The Treasury from the “Sig” or “shaft”.

The Treasury and a camel.

The Treasury and me, getting a blast of wind and sand in my face.

The Treasury and me, doing my best to ignore the sand blasting in my face.

The Sig again.

The facades.

Horse riding past the Obelisk tomb.

The Sig.

Me looking up at the very narrow gorge.

A camel on its way to the Treasury.

Inside a tomb.

Patterns in the rock ceiling of a tomb.

On the right, our tour guide.

Donkey!

Detail of the Sig.

Water-eroded rock.

The Sig again.

Steve making a friend during a rest stop on the bus trip.

Air Force One

Spotted at the brand new Queen Alia International Airport. When I visited Petra yesterday I spotted secret service vehicles ahead of Obama’s visited today.

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Who’s this little guy? Zongo. He’s a hard smoking wooden robot, made by Just Colcord.

Just invited me around to check out his apartment, and I must admit it was the most interesting place I visited during my stay in Kansas City.

Just has been making toys, and experimenting with stop motion movies featuring those toys, for only one year. He’s always been an obsessive collector of interesting trinkets and small bits of junk, and making them into toys is one way of channeling his energies.

I took all these photos over the course of about 10 minutes. I wish I had better lighting, and had more time, because these few snaps don’t do justice to Just’s massive collections and artistic creations. This is Nozog.

Meet Onzog. Or was this Oznog?

Maybe this is Nozog, not Zongo.

Not only has Just been making toys, but also many, many sets for his stop motion movies.

Boxes and boxes of… things.

Just began displaying his art and toys in local markets, but doesn’t sell any of them. Instead he takes donations to support his creative endeavors, and makes donors small gifts in return.

This one is called “Attack of the wheel nuts.”

A close-up of a box scene.

His apartment contains many cabinets of curiosities. And what are some of those curiosities?

A miniature cabinet of curiosities inside a curiosity cabinet.

All the mini bottles contain used yoyo strings, coiled inside in a very precise manner. Many bottles have notes, reminding Just of the day and reason he put the string in the bottle. Literally, bottling memories.

More toys made from found objects.

Buttons, bullet casings, shotgun rounds…

R2-D2 vs Dalek.

Sunglasses fairy.

Priceless, of course, because none of Just’s artwork is for sale.

All the work takes place in the kitchen.

Opening a kitchen cabinet, I found yet more scenes with toys.

These are the currency of the future.

Thanks for showing me around, Just!

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I love to read comments and feedback about my blog posts. Please email me, I reply to every message: luke@juggler.net

Some other photos.

In the tunnel.

Self portrait with iPhone.

Long exposure juggling.

I love to read comments and feedback about my blog posts. Please email me, I reply to every message: luke@juggler.net

I love to read comments and feedback about my blog posts. Please email me, I reply to every message: luke@juggler.net

One campsite in Zambia was next to a wildlife park. In the evening Juliane and I set out to find some animals, and we spotted some gazelles and giraffe and zebras. The next morning I got up before sunrise to hunt animals by myself. I tracked four zebras to a large field, and took photos as they walked around in the morning sunlight.

If you look at most published wildlife photos, you’ll see they are taken either as the sun rises or sets. The low, warm light makes for the most beautiful and defined images.

The entire field was strewn with tires for reasons I can’t even guess, but I tried to minimize them in the photos. I also found it tricky to exclude fences and buildings from the frame, but it’s worth it to make the photos look more “wild”.

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We spotted quite a number of crocodiles in the wild, but it’s hard to take interesting photos of eyes and noses poking out of the water at a long distance. Then I found out about a crocodile farm and animal sanctuary near Victoria Falls, and I thought it would be a good chance to get up close and personal.

The farm has two sections; a public zoo-style area and a commercial breeding area. The zoo area had raised walkways so you can look down at the crocs in their pens.

Each pen held about 150 crocodiles. They had about 40,000 crocodiles in total. That’s enough for a lot of food, and a lot of handbags!

During the tour, our guide dangled chunks of meat above the crocodile breeding pen, and the male crocodile was happy to pose for the camera.

The red water isn’t blood. It’s a chemical added to the water for crocodile skin health reasons.

These guys look funny.

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Once there was a volcano the size of Kilimanjaro, but it collapsed in on itself. Now it’s known as the Ngorongoro Crater. It is a self contained biosphere. Water comes from springs around the sides and flows into a saltwater lake in the center. Due to the constant supply of water, animals stay there all year round. Birds use it as a migration stopover point.

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I spotted a number of ostriches in the Serengeti, but the capital of ostriches is the Ngorongoro crater.

I took loads of photos of loads of ostriches, but they all look the same.

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In the Serengeti, and at other national parks, we saw loads of young zebras. I guess it’s that time of year.

Is a young zebra called a colt? No idea. I just know they are super cute.

Zebra stripes are brown and white when young, and black and white when mature.

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