Bungee Jumping!

The world's highest, apparently.

Parting Shots from Klipwal

This is the local elementary school, just up the hill from Klipwal about a mile away. I gave them my big bag of soccer equipment and all the kids seemed very excited!

The main Sunday league pitch right at the turnoff from the main highway to the mine, about a 30 minute drive from Klipwal

The sign says it all.

Adventure Golf at Haga Haga

The 5th + 9th hole. Reebar was used for the flag poles.

Teeing off over the canyon to the 5th green. This course was on a private game reserve with herds of blesbok roaming the fairways.

In the clubhouse bar, called "Ninky Noo's".

Durban

Kite borading on the beach at Amanzimtoti, just south of Durban.

The Moses Mabhida stadium, one of the world cup venues. It has a tram the goes up that center archway.

Royal Natal National Park

The Ampitheater

In the gorge on the walk to Tugela Falls

The 4th highest waterfall in the world. Although some signs said it was the 2nd highest. We'll call it 3rd highest.

Goodbye Klipwal

The entrance gate to the mine.

My adopted Klipwal family.

With Thys getting into the Unimog

At the 6 Level Addit

Inside my survey/geology office.

Before and After

Elephant carcass at 7 am

And being eaten by vultures at 2pm

Road Blocks

Moms and their Children

More Animals

Can you spot the 6 terrapins in this picture?

The deadliest animal (to humans) in Africa.

Elephants!

Kapama Game Reserve

We are at Kapama Game Reserve at the moment, a large private reserve just outside of Kruger National Park. We have four safaris here in total and have been on two of those four already. It's been extremly succesful so far in terms of seeing the animals. On our first safari yesterday evening, I watched a full-grown male lion walk a couple feet away from me past our open-top Land Cruiser as he followed his female mate. This place is pretty awesome accomodation too, they spoil us with huge buffet meals and there's a big pool and spa so I might go get my nails done when I have some down time this afternoon.

Giraffe

White Rhino

Simba

Apparently lions sleep 20 hours per day

Pumba

Blyde River Canyon Drive

On Tuesday we drove from Pilgrims Rest northwards through the Blyde River Canyon scenic route, starting at The Pinnacle, a tall, thin rock outcrop sitting in the beginning of the canyon next to a very cool little waterfall. The next stop was God's Window, which offers arguably the best view in South Africa, where you can see nearly the entire length of the Drakensburg mountain range from this single spot. Unfotunately that morning was extremely foggy for us, and the only view we were afforded was of white, misty clouds. The picture below is in the forest walk at God's Window, which was very nice, and very very damp.

Further along, we hit Berlyn Falls, which dropped about 200 feet into a beautiful pool of deep blue water. We continued along to a viewpoint over the most dramatic part of the canyon, where the sheer cliffs drop vertically over 2500 feet at somepoints. Again, we were unlucky with the visibility but it was definitely better than at God's Window. After stopping for Lunch at a small farm the had an ancient giant Boabab tree, we arrived at Kapama Game Lodge around 3 pm.

Viewpoint overlooking the mouth of the Blyde River Canyon

Bourke's Luck Potholes

The forest walk at God's Window

More Creepy Crawlies

Hello all! The trip has started out very well, and I thought to continue my pattern of late I'll start off with some big, scary bugs. The spider was actually found at Klipwal hanging out on a big red pump sitting by the road. This giant African Millipede was crawling around the path at Bourke's Luck potholes along our drive through the Blyde River Canyon.

Radioactive Neon-green Cricket

It's probably not radioactive but I found this on a hike yesterday and its color was pretty amazing. I own a highlighter pen in the same shade.

Flying Spider-Moth

It's time for the weird South African bug of the day. This one was pretty shocking to stumble upon clinging to the wall of my bedroom. At first glance, it looked like a moth but the 8 spindly legs extending out from below it's wings made me do a double take. I looked up winged spiders on the internet and couldn't find anything, so here it is, a major discovery in the insect/arachnid world:

THE SPIDER MOTH

About an hour later I went back into my room to check on the beast, only to find the one of the wings was missing. Even later in the evening, it was just a normal spider again. So it turns out I must have walked in right after the spider had originally caught the moth in its mouth and began eating. 2 hours later and that moth was gone. I'll be really impressed if the same spider can eat the gecko that scampers around my bedroom as well.

Giant Stick Bug

That's a giant stick bug on my front door. Running shoe for scale.

Click on the picture for a full-size view.

Back at Klipwal

The hiatus at home has ended and I arrived back in Kwazulu-Natal to move in at the mine this past Sunday. There have been many changes and a few events that have transformed the entire stucture of the work being done here, so I think this stint in South Africa will be much different from my previous one.

For instance, on my walk back from the office today, I spotted a couple of dung beetles doing what they do best...rolling poop.

Black Mamba

Yesterday evening, when I was busy baking pyrite at 650 degrees Celsius, Hans and Jaco went down to the Pongola River to do some fishing. This morning Hans informed me that while Jaco went fishing, Hans was chasing down warthogs (with a gun of course), which apparently arrive in droves after nightfall at the riverbank. The immediate area is actually engaged in a province-ordered cull of both warthogs and bush pigs which have been devastating the local farmers crops as of late.

As Hans was walking back towards the mine (some 300 meters above along a winding dirt road), he came across a rat that scampered out of the shrubbery, over the road, and disappeared into the bush on the other side. Then, following the rat closely, a large snake slithered into Hans' headlamp beam. Turns out it was a Black Mamba, the undisputed deadliest snake in the world. As Hans tells the story, the snake stopped in the middle of the road, turned and looked at Hans as he raised his gun, trembling with fear. The stand-off apparently lasted only a few seconds and the mamba continued into the bush in pursuit of the rat.

This is only the second black mamba sighting in the area since the mine was recommissioned back in June, but it proves that there are a few of them in the area. The good news is that form what I've heard, mambas are just as scared of people as we are of them, so if you make lots of noise while walking through the bush, the mambas will tend to go away long before you reach them. The only thing one must be careful about is if the situation arises where a mamba feels cornered, which is when they become aggressive. And apparently they can easily outrun humans, so that kind of sucks. Of course, Hans' solution is to carry a gun. They make special shotgun rounds called 'snake shots' designed as a lethal spray-shot for large snakes such as the mamba. So if I'm ever mapping out in the bush here in the future, I will definitely insist on one of those. Fortunately my duties now have been limited to mostly the plant and underground.

In other less dangerous news, it took me this long to figure out the 'Klip-wal' is Afrikaans for Stone-ridge or Stone-wall. It makes sense, as the boss' new company name is "Stonewall Mining".

Chakalaka

I've recently made an amazing food discovery, and it's called "chakalaka." It's a traditional South African condiment that I can best describe as a vegetable chili. They sell it in cans here and I've been having it on toast a lot. Traditionally it's served with pap or within a stew/curry type of situation. The taste lies perfectly between your classic American-style chili and a fiery Indian curry. Spicy and delicious!

It's probably fairly difficult to find it canned in stores that aren't located in South Africa, so if you like to cook and want to give it a try...

http://www.recipesworldwide.org/food-type/vegetable-dishes/chakalaka

The spicier the better!

Big Week Of Fun

It's been another extremely busy week at Klipwal, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Oh wait, today's Sunday? Work again tomorrow morning? What happened to the weekend? Well, flat tires, helicopters, and rich Canadians happened. Let me explain...

The past week itself was a fairly normal work week consisting of gathering samples, running them over the James Table, and organising the results. I was also writing a report for Lloyd as well as preparing for the big weekend visit from a Canadian investor. Lloyd called on Friday morning and said I was going to be giving a 30-minute presentation on the geology of the mine to the Canadian and his associate, who were going to arrive on Sunday morning in a helicopter. So while others were clearing the mine's helipad and scrambling to find a wind sock, I was writing my presentation.

On Saturday morning, I accompanied Nick who was going into town to pick up a new Land Cruiser we were renting for the weekend to move around our VIP guests. Lloyd was pulling out all the stops for these guys, more so than any of the potential investors that have been through over the past couple of months, so I'm assuming these Canadians have a fair bit of money to invest. Anyway, Nick picked up the Cruiser at the dealership, and I took over the pick-up we drove to town in. I made the obligatory stops at Pick n Pay (grocery store) and the butchers for their amazing biltong (beef jerky), sent of some letters at the post office, and proceeded back to the mine. With all the rain over the past month, the potholes on the way back to Klipwal have only gotten worse, and I managed to go over a couple pretty deep ones on this trip. Then, when I was only a few miles from the mine, my left rear tire exploded after presumably hitting a rock on the dirt road. I've never changed a flat tire on my own before but how hard could it be?

Well, luckily I was spotted by a few local Zulu kids who were hanging out at the bar I happened to stop near, and by the time I got the jack and the tools out, they were hovering over the busted tire. They helped me jack up the car and then we got to loosening the nuts on the tire. After putting the spare tire on and bolting it up, all seemed well until I started letting the jack down. Turns out the spare tire was very flat. Not completely destroyed like the tire we had just taken off, but there was not nearly enough air in it for me to continue driving on. So I ended up calling Petrus at the mine, who eventually arrived with an electric pump. Finally I returned home, thankful for the help of the friendly Klipwal Zulus and Petrus.

Sunday morning I was feeling a bit nervous with the impending presentation hanging over my head, but I knew they would arrive soon and that I knew my stuff, so I went to the office at 9 to practice a bit. Then I got the call from Nick that the helicopter, which was leaving from Johannesburg, was delayed due to the weather. The delay kept getting longer and longer until finally, just after 2 pm, we could hear the chopper blades humming and the helicopter descended from the clouds, making a pass around the mine and eventually landing on the helipad at the top of the ridge next to the main offices.

Lloyd introduced the Klipwal crew and I to the investors Bob and Chris, and we sat down in the board room for me to give the presentation. And I ended up nailing it, if I can say so myself. Bob and Chris were really nice guys too, so that helped. The rest of their stay was spent touring the plant and surface works, but their schedule was too tight for a visit underground. Just like that, they were rushed away back into the helicopter, which flew westward and disappeared into the clouds. The visit on the whole went extremely well, which felt good after everybody had been preparing for it so hard all week. It was kind of like what should have happened in Jurassic Park if the dinosaurs didn't end up escaping and eating Newman from Seinfeld.