| Luxury steam safaris in Southern Africa
Rovos Rail has organised two Steam Tours in gracious luxury through southern Africa. The 4 and 6-day Steam Safaris are unique long-distance tours of special interest to anyone who loves the subcontinent, steam trains and luxury rail travel. Both tours are steam-hauled for the entire journey, with two run pasts each day.
The 4-day Steam Safari leaves Rovos Rail's Station at Capital Park in Pretoria for a 1,200kms-long journey. The train is hauled by historic Class 25NC locomotives through the gold-rich Highveld to the Freestate, stopping in Bloemfontein with its array of cultural & historical attractions. The Steam Safari then continues south into the Eastern Cape, calling at the Addo Elephant Park, home to over 450 elephants, as well as cape buffalo & antelopes. The journey ends in Port Elizabeth.
Vista nibbles some Apple in OS wars
Windows Vista more than doubled its market share in March from the prior month, while the share of computers running Mac OS X fell for the first time in nine months, according to statistics released last week by market research firm Net Applications.
By the end of March, Vista was used by 2.04 percent of computers connected to the internet, according to the US company. That's up from 0.93 percent of PCs in February.
Now ranked the fifth-most popular operating system by Net Applications, Vista jumped ahead of Windows 98, which had a 1.36 percent share. Vista still trailed Windows 2000, which had 4.71 percent share in March.
The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell, though, from 4.29 percent in February to 3.94 percent in March. That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3 percent, to 6.08 percent in March.
'Through a Lens' focuses on creativity
For the fourth time, the walls of the Coastal Arts League Museum are festooned with images from the world's photographers all united by one theme.It is CAL's annual "Through a Lens" show of photography. This year, its theme is "Through a Lens - Life in Motion" and, explained show co-coordinator Shirley Kellicutt, that can be defined in terms of photographic studies of something living in motion, literally or figuratively.This annual show, started in 2004, celebrates photographers as artists, rather than focusing on categories of topic or style.The show "is driven by the realization that all photographers capture a moment through their lens and make artistic choices in expressing that moment to us," Kellicutt said in a statement.The show drew some 500 entries, of which 50 make up the show. It will be exhibited through April 9.
Do not spread your wings…
Last week I considered going to Durban, since classes havent started yet and I thought it would be interesting to see something more of South-Africa than just Pretoria. Apart from that, getting acquaintance with new places contributes to your life-experiences, which is of great value, isnt it? So, together with a brand-new friend I took the night-bus, and after some hours we could enjoy the daybreak in this vibrant city. After visiting mosques and churches, the old City Hall and the former office of Gandhi, we found it was time to explore the famous Victoria Street Market, where Durbans cultural melting-pot most clearly appears. Amongst sari-dressed Indian women, colorful fruits, spices and plastic, devout little Muslim boys on their way to the Quran school and banging speakers spoiling African music there were ramshackle wooden stairs leading to another dimension: we entered the workplace of traditional healers, or witchdoctors, who are still the main healthcare providers for black people in South-Africa.
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