The Badlands an Aerial View

I visited the Badlands National Monument in July 1973 and was struck by the stark beauty of the place. So much so that I decided I need to see the Badlands from the air. We paid for an aerial view via a helicopter ride with cameras in full force shooting Kodachrome slides and Super 8 film. What an amazing ride in the Bell 47G-2 helicopter, flying into the canyons and then darting up flying just over the tops of the formations.

The Badlands are located in southwestern South Dakota. The entire area had once been a great sea that receded, and then erosion began to take place. For thousands of years Native Americans called this area home. In more recent times the sad stories of how this awe-inspiring area was lost to a once great nation of people is truly something that is hard to comprehend. While I was there captivated by the scenery, it wasn't all that long ago that others had lived their entire lives here and saw much more than the rugged beauty of the peaks.

When we first arrived at the monument we took a picture of the sign. The concrete base of the sign remains today, but the sign has changed. Once a nation monument it is now a national park. Below is a picture of the sign that we took in July 1973.

Below is that same sign from the air taken from our Bell helicopter.

More aerial views of the Badlands.

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Yellow Billed Hornbill

On Safari in South Africa I saw the Yellow Billed Hornbill each day I was out on a drive. The bird is sometimes referred to as a flying banana. In the dry season in southern Africa the birds favorite foods are termites and ants. Based on the termite mounds that I saw they certainly need a bird like this. It prefers the climate of Sub-Saharan Africa. Watch the video below to see the bird in action. At the end of the video clip the motion in the background is from a monkey.

Nikon D90 720HD Video Yellow Billed Hornbill from Bhaga Video on Vimeo.

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Zzyzx Road

In my travels I see some strange things from time to time, and Zzyzx Road is one of those. First, what's with the name? Second, many people seem to agree, as evident from the bullet holes in the sign. I am not a big Wikipedia fan, but for a road it will do. According to Wikipedia, Zzyzx Road is a 4.5-mile long, part paved and part dirt, rural collector road in the Mojave Desert. I guess the idea is the word is the final one in the English dictionary.Anyway a picture seemed to be in order, and I think it says it all.

The Zzyzx Road sign is in southern California. [mapsmarker marker="37"] Even road signs can make an interesting picture!

Surat Gujarat India

In 2010 my wife and I visited her ancestral home in Gujarat, India. We had traveled their with her sister's family to visit friends and family. One day we decided to drive the ladies to Surat, and spend the day their shopping at some of the stores. If you have never been to India you don't know what you are missing. I enjoy travel, and seeing new things and experiencing life in other areas of the world. So a trip to India was fantastic. If you have not been there the below short 51 second video was filmed through the wind screen of the car with my Nikon D90.  Note that center lanes and driving rules and laws only semi apply in India, but it is getting better I hear.

Driving to Surat, Gujarat, India in HD

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Near the Maroli Sugar Factory

Ox Cart carrying sugar cane

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Notice below the name on the shirt

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G3 Fashions was the ladies store of choice so we headed there. In the below video, the ladies shop for sarees. Note the number of saris they are looking at and the patience of the clerks. This is only 36 seconds of a very long process, but success, they did find what they were looking for.

Shopping for sarees at G3 Fashions

In India, sarees are worn by ladies at weddings, festivals, parties & social occasions.

After a long day of shopping we headed to shopping beneath the main roads reminiscent of Underground Atlanta. Everything imaginable could be found in the area, it was cramped and motor cycles wound their way around display tables and people. Something you would not see here in the US.

I shot the below video on my D90 through the windshield of our car as we waited on Janti and Aruna to finish a last minute purchase (the shopping area we were at was below the street level of this video).

Ready to head back to Navsari from a day of shopping in Surat

 

Quick Trip to Amish Country

On Saturday my wife and I decided to take a quick trip to Amish Country. We visited Sugarcreek and Berlin, Ohio to have lunch and visit a few shops. I took my Nikon D90 with me and captured a few winter pictures of the winter landscapes. Our first stop was at Dutch Valley Gift and then lunch at Dutch Valley Restaurant. I decided to take a few pictures while I was there. I have taken a few photos there in the summer but never during the winter.

First up was a picture of the Carlisle Inn Sugarcreek. Taken on a cold winter day it doesn't have the appeal of a snow covered picture taken at night or the warmth of a summer day. However, you certainly feel the warmth once you go inside the hotel and see the beautiful open spaces and wonderful wood work from local Amish craftsman.

Next up was a few pictures of the surrounding landscape near the hotel and gift shop. It was a gray day with temperatures in the low twenties and a little windy. The house off of old route 39 was an interesting site sitting there in the cold. As I was taking the picture I heard music off to the right that was coming from the church. The tree between me and the church really added some character to the photo. Although I was there to take some winter pictures I kept thinking about how I wished it was summer! 

Our next stop was Berlin to visit the Village Gift Barn and while there I took the liberty to snap a few outdoor pictures at Country Gatherings. On our way back home we stopped at Andreas Furniture in Sugarcreek to see what was new and look around to see if there was anything that we liked. We did spot a nice chaise lounge that would be a nice addition to our sun room. 

Driving south into the country is always a relaxing drive and is a great getaway to heading north into the bigger cities and heavier traffic. When in Amish country you need to watch out for the occasional buggy, not the shopping mall parking lot speedster.

[color-box color=yellow]See the complete gallery at Amish Country.[/color-box]

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Ngala Safari South Africa Part 2

In part 1 of my South Africa safari story I blogged about the experience of a safari in Ngala. This is the same camp that Jack Hanna featured on his TV show "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures". Ngala means “place of the lion” in Shangaan. One of the most interesting, thrilling and scary events happened on Saturday after I had returned from our morning drive. I still had my camera when I saw an elephant walking up to the swimming pool. I took some pictures and then walked around to another area where I felt he might go next. As it turned out he did come my way, but he wasn’t too happy that I was there. He stopped and extended his ears, stared at me for what seemed an eternity, and then started to charge me.

He stopped after a few steps, but I did not run. The day before the ranger had said not to run away but to rather walk away at the right time. He said this after an elephant wanted to charge our Land Rover. One of the ladies who worked the gift shop yelled to me to come into the shop before he decided to come after me. Looking at the giant beast I was forced to agree. The longer he looked the more worried I became. After I walked away he walked over to the lunch area and began to tear down tree limbs and eat the bark. I worked my way over to the lunch area and started shooting pictures again. Some other people started to get a little too curious and he charged them, I shot pictures as they ran past me and fortunately I was safe. He stopped and began to eat again. He eventually pushed down a tree and started to eat it as well. Of course he also deposited a little something extra before rangers shooting shotguns in the air finally drove him off. I , complete with zebra strip hat was then lifted into the air in a chair attached to two poles by the locals shouting “JUNGLE DEVIL”, “JUNGLE DEVIL”. Ok, actually the local rangers commented that I never stopped taking pictures and were laughing that my fellow guests had stumbled over one another  to get away from the elephant while I kept taking pictures.

Perhaps of interest to some, my tracker was a local native named Elvis!!! He was 32 and had been tracking since he was 15. He is the best tracker at Ngala. After the elephant incident Elvis must have heard about it because when we went on our evening drive he asked me if I wanted to see the elephants at night. "That would be great!"  was my response, and true to his word we saw some elephants that night and they were doing what they almost always do, eat!

One of the best parts of our daily drives was the chance to get out of the Land Rover and walk around and explore on foot. When you are in the private game reserve you don't have to stick to the roads. The private game reserves are built along side Kruger Park and the fence between the two is dropped allowing the animals to expand their territory into the reserve, allowing the rangers to drive off the dirt roads in pursuit of the wild. Which means their guests have a better chance to see more animals and get a closer look. It is well worth the extra money to visit the private game reserve.

As a side note, when I was a kid every movie ever made that takes place in the jungle eventually had the scene were the local natives who are carrying your supplies hear a noise, get scared, throw everything down and run away. At one point both the tracker and ranger left us to look for lions. I reminded our group of those movies and perhaps we were abandoned.  At last I felt like I was truly on safari. My experience in the bush was complete.

I have been on a total of 5 safaris but have seen leopards only twice and both times at Ngala. Hunting and loss of habitat has greatly reduced the number of leopards and explains why they are so seldom seen. It is capable of running at 36 miles per hour and it is unequaled in its ability to climb trees, which I witnessed from a cub going after its lunch.

As they say, all good things must come to an end. Sadly I returned to civilization on Monday August 10. Well, maybe not, when you consider the Sangoma, Muti and the Tokelosh, but that is another story.