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| Flying
down Augrabies gorge The
most exciting and dangerous flying we did was when we
filmed the sequence on Augrabies Falls on the Orange
River in South Africa. The gorge, a granite gash in the
landscape hundreds of feet deep, is the site of one of
the world's most spectacular waterfalls. The Orange River,
rising over 10,000 feet high in the distant Drakensburg
Mountains, varies greatly in volume. During the dry season
the flow over the falls is less than 100cm/sec. But
during the rains, the amount of water increases
dramatically. We planned to film sea birds on a number of
small islands off the coast of Namibia, which entailed a
five hour trip on a rock lobster fishing boat through
unpredictable, rough seas. Getting onto the boat from the
pier at Luderitz was easy, but the only way off the boat
and onto the island was by row boat! |
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Each camera
case had to be carefully lowered 10 feet down to Pete in
the rowing boat whilst he also tried desperately to
steady his dinghy and stop it from colliding with our
huge boat alongside. Once five or six cases had been
loaded aboard, Pete set off for the island.  Now came the really tricky part. I could hardly bear to watch as Pete deftly maneuvered the dinghy in the swell, trying to keep it beneath a pier so that his wife could hoist the cases ashore in a net. Pete ferried all the equipment ashore, a task which took five or six journeys to our fishing boat. Despite the heavy seas and high swell, no equipment was lost overboard -- all thanks to the skill of Pete. I found out afterwards that he’d only learned to row a year earlier, but his long stint on the island had obviously honed his skill to perfection. |
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Broadcast
Info | Purchase
Video | Earth, Wind, and
Fire |
Recalling
Namib |
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