Feeding frenzy in False Bay Capetown

Mon dieu aidez nous a sauver cette nature...elle est si belle!! Ca vaut tout l or du monde!! Nous nous disons intelligent...que dalle!! nous somes abrutis par cette societe de m***e!!! out there is the real life!! Et si tu joues trop pres elle te rappele a l ordre comme ce matin quand une baleine a failli nous faire chavirer!One love, for MOTHER NATURE!!!Respectons la et elle nous respectera!! Vivons en harnonie SVP, entre nous et avec la nature...elle nous le rendra et nous serons ENFIN en symbiose !Que les gens arretent de se battrent ou de fantasmer pr des belles voitures ou des belles nanas, qu on arrete cette competition de qui est le plus fort car je gagne plus d argent que toi..ou j ai une plus grosse maison que la tienne..la verite n est pas la!! la verite c est le fait d apprecier tous les levers de soleils et tous les couchers de soleil et REGARDER autour de nous ce que la Nature veut bien nous montrer...Celui et Celle qui aura compris ca et qui passera ce message a sa descendance avec des exemples quotidiens aura tt compris a la VIE!!! Vis pour ce qui parle en toi car la Nature nous parle tous les jours....mais nous avons oublie comment l ecouter..

Blueberry pie and lemonade

Monday 22/02/2010

Location : Capetown

Well...my dad used to say "Life never goes as planned!".....and it's very true!

I would say even more: " Whatever you want to do in life....start by doing something else completely different!"

Anyway life didn't go as planned when i arrived in capetown last week after my course in Entabeni. 2010 was supposed to be a big year for me with a big page to turn...the page turns out to be much bigger than expected for some personal reasons.

Life is a book...true...but there are some pages that you don't feel like tearing out...and unfortunately by wanting to make a new page in your book you end up tearing out other pages involuntary! That s what happened to me...I have lost a beautiful page of my book by wanting to add more pages...
But this page I have lost will always remain in my heart as the most beautiful page of the book. An unforgettable one which was supposed to be there at the conclusion of the journey but it won't....Or let me put it correctly, it will...but in a different way.

But that page that has been torn out now will still give me inspiration and strength as it has always done before. Some people say that by tearing out that page, my journey will be even more beautiful…. I, personally, believe that I will take this page with me on my journey and all the good things which will happen will be thanks to this page that I will be carrying with me along my path... I will keep this page as a lucky charm because it has always brought colours into my life.

We all have a cross to carry...and believe me, I carried my cross last week and I am still carrying it around. Nothing is the same for me...everything looks and tastes different…a very blurry look and a very sour taste...But that's life isn't it? How can you appreciate life if it always tastes like blueberries? The lemon taste is there too, to make you appreciate the blueberry taste...It s a hard but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger…and it makes you appreciate things that you wouldn't have appreciated before.

I didn't need that bitter taste in my mouth and that blurry look in my eyes right now after this amazing month I spent in the bush where I actually and finally (and I am proud to say it) FOUND MYSELF and found my heart rhythm...But it has happened and I have no choice but to deal with it...swallow it and wait for the days when I will find again a blueberry taste in a pie!

I had that blueberry taste for many years but I didn't realise it because I was always looking for something to enhance that wonderful taste. And I end up with a sour one.
But the taste I had during these past years was actually perfectly delicious and I should have appreciated it more!
I guess this is how you learn...you learn how to appreciate what you have because nothing in life is immortal! Appreciate it today because tomorrow, it will be gone. I thought I learnt that lesson when my dad passed away….but obviously not!

I was a cactus in front of a frangipane flower and because I needed water to grow and get stronger, once I found the water I needed – the frangipane flower had dried out.
The frangipane flower was patient and strong but as the cactus dropped its thorns because it found its water the frangipane was now too exhausted and had no water to grow any more.
The cactus has got enough water now for both of them but the frangipane is too tired…it s too late and the cactus has got no other choice but to grow thorns again to defend itself and to let the frangipane find her own water again. And he knows that she will…because she’s Beautiful, because she has the best smell in the world and because everything she touches turns green…turns into colours like the rainbow in the sky after the rain.

I am not sure if all I say makes sense to you….But this is my blog and I can write whatever I want...

So, “sorry” if I wasted a few minutes of your time today and “You’re welcome” if you will take this message home tonight.

I know it’s got nothing to do with what I wrote but here are some pics of the camp I stayed at in Entabeni for a month.

