The Jewel of the Free State

I have so many problems, but two of them is my love for photography and especially for B&W photography. I wish it was still feasible to print B&W film in South Africa. But it is not. Don't get me wrong I love digital versatility, just think that the dark room was a place where special things happened.
Anyway, my father (RIP) was a history buff and he spent his Golden years in a little town called Clarens. A mountainous region that is steeped in South African history that spanned all the races and cultures.
One of the stories that he loved to tell was of a famous Afrikaaner called Paul Kruger. Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was his full name. Eeish! He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. (Now I must admit that everytime my father told this story, it changed very little, but historically I can't vouch for it.)
Kruger was in Switzerland one year in a little mountainous town called Clarens and he fell in love with it, saying it reminded him of a little sandstone valley high behind the mighty Drakensburg mountains.
He returned home and moved his daughter to this little sandstone valley after building her a big log lodge. It was the first building there and referred to it as Clarens. Well the name obviously stuck.

Anybody who is familiar with Paul Kruger history might know that the still sought after Kruger Rands 'coins' - solid gold coins with Paul Kruger's portraight imprinted on them. Well the legend goes that a still-missing treasure hoard of Boer gold was hidden in the Clarens area somewhere.

Well I can tell you that many (including me) have hiked those spectacular foothills - and there may have been some incredible things found, from semi precious gem stone deposits to cave paintings and even dinosaur fossils, but no gold treasure.

It is probably cliché to say that I am richer for having lived, travelled, shot this magnificent piece of the world.

I lived at the bottom of this valley right across the road from the golf course, and my job was to photograph the golf course. Damm. Tough job. Someones gotta do it.

With the golf course built on both sides of the river, it really was a very beautiful experience wandering around all the dams and water-ways. 1600 meters above sea-level, it snowed very rarely but at the waters edge, the ice was gorgeous and dam near impossible to shoot with frozen hands.

Think I already mentioned that I have some problems - well another one is that I love panoramas. Turn the camera portraight and shoot from one side to the other. Pray you have enough of each slice so that when you tile it together it works.

Man this is fun, thanks for the opportunity to share some happy memories.
I'm not sure on the amount of images to show per post, please feel free to advise.