What lies beneath ...

By Tamar Blieden, editorial team

Ocean-dwelling species as diverse as great white sharks, rays, eels and the Disney-like devil firefish have become 'regulars' on Earth-Touch, introducing us if familiar characters in a children's fantasy to an underwater world of wonder.

But this week, Earth-Touch has screened underwater scenes of an all-together different kind - from under the surface of the Okavango Delta.

So far the images and clips we've received from the delta are of a mostly terrestrial kind - lions feeding on a buffalo carcass, cheetah yawning in the setting sun, zebra grazing at the break of dawn ...

Now Earth-Touch's Okavango team, led by Brad Bestelink, is literally taking the plunge into the cold, clear waters about which is relatively little known.

In his first underwater piece Underwater in the cold Okavango, Brad introduces us to this green underworld brimming with its own stories and life. The wreck of a makoro (a traditional dugout canoe), the discovery of an old mug and the recent tracks of a crocodile are traces of untold tales brought to life in the eerie, greenish atmosphere beneath the swamps.

This green graveyard is our introduction to this underwater footage. However, life lurks and sparkles alternatively here: crocodiles creep and hippos walk below the depths; minnows flit and bream lie in wait.

Keep an eye out for the next installment from under the lily-covered waters of the Okavango Delta. One thing's for sure - it won't be dry!

Travels with an iguana

By Pierre Minnie, field crew

My guide pulled me back to look at the beautiful iguana I had walked past without seeing. It was a perfectly camouflaged Guichenot dwarf iguana. The creature was motionless and hanging on a moss-covered branch, obviously confident that it was well disguised.

I am currently in South America and have been sent to North Eastern Ecuador to evaluate the potential to film here for Earth-Touch.

I spent the first two days after my arrival, filming on a small camera at the Cuyabeno Lodge, an eco-lodge in the jungles of the Reserva Faunística Cuyabeno in Ecuador.

It was here that I was taken on a guided boat ride and walk to film, and it was here that I discovered the true meaning of the word ‘jungle’.

Naively, I had initially thought that I would walk on my own in the area and film undisturbed. I was wrong. The jungle is imposing and impenetrable and rises up to form a solid wall of entangled exotic vegetation around you. The only way to move around here without getting lost is by being accompanied by a local guide who knows the intricate river systems and jungle paths.

Getting to the reserve in Ecuador from South Africa was an experience on its own. Once again, I experienced a sensory overload en route (this sensory ‘thang’ seems to be a recurring theme in my experiences of late).

I had to travel overnight and change flights in Brazil. The evening sights, sounds and smells of São Paulo struck me as being similar to that of a combination of downtown and the industrial area surrounding the international OR Tambo Airport, in Johannesburg, where I live. São Paulo is a massive, sprawling city of great socio-economic contrasts.

After almost three days of travelling I eventually arrived at my destination. To describe the jungle and surrounds as well as the impact it had on me in words would be an injustice. It is completely different to the many and varying climes of Southern Africa, and the bird, animal, plant and insect life here is from a continent that has a diversity which is diffrent to what we have become accustomed to in our part of planet earth.

Every touch, taste, smell, sight and sound here has been a new experience for me.

We don’t have ‘smelly-touch-television’ yet, so you will all just have to wait for the publishing of the footage on www.earth-touch.com to see and hear something special from this part of the world.

Adios.

Pierre – ‘the Gringo’

PS Check my next blog to read how I am coping with the national language – Spanish.

Can you believe everything you watch?

By Brian Palmer, head honcho

I’ve just read an article about a British TV show that was about surviving in the wild, using ‘nothing but a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire’. As it turns out the presenter was staying in hotels and being fed pancakes. The producers say that the show was a ‘how to’ and not an ‘observational documentary’ – but what they don’t say is that they happily misled their audience to believe that the show was real.

Which leads me nicely to Earth-Touch – what we show you is 100% real. Whatever is happening in those parts of the world we happen to be filming on that day is what we show our audience – we laughed in the Earth-Touch office on our launch day that it would have been nice to have some great white sharks or some lions in the lead story position – but we launched with a calm and peaceful river estuary and two wollynecked storks because that’s what happened on that day. Who knows what we’ll get tomorrow?

Check out the article here

Latest story: Turtle in a watery abyss

Our coastal crew has been exploring the Indian Ocean for some months now.

The latest video package published today, Turtle and dolphins in reef dive, took place in a world-renowned reef, the Aliwal Shoal, on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Between the crevices of the reef, 'raggies' (ragged-tooths) and other shark species lurk, but today they shied away from the camera

However the watery abyss did yield colourful fish, bottlenose dolphins, and a loggerhead turtle, which popped by.

Earth-Touch field crew VS the crew of the Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean)

By Brian Palmer, head honcho

They might look pretty similar, and smell the same after a month or two in the field, but there are some essential differences:

Earth-Touch Field Crew
Crew of the Black Pearl

Love sharks
Get eaten by sharks

Evil Earth-Touch directors
Evil Captain Barbossa

Wash once a month
Wash once a week

Tripod legs
Wooden legs

Filmed treasure
Buried treasure

Drink river water
Drink rum

Camera eye
Wooden eye

Malaria infested
Scurvy riddled

Still alive (just)
Living undead

Pet camera assistants
Pet monkey

Clean camera equipment
Swab the decks

Curse when not paid
Paid in cursed Aztec gold

Sardines canned for this year?

By Reina Luck and Tara Turkington, editorial team

Sardines? What sardines?

It looks as if for the second year in a row, the anxiously-awaited sardine run up the east coast of South Africa is doomed to become a non-event. While the water stays stubbornly warm, the sardines stay put.

If this no-show persists for many more years, surely the ‘greatest shoal on earth’ will be in danger of becoming merely a legend – something we will tell our grandchildren about – along with all the excitement, commercial activities and festivities that go with it.

Earth-Touch's crew, however, did manage to film one small clip on July 6 of what may have been sardine activity, off Port St John's, in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. Attack of the gannets has been one of the most popular clips served on Earth-Touch so far, with more than 75 views and several comments since it was published.

Underwater Okavango

By Andy Crawford, field crew

We have sent Earth-Touch crew member Brad Bestelink off to the panhandle section of the Okavango Delta, from where he will soon be sending video and images from under the Okavango waters.

The Okavango River floods annually during July and August, during winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The floodwaters flow from Angola and through the northwestern corner of Botswana, creating the vast and beautiful Okavango Delta.

The permanent waters in the far north are at their highest in winter and for this brief two-month window, the water is crystal clear.

We seldom get to view this fascinating underwater environment so it always creates much excitement when the usually murky waters start to clear and one can glimpse what lies beneath.

It is surprisingly colourful and varied with both vast lily forests where the smaller fish shelter and deep holes where the tiger fish lurk.

There are two sunken mokoro (dugout canoes) along the Nxamaseri channel, providing us with our own wreck diving. Squeaker fish (many types are found in the delta) hide here during the day and emerge at night to swim upside down, skimming the underside of the surface for food.

The downside is that the water is very cold (to put it mildly). The boat trip back to the camp after a night dive becomes almost unbearable. One is already freezing after an hour in the water and added to this, the wind chill temperature on a moving boat with no shelter can literally paralyse you.

We are used to more tropical conditions. After all, who dives in mid-winter? We soon discovered the trick of diving with a hot water bottle stuffed down the front of the wetsuit and another one ready for when one emerges from the water. Then there is the mad dash for the shower!

Watch this space for the products of the pains we are going to put ourselves through. We think it’s going to be worth it.

- Andy Crawford

Meet the meerkats

By Reina Luck, editorial team

Have you met the meerkats yet? They're such comical little creatures as they come scuttling home from their day out in the chilly winter veld of the Little Karoo before they dive down into their snug sleeping burrow. With their large bright eyes and inquisitive behaviour they're like a group of neighbourhood busybodies keeping each other acquainted of the latest gossip.

Click here to make their acquaintance

The early birds

By Andy Crawford, field crew

The skimmers have arrived! This probably doesn’t sound like a significant event to the non-twitchers amongst us. Those in the know, however, will find it very peculiar.

For many years Nxamaseri – in Botswana’s northern panhandle region – has been a destination for African skimmers (these are endangered birds by the way, not some new group of thrill seekers) who come down from the north to breed. Each year, as the waters recede and expose the sandbanks, the skimmers appear.

The skimmers – do just that – skim the water with long designer beaks, scooping up food as they fly low to the surface. Like the lily-trotting Jacana birds, with their huge, spidery feet, and the rare piscivorous Pel’s Fishing Owl, the skimmers are an “Okavango special”.

When they do arrive in Nxamseri, anything from two to 40 birds take up temporary residence on a particular sandbank (the same one every year) in the main channel. Here they pair off, excavate nests, lay eggs and raise their chicks. Once fledged, they all head back to north Africa.

This usually happens in September. For some reason this year the birds arrived in late June. There is speculation that the birds didn’t leave at all this year but stayed within southern Africa. I am hoping that someone from Birdlife Botswana will be able to shed some light on possible reasons for this. Watch this space.

Earth-Touch, in a Flash!

By Riaan Pietersen, web developer

Since the inception of Earth-Touch at the end of last year a lot of 1's and 0's have flowed under the proverbial bridge of this Flash developer. In all my years of developing for