202 1 One of the countries that can go in spring is South Africa and the United States. There is no quarantine when you arrive, all you need is a standard coronavirus pneumonia test. Therefore, we decided to take a risk and try to occupy Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in this country.
On a warm April night, I was a little shocked by the nearly 24-hour journey from Moscow. I finally climbed out of Cape Town Airport and tried to adjust myself psychologically to the particularity of driving a right-hand car. The mind can't think normally, and the thoughts are erratic; Fortunately, there is almost no traffic jam on the expressway, and it takes only half an hour to get to the hotel. But at the entrance of the city center, I saw something obviously abnormal around me: there were many firefighters and police cars on the roadside, and some flames could be seen in the distance. Everything is smoking, and it is difficult to breathe.
In the morning, I learned that a fire broke out in Table Mountain National Park the day before I arrived. Locals talk about arson. The park itself has been closed and hundreds of firefighters are trying to stop the fire from spreading to the city. The flame was also put out by helicopter, but unfortunately, it has not been very successful so far because of the strong wind. The library and campus of the local university, as well as several historical buildings, were burned down.
Climbing to the top of Signal Mountain overlooking the center of Cape Town, I saw a bleak picture: along the northern slope of Table Mountain, almost from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, the fire continued and the smoke rolled. It was blown into the city by the wind and then into the sea. The wind was so strong that the fire helicopter could not take off, so the ground crew could only seek to control the fire in the area near the park.
I went to see the local helicopter pilots and set up shooting equipment. Kevin, the pilot who flew with me, described the situation at that time and made a prediction: there was a fire in the park almost every year, but there was little chance to put it out in the case of strong wind. So it will burn until the wind stops. In any case, the risk of success in shooting city scenery is very high.
Not all the suburbs are shrouded in smoke, so I think I will try to take some shots with a ground camera. But I am also unlucky here: on the coastline, there is such a strong wind that I am blown down. It raises sand clouds and flies at crazy speed along the tidal line. It's a beautiful scene, but it's absolutely unreasonable to use a camera in this case: sand will damage the lens.
The true extent of the disaster becomes obvious at night. Many locals and tourists gathered on the slope of Signal Mountain opposite Table Mountain, from which the fire could be safely observed. The park burns along the whole slope: from the road to the cable car and the top. The wind burns like a stove. Sometimes, the flame torch of another burning tree soared hundreds of feet on the hillside. A beautiful and terrible sight. At that moment, I thought to myself: this fire can't be put out so quickly.
The situation did not change the next day. I am lucky that my hotel is located on the coast, in the "fire-proof" area of Signal Mountain. The smoke hardly reached there. The city center is still blocked by thick smog, so I decided to go to Bordes Beach to take photos of the local penguin habitat.
If you happen to have been to Cape Town and have never seen penguins in their natural habitat before, you must go to Bodes. It consists of two parts: "big" and "small" beaches. On the "big" beach, penguins can only be observed on wooden platforms; Do not leave them. But on the "small" beach, you can even swim next to these magical birds. Admittedly, many people are willing to do this: due to the limited number of tourists, there are sometimes long queues at the gate of the park.
I was lucky: when I went, the number of tourists was obviously less than that of penguins. Jumping over the rocks a little, I managed to find a secluded corner of the "small" beach, where there was no one at all. Penguins are not afraid of humans here, but they are not close enough. So I must be creative, put the camera on a tripod closer to these birds and capture several scenes without disturbing them. After a while, the park staff came up to me, looked at my equipment and shooting process, nodded and said that everything was fine: this was rare in the era when wild zoos were banned all over the world.
The next morning, the wind stopped in Cape Town, and in the evening, as Kevin predicted, the fire was put out. The fire was put out by helicopter sprinkling water. A day later, the smoke finally cleared and we could start aerial photography. However, it turns out that everything is not as simple as it seems at first. I made my first test flight over the city, and I was shocked when I checked the results. Almost all the lenses are worthless because of the camera shake during the flight. This is the first time I have encountered such a phenomenon: under normal circumstances, our camera can smooth the shaking and shaking of the helicopter without any problems.
After checking the photographed data, we found that the landing gear of the helicopter was vibrating violently. According to the safety rules of flying at sea, all local helicopters have a fast inflatable float system on their landing gear, so that they have the opportunity to stay on the water when they land on the water. As Kevin suggested, it is obvious that these floats make the gears vibrate at high speed. This does not affect flight safety in any way, but it is impossible to shoot in the usual way: our system must always lean on the landing gear of the helicopter during the flight, and the buoy cannot be removed.
After consideration, I asked the pilots to fly as low as possible when shooting (most pilots really don't like it), so I decided to take the camera system in my hand and not connect it to the landing gear. We made another test flight, and as a result, we successfully overcame this problem: the vibration in the frame disappeared. However, it is very difficult to keep the equipment elevated for a long time. I have to lean the system against the landing gear from time to time to rest my hands.
It can be assumed that an operator flying over the city with a camera sticking out of a helicopter in his hand is absolutely crazy! I can assure you that all components of our system are protected by steel cables, which were fixed in the cockpit before takeoff. Without such protection, no pilot in the world would agree to operate such a flight.
After all the adventures in the early days of filming in Cape Town, I finally got confidence, all the problems were over and I could finally start working. However, the autumn weather along the Atlantic coast of South Africa is very unstable, and my flight time has to be rescheduled.
While waiting for the right conditions, I photographed the city landscape from the ground. Before flying to South Africa, I read about the dangers of this country. In fact, either I was lucky or the story of street robbery in broad daylight was greatly exaggerated. I almost carried expensive equipment all over the city center. Only in Bo-Kaap area is it a little uncomfortable: the audience looked at my camera disapprovingly.
Some interesting moments happened near this colorful house. Shortly after I started working, I noticed that I was being targeted by a group of unfriendly locals. Before they showed more active interest in me, I was the first person who approached me and said that I was making a documentary. I also asked for permission to shoot them. The elder immediately refused on the grounds of his own affairs, and the group soon disappeared into an alley. Soon after, while shooting on a street with a magnificent view of the city center, another local came to me. Asked what I was doing, he smiled and said:
"Do you know that everything in front of you was once an ocean?"
Really? '
"The Dutch built a dam and dug this land out of the sea!"
It's hard to say whether it's true or not, but it turns out that the information is very interesting. It explains the location of the historic fortress on the hillside: if there is a bay, then guns can completely control it! But this news is the last thing I heard in an area that is considered unfavorable!
The next day I was finally lucky: the weather was fine and suitable for flying, although there was a little fog from the ocean to the coast. Kevin and I boarded the helicopter, crossed the city and came to the legendary Cape of Good Hope. We flew over a large beach on the west coast of Africa. These places are absolutely beautiful and almost empty. Kevin explained that even in the hottest season, the water in the Atlantic Ocean will not be heated by the cold Antarctic current, so it is impossible to swim comfortably. On the coast, you can only see surfers in diving suits and tourists riding horses.
The Cape of Good Hope is not the southernmost tip of the African continent, but the extreme point of southwest Africa. This misunderstanding is related to the installation of the Cape of Good Hope lighthouse near the Cape of Good Hope. In our video, you can see these two kinds of cloaks, both located nearby. Kevin and I flew over them several times and then returned to the city.
After the flight, I bid farewell to the pilot, jumped into the car and drove to the Cape by land. My greatest wish is to take a walk along this "end of the world" and take more photos. Cape and Cape of Good Hope are national parks, which can be reached by car. It's hard to get along here without a car: it takes about half an hour from the entrance to the parking lot near the observation deck.
There is a path from the parking lot to the cliff with a panoramic view of the Cape of Good Hope, which is quite extreme for ordinary tourists. I would never take my children there! To tell the truth, visually, the Cape of Good Hope didn't leave a deep impression on me. Especially after I managed to track the Cape route. Obviously, lighthouses, especially when there are two lighthouses, are more noticeable. In addition, the Cape Mountains are higher and steeper. There is even a cable car from the parking lot to the upper observation deck. The scenery here is absolutely breathtaking! It's a pity that the closing time of the park didn't let me wait until sunset. At half past five in the evening, I went back.
However, I didn't try to leave this place at once. At the first intersection, I had to stop because several cars blocked the road. These tourists' vehicles were in turn intercepted by local wildlife. A group of baboons were sitting on the asphalt road and clearly offered to "pay". Although the words "Don't feed baboons" are hung everywhere in the park, tourists will still give baboons some fruits and biscuits from the window to give them a chance to take some photos and then continue their journey.
In this way, my work in Cape Town has been completed, and I am on my way home, but things didn't go well during the epidemic. The day before I flew to Moscow, I received a message that I couldn't pass through Amsterdam because of the change of transit rules. I have to urgently find other options, which, by the way, are very few. Fortunately for me, I managed to buy a plane ticket and fly home through the complicated route between Ethiopia and Athens. But after all the adventures in Cape Town, all this is no longer surprising, just like the snowdrift when I arrived in Moscow at the end of April, and it will never confuse me again!