South Africa - Part 2

I woke up early today and drove around to do some surf checking, but unfortunately I happened to be here at the wrong time of the year to score waves. There are a bunch of amazing spots and I really hope to be able to come back some day in the wintertime for a proper surf trip. I continued on my journey to the Oribi Gorge natural reserve, which was about 20km inland. Entrance fee and a map was a steep $2, and I set off hiking. It started with some pretty steep climbing and I ended up on top of the gorge with some of the most incredible views i've ever seen, and not another person in sight. 

The hike followed the ridge for a couple of km, and was just one amazing vista after another.

After 4km, the path runs down the side of the gorge to the river. It was crazy steep! My legs were shaking from such an extended descent and I walked through at least 20 spiderwebs, each more fun than the last. Here's the view from the bottom looking back up to where I started.

And here's a picture of the map - I did the yellow Miziki walk. 9 kilometers hiked and it was barely noon!

They had an amazing ice cold swimming pool to cool off in at the reception, and then I went and had lunch and toured the property at Beaver Creek coffee estate.

If you didnt notice, I tend to do a LOT of stuff on my trips. If youre the type of person who's idea of a good vacation is sitting by a pool and sipping on a drink, don't ever go on a trip with me. Still more to come!

South Africa - Part 1

The blog has been dormant for some time but this trip necessitated a (brief?) revival. I'm currently in KZN, South Africa about an hour south of Durban. I came for a job which unfortunately did not go well, we had some equipment malfunctions and the fact that we are 10,000 miles and 7+ time zones away didn't help. New parts are being flown in with a company service person from California, and I was told to stick to my original plans being that there was nothing more I could do to fix our problem. I flew out to Durban from Johannesburg this morning after an anxiety wracked night and picked up my car. Getting used to driving on the left, and shifting a manual with my left hand was a challenge for the first hour! I stopped into the Factory Cafe, one of South Africa's oldest roasters and had an amazing pour over of Tanzanian bean. I made friends with the staff and they showed me around and I bought four bags of coffee to take home (are you one of the lucky recipients??)

My next stop was Gounden's take away and restaurant, where I had Durban's most famous dish - Bunny Chow. It's basically a super spicy curry dumped into a hollowed out 1/4 loaf of bread. It was amazing but so so spicy.

I tried to stop in a surf shop before heading south, but got stuck in one of the wildest traffic jams i've ever experienced and decided to just get out of there. The Fiesta and I drove down to Vernon Crookes, a small nature reserve southwest of Durban. Since it was the afternoon, I wasn't expecting to see many animals (they're most active in the morning). Surprisingly, I got within 10 feet of a herd of wildebeest, and a couple of zebras! It was really amazing, now I really felt like I was in Africa. I also saw a couple of giant lizards and a monkey.

These were all taken with my phone, I didn't bring any digital gear. I'm shooting with the Yashica Electro 35 GTN and Cinestill 50D, which I think should look great. More to come soon!

Point Reyes X Expired NC 160

Some more medium format on several year expired portra 160