The same as the blueberry taste is appreciated more once one has tasted the sourness of a lemon, beautiful dreams can’t exist without nightmares!

Inter…not!!

Monday 08/02/2010


Location : Entabeni Game Reserve/Waterberg

Time is flying! Eight days left before flying back to Capetown! Sadness…and happiness in the same time!

After lots of equipment issues I managed to shoot my topic in a few days. And I am now busy editing my 7 hours footage into 3mn film….!!Pretty hectic! But interesting! Final Cut Pro is the bomb!

We spend around 10/12 hours per day behind our Mac at the moment…quite a drastic change with last week when we were in the bush filming from 05h00 AM till 21h00 sometimes! It’s not as fun but our babies are taking form! And it’s such a good feeling…I just hope that I won’t give birth to a one leg baby….!Don’t think so but never know!

Internet is up and down every two minutes so it’s not easy to keep the blog updated. Also I don’t have many new pictures as I couldn’t take any still pictures last week. Too busy shooting with my video camera.

I met, once again, a very inspiring person under the name of Tim. He was my camera work lecturer. 52 years old with more than 30 years in the business as a camera man! He’s been around the world a few times, even to Antarctica and he’s been filming most of Kingsley Holsgate expeditions!! 52 years old and still going strong….! Why retiring when you love what you do for a living!! As he said, our job is our hobby so why stopping?! F**K that S**T!!
Good life style, good money, a family at home who supports you and who look forward each time to see your pictures and listen to your stories with shining eyes! Getting paid to travel and show the world what you see and being able to afford to take your family to any country in the world for a full month if you want to!! This is LIFE!
Seating next to Tin during those game drives has been a real pleasure and I will never be enough thankful for all the filming tricks that he showed me!
Keep going strong Tim, and thank you one more time for this fabulous time on your side and all the inspiration you added to my soul!

Got to go….here are a few pictures that I took the week before last. Lions again I know but I love them!

Learning every day

Wednesday 27/01/2010

Learning more and more every day!

Location : Entabeni Game Reserve/Waterberg

Not much time left for myself…These last few days have been pretty hectic with lectures from 07h30 till 22h00 (with a few smoke breaks in between, brunch and diner). We had awesome lectures about cameras/sound equipment and since Sunday we’re on animal behaviour. I must say that the amount of knowledge I have acquired in a week is phenomenal…! I now know how to write a script and I have pretty good knowledge about cameras (movie cameras and still cameras) and shooting techniques. I feel a little bit more confident now, even though I still need a lot of practice of course!
But what’s for sure is that I found my path and wildlife film making is what I love doing the most! Another thing which is for sure is that it’s gonna be difficult! Competition is very high, broadcasters are more and more difficult and they allow lesser and lesser budget for documentaries. Difficult…but not impossible!
We went on a few game drives and we had lions on a kill twice in 3 days!! These lions are professional hunters…and they love wildebeest! They can’t stay more than 3 days without hunting! I am pretty sure that during our shooting period we will see a hunt. That would be amazing and I would love to film it! Pretty hard though!
Lots of roaring too…At the moment they are around the camp so sometimes we hear them when we are around the fire or when we’re in bed. Not a bad music to fall in sleep with…
Here a few of my best pictures taken these last few days.
ASAP I will take some pictures of the camp and I will download them on the blog.
I will start shooting my subject from Thursday this week for 6 days so I am not too sure if I will have time to update the blog this week. Maybe yes as my topic can be found around the camp so I might not need to be in the bush the all day. But I’ll still have to go and shoot some landscape, time lapses and certain species of animals.
Will update ASAP.

Thursday 21/01/2010

Lions singing happy birthday to me!!

Location : Entabeni Game Reserve/Waterberg

What a birthday day I had on Tuesday!!!

We went on an afternoon game drive and we found a pride of lions resting close to a water hole. Awesome sighting, but the light unfortunately was too bad for pictures as it was getting too dark! This pride consists of 1 male (the father of the one we saw on Monday), 2 females and 2 cubs of 1 year and half. This is Madala’s pride!! And his son is Makulu.

We were busy watching them waking up and all of a sudden Madala started roaring…..! Followed by his females….We had a roar concert 10 metres away from the car!!! We were actually so close that I could feel it vibrating along my spine! It was my first time to hear lions roaring so close to me and it was amazingly beautiful! What a sound! Once they were done (it lasted maybe 1 mn) I thank Mother Nature in my head for this incredible present. Not even 5 mn later they started roaring again…..Second round!! I actually had goose skin and then I thank Mother Nature once again! Not everyone gets lions roars as a birthday present!

On the way back to the camp we spotted a chameleon in a tree…..”Something” uncommon and not easy to spot. Birthday present number 2!
Back at the camp, Chief Piete (our cook) had made me a birthday cake...This touched me incredibly as he doesn’t even know me yet and he had no obligation to make it! Kindness….pure kindness! And when he gave me the cake he told me something I will never forget : “Happy birthday and may you have many more of them in Africa”….In Africa….Yes…in Africa…Present number 3!

Yesterday was St Sebastien and the day had a different flow!

First of all it was raining all morning and then I got stung by a bee right in the neck during my morning lecture. Fortunately I am not allergic to bees so all went well! A bit soar but nothing serious! Very interesting lecture in the morning…Nicole our lecturer at the moment has 22 years experience in wildlife film making and she’s simply amazingly passionate and knowledgeable! 5 hours lecture with her feels like 10 mn!! She’s incredible! She’s teaching us about scripting wildlife films for TV and she gives us some good tricks for our topic. Unfortunately she leaves tomorrow as we’re done now with scripts and it’s time to move on to camera and sound equipment. But we already learnt so much on her side. And the funny part is that she’s also from Hout Bay! She leaves down the road from me!

Anyway, we went for a 30 mn game drive yesterday afternoon and we got pondered by rain!! We were actually in the middle of one the most scary thunderstorm I have ever seen!! Lightnings cutting the sky in half and thunders so loud I felt turned a,part from the inside! I saved my camera on the way back but I got to the camp completely soaked!
So, lions singing happy birthday to me for my 28 and stung by a bee the next day! Not bad at all I would say!
Today was a full day in the classroom. Doing different kind of exercises like writing scripts, developing creativity, watching documentaries with a critic eye, etc..
Tonight we sat by the fire for a couple of hours and we heard again a lion roaring, probably Makulu. He was pretty close to the camp! Lovely….
I will try my best to post this tomorrow morning on my blog. Either before or after the morning game drive with some pictures.

List of birds seen on the 19/01/10
- Coqui Francolin
- White faced duck
- Reed Cormoran
- Brown Snake eagle
- Steppe buzzard
- European bee eater
- Speckled Mousebird
- African black duck
- Mountain wagtail

List of mammals seen on 19/01/10
- Rhinoceros
- Impalas
- Giraffe
- Klipspringer
- Blue Wildebeest
- Zebras
- Cape Eland
- Warthogs
- Waterbuck
- Lions (roaring – 1 male, 3 females and 2 cubs)
- Jackals

List of reptiles seen on 19/01/10
- Chameleon

pictures to come later

Sorry guys but internet is so slow here...i will reduce the quality of my pictures to be able to download them tonight or tomorrow..probably tomorrow tho as am gonna get back late tonight from the game drive!

Trying my best, i promise!

Monday 18/01/2010

This is it!

Location : Entabeni Game Reserve/Waterberg

Well….Here I am!!! Seating in front of my computer in a basic but cosy wooden bungalow, facing the bush! This is the best office in the world!!
Arrived yesterday afternoon under the rain but today the weather was nice. A bit cloudy in the morning and then sunny in the afternoon.
The camp is basic but I give it more stars than a 5 stars lodge in the Sabi Sand! What I love about it is that it is not fenced off so animals can walk though it….yesterday evening we had some blue wildebeest right in front our bungalows! And apparently three nights ago they had lions walking though the camp! Awesome! We’re sharing the camp with a bunch of youngsters who are for 6 month doing their FGASA level 1 and 2. We will get to know them as we go along and I am sure that they have some interesting stories.
I woke up this morning at 5h30 after a great night under the sound of the bush. My alarm o’clock was actually a burchell’s coucal singing right next to my window! My real alarm o’clock went off at 5h45 but by that time I was already dressed on my “balcony” with a coffee and a cigarette in my hand!
We had two awesome game drives today though the scenic Waterberg. This region is new to me and I must say that I’m loving it! A combination of mountains (Entabeni actually means Mountain) and bushveld with some open fields filled with zebras, gnous, kudus, warthogs…
We saw quite a lot of animals in two game drives. I will put the list below.
The schedule from tomorrow is going to be quite hectic with early and late game drives and lectures in between so I don’t know how often I will be able to update the blog! But I will try my best!
Time to go now…to the internet room to put this on the blog and check some mails. Then diner and then I guess, bedtime! I feel like I had a all week in one day….and it’s going to get worst and worst! No sorry, it’s going to get better and better!! 

Bird list observed on morning and afternoon game drives:
- Hamerkop
- Natural Francolin
- Pin-tailed Whydah
- European bee eater
- Red-eyed dove
- Little Grebe
- Common Fiscal Shrike
- Red collared widow
- African Wattled Lapwing
- Long tail widow
- Burchell’s Coucal
- Woodland kingfisher
- Rattling cisticola
- Red bishop
- Common Waxbill
- Orangethroated longclaw
- Grey lourie
- Black and white flycatcher
- Spurwinged goose
- Common Buzard
- White Winged Widow
- Yellow billed hornbill
- Glossy starling
- African paradise flycatcher
- Rufus naped lark
- Guinea fowls

Mammals list observed today:
- Blue wildebeest
- Blesbok
- Waterbuck
- Lion (1 male 5 years old)
- Giraffe
- Kudu
- Warthogs
- Black back jackal
- Baboons
- Zebras
- Hippos

Reptiles list observed today:
- Crocodile




Lundi 18/01/2010

Ca y’est!

Location : Entabeni Game Reserve/Waterberg

Bon voila j’y suis!! Assis devant mon ordinateur portable dans un bungalow rustique mais parfait à mon gout, face au bush !! Le meilleur bureau au monde !!
Je suis arrive hier sous la pluie mais aujourd’huis le temps etait de notre coté. Un peu nuageux dans la matinée (parfait pour le safari) et plus ensoleillé dans l’après-midi.
Le camp est rustique mais je lui donne plus d’étoiles qu’un lodge 5 étoiles dans le Sabi Sand. Ce que j’aime sur ce camp est qu’il n’est pas clôturé donc les animaux peuvent le traverser a tout moment…Hier soir nous avions des gnous juste en face du bungalow ! Et il parait qu’il y avait des lions dans le campement il y a de ca 3 jours ! Génial ! Nous partageons le campement avec des jeunes sud af qui sont la en formation pendant 6 mois pour leur examen FGASA niveau 1 et niveau 2.
Ce matin je me suis réveillé à 5h30 après avoir passé une agréable nuit, bercé par les sons magiques du bush. Mon réveil s’est avéré être un Burchell’s coucal qui chantait juste sous ma « fenêtre » ! Mon vrai réveil a sonné a 5h45 mais j’étais déjà habillé sur mon balcon avec un café et une cigarette dans la main !
Je ne connaissais pas la région du Waterberg jusqu’à maintenant mais je dois avouer qu’elle est tres belle. Les paysages se composent d’une combinaison de montagnes (Entabeni veut d’ailleurs dire Montagne) et de savanne arborée avec quelques zones ouvertes ou l’on retrouve de grandes concentrations de gnous, zebres, kudu, phacocheres….
Nous avons vu beaucoup d’animaux aujourd’hui pendant nos safaris and je vais afficher plus bas la liste.
Le programme de la formation est très chargée avec des safaris de bonne heure et tard le soir et des cours en milieu de journée. Donc je ne sais pas si je pourrai mettre a jour le blog aussi souvent que je le voulais….mais je vais faire au mieux !
J’ai l’impression d’avoir déjà écouler une semaine dans une journée et ca risque d’aller de pire en pire….Non, pardon, je voulais dire de mieux en mieux !! 
Liste des oiseaux observes dans la journee:
- Hamerkop
- Natural Francolin
- Pin-tailed Whydah
- European bee eater
- Red-eyed dove
- Little Grebe
- Common Fiscal Shrike
- Red collared widow
- African Wattled Lapwing
- Long tail widow
- Burchell’s Coucal
- Woodland kingfisher
- Rattling cisticola
- Red bishop
- Common Waxbill
- Orangethroated longclaw
- Grey lourie
- Black and white flycatcher
- Spurwinged goose
- Common Buzard
- White Winged Widow
- Yellow billed hornbill
- Glossy starling
- African paradise flycatcher
- Rufus naped lark
- Guinea fowls
Liste des mammifères observes dans la journée:
- Blue wildebeest
- Blesbok
- Waterbuck
- Lion (1 male 5 years old)
- Giraffe
- Kudu
- Warthogs
- Black back jackal
- Baboons
- Zebras
- Hippos
Liste des reptiles observes dans la journee:
- Crocodile