A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Temps mort
April 8, 2010
While New York experiences science-fiction spring weather (the actual all-time record-breaking max yesterday was 32°C - the forecast max for tomorrow: 15°C!) and we re-adjust tant bien que mal to the Big Apple, chafed by the "hum" - that constant background noise and vibration so characteristic of mega cities, but comforted by the vibrancy and exhorted by the very real notion that we are standing on the belly-button of the known universe, my poor laptop is agoniz...
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Cartwheels over Lesotho, Part 1 - War and Peace in the Karoo
March 26, 2010
The Karoo has not always been hot. Long, long ago, it lay covered in ice for a hundred million years. Then, two hundred and fifty million years before this blog post was written, the area turned into a basin and as the millennia passed, featured various water bodies, some as vast as inland seas. Enormous coal deposits were formed. There was ferocious volcanic activity and lush forests emerged for life to thrive in. The Karoo was a happening place.
Today,...
I once owned a Canon G10
March 21, 2010
We were airborne once again. Our South African Airways A340-300 was dashing through the sky like an arrow towards its target. At our easterly route 39,000 feet cruising altitude, the air was thin and a frigid -55°C, but as smooth as a lake's surface on a foggy morning. Our speed hovered just below that of sound and we'd cover in about an hour a distance that had taken us 3 full days in the Landcruiser.
Soon we'd leave Lesotho far behind the right wing and it would reced...
Cape Argus Cycle Tour 2010 - Pick'n Pray (Continued)
March 16, 2010
[This is part 2 of 2 - read part 1 here]
...
One of the major factors helping so many people to finish such a long and difficult race is the crowds. All along the route, there are spectators cheering the riders. In some places things are taken to an extreme and people have loud music playing, or even improvised bands. There are spontaneous cheerleaders and amateur water points. There are hoses pointed at cyclists for cooling off. There are local kids offering a "push" ...
Cape Argus Cycle Tour 2010 - Pick'n Pray
March 14, 2010
Imagine the most breathtaking coastal scenery in the world, with Table Mountain at one end and Cape Point at the other. Throw in some cute little fishing towns, majestic cliffs, giant breakers, seaside mist, sandy beaches, wild surf, unrelenting sun and some annoyingly nasty climbs. Draw a 110 km route around all this, starting in downtown Cape Town and almost closing the loop at the new Greenpoint Stadium. Invite 35,000 of your cyclist friends, assign them a number and a ...
Cartwheels over Lesotho - The Teaser
March 11, 2010
It's been weeks since we came back from the road. With so much to do in Cape Town, including flash training sessions for the Argus Cycle Tour, I've only had moderate amounts of time to sort out the many pictures taken and throw a few ideas on paper. But it is all taking shape.
Some might remember that in early 2009, Marie and I set out for a memorable road trip up the West Coast of South Africa, into Namibia's incredible Namib Desert, across to southern Kalahari and bac...
Back in Cape Town
March 1, 2010
The 2010 South Africa road trip is over. We'd left Constantia two weeks ago, bound for Lesotho. 4300 km, 2 hairy mountain passes, 4 National Parks, 4 border crossings and many breathtaking places later, we are back. The pictures will be sorted out, the stories will unfold. It takes time.
If our last trip to Namibia had been dominated by the color red, this one, to our surprise, was incredibly green. The area we visited had received unusual amounts of rain. The scenery...
Cool runnings
February 11, 2010
I had meant to post more often about the running routes I've discovered but as always, time is running out (pardon the pun) - we are about to hit the road. But let's see... The most memorable runs were the Good Faith Trail Run on the 12 Apostles and A Hot Morning Cruise Across Cape Point.
The 12 Apostles trail run was 18 km long and took 3:20 hrs, starting steeply above Llandudno, following the top of the Apostles on the back of Table Mountain, cutting across to the rese...
A foreigner's take on Cape Town's new Stadium and the 2010 FIFA World Cup
February 8, 2010
Every four years, 32 teams gather in a host country to play 64 games of passionate football, watched by the entire civilized world, and most of the rest too. It's the FIFA World Cup. It's big. The 2006 final match in Germany was watched live by an estimated 715 million people. Each one of them saw an instant replay of Zidane heatbutting Materazzi. That's the power of television.
Four years later, South Africa is hosting the 2010 World Cup. The first match will be play...
A Citroën 2 CV in Kalk Bay - Cherchez l'erreur
February 5, 2010
No, this isn't a Southern French beach picture. I took it yesterday on a stretch of remarkably turquoise water just outside Kalk Bay, South Africa. The adorable little car - and I'm not a fan of the colour pink, but this was preciously silly - is an old Citroën 2 CV.
The 2 CV wasn't only driven by Inspector - pardon me, Chief Inspector Clouseau. It's actually one of France's most iconic cars ever built. Its production began just after WW2 and the car was literally meant ...
Even more chameleons...
February 2, 2010
Ok, this has become more than a hobby, I now feel under a pseudo-scientific obligation to document the whereabouts of those absolutely adorable creatures. We've finally found Cape Dwarf Chameleons in a different area, much closer to the house, which lets us hope they might some day come back to the garden - even though we suspect there could be too many carnivorous birds around the house to allow chameleons to move back in.
They seem to favour the bright green livery no ...
More Cape Dwarf Chameleons
February 1, 2010
Marie and I have now found a minimum of 10 individuals, 4 of which are much smaller and probably younglings... They all live in a 20 to 30 meter radius of each other, and we still have to find a single chameleon outside of that area. The reason is still unknown. We've decided to be discreet about their location to protect their privacy; Cape Dwarf Chameleons are, after all, endangered.
Anybody with valuable information about the species and an iron-clad reference letter ...