Last of the travels through South Africa and Swaziland

From Durban we went did a short drive to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Park for the first experience with going on Safari. Entering the park we were immediately greeted by some Zebra and Giraffes. It was a great sign of things to come.

That evening we went on a night safari which was cold. We saw early on a bunch of animals, in particular a bunch of elephants and a hyeana. Then we ended up driving around for awhile and it got really cold but were rewarded with my first sighting of a leopard right by the road which was exciting to see.


The next morning we did a self-drive around the park and ended up seeing a bunch more of elephant feeding by the road and also encountered some a spooked elephant herd that crossed the road frantically in front of us. One of the elephants stood behind and made sure everyone was safe before marching off. It was interesting to see.

After that we drove into Swaziland. The border was a bit of a mess but crossing over it was clear that Swaziland was a more relaxed place than South Africa. People constantly waved at the car as it passed by, which never happened in RSA. The place we stayed in Mbabane was a cool place with a great hike up the mountain behind it. From there you could see for miles around at sunset and it was a amazing site to see.

The next day we went to a wildlife sanctuary in Swaziland but a good portion of the park was closed down because they were having a dirt bike race through the park. It was an interesting sight to see. On one side would be a bunch of impala and then next to it would be several people biking past.

After that we crossed the border into South Africa and made our way to Barberton. It’s a sleepy small town, with a nice small town vibe. It was a mining boom town , where the boom was brief but left a lasting impact. It was interesting to see the old buildings and to do a quick drive into the mountains south of town to see some amazing views.

From there we went to safari right next to Kruger but I am going to update that post on my photojournalism blog http://www.douglaszimmerman.blogspot.com/ where you can see all the (stock) wildlife photos I took at Sabi Sands as well as posts about the World Cup as well.

Touristin' Through RSA

Well another 4 years and another World Cup.

To view a slide show of all the images click HERE

I arrived in South Africa this past Monday and it’s been a week since I started my trip through the country. Its been an interesting adventure so far with a ton of traveling in between so I wanted to do a quick round up of the first week or so.

I am traveling on this part of the trip with my friend Kathy from San Francisco. We arrived in Cape Town last Tuesday morning. We rented a car and spent the first few days there staying at a hostel called The Backpack in Cape Town. It was a really friendly place and a good location. It was close to Long Street and the central city. Also from the hostel you could see Table Mountain that looms majestically over the city.

Traveling in South Africa a ton of people were constantly reminding you to be careful and remind you to take care and be safe. There definitely is a vibe to being in South Africa that you need to always be aware of your surroundings and make sure you don’t put yourself into a bad situation. The hostel was in a good location of the town but you still needed to be aware.

The first night I walked around with Kathy and ended up at the bar for the hostel and met an English guy who was here to volunteer but came a month early to enjoy the World Cup.

He was the first of several people that I met at the hostel that had arrived to be here for the World Cup. They included people from England, Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Australia and Argentina. Over the next few nights I had to do work and was not able to explore the city so I spent a lot of time at the hostel meeting these fellow travelers and getting into the vibe of traveling yet once again.

On Thursday night a huge rainstorm blew into Cape Town and the rains were incredibly strong reminding me of a strong storm blowing in off the Pacific Ocean into San Francisco. It was very intense but luckily the worst of the storm blew through we began our car trip across South Africa.

The first day was a several hour journey along the N2 road to Nature’s Valley. It’s a seclude part of the country and a great place to hang out along the Garden Route a really beautiful part of the country.

From Nature’s Valley the first day we went on a hike called the Salt River walk. It ended up being a much more strenuous hike then I expected having to climb over sharp rocks and even doing some cliff climbing but it was amazing being that close to the Indian Ocean and watching someone fish in the water. After taking a rest at the mouth of the bay I asked a couple of people for directions and climbed over the hill to get a great view of the town of Nature’s Valley on the hike back.

When we got back into the town the fisherman was actually walking back and I struck up a conversation with him. His name was Vernon Peters and gave an education about all the fish that were in the area and also explained he lived in the town all year round.

This time of year was the winter in South Africa so it was the low season. We basically had the place all to ourselves with a few other tourists. Apparently during the high season the town was crazy.

After the fisherman said goodbye, the guy who gave directions earlier on the trip walked by and showed off a Nautilus Paper shell that he found right after talking with us. We started talking and his name was Rocky and he actually ran a house where a lot of South Africans who volunteered in the nearby townships stayed at and it also was a backpackers hostel as well.

That night was this big Rugby game called the Super 14’s and Rocky invited me over to check out the game. It was the championship of a tournament involving Rugby teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

So after that we went to check out the Elephant Sanctuary that was close-by and it was a really cool experience. You got to interact and get close to an elephant, which was an incredible experience.

That night I went to watch the Rugby game at the Rocky’s hostel called the Rocky Road. It was a lot of fun. There was a bunch of South African’s watching it there on the big screen and it was a lot of fun watching with them and learning the rules of rugby.

After that I hung out and got to talk with some RSA people about their country and then met one guy who had a really great taste in electronic music and was able to spend the next couple of hours listening to some great tunes and hanging out.

The next day we went to a Monkey sanctuary that was a lot of fun and got to see some of them try to grab my cuppa tea.

And then we drove by Tsitsikamma park which has a really cool suspension bridge that we crossed over a the mouth of the Storm river. It was a lot of fun to hike down there and walk over it.

After a quick pit stop in East London it was Port St. Johns.


The drive to Port St. John’s was a lot of fun. In the morning we left East London and traveled east through an area which is known as the Wild Coast.

The drive out of East London was long and had a lot of turns but eventually came unto a savannah like landscape. Gone were the trees and brush, and in front were mostly grasslands along slopes of hills.

We cruised along in our car through the mid-afternoon and we had to use the facilities. We were miles from any city but I saw a sign for information and pulled off the road. Luckily where I turned off was part of the Nelson Mandela Museum in the hometown of Nelson Mandela. When we got there no one at the museum and there were not many exhibits on display. A person in charge on the exhibits, his short name was Zim, because I could not pronounce his real name, was kind enough to show us around the grounds. Just outside was the actually primary school that Mandela was first educated. When he was a kid he also had to watch over the cattle that would graze near his father’s house. To keep himself entertained while taking a break from working there was a large rock that he would slide down. Zim showed us the rock and had a hard piece of plastic so we could all slide down it. It was a lot of fun and sliding down the rock was a bit much quicker and scarier than you would believe! We even got Zim to take a ride as well.

From that we were on our way again to Port St. John’s. Arriving in the early afternoon it was a really nice, mellow town full of people right along the shoreline. We walked into town after checking into our place and grab some food to actually make a homemade meal. It worked out pretty well and even got a chance to view some of the beautiful scenery of the city.

That night South Africa had another friendly match against Guatemala and I was able to catch the game with two other South Africans. It was a blowout. 5-0 RSA and it was fun talking about soccer and other things about the country during the game.

From there it was a drive to Durban to recover a bit before heading up the coast to start going on Safari and Swaziland.

I should have more pictures to post in a week!

The Love is Back

Well after finishing up with the World Cup I only had one more assignment in Berlin , to take photographs of the Love Parade.

The motto of the parade was: The Love is Back. It had been two years since the previous event happened. The Love Parade is a huge party, where over thirty dj's teams drive around the Tiergarten of Berlin on these huge floats throwing down dance music beats from all over. Its a crazy insane time.

For the couple days before that I tried to relax and recover from the World Cup. I went one day to Luterstadt where Martin Luther started his teachings, and there was a cool museum showing how life was for people who lived in the GDR (East Germany)

I went and checked out the nightlife in Berlin. It a city where if you want you can never stop partying. I made my way to a bunch of different venues and really enjoyed all the music I could hear.

But the big event was the Love Parade. over 1 million people were there. It was crazy fun, and an event. They say a pictue is worth a thousand words, so hopefully my pics say a little bit about what I saw.

Love Parade Photographs

World Cup Finale

World Cup Finale

Finale….ohh.ooohhh. …Finale…ohhh.ohohhooohhh
Finale….ohhohhoooohohhh
Finale!
Finale!
Finale in Berlin!!

Its coming home
Its coming home
Football is coming home!


So the World Cup ends. Its been quite a ride the past month. I didn’t know what to expect with the World Cup in Germany, but it was quite different and yet similar to the World Cup in Korea in 2002.

The Germans were great and it was fun to explore the county and talk with the German people and watch my misconceptions fall down. Germany is a great county full of really nice people. From Erfurt, to Munich and to Berlin, its hard to stereotype the Germans as it would seem.

The ride for me this time around was not as crazy as it was in 2002, for two main reasons: (1) My team (USA!!) did not do nearly as well this time around and if your team doesn’t do well the World Cup is in definition not as great. 2002 was like a dream come true. 2006 was reality butting in. But I guess, like some say, that is the beauty of soccer: you never know what ride the game is going to take you on. (2) I was working this World Cup where the last cup I was more of a fan. It was great to work photographing the cup, and I think from now on I will always come back as a photographer to the cup, but there were time when after a game that I had to think about getting my photos sent in and such that it got in the way of celebrating a bit. But of course if the USA had gone anywhere I am sure that I would have partied a fair bit ;)

Italy were the winners. Can’t say I was too excited about that, considering the flopped their way through their first four games before coming together to win the cup. But they are the undisputed World Champions so there isn’t much you can say about that.

As for me, the World Cup ends just in time. I’m beat up. I’m tired. I’m exhausted. Its been a whirlwind of memories and experiences that I will never forget, and I am sure will take a long time after I return home to properly comprehend. But I have a big smile on my face after the past eight weeks of traveling, and that’s never a bad sign. ☺

I will be staying in Berlin for another week, but I probably will update my blog only a few more times. This weekend upcoming is the Love Parade, which is a huge electronic music festival that is happening where the fan festival was in Berlin with some of the top DJ’s performing. There should be over a million people going to the event so it should be amazing. I’ll be taking photographs of that as well and post them here.

But thanks for being part of my trip and reading my updates.

Round About Germany

The past few days I spent using up the rest of my train pass in Germany. My pass expires on July 11th, and I thought I should at least check out a couple of sights while I can still get around the country for free.

My trip started on Wednesday. I wanted to photograph at a beer garden fans watching the semi-final between France and Portugal. A couple of people had told me about the beer gardens in the English Garden in Munich and thought it would be a good place to check out. I made it down there and although it was a fun place to watch the game there were not a lot of fans there. I ended up talking most of the game with two Americans I sat next to and some Mexican-Americans who were there to support Mexico.

After the game I said my goodbyes and wandered around the city until the morning when I was going to take a train to see the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s retreat high in the German Alps. I was trying to save some cash on my trip around Germany so I didn’t want to buy a hotel room.

So finally in the morning after wandering around and hanging out in a bar next to the train station I finally made it on an early train to the town of Berctesgaden, sleeping almost the whole way.

The town was back in the time of Hitler where the Nazi’s had their summer retreat and also was supposed to be their command center of last resort at the end of World War II. However it didn’t end up that way. When I got there I took a tour of the Eagle’s Nest and also the bunkers under where the Germans were going to stay at the end of the War.

But the tour happened in the afternoon, so I went on a nice hike in the morning along a crystal-clear river to see the Konigssee that is a beautiful emerald-green lake in the mountains. It was a nice hike and the day was really warm and exceptionally humid. I even ended up soaking my feet in the river on the way back.

The tour was informative and fun and it was interesting to see the bunkers and especially the Eagle’s Nest that was built high atop a mountain to impress visiting dignities of the Reich.

On the way down the mountain when we made it back into the town as the skies started to turn rather ominous, with dark, grey skies looming over the ridge. I got on a train back to Munich and the rain started to come down in buckets. We seemed to keep running right along with the start of the storm on the rain, cause when I had to transfer at the town of Freilassing the storm hit hard. It was literally a wall of rain everywhere and it was pounding. Most people hid in the underground tunnels waiting for the connecting train as pea-sized hail pelted down on the train platform. The train arrive on time and everyone rushed aboard to be dry and out of the downpour.

Back in Munich I then took an overnight train to get to the Middle-Rhine valley, which I had been told was a must see of Germany sights.

I got there early in the morning and traveled along the Rhine to several small towns. They were all really cool, but my favorite stop was in the town of Boppard where you could take a ski-lift type ride up a hill to get an amazing view of the river and the small towns beneath. I rode the lift early in the morning before any other tourist was there and it was amazing how when you rode up the hill all the sounds of the towns slowly melted away into the distance. Soon you were just among the trees and the silence of nature, with the occasional train rumbling in the distance. It was kind of a Zen-like experience. Definitely one of my touristing highlights for sure.

There were also some cool castle remains to wander through in St. Goar and a pretty town in Bacarach, but I still enjoyed the ride the most.

After that I took an express train back to Berlin, and crashed, getting the first decent night’s sleep in three days.

A Nation Cries

Everyone in the country hugely anticipated the Germany v. Italy Semi-Final. It seemed like Germany was on its way to a fairy-tale ending to win the World Cup in its home country. However it didn’t end up that way.

I made my way down to the Fan Festival in the center of Berlin to take in the game. They had several large screen televisions to handle the anticipated 1 million spectators who were going to watch the game there.

It was a massive event. For every German I talked to, despite the amazing run of the national team, they were still not confident that Germany would win the World Cup. That was evident to me from the beginning of the game. I didn’t watch the first half of the match at all; instead I was watching the fans view the games on the big screen. In almost everyone’s eyes there was uncertainty about what would happen. I guess that is one of the beauties of soccer, you never really know exactly is going to happen.

The game appeared to be a classic encounter, with both nations going for the goal. However it was not until the 119th minute of overtime that Italy scored. The fans stood in shock. A quick second goal was scored before the end of the game and with it Germany’s dream run was over. The emotions of the German fans, which had been at a fever pitch the whole World Cup, finally boiled over.

German fans cried and hugged. One crazy Italian fan egged on the German fans before police came in to separate him. But mostly fans stood in shock, or slumped down on the ground in disbelief that their run for the cup was over.

I’ve actually never witnessed anything like that before where everyone around you was so completely despondent. It was a very powerful moment.

Of course, soccer is a game so after a few hours people were dealing with the events and moving on and laughing, but that moment will never truly leave anyone I am sure.

So today I head off to the other Semi-final match to be held in Munich. I plan to then spend the next few days taking advantage of my Germany rail pass to check out some more sights as well before it expires.

Berlin, Berlin

I handed in my keys to my studio and moved on to Berlin on Saturday morning. It was only about three hours away by train. When I got there the brother of the lady I was renting the apartment picked me up at the new train station in Berlin that just opened a month earlier in anticipation of the World Cup. They were cool and gave me a tour of the city before we headed to the place. From there we took care of business then they dropped me on in Freidrichshain, which is the “East Village” of Berlin. From there I ended up exploring the city, which is going to take a long long time for sure. On Saturday night I headed to the Fan Festival mile, where around 1 million people watched the Germany-Argentina game. The photos on television were crazy and I decided I wanted to be there for Germany’s semi-final match. I watched the end of the France-Brazil game where France pulled the shocking upset win. The French fans in the crowd partied like crazy.

After that I headed out to check some of the Berlin nightlife. Berlin seems like the capital of electronic music these days. Almost everywhere else in the world the music is not doing all that great, but from what it seems things are still rocking in Berlin. I ended up checking out this club called Maria um Uber, which has some big named dj’s playing. But it was actually the no-named dj’s that were even better. It was a big shocked, but it showed me how good the scene is here.

So the past few days I’ve been catching up on my rest and getting ready for the big-semi game Germany v. Italy.

Thuringia

After the Round of 16 games there was the first break in games since June 9th, so I decided to try and do some touristin’ around Thuringia, the state where Erfurt is located. My first stop was on my way back from Hanover to Eisenach. In that town there was a castle called Wartburg where Martin Luther, the guy who broke up the Christian religion hid out after he was ex-communicated by the church. It was a really nice castle and from what other people have told me there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of castles all over Germany.
was interesting as well. I’m Lutheran by religion so it was interesting to learn more about the man.

A cool sight was also the study where Luther translated the Bible from Latin into German that
After taking a day off to just rest, on Friday I decided to tackle a long hike. The hike was named the Gothenwanderweg which was named after Johan Wolfgang von Goethe who was a famous German writer as well. The 12-mile hike started in the town of Ilmenau, about an hour by train from Erfurt. From there the hike went to a small town call Manebach and then continued up a mountain and then went ever further to a town called Stuzerbach. I ended up getting lost in Ilmenau finding the hike so I figured out there was no way I was going to walk the whole walk so I only walked about half of it.

The first part was great, walking in a loop through some deep forest, around some big rocks and ended up walking down to Manebach. From there though for over an hour it was a straight up-hill climb to get to the top of the mountain. That was really hard and was very strenuous, but finally I made it to the top and it was a nice reward. There was a tower called the Kickelhahn that put you above the trees and afforded awesome views of the Thuringian Forest everywhere. And also there was a nice German restaurant where there was some good German food.

The funny thing was this hike was supposed to be one of the more famous hikes in Germany, but the whole day I had the whole trail to myself. The reason? Of course the semi-final of Germany against Argentina later in the day.

From there I took a short-cup back to the town of Ilmenau to try and watch the game. When the game was on the whole rest of the town was empty, besides places showing the game. It was funny cause it was a Friday afternoon at 5 pm but the main street of the town was almost completely empty. I found one place to watch outdoors but it wasn’t that great a location and wouldn’t have made great photographs so I decided to head back to Erfurt to (hopefully) catch the end of the game and capture some Germans celebrating there.

One the way back the train was really delayed and the only updates I got of the game was some school kids on a trip listening to the game on a radio.

I barely made it back to Erfurt in time to watch the penalty kicks, which Germany ended up winning.

Afterwards the party in the streets was much larger than the last win. It was a lot of fun.

But that was my last night in Erfurt, I had to pack up and get ready to head to my home base for the next few weeks, Berlin.

I'm Working Redux

A bunch of my US fans photos are currently on the main page of the US Soccer website.

if its moved the direct link to the photo gallery is here

I am working over here...really!!!

Well besides shooting the World Cup I also finally did some work for the San Francisco Chronicle. Their columnist Scott Ostler was over here and I was able to meet up with him and shot one assignment for him. It was about surfing in a river in Munich which was really cool. It was fun to photograph. Check the story here

Sightseeing v. Game-seeing

On the train ride back from Nuremburg to Erfurt, I was talking to this old German guy on the train who told me about his crazy adventures in South America back in the 60’s. We were talking about the games and Germany, and he told me I should see some more of the sights of Germany. I was thinking it might be a good idea. After all I have been all-soccer, all the time the past few weeks and I could use a break and slow down for a few days.

He was like “If you see the Rhine it is forever, if you go to a football game it is only for one day.”

So I thought about it and in my mind I thought it might be time to do some touristin’ once again and take a break from the games and shooting.

But I had scored a ticket to the Ukraine-Switzerland game on Monday in Cologne so I had to go see that game first. I got a room at the hostel in a great location next to the train station and the Dom cathedral. When I got there there was a sign posted for a ticket to the Brazil-Ghana game in Dortumnd the next day, but the ticket cost 300 euros so I decided against it.

Right across the street was a Hilton hotel where the Ukraine national team was staying. I was able to grab a couple of shots of the team as the boarded the bus to go to the stadium.

Then the game. It was great. I had seats the third row near mid-field and sat next to a bunch of Germans. The crowd was definatley mostly Germans. Sometimes they would sing German songs and the whole stadium would come alive. There were more Swiss also than Ukranians and some had some really funny costumes they wore during the game.


You can’t say the Swiss aren’t safe.

It was a preaty tight affair and the game went to penalty kicks. Ukraine missed their first, but the Swiss missed all of the and the Ukranian fans went crazy.

Afterwards they partied outside the stadium and on the way back to Cologne.

When I got back to the hostel, I ended up hanging out in the lounge downstairs. I met some Ukranians staying there, including this one guy who was Ukranian ancestry but lived in Australia. So it was interesting cause he had two teams he was going for in the World Cup. He said he had been planning the trip for six years, since they announced the games were going to be in Germany. It was a cool conversation, but it was about four in the morning so I went to crash.

The next morning I woke up and had to make a decision. To go to Dortmund for the Brazil-Gahna game or head to the Rhine. For one of the first days since the world cup it was a glum day in Germany. Overcast and it started to rain. Definatley not the best day to do some sightseeing.

So as I checked out I saw the sign for the Brazil-Ghana ticket had been added to, and said” Make an Offer” so I offered 100 euros and the guy accepted. It was a face value ticket of 60 euros so not that bad.

After that I made it to the train station to get some coffee and check my email when my friend Joel called. He and his friend and got three tickets for the France-Spain game for 50 euros each. Did I want to go? I thought about it for a second. Sure! So instead of Dortumnd I was heading to Hannover instead.

I had to sell my ticket for the Brazil game, so I walked around the station holding it for awhile until two English guys asked me if I was selling. I ended up selling it for a 150 euros, so after I pay Joel for the France-Spain game tickets I’ll end up going to the game for free!

Well that’s it for now. I guess in the end I made the choice for the day, football over sightseeing. And there aren’t any games on Wednesday or Thursday so I can go see some sights then.

The Mighty Orange Get Squeezed

The next day I took the train down to Nuremburg for the Netherlands-Portugal game. Being from right next door, the town was jammed with Holland fans. But it was not a good day for their fans either. Holland fell behind by one goal and although there were some moment when it looked like they might get back in the game the end result was a loss and glum-looking fans.


At least at the end of the night the Mexican fans, which are still everywhere in Germany were partying it up. There was a Mexican folk band playing tunes outside the train station and they were playing some great music and having a great time.

Germany and Mexico

After spending Friday in Erfurt trying to get some rest, I watched the Saturday Germany v. Sweeden game also in Erfurt. When I have been town I usually end up handing out a restaurant with a little beer garden next door to where I am staying but I wanted to find a bigger crowd and found a beer garden in the old town area that was packed. It was fun, Germany smoked Sweeden and everyone partied. I got a couple of shots of people driving around the ring road after the win, but all in all the partying was rather subdued. The big prize still awaited.

After that I took the quick train to Leipzig where Mexico was playing Argentina. I made it to the fan festival and watched on the large TV screen from there. Mexico scored an early goal that got everyone hoping for the upset, but Argentina quickly equalized and then it became a tense encounter.

During the second half when the game was really close and tense. There was a German guy standing in front of me, and a bunch of other Mexican fans, wearing a big hat. He wouldn’t take it off and eventually a Mexican guy grabbed it off his head and eventually gave it back to his friend. At one point the guy turned around and said in Spanish, “Guys, its only a game,” which was greeted with silent stares. After a few minutes the German guy ended up wandering off.

Mexico ended up losing on a brilliant goal from Argentina and while the Argentinainan fans partied it up the Mexicans were rather upset, a lot crying.

The train ride back to Erfurt was crazy, It was jammed packed. After having rode several overcrowded trains in the past week I knew the best place to head was the dining car cause at least there I could find a place to sit down. Luckily it was only an hour ride for me. For most people it was a four hour ride back to Frankfurt.