Getting Older

You know you have quality friends when they take the time to actually sit down and make something for you, be it a sandwich or a go-kart.
My 25th birthday passed this weekend and at this age you become a lot more appreciative of friends like these.


Now my homie Chase and I go way back. We used to be in art class together in high school and would both avoid getting hair cuts at all costs. Now, some 7 years later, we play in a band together and he hasn't lost his artistic flair at all!
He rocked up with this thing wrapped up in newspaper marked "CADDI 25". To my amazement, I unwrapped it to discover this...

An awesome hand painted skateboard with my face on it! How cool is that? I'm even jealous of me.


So, Chase, thank you. You're awesome! And you better keep on arting, it'll get you places. <3


C

Africa. The Best Place Ever.

Africa is the birth place of everything brutal, awesome and alive. It is a place where the strongest survive and the weak die out in the piercing sun.

But underneath all the harshness there lies an infinite amount of beauty and life. 

I just spent a weekend there with the family and got to witness this beauty in its truest form. We saw things people would kill to see. Herds of buffalo, elephant, a lion feasting on a buffalo and even a leopard. When you see a leopard you know you've done good because they are rare finds.

We spotted this big dog as we arrived

Lions are by far my favourite animals around. They house so much power and are wise beyond my comprehension. We saw this dude snacking on some prime buffalo before he disappeared into the bush, only to pop out at a water hole about half a kilometre away.

As we were leaving the park we saw a little bit of a traffic jam ahead. When we arrived people were pointing frantically, searching with binoculars and trying to take pictures. We looked around and saw nothing. Finally something moved. It was a beast of a leopard. A cat built of pure muscle with a coat that made you want to hug it, even though he'd probably eat your face off.
He came out into an open patch and looked as if he was posing for all the cameras. He then ran up a tree to check out the area before quickly jumping out of the tree and disappearing into the thick bush. What an awesome sight!

Checking out the hood

Perfect coat

Here are some other pics of cool animals.

Fish Eagle

A big tusker and calf carrying an elephant bone

Apparently the Elephant Graveyard in The Lion King is based on a real thing. It is said that when an elephant dies, it's heard will often visit the place of death to mourn. They also collect the deceased's bones and leave them in a certain area, an elephant grave yard.  

Another big dog

This jackal was munching the insides of the buffalo that the afore mentioned lion devoured

The afore mentioned lion

The afore mentioned lion drinking

Kids in the Kruger

While everyone was losing brain cells and having a party at Oppikoppi, I spent some quality time in the Kruger Park with the family and cousins from Italy. I love it in the bush, Africa is ruthless and awesome at that.


On our last day in the park we trekked to a picnic area to have a picnic. As one does. We were there for about 20 minutes when three bus loads of school kids rocked up.
We sat back to see what would go down as some 200 kids from Maphuphe Jr Primary School sprant (sprinted) into the picnic area. The five or so teachers that were controlling the kids lined them up and started taking individual pictures of them.
My girlfriend, Indianna, decided to help the teachers out by taking pics of some of the kids for them. I picked up my camera and started shooting from a distance.
These kids were awesome. The moment they saw the camera they all started shouting, "Me! Me! Me!" and wanted to be in every pic.

When I tried to show them the pics I had taken I was swarmed, and within seconds I was at the bottom of a dog pile.

I've never seen a bunch of kids be so amped on life before. They came from a rural village in Northern SA, they came out pretty much to take photos of the kids.
No matter where I stood they knew I was taking photos and were ready with poses and funny gestures. After spending an afternoon with them I realised that life is actually really awesome, and no matter where you're from or what you do, there are so many small things in life that make it worth it.

We were made to love. So let us love each other hard!