we heard on the radio that there were a family of Hyenas laying outside their den, so we decided to have a look at them as they were close by.
When we arrived we were treated to a mother Hyena suckling two young and another 2 Hyena laying out in the sun. We stayed for a while and watched as they socialised and then walked into the bush.
As we resumed our search for Rhino Jade informed us that there were a couple of Lions close by and asked if we wanted to see them. We decided we would stick with looking for Rhino as we had a very good Lion encounter the day before.
We continued our search for Rhino and dropped Albert off where they were last seen the day before in the hope he could track them. We circled around a dam and continued along the river bank in the direction Albert said they had gone, after about 10 minutes I thought I saw something through the Mopane trees and we stopped for a quick look but saw nothing but a grey tree stump. We drove on a little further and picked up Albert then turned around to begin the half hour drive back to camp having not seen our Rhino. As we passed the Grey stump Albert indicated he thought he saw something and we stopped, then from behind the stump we saw movement and out of the trees came a Mother Rhino and her Calf.
It turned out I had indeed seen a Rhino on the way past the stump the first time and it had stood still becoming invisible among the trees.

We stayed with them for around 20 minutes before leaving them to their own devices and heading back to camp for breakfast.

After breakfast we returned to our room and packed our gear before walking around the grounds one last time. We said our goodbyes to Albert and Jade and the rest of the staff before checking out and beginning our journey back to Nelspruit.

When we arrived back in Nelspruit Greg was there to greet us and was eager to hear what we had seen and to get out and see some of the wildlife for himself.  With that in mind Greg and I decided to spend the next day in Kruger National Park.