Home sweet home

I came across this house on a pavement in Benoni early one morning while waiting for my daughter to complete her exam. The owner agreed to be photographed wile reading his morning paper. On the one hand we cannot allow people to erect houses on pavements everywhere. On the other hand I have to respect the owner for what he is doing. Behind him is a flat trolley typically used to collect recyclable material like paper and plastic. Instead of doing crime or begging he is making a living for him self. His dwelling seems fairly comfortable given where and what it is. Much like the owner of a much bigger business, he is reading his morning newspaper in the early morning sun.

Old mine house

Some more pictures of the old mining house near Etwatwa. One of the pictures shows three round openings in the concrete slab between the ground and first floor. They are right above the fire place. I presume they were created to allow heat from the fire place to circulate to the first floor. The other two photos show the corridor and window of one of the living units.

Old mine house

I drove past this old house on my way to Etwatwa on the East Rand. It is on farm land but I presume it used to belong to one of the old mines that were active in the area many years ago as it is located near an old mine shaft. It consists of two or four residential units. I could not confirm as I could not get to the top story. The stairs were on the outside and are not there any more. None of the downstairs units has a bathroom. Outside is a small square building, +/- 1,5m x 1,5m that used to be an outside toilet. In Afrikaans it used to be called a “kleinhuisie”, literally translated as “small house”. I took some more pictures of the inside of the house. I will publish these in my next post.

Sandton

This is a picture of a section of Sandton, South Africa. Sandton forms part of a collection of suburbs to the north of Johannesburg, known as the Northern Suburbs. The Corporate Head Offices of various businesses used to be located in and around the Johannesburg CBD. Business owners and high level managers used to live in the Northern Suburbs while lower ranked employees used to live closer to the city itself. With time development moved to the Northern Suburbs. Sandon has developed into a major business hub incorporating office towers, shopping centers and residential estates. Traffic can be a nightmare.

Hippo

Another picture of a Hippo at play. Note the mud on one of the bottom teeth. It would dive down and come up again with its mouth open. I don’t know if it hit the bottom by accident or intentional.

White Rhino

These two white rhinos came down to drink late one afternoon while I was waiting at a waterhole. There are two types of rhino, white rhino and black rhino. Color has little to do with the distinction between the two species. The white rhino has a wide square upper lip adapted for grazing. “White” was adopted from “wide”. Now that we have a white rhino the other species naturally became the black rhino. Black rhino has a narrow hooked upper lip adopted for foraging. White rhino are more common than black rhino but are endangered. White rhino are threatened by commercial poaching to get hold of their horns, believed to assist under endowed under performing men to improve sexual performance.

White Rhinos reaches a height of up to 1,8m at the shoulder and reaches a weight of up to 2,3 tonnes. The horn can reach a length of up to 1,6m. A calf weighs approximately 40kg at birth. A white rhino has a lifespan of up to 45 years. Bulls who have no water in their territories leave every 3-4 days to drink, passing through other bulls’ territories as they go. If confronted they squeal and shriek and hold their ears back to demonstrate their submission. They are then usually allowed to proceed.

White rhinos have poor eye sight, relying on sent and hearing. White rhino are more even tempered than black rhino. I once came across a white rhino bull, cow and calf while walking in a nature reserve to seek help to recover a stuck vehicle. The bull noticed me and started to move towards me. I stood still and it stopped. Fortunately there was a thin, tall tree nearby that I climbed – fast. The rhino came to the tree and stood right beneath me sniffing the ground and air. Eventually the cow and calf broke away and he soon followed. From personal experience I can confirm:
- They do have poor eye sight.
- They do reach a height of 1,8m at the shoulder.
- I was very scared. Running would not have helped – a white rhino can reach a speed of up to 40km/h.

Source: Own experience and Smither’s Mammals of Southern Africa.

I have started watermarking my images. I was recently confronted by what a commercial printer cam do with even a low resolution image. You may contact me at http://www.coismeyer.com/ or e-mail me at cois@coismeyer.com to obtain an un-watermarked copy, depending on intended use.

Hippo yawn

I visited the Ratlhogo waterhole in the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve near Rustenburg a few times. This Hippo was around most of the time, floating in the water with just its eyes and nostrils showing or basking in the sun. One morning it was in a playful mood diving and surfacing and snapping at the water. This picture shows it yawning. It was around roughly every second day. Hippos travel during the night. I presume it travels to another waterhole a few kilometers away to make the return journey the next night. The photo shows a number of broken and missing teeth. I would stress if my teeth were broken and missing but it does not seem to bother this Hippo.

A male Hippopotamus (Hippo) can reach a height of up to 1,7 meter at the shoulder and can reach a weight of up to 2 tonnes. Hippos graze on short grass close to water but can travel distances of up to 30 kilometers to reach grazing. It consumes up to 13 kilograms of grass per day. This seems like a lot but is actually half of what is expected considering the body size. A hippo can reach an age of up to 35 years. Lions and crocodiles will attack baby hippos but seldom fully grown individuals.

The temperature was 3˚ C when I took this photo. It can stay submerged for up too 6 minutes, closing its nostrils and ears to stop water getting in. Now and again they travel to different parts of their environment. One is known to have walked 1 800 kilometers, from Lake St Lusia to the Keiskama River.

Hippos are one of Africa’s big five and are quite dangerous. They will trample most anything coming between itself and the water or itself and its calf. There is still one mystery about these animals. There are three documented cases where they have rescued drowning animals from other species. On one such an occasion in the Kruger National Park a hippo forcefully freed a young Impala from a crocodile and carried it to the side. It stood next to the Impala to fend off any possible further attacks, but lost interest when the impala died. This happened before the days of digital photography but I have seen sets of slides displayed at shops in the Kruger National Park. The set must have been scanned to electronic format by now.

Source: Smither’s Mammals of Southern Africa and own knowledge.

I will publish some more photos on my website within the next few days - http://www.coismeyer.com/