Newbie from South Africa

[Miriam C.]

Thank you so much Barrie. Lovely photos. uhhh I guess it is inappropriate in a game reserve to mention bacon huh.

[Pam Wright]

Welcome! I really enjoyed your pictures and look forward to sharing this Teardrop family!!!

pam

[Ira]

Mmmmmm....

Delicious:

WARTHOG!

[asianflava]

You have a picture of Pumbaa. Here is a picture of Timon to go with it. I took this at Busch Gardens in Tampa.

[bgordon]

Great!!

Now we just need a picture of the lion king! I'll have to work on that one...

.

[Classic Finn]

Just Beautifully Exotic Photos... We really enjoy them.. Same for our children ... Age 2.5 and 15 years of age...

Thank You Very Much for Sharing Them With US..

Classic Finn and Family

[Catoosa Grani]

Welcome Barrie and family. I too have enjoyed your pictures. Keep them coming! You have a lovely family.

Grani

[bgordon]

hi!

I am enjoying my holiday at the coast. Will post again in a week or so.

[BillyLandry]

Welcome Barrie
Enjoyed your Photos .You have a great looking family. Thanks.

[cccamper]

hi,
i just "officially" joined, too! (was here a year or two ago but never posted much, just learned)

as one who has traveled, and really can't anymore, seeing your photos is just fabulous. i've always loved seeing other places and even photos work very well.

i've been to egypt... guess that counts as africa.... loved it but not the way i would love the area you live in! so rich in so much.

thanks and look forward to many many many more photos and posts!

cccamper

[flygal6]

HI Barrie....Welcome to the forum. Loved the family pictures and all of your homeland amimals. And we think racoons are such a nusance in the campground.....I don't know but I think that Warthog has a little racoon beat any day. Only country of Africa I have been too is Egypt....and the edge of the Saharha. Quite a bit more barren and dry up there. South Africa looks beautiful. I look forward to more pictures in the future of your family, your country and oh of course any teardrop or tiny trailer plans!
Carol

[bgordon]

Hi all,

I'm back from my holiday at the coast. The weather was great, , but I got ill and had to spend 3 days in bed. NOT good.

Anyhow, it was a great holiday, and I saw something I never did before - a whale up close.

-Interrupting myself- We were quite fortunate - we saw whales EVERY day we were on holiday (12 days). It was great seeing them in the vast ocean. Our apartment was up on a hill, and we could spot whales going up and down the coast each day - usually the females with their calves. It was too far to photograph though (although I could take a video with the 24x zoom).
-End of interrupting myself-

Where were we - oh yes, I saw a whale up close. Unfortunately it was dead, but it was washed up on the shore, on one of the busiest beaches in the area. I'll share a few photo's in the next post.

BillLandry: thanks for the great compliment about the family. Yes, I am blessed, and grateful for such a great family.

CCcamper: welcome to the forum!

Carol: Thanks. And yes, I have started to worry that I post more pictures about other things instead of the teardrop (which I haven't started yet). Anyhow, I get the impression that the folks on the forum enjoy the pics.

[bgordon]

Hi,

As mentioned in my previous post, we saw a whale that was washed up on the beach. It's the first time I ever saw that with my own eyes. This was about a week ago (Wed, 25 July 2007).

Here's a few pics for those who are interested.

Pic 01: The whale on the beach. It must have died out at sea - the front of the whale had been eaten by sharks.



Pic 02: The local sea rescue guys tries to pull it up on the beach. They attached a cable to the tail, but only tore it off later on (the whale was too heavy).



Pic 03: My children in front of the beached whale. Here the whale still has its tail.



Pic 04:

The whale with it's tail missing - and the vehicle that did it...



Pic 05:

The sea rescue guys aborted any further attempts to get rid of the whale. The next day a couple of big pieces of meat washed up on the beach. The locals did their part to distribute the meat between themselves.



Pic 06: The whale attracted quite some interest...



Pic 07: On the morning of the third day after the whale beached, the sea rescue guys got some heavy ropes and nets ready for the operation of getting the whale off the beach. Notice the jet ski to the left - it went to and fro in front of the whale to keep the sharks away while the sea rescue guys tried to get the net around the whale. A few minutes before this picture was taken (and before the jet ski arrived to scare the sharks away), we could see at least 3 sharks having a go at the whale. It was amazing how close they came to the shore. They (the sharks) were in the position where the jet ski and some of the rescuers are in this photo. It may not be evident from the photo, but the rescuers were in some danger from shark attacks when performing this job. And they knew it - judging from the speed at which they worked...



Pic 08: A few sea rescue boats behind the breakers. The plan was to get the nets around the whale, then get a jet ski to take the ropes to the ski boats, and then tow the whale into the sea, where the sharks will do their bit to get rid of the whale.



Pic 09: Operation successful. The ski boat is towing the whale through the breakers, and into the deep sea.



Hope you enjoyed that.

Keep well.

[asianflava]

Good thing it didn't explode.....Ask Dean.

[deputydogrick]

Hi Barrie,
I'm a little behind, great family and pictures, new myself and enjoying the forum very much. Full of fun and information