Doornkloof – De Rust area

Hi Everyone

While in the Klein Karoo, I had the priveledge of visiting the farm Doornkloof of Oubaas and Freda Schoeman. Doornkloof is a working farm but to me its main attractions were the view, the guesthouse and overnight chalets.

Whether you are a frequent traveler of the Klein Karoo or a tourist passing by, this guesthouse is a must for your next stay-over. Make sure to book at least two nights – one day will not be enough to explore this Klein Karoo jewel.

Doornkloof is approximately 5.5km from De Rust on the R341 Willowmore road. Contact Freda at 083 305 9974 for more information and to secure your booking.

Below are a few pics that I took while browsing the farm:

The view of Doornkloof

Guesthouse stoep

Main bedroom

Wash basin – bathroom

Living room

Stoep of one of the chalets

The ‘wired’ words say it all…

On my way to the Klein Karoo

Hi Everyone

I’m on my way to the Klein Karoo again (Kammanassie Blue Nature Reserve). The idea is to get aerial photos and video clips of the dams in the area that are now all overflowing!

Will post photos and video clips – watch this space!!

Trip to Zimbabwe

Hi Everyone

Just returned from Zimbabwe. Nicoleen and myself had a trip of a lifetime!!

We were treated like VIP’s on and around Shangani Ranch (situated in the Bulawayo district).

This is a summary of our trip:
Flew from OR Thambo with private Citation Jet to Bulawayo.
Flew from Bulawayo with private helicopter (Augusta Westlan AW139) to Shangani Ranch.
Flew around Shangani area and visited Wabai Mountain and Nalatale Ruins by air and visited Shangani Dam.
Were treated with the best food and wine and had much fun in ‘The Room of a Thousand Delights’ over 4 days.
Flew back from Shangani Ranch to Bulawayo by helicopter.
Flew from Bulawayo to OR Thambo via Learjet.

Thanks Nicky and Strilli for a best-ever trip !!!

Baobabs in the mist

Pictures from our latest coffee table book:

Baobab trees in the mist.

Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve. Thick mist kept us on Little Muck Lodge’s stoep until late in the morning. Just after 10 o’clock the mist started to clear and these Baobab trees came into the open. With a long telephoto lens I was able to get a few shots before the mist closed in again.

Lens 600mm, f4, 1/640Sec, ISO 50, RAW,Tripod+Mirror lock-up, 10:34:11

‘Free-range diamond’

Pictures from our latest coffee table book:

‘Free-range’ diamond.

Although very small, it is still amazing to see how many diamonds are in the sands on the beaches. It takes a trained eye though to identify them. I am not allowed to say where this picture was taken – only that it was somewhere along the Diamond Coast (of course!).

Lens 100mm macro, f11, 1/60Sec, ISO 100, RAW, Beanbag, 08:49:36

Sunset at Kleinzee

Hi Everyone

To promote our latest coffe table book, I will, over the next few weeks, be posting pictures from the book with a short ‘story behind the picture’.

Sunset at Kleinzee. (The book’s cover page)

Sandy Blake, Dudley Wessels and myself were busy taking pictures of the shore while the sun was setting. This line of cloud came out of nowhere and was illuminated from below by the setting sun. Another one of those lucky moments!!

Lens 28mm, f16, 5Sec, ISO 50, RAW, Tripod, 18:37:26

Diamond Route book published!!

Hi Everyone

Our latest coffee table book, “SOUTH AFRICA’s WILD GEMS” was launched at the Diamond Route Research Conference. Copies are flying off the shelves!!

Be sure to get your copy – order from our website for a special discounted price: http://www.oshana.co.za

Have a good day!

Let’s be positive

Hi Everyone

I will, for the time being, still post events on this blog.

Please let me know should you see any advertisements while reading posts on this blog. A screen capture will help a lot – please send to erwin@oshana.co.za

Watch this space for postings on our Zimbabwe trip!

Erwin

Incredible !

Dear Followers

My apologies for making you part of this. But honest people need to be informed of poor services offered on the internet.

Ubelievebly, in their answer to my complaint, WordPress.com, via their Happiness Engineer, is now offering me the service that I am actually complaining about?? How can they run ads which I have no control of – their definition of ‘discreet’ is not the same as mine! On 27 April 2007 they added their intention to place ads to the site’s log. It is never mentioned in my contract with them nor did I get a notification of their intentions.

Here is the answer that I got from WordPress.com’s Happiness Engineer yesterday:

Hi Erwin,

You are correct. We sometimes display advertisements on WordPress.com sites, in order to keep free features free.

We try to make the ads discreet and only run them in limited places so they’re only shown to a limited amount of viewers.

Currently, you have a domain upgrade on your blog. That upgrade does not remove advertising from your site.

If you would like to completely eliminate ads from appearing on your blog, we offer the No-Ads Upgrade:

Terminating this blog

Dear Followers

Sad to say but I will terminate this blogsite soon.

I am very disappointed in WordPress that now has started putting ads on my site without my consent and/or without consulting me as the user and their paying client.

WordPress stated that they are now running ads to cover the costs for operating my site. Why am I then paying an annual fee to WordPress?

I was never informed that my site became part of their ‘WordAds program’. I was never informed that I should purchase a ‘No Ads upgrade’ at an additional cost($30) that is more than my annual fee. Why am I not benefitting from the claim from WordPress that ‘I elected to show ads to earn money from my site’. Bullshit – where is the money going to???

I initially chose WordPress because of their clean, beautiful and professional approach. This has unfortunately changed now for the worse.

I have lost a vast amount of followers and views as a result of annoying ads spoiling my followers’ visits to my blog.

There are so many internet scams doing the rounds now that I am considering this as one from WordPress.

Unless WordPress can come up with a proper answer, this site will be terminated.

Below are excerpts from WordPress why they have decided to put ads on my blog:
1. The site is part of the WordAds program and has elected to show ads to earn money from their site.
2. The site is one of the sites hosted on WordPress.com that has not purchased the No Ads upgrade, and we are running ads to cover the costs of operating the site for the user. We run these types of ads sparingly in an attempt to interfere as little as possible with the experience of reading a site. There’s more info about our approach to ad serving in this blog post.
3. If you are a WordPress.com user and you would like to permanently remove all ads from your site, please take a look at our No Ads upgrade.
What you’ll get with this upgrade
• Hide all our ads on your site. To keep our free features free, we sometimes show ads on your blog. This upgrade makes sure that no one sees ads on your blog.
• Ads are automatically disabled on your site as long as this upgrade is active. No other settings required.
No Ads. Keep your blog clean, beautiful and professional.

Your comments will be welcomed!

Erwin Niemand