!!!Cape Town, South Africa


Photos and text by Stas Sedov.
member of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

29 October 2021

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

Destination — Cape Town

One of the countries available to be visited in the spring of 2021 was
the Republic of South Africa. There was no quarantine at the arrival,
the only thing you needed was a standard Covid-test. Thus we decided to
take a risk and try to capture one of the most beautiful cities in the
country, Cape Town.

And on a warm April night, being slightly stunned by an almost 24-hour
journey from Moscow, I finally crawled out of the Cape Town airport and
tried to mentally adjust myself to the peculiarities of driving a
right-hand drive car. The head couldn't think straight and my mind
wandered; it's good that there was practically no traffic on the
highway, and it took me only half an hour to get to the hotel. But at
the entrance to the city centre, I saw that something apparently
abnormal was happening around: there were many firefighters and police
cars on the side of the road, some fires were visible in the distance,
everything was in smoke and it was difficult to breathe.

[{Image src='01_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='427'}]

In the morning I learned that a fire broke out in the Table Mountain
National Park just the day before my arrival. Locals talked about arson.
The park itself got closed, several hundred firefighters were trying to
halt the advance of the fire towards the city. The flames were also
extinguished from helicopters, but unfortunately, due to strong winds,
so far without much success. The library and campus of the local
university, as well as several historical buildings, had already burned
down.

Having climbed to the top of Signal Hill that overlooked the centre of
Cape Town, I saw a bleak picture: along the northern slope of Table
Mountain, almost from the foot to its top, there was a continuous fire
front, the smoke from which was blown into the city by the wind and then
into the ocean. On that day, the wind was so strong that the fire
helicopters could not take off, and the ground crews could only seek to
contain the fire in the areas adjacent to the park.

[{Image src='02_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='506'}]

I went to meet local helicopter pilots and set up equipment for filming.
Kevin, the pilot with whom I was to fly, described the situation and
forecast: fires occur in the park almost annually, but with strong
winds, there is practically no chance to extinguish them. So it would
burn until the wind dies down. Anyway, the success of taking pictures of
the cityscapes was at very high risk.

Not all the suburbs were covered with smoke, so I thought I'd try to
film a few footages with a ground camera. But here I was unlucky, too:
on the coastline, such a strong wind was blowing that it knocked me off
my feet. It raised clouds of sand that flew at an insane speed along the
tide line. A beautiful sight, but it was absolutely unreasonable to use
the camera in such conditions: the sand would have damaged the lenses.

The genuine extent of the disaster became apparent in the evening
twilight. A lot of locals and tourists gathered on the slope of Signal
Hill, located just opposite Table Mountain — from here it was possible
to safely observe the fire. The park burned along the entire slope: from
the road to the funicular and the very top. The wind fanned the fire
like in the hearth of a furnace. At times, torches of flame from another
flared tree soared a few hundred feet above the slope. A beautiful and
scary sight. I thought at that moment: it must be impossible to put out
this kind of fire quickly.

[{Image src='03_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='464'}]

The situation did not change the next day. I was very fortunate that my
hotel was located on the coast, in an area ‘sheltered' from fire by
Signal Hill. The smoke practically did not reach there. The city centre
was still blocked by dense smog, and I decided to go to Boulders Beach
to take pictures of the local penguin colony.

If you happen to visit Cape Town and have never seen penguins in their
natural habitat before, then you should definitely go to Boulders. It
consists of two parts: ‘large' and 'small' beaches. On the ‘large'
beach, penguins can only be observed from wooden platforms; it is
forbidden to leave them. But on the ‘small' beach, you can even swim
next to these amazing birds. Admittedly, there are a lot of people
willing to do that: sometimes long queues occur at the entrance to the
park since the number of visitors is limited.

I was lucky: when I went there, the number of tourists was significantly
fewer than penguins. A little jumping over the rocks and I managed to
find a secluded corner of the ‘small' beach with no people at all. The
penguins are not afraid of humans here, but not enough to be approached
very close. So, I had to be inventive to put the camera on a tripod
closer to these birds and, without disturbing them, capture several
scenes. In a little while, the park staff came up to me, looked at my
equipment and the shooting process, nodded and said that everything was
ok: this is a rare case in the era of global bans on any activity in
wildlife parks.

[{Image src='04_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='506'}]

The wind in Cape Town died down by the morning of the following day, and
by evening, as Kevin had predicted, the fire was defeated. The blaze was
extinguished by dropping water from helicopters. A day later, the smoke
finally cleared and we could start aerial filming. However, everything
turned out to be not as simple as it seemed initially. Having made the
first test flight over the city and when I checked the results I was
shocked. Almost all the footage was worthless because of the shaking of
the cameras during the flight. This is the first time I've encountered
such a phenomenon: usually, our camera gimbal smooths the shaking and
jerking of the helicopter without any problems.

Having checked the filmed material, we found out that the landing gear
of the helicopter was strongly vibrating. According to the safety rules
for flying over the ocean, all local helicopters have a system of
quick-inflated floats attached to the landing gear so that during an
emergency landing on the water there is a chance to stay on the surface.
As Kevin suggested, apparently these floats made the gear vibrate at
speed. This did not affect flight safety in any way, but it was not
possible to shoot in the usual way: our system must always lean against
the landing gear of a helicopter during the flight, and it was
impossible to dismantle the floats.

After consideration, I asked the pilot to fly at the lowest possible
speed during filming (most pilots really do not like to do this), and I
decided to keep the camera system with a pole in my hands, without
attaching it to the landing gear. We made another test flight, and it
turned out that we managed to overcome the problem: the vibration in the
frame disappeared. However, it was difficult to keep the equipment
elevated for a long time, and I had to put the system against the
landing gear from time to time to give the hands a little respite.

One can suppose that flying over a city with a camera sticking out of a
helicopter in the hands of an operator is an absolutely crazy thing! I
can assure you that all the elements of our system are belayed with a
steel cable which is fastened in the cockpit before departure. Without
such protection, no pilot in the world would agree to operate such
flights.

After all my adventures in the early days of filming in Cape Town, I
finally got the confidence that all the problems were behind me and I
could finally start working. However, the autumn weather on the Atlantic
coast of South Africa is very unstable, and the time of my flight had to
be constantly rescheduled.

[{Image src='05_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='506'}]

While I was waiting for the right conditions, I captured cityscapes from
the ground. Before flying to South Africa, I read about the dangers of
this country. In reality, either I was lucky or the stories of robberies
in the streets in broad daylight were greatly exaggerated. I walked
through almost the entire city centre with expensive equipment on my
shoulder. It was a little uncomfortable only in the Bo-Kaap area: the
audience looked disapprovingly at my camera.

A couple of funny moments occurred in this neighbourhood of colourful
houses. Soon after I started to work, I noticed that I was being watched
by a group of local guys of unfriendly appearance. Without waiting for
them to show a more active interest in me, I was the first to approach
and, saying that I was working on a documentary, I asked for permission
to film them as well. The elder immediately refused, citing his own
matters, and the group quickly disappeared into some alley. A little
later, while filming on one of the streets with a magnificent view of
the city centre, another local came up to me. Asking what I was doing,
he smiled and said:

‘Do you know that everything you see in front of you used to be the
ocean?'

‘Indeed?'

‘The Dutch built dams and carved this land out from the sea!'

It's hard to say whether it's true or false, but the information turned
out to be interesting. It explains the location of the historic cannon
batteries on the hillside: if there used to be a bay, the guns could
have it under total control! But this information is the last thing I
expected to hear in an area that is considered unfavourable!

[{Image src='06_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='452'}]

The next day I was finally lucky: the weather was good for flying, even
though a little fog came from the ocean to the coast. Kevin and I
boarded a helicopter and, having passed the city, headed towards the
legendary Cape of Good Hope. We flew along the west coast of Africa,
over huge sandy beaches. The places are absolutely beautiful and almost
deserted. Kevin explained that the water in the Atlantic, even in the
hottest season, does not warm up enough for comfortable swimming due to
the cold Antarctic current. On the coast, you can only see surfers in
wetsuits and horse riding tourists.

The Cape of Good Hope is not the southernmost point of the continent, it
is the most extreme point in the southwest of Africa. This misconception
is related to the fact that the Cape of Good Hope lighthouse is being
installed at nearby Cape Point. In our video you can see both of these
capes, they are located nearby. Kevin and I flew a few laps over them
before turning back to the city.

After the flight, I said goodbye to the pilot, jumped into the car and
rushed to the capes by land. I had the strongest desire to walk along
this ‘end of the world' and take a few more shots. The area around Cape
Point and the Cape of Good Hope is a national park accessible by car.
It's hard to get along without a vehicle here: it takes almost half an
hour to get from the entrance to the parking lots located near the
viewpoints.

[{Image src='07_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='476'}]

There is a trail leading from the parking lot to the cliff, which offers
a panoramic view of the Cape of Good Hope and it turned out to be quite
extreme for an ordinary tourist. I would definitely not go there with
the children! To be honest, visually I was not impressed by the Cape of
Good Hope. Especially after I managed to follow the trails of Cape
Point. Apparently, lighthouses, especially when there are two of them,
are much more attractive to the eye. In addition, the Cape Point
mountain range is higher and steeper. There is even a funicular running
from the parking lot to the upper observation deck. The view from here
is absolutely breathtaking! It is a pity that the closing time of the
park did not allow me to wait for the sun to set. At half-past five in
the evening, I headed back.

However, I did not manage to leave this place right away. At the very
first crossroad, I had to stop because of several cars blocking the
road. These vehicles of the tourists, in turn, were stopped by
indigenous wildlife. A family of baboons was sitting on the asphalt and
quite explicitly offered to ‘pay the fare'. And although the posters
hanging everywhere in the park had the inscription not to feed the
baboons, tourists still gave them some fruits and cookies from the
windows for the opportunity to take a few photos and then continue their
journey.

[{Image src='08_Cape Town.jpg' caption='Cape Town, South Africa\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='395'}]

That was it, my work in Cape Town was completed and I was about to get
ready for the way home, but during a pandemic, things don't go smoothly.
The day before my flight to Moscow, I received a message that due to the
changed transit rules, I could not make my way through Amsterdam. I had
to urgently look for other options, which, by the way, were very few.
Luckily for me, I managed to buy tickets and fly home through a
complicated route via Ethiopia and Athens. But after all the adventures
experienced in Cape Town, all this was no longer surprising, just as the
snowbanks at the end of April upon arrival in Moscow could not confuse
me anymore!

\\ \\
[15 panoramas of Cape Town|Geography/Africa/South_Africa/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Cape_Town]

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