Patensie panorama

The town of Patensie in the Gamtoos Valley is surrounded by beautiful scenery.  Rolling hills, distant mountains, citrus and vegetable farmland, valley thicket, guest farms and some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere.

Ziplining in the Tsitsikamma

Imagine flying over a waterfall, across a river valley or down a river gorge.  All of that is possible at the Tsitsikamma Falls Adventures zipline east of Storms River.  Visitors get to zig-zag across the Kruis River right next to the N2 and the whole experience only takes about an hour.  It means that there is no excuse not to stop and experience one of the activities that make the Tsitsikamma the adventure hub of the Garden Route.  I've been fortunate enough to do both this one and the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour a couple of times and people always ask which one is better.  Its impossible to say if one is better than the other.  Other than the fact that they are both ziplines, both experiences are vastly different from each other.  In actual fact, I would say you have to do both. 

Merry Christmas to you all

I'm sure by now everybody has sent out Christmas wished to all their friends, family and followers.  So even though I'm probably a little behind everybody else, it's still Christmas so here goes.  I would like to wish all the regular and faithful Christian followers of The Firefly Photo Files as well as those who stumble on the site from Google, social media links and shared posts,

A MERRY AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS. 

I hope you all had a wonderful day with friends and family, received lots of gifts, had a big Christmas lunch and most importantly, remembered and celebrated this very special day of Jesus' birth.    

Father Christmas is coming tonight

Its Christmas Eve and all the children are excited, for Father Christmas comes tonight.  But when will he come and where is he now?  Check out Google's Santa Tracker, the best way to keep tabs on the big guy.  I caught him in the Christmas Shop here in Port Elizabeth before his journey started. 

Wolwefontein Hotel

The sleepy village of Wolwefontein lies on the road between Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinet and only exists because the railway line runs through it.  Over the last few decades a lot of railway stations have closed down due to the decline of the railway system in South Africa but it seems that Wolwefontein is holding on for dear life.  I pulled over onto its dusty streets for a quick look on the way to Graaff-Reinet the other day and discovered that the village actually has a little hotel that still operates.  Perhaps it's time for me to do a bit of exploring around the Eastern Cape and discover more places like this.  I think it would be a good idea to start right here and spend a night in this establishment with its wooden floors, old pub and fireplace.

Soweto landscape

A typical Soweto landscape with the Orlando Towers in the background and a couple of minibus taxi's thrown in for good measure, photographed from the Hector Pieterson Memorial.

A Pale Chanting Goshawk in Addo

I have never been a big bird expert.  When I started working as a tourist guide I went to a lot of effort to increase my birding knowledge, but a LBJ (little brown job) and an Overtheroadian were still the most common answers I gave when something flashed across the road as we drove along somewhere.  Addo Elephant National Park has a bird checklist of over 400 species with about 200 occurring within the main game area. In all the years that I worked as a guide and visited Addo, my favourite bird to spot was probably the Pale Chanting Goshawk.  Don't ask me why.  I just liked this light grey bird with its bright orange beak and legs.

The Pale Chanting Goshawk is a bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.  It is found all over southern Africa and usually a resident of dry, open areas with low rainfall.  This species grow 56 – 65 cm long with a wingspan of about 105 cm.  They eat a variety of vertebrate prey, mainly lizards, but also small mammals and birds as well as large insects. This one I spotted on my last visit to Addo sitting on top of a thorn tree, but they often walk around on the ground as well.