It’s been so long since I found time to get out into the forest! But today I was working from home and when it started to get foggy I packed my camera and tripod and went out. A last chance to get some autumn colors!
Tag: photoblog
Autumn colors
My Walk of Wisdom journey is almost coming to an end. Since Hermen gave me the starter pack for my birthday in February, we have been walking through the countryside around Nijmegen. The past weeks we have been busy and the weather was rainy, but Sunday promised to be dry. So after Hermen’s church service we set out to hike the trail from Wijchen to Afferden – about 18 km. We fortunately made it before dark!
A new rhino
I always thought that DĂĽrer’s portrait of a rhino was an example of an artist who tried to draw an animal that he had never seen. DĂĽrer didn’t actually see a rhino, but his drawing was far more accurate than I thought – it was just a different kind of rhino. DĂĽrer drew a Sumatran rhino which is far more plated than the African varieties I know so well. Yesterday I say my first Asian rhino in Berlin Zoo, and this is my hommage to DĂĽrer!
Familiar and unexpected
Another stage of the Walk of Wisdom, from Malden to Grave. Again, it was an amazing combination of the familiar and the unexpected. In this stage, we also passed the halfway point of the route. Three long stages to go! Today’s was 20 km, and I’m proud of myself for making it this far!
Two chapels
Today we visited a forest- and a field chapel. In the forest we found the chapel Dekke Tönnis – Fat Tony – for St Anthony. For fear of wildfires from candles the entrance was barred. Even more bars made the statue of the saint impossible to photograph. But it was a good place for a picknick!
After hiking through the beautiful forest we went to the Bruder Klaus Feldkapelle – Brother Klaus Field Chapel – a chapel built in 2007 in a very modern style. Parking is a kilometer from the chapel, so it’s a brief pilgrimage to get there. From the outside, the building looks a bit like a climbing wall. Inside, there is room for two people, it’s a really intimate space with big marbles in the walls that let the light in. It’s beautiful and has a very special feeling.
We were awed by the destruction in Bad Münstereifel, still visible after the floods two years ago, but driving through the Ahr valley, we saw that it was much worse there. It’s unimaginable what happened there. We ended the day with Flammkuchen in Bad Ahrweiler, where the marketplace was restored.
World Leopard Day
Apparently it is world leopard day today! Leopards are such special animals – solitary, secretive, hard to find and absolutely stunningly beautiful. I didn’t nearly see enough leopards on our recent trip to South Africa 🥲 but this one, just waking up, time to get moving, silhoueted against the sunset-sky was really special.
Buffalo
You wouldn’t say so, because buffalo traverse in large herds, but they are actually quite hard to find. After an afternoon speeding from one end of the Thornybush Game Reserve to the other, we finally found this old, angry, solitary male glaring at us after he had to get up from his personal spot on the beach. Hrmph.
Cubs
One of the highlights of our trip was finding this mother lion with two cubs in a river bed. At this age – maybe three months old – they are still reliant on mother’s milk and too little to engage in the hunt with the rest of the pride, so mother will hide them for long periods to go hunting and come back for feeding and play time.
Falling…
A leopard dozing in a tree above us. In fact, he was dozing so hard that he lost his balance and needed some claw action to prevent him from falling out of the tree and on top of… well, me. That was a scary moment!
Awesome wonder 