Holiday 1995!

[sojournerphoto]

Back in 1995 a much younger me spent several months travelling overland in southern and east Africa. I took 30 rolls of Kodachrome 64 and my Canon Ae-1 along. Earlier this year I dug out the slides and started scanning them to make some prints. Then I ran into problems with my, somewhat old, 3880. Now I have acquired an Epson 18100 and am happy making some nice prints for my kids to see when they come back from uni at Christmas. I thought I'd share some here - over the course of the next few weeks. It's been a while since I posted, so this is a good excuse to drop in more regularly. I hope htat there is something that some of you enjoy🙂

First up, a couple from a walk in Matopos National Park in Zimbabwe. These are ancient cave paintings and the road to the cave runs between a steep, almost cliff like, bank and a pool.stream of water. At the start of the narrow section is a sign warning of crocodiles - that made this part of the exploration somewhat unnerving - particularly as I had to return after visiting the caves.

Mike

 

[sojournerphoto]

and a few more from that walk in Matopos. I had stayed with friends of a friend for a few days in Bulawayo - he was the great grandson of one of the two people who accompanied David Livingston and his great grandfather had signed the treaty with Mzilikaze - chief of the Ndebele at that time. He gave me a lift to the park entrance at the start of the day, as he went to work, and then I spent the day in the park. Later, I hitched a lift back to Bulawayo as the evening fell.

 

[lynnb]

Mike, great quality and I’m looking forward to seeing more. Your anecdotes are most interesting too.

 

[sojournerphoto]

Lynn, thanks for you thoughts. I'm really pleased with the way these scans are printing up - nearly 30 year old film that has been kept in a dusty box in the attic, so exposed to cyclic heat and cold...

I'm making 9 x 6 prints on 10 x 8 paper, but have done a couple at 18 x 12 as tests and they're lovely. Of course, I'm old enough to like the grain. Here is today's crop drying on the table.

It's an interesting project. I'm printing far more than just the 'aesthetic' pictures, as this is very much a record of a particular time - both for me and my kids. It's also interesting how may have something of interest in them, perhaps the cost and limited availability of film, even then, made me think about shooting!

 

[sojournerphoto]

And back to a couple of new pictures today.

During this period I traveled by bus and train by and large, occasionally hitchhiking and, on one occasion, walking a long way... Whilst staying in Bulawayo I also made a trip up to Victoria Falls. I traveled up by train and spent a couple of nights camping nearby. During the visit I walked over the bridge to Zambia and was passed by a white man riding a bike with saucepans hanging off it in various places - later I found out that it was the (UK TV) chef, Keith Floyd, recording his African series.

Anyway a couple of pictures from Vic Falls - the falls by day and evening and a picture of the railway station as well. There may be more later, such is the randomisation that over 25 years of storage and the occasional shuffle achieves with our pictures!

 

[sojournerphoto]

Slide randomisation means that we now step back a few weeks to soon after I arrived in SA. I met up with some friends for the first two weeks - more later - and amongst other things we visited Kruger National Park. These few appear at the front end of the scanning list.

 

[sojournerphoto]

And of course, life is a cycle

 

[sojournerphoto]

However, one of the themes that comes through is that, even back in 1995, I was actually more interested in the land and how people live in it and change it. It's quite hard to place these three but I suspect they are from the area approach Cathedral Peak in South Africa - certainly they are SA.