Saguaro National Park West

It's monsoon season here in Arizona, when we hope to get most of our rain, this year to date about 6.5 inches. The cumulus clouds build up over the Santa Catalina Mountains in the afternoon, and since I like to include cloud formations in my videos, I had a couple of hours with my digital still camera in Saguaro National Park West, which is perhaps half an hour from the house. We're in the Sonora desert, which is the only place in the world that these cacti grow. So any western type cowboy movies with this cacti in them were shot in this part of the world.

Canada & The Columbia River

In late June I set off for Seattle to pick up Graham, who was flying in from the UK for a couple of weeks of train chasing. I took my time getting up there, and stopped for a shot of a train near Dunsmuir, California. and since Mount Shasta was still covered in snow, I took an hour to wander around looking for a photo site. After all this, and 1650 miles on the road, I arrived at the airport about an hour before his flight was due in, and wonder of wonders, it was early!

From Seattle we headed up Interstate 5, which was quite busy, to Hope, British Columbia and a hotel for a couple of nights. Canadian immigration was interested in our journey in search of trains, and asked if we'd seen the Thompson & Fraser canyons, which was where we were headed! After checking in to the hotel, we set off to look for a train or two. We found one crawling slowly in to a siding, and the engineer came over and asked if I'd mind going to get his conductor, they had been knocked down by a detector, and the train was better than 9500 feet long. So off I went, but the conductor was nowhere to be found. I went back to the head end, and told the engineer that the people at the crossing had said the conductor was on the other side of the train. Since the train was blocking the crossing, he dragged it forward to clear, and I went back for the conductor. Who was grateful for the offer, but needed to find the problem, and would quite likely be a long time. So I picked up Graham, and we went off to find something to eat, since it was getting quite late.

Chris and I had been on the Thompson and Fraser Rivers in 1997, I recognized a few places, but mostly we shot in places that were new to me. After the first couple of days the weather cleared, and we had some excellent days, with only one cloudy afternoon. There were osprey all over the place, and lots of bald eagles too.

After a week in Canada, we'd about covered the Thompson & Fraser. Traffic on CN was quite sparse, but I shot enough for a nice program, so we set off for the Columbia River. we ended up in Cascade Locks for a couple of nights. Since it was prime tourist season in both BC & Oregon, I was blown away by the price of hotel rooms. We had superb weather on the Columbia River, but train traffic was a bit weird. BNSF had a MofW window for a couple of days, and UP was quite sparse, good in the early morning and evening, but long waits in the afternoon. And of course the traffic on the opposite side of the river to us was usually quite heavy! we had 50 mph winds one day, which made shooting quite difficult, the tripod and camera wanting to get airborn! On the Monday afternoon, the day before Graham had to leave for home, my Trailblazer's power steering went, so the following morning I had to take it in to the dealer, which was fortunately next door to our hotel in The Dalles. The nearest power steering pump was in Portland, and there were no rental cars to be had, so poor Graham had to take a very expensive taxi to Portland airport. Which was only the start of his problems getting home, the flight from Chicago was late, then had to turn back and land in Chicago (with a full fuel load) after having electrical problems. He finally got away more than five hours late. I spent that day and the next morning sitting in the hotel room, then dragged all my luggage over to the dealers and sat there. They tried quite hard to sell me a Subaru Forester! I finally got the car back at 4 pm and set off for home. I made it to the Oregon/Idaho border, where I spent the night in a somewhat, how shall I put it, less than average motel. Next day I made it to Flagstaff, which was a VERY long day, then got in to home late the next morning. All in all, it was an excellent trip, covering about 5500 miles.

A northern Arizona sunset, only 400 miles from home!

South Africa for Steam

I went to South Africa in May to join a Geoff Cooke's steam tour. The last time I went it was a 19 hour ride to Johannesburg from Atlanta, and I had to spend the night in Atlanta, so this time I chose to go via Amsterdam with KLM, figuring a 9 hour ride and an 11 hour ride with a couple of hours break would be better than being stuffed in steerage for 19 hours. Since I don't have any miles with KLM, I got to sit in the back in steerage, which wasn't a great deal of fun, there not being much leg room. I must say though, I got to see more movies than I ever dreamed of! I set off from Tucson with a 7:20 am flight to Atlanta and got in to bed at about 11:00 pm the following night in Jo'berg, it's quite a long way.

Delta A-330 Atlanta to Amsterdam

KLM B-777 somewhere over the Sahara

Since I'd taken the wrong power adaptor, I spent part of our first morning at the airport with Geoff, who was waiting for morning arrivals for the tour, looking for an adaptor. The airport was having power cuts, so it got to be quite entertaining! Eventually we all set off for a transport museum, which I didn't much care for, so I had an entertaining hour in the park next door looking at birds. After that we went off and looked at South Africa's national collection, which is dumped in fields and looking pretty bad, rotting with lots of parts missing. I saw my first big Garratt looking very sad, the entire collection is just rotting away.

The next morning we set off before dawn for Friends of the Rail. We were supposed to have a charter train with a 15F, but South African railways were, and for all I know, still are, on strike, so we couldn't run the train. FOR put on a fantastic day for us, with the 15F, and a 19D in steam. I even got a cab ride on the 15F, so it can't be bad. My bid deal of the trip was to see a 25NC, but the 15F is probably even prettier, a big 4-8-2.

The next day we set off quite early for Reefsteamers in Pretoria, where we were supposed to have a charter train with a 25NC. Reefsteamers put on an excellent show for us, with a 25NC, a 15F and a 24 in steam. My tripod bit the dust, again, and Steve from Reefsteamers took me out and found a camera shop that could repair the tripod in short order. We had some more runby's in the afternoon, then a barbeque and some night shooting.

We were supposed to spend the next morning with Reefsteamers, but instead set off for Sandstone Estates, who have a magnificent narrow gauge collection, and spent the afternoon with a German tank engine. Next day was a pair of NGG16 Garratts, just magnificent, in splendid weather, from pre dawn to post sunset. South Africa was in late fall, so mornings were frosty, which made for some great steam shots. Next day was a pair of 4-4-0 Lawley's, and the next day a NG15. The last morning we had an NG4, then set off for Creighton.

At Creighton we stayed on Sisonke Stimela's luxury train, and very nice it was, too. Our first day we went off to the Patons Country Railway, where we had a day with an NGG11 Garratt. This was one of the few less than perfect weather days we had in South Africa. At Carisbrook the group went off to look at a sugar cane engine, and I stayed behind to catch the 11 switching it's cars. Which was a fortunate thing, the previous night's curry caught up with me.....One of the group, Keith, rode the cab to the first runby location, then I got on, and what a ride it was. A light rain had fallen, so the track was slippery and the little engine kept loosing it's feet, so when the rear engine, just under the cab, slipped, it felt like the engine was going to fall apart. We couldn't make the summit, and the engine ran out of water, so the crew had to dump the fire, and our bus had to come and get us. That was quite a ride!

Next day we took a 19D and some of our coaches out for runby's, and in the afternoon we took a big GMAM Garratt out. The following morning we were out before dawn, as usual, to catch the big GMAM being prepared for the days runby's. The countryside is dotted with Zulu homes, the traditional round huts, and these made splendid backgrounds for the big Garratt. I've always wanted to see one, and just to make it extra special I got to ride  the cab from Donnybrook all the way back to Creighton. Sadly, my tripod had fallen apart again, so I wasn't able to take any photo's as I was concentrating on keeping everything together. That night, another member of the group and I fixed my tripod, for the third time this trip, with a screwdriver, allen key, some tape and a big pair of pliers, very useful as a hammer!

From Creighton it was a full day bus ride to Port Elizabeth, from where we were to join the Apple Valley. After our usual crack of doom start, we had one of Sandstone's Lawley's and an NG15. The little Lawley, restricted to 26kph had the ride of it's life! It had been trucked down to PE, we were going to have an NGG16, but it wasn't finished in time, so Apple Valley borrowed the Lawley. After dropping the Lawley off (limited water) we had a very nice couple of days with the NG15. Then it was time to come home. We were up at 6:00 am for the bus ride to Port Elizabeth, and plane ride to Jo'berg, 9 hours at the airport, an 11 flight to Amsterdam, 3 hours in Amsterdam then a 9 hour ride to Atlanta, where I cleared immigration and customs. 2 1/2 hours in Atlanta, followed by a 3 1/2 hour ride home. All in all, I was 49 hours from bed to bed. The last flight from Atlanta got to be quite tedious!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, apart from tripod and camera problems, and I got some terrific footage. I saw some truly impressive engines, and managed 5 cab rides. I'd wanted to go on Geoff's South African narrow gauge tour last year, but had a previous commitment, so I jumped at the opportunity to go this year. South African Railways being on strike didn't help, but both Friends of the Rail and Reefsteamers did their very best for us and put on splendid shows. Sandstone was everything I had hoped for, just awesome, and as for the GMAM, words fail me. Fantastic!

Almost home!