Juno Andromeda Skydog

Juno Andromeda Skydog - Maiden Flight

Jay and Juno

“In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.”
― W.H. Auden

We picked up this little waif one month ago; starving, covered in mange and ringworm and abandoned in a small town on the border of Kwazulu Natal on a cold winters morning - this little doggie had a tough start to life.

One month later she is 4.4kg's and has a zest for life that has everyone smiling!
Her name;  Juno Andromeda Skydog, our companion, friend and a fearless aviator.

Here she is on her maiden voyage -  a 20 minute flight from Baragwanath airfield to Pitlamatla on the Vaal Dam. After some initial excitement with take-off she settled down and had a good snooze on the back seat.

She spent the rest of the day chasing mongoose, being perplexed with her first Ostrich sighting, paddling in the dam and licking out the potjie pot. What a life!

 

On Trees

Sitting in Satsang with a giant Mashatu Tree in Botswana

Trees for me have always been that little bit magic. When I sit under their temple limbs, on pews made of twisted bark, my thoughts break free of constraints and are lifted skywards by rustling leaves and dancing light. I cannot help but feel infinity, silence and a deep coursing joy when sitting in satsang with such an ancient soul. 

These rambling thoughts of mine are mirrored very poetically by this piece I found recently by Herman Hesse in his book  Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte........ I hope you enjoy it as much as I did

  “For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. 

 Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.” 

BBC Wildlife magazine - Skyhawk in Namibia Photo Gallery

We are thrilled to be sharing some of Skyhawk's best Namibian aerial imagery through an on-line gallery featured on the BBC Discover Wildlife website.

Namibia is one of the most astounding wildernesses we have ever experienced and we hope that the reverence we feel for this magical place is conveyed through this set of images.


http://www.discoverwildlife.com/gallery/skyhawk-namibia-photo-gallery-jay-and-jan-roode

Gaurdian of the Dawn

Gaurdian of the Dawn

Flying in the desert at dawn has a special stillness. It feels to me like the doors to the most ancient and sacred cathedral have just been opened. As first light washes the landscape all that are touched; animal, man, rock and grass stem stand in reverence and awe of the enormity of life.

It is that time when the desert world is illuminated with that indescribable quality; that transient brilliance that makes your heart trip over itself with its depth and vivid beauty.

This is an ode to the little photographed and seldom admired Red Hartebeest, on this morning no mere beast but instead a Gaurdian of the Dawn

website:www.skyhawkphotography.com
facebook: Skyhawk Photography https://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyhawk-Photography/184707771558691

Wishing you blue skies and open roads

Jan and Jay Roode

Capture Namibia: Photography Tips

The Namibian Tourism Board just interviewed us for their blog which features top photographers photographic and travel tips on how best to capture and experience Namibia. Here is what we had to say about one of our most favorite places on earth ....... 

 http://stories.namibiatourism.com.na/blog/bid/299882/Capture-Namibia-Photography-Tips-from-Jan-Jay-Roode

Wishing you blue skies and open roads

Jay and Jan Roode

Nxai Pan National Park, Botswana

Our latest double-page feature in the Getaway Magazine, July edition

Nxai Pan, Khama Khama Pan and Kudikam Pan are all ancient salt lakes that make up the great Makgadikgadi complex. The pans are now semi-grassed, and scattered with islands of acacia trees and smaller pans that fill with water during the rainy season.The park is a seasonal home to large herds of plains game and the predators that depend on them.

A highlight is the famous Baine's Baobabs, seven huge, gnarled baobab trees named after the 19th century explorer Thomas Baines.

Flying over the pans is like entering a parallel universe of 360-degree horizons and endless space. The best time to visit is December through to April, or whenever wanderlust makes an appearance.


Wishing you blue skies and open roads

Jay and Jan Roode

Mystery solved

Nama Starburst - Namibia's own alien landing pad ......

A few years ago on our first photographic expedition through Namibia, we came across this unique starburst pattern south of Henties Bay etched into the desert floor. It is one of our more fascinating prints and has been printed in countless publications.

When asked what it is, we have never been able to truthfully answer and have always hazarded guesses such as an alien landing pad, a type of sundial, a giant artwork created by a highly motivated and obviously eccentric German artist or perhaps the lines have something to do with the saltworks that are so prevalent along the Skeleton coast. We were never quite sure.

Last week after posting the image on our facebook page we were contacted by Bertie and Willie Kotze who had seen the image and decided to research it further.


It turns out that these are the remains of a discontinued Decca navigation system or radar station. The grid pattern is a system of underground cables which were part of the operational system. The cables have been laid at 6 degrees apart except for one skew one that had to go around a rock.

The Decca navigation system was used for many years on the South African and Namibian coastlines primarily for ship navigation and abandoned at Namibian independence.

It seems that we are the first people to have spotted this unique place from above in over 40 years.

Although grateful to have found out exactly what the origins are of Nama Starburst, we are however a little sad to have to finally give up our more whimsical fantasies of what created it!

Thanks to Bertie and Willie Kotze for solving the mystery