The Nizamiye Turish Masjid - or Midrand Mosque - has made a big impact on the Johannesburg, and in particular Midrand, skyline. The mosque with its 55 meter high minarets is the brainchild of retired Turkish property developer Ali Katircioglu (known as “Uncle Ali”) and was modelled on the Selimiye Camisi mosque in Edirne, Turkey.
Some visitors to game reserves often get as excited about seeing something like a zebra than they are when seeing elephants or lions. Perhaps we as locals take these animals for granted as we see them often in game reserves and don't get as excited by them. I kinda lost what I was trying to say with this now other than seeing zebra is always exciting for me even if they aren't part of the Big 5. I found these two Burchell's Zebra…
As you may have noticed lately, I have developed a special fondness for the Baakens Valley. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it, but since taking up geocaching I've had to venture into it a couple of times to look for caches and have taken my camera with on every occasion. The spot in the photo is in Settlers Park at one of the places where you cross the river hopping from stone to stone. The river dams up a…
Johannesburg boasts that it's the world's largest man-made urban forest and that's difficult to imagine until one actually visits the city and see how many open spaces, parks and nature reserves there are. One of these parks is Mushroom Farm Park in Sandton. I've passed here a couple of times before but visited for the first time on my last visit to the City of Gold. Sandton started out in the 1930's as farms and estates and only transform from a farming community to a…
I can't say enough about how fortunate we are in Port Elizabeth to have fantastic open spaces and rural areas right on our doorstep yet still within the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area. One minute you can be driving through suburbia and the next you are surrounded by small holdings and farms so its nothing strange to find farm gates like this one right outside the city. This particular one I photographed in Coleen Glen.
Its weekend, and a busy one at that. The Kirkwood Wildsfees is on in the Sundays River Valley and the National Arts Festival has kicked off in Grahamstown so I don't want to hear any complaints. Like this sign I spotted in the Padlangs Farm Stall outside Patensie says, "The deadline for complaints was yesterday."
Egyptian Geese are generally very territorial so once a pair finds a home they will very much stick around. This means that young birds have to find their own "unused water holes" which isn't always that freely available. I know of some that even made a dogless backyard with a swimming pool their home. It was great to see that a pair of Egyptian Geese quickly made their move in at the lake at the new Kings Beach development. Always great to see wildlife…
Dusk is by far my favourite time when visiting any game reserve or national park. It's preceded by the most beautiful light for photography but when the sun starts to dip, touching the horizon, it’s like calm sets in on the bush. The cross over from day to night. When the daytime animals start to settle down and the night time animals wake up. After a hot day the coolness of evening brings relief while the wind often dies down.…
I ventured into Colleen Glen west of Port Elizabeth the other day in search of a geocache and ended up at the top of a narrow little road with the most beautiful view down towards the sea. The Maitland sand dune can be seen in the background with farmland and small holdings in between. Pity it wasn't a bright sunny day.
Port Elizabeth is usually associated with elephants due to its close proximity to the Addo Elephant National Park. Most visitors to the city, both local and international, spend at least a day in the park with others staying over at some of the park's variety accommodation options. Its easy to get to Addo from Port Elizabeth and its possible to sit and watch elephants less than an hour after leaving home or your hotel. The park can be accessed via the main…