We visited a crocodile farm near Victoria Falls, which was actually pretty boring, but I did get to simulate what it would be like on the business end of one of these things.
In short, I didn’t even like putting my head in the mouth of a stuffed one of these monsters.
We got a chance to spend some quality time with a few of these in the wild a few years later, and my appreciation had increased by that time.
Taken on the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls, this is a photo of an elephant preparing to charge us while we are on a horse riding tour of a park near the river.
We got a little too close to the elephant, who turned toward us and started to act aggressively. Thankfully, our guide was there to help us slowly back away from the situation.
The scale of Victoria Falls is difficult to convey. Those little dots over my right shoulder are people on the opposite side from the falls.
When the wind is blowing, the mist lifts up and shrouds the entire canyon.
These monkeys just wandered along the edge and posed for photos, hundreds of feet up from the river below. This shot, taken in 1999, shows one stopping to pause while a rainbow appears to hit him in the head.
Is the monkey a pot of gold?
Kath got right up on the edge of the cliff overlooking Victoria Falls, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Kath and I took a “tour” of Soweto, in an effort to learn more about this famous slum in Johannesburg. The place was a complete maze of ramshackle tin structures. If not for the cell tower in the middle of it all, I would have been completely lost.
This look means, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
This is one of my favorite photos of Kath. I took this as we were doing a beach walk at sunset in Knysna, South Africa.
We went to an elephant sanctuary near Knysna, South Africa, in 1999 and got up close with a few of them. Most of the elephants we saw were only babies. Sweet, pushy, 1-ton babies…
Kath took this photo of me while we were kayaking around a bay in the Southern Ocean, off the coast of Cintsa, South Africa, in 1999.
This was before I watched the various great white shark specials on the Discovery Channel. This area has around the highest number of reported attacks in the world, per capita. Shark Week might have me thinking twice about this these days…
Along the southern coast of South Africa, many of the hostels have this great tradition, called a sundowner. Basically, it involves buying a few boxes of wine, taking out the bags from the boxes, tying a rope to two corners of the wine bag (making it easier to sling over your shoulder), grabbing some cups and a dozen or so of the total strangers hanging around the hostel, marching up the highest sand dune you can find, and downing a few cups of wine while watching the sunset.
The only person from this photo that I remember is the guy with the stormtrooper shirt behind us.
Another photo from our South Africa trip in 1999. (I’m really seeing these for the first time in over 10 years, as I’ve just scanned them in from negatives as a part of converting all of my photos to a digital format for long-term preservation.)
We took every chance we could to ride horses on this trip. I think this picture was taken while on a sunrise ride near the town of Cintsa, along a coastal region called the Garden Route.
Kath took this picture of me in Camps Bay, on the western side of Cape Town, in August 1999. We left a hot New York City and found ourselves in the middle of a chilly and windy southern hemisphere winter.
Yesterday, I posted Jeff and Larry in NYC in August 1999. This is a shot of Katy and Kath, taken at the same time.
I don’t think that Kath’s hair has been that short since that time.
Kath and I were in NYC in August 1999, preparing to fly down to South Africa for a month. Jeff and Katy put us up for the night, and I snapped this photo of Jeff and Larry after a long day of work.
I love the matching shoulder bag straps…
I’m wrapping up a personal project of digitizing all of my photos, mostly going back to scanning the negatives, and in these dark days of winter, I thought I would share a few of the better ones that I’ve come across.
The photo above was taken on our honeymoon in August 1997, while we were in Istanbul. I think it is the Ayasofya Mosque behind us, and beyond that, the Bosphorus Strait. (Click on the photo for a higher resolution version.)
Kath and I are waiting for our tractor tour to start at the beautiful Benziger Family Winery, located just outside Glen Ellen, California.
The winery focuses on growing grapes and fermenting them in a biodiverse way, and the entire farm is constructed so that the sum of the flora and fauna is greater than its parts.
I’d bet the wine is pretty tasty, too. We will get to sample some after the tour.
Happy New Year!
Along the east side of San Francisco Bay, artists make large art pieces out of the trash that washes up.
Jeff noted that this robe was a gift when he was in high school.
We made it to SF without incident late last night. Jeff kindly picked us up at the BART station at midnight and fed us before turning in.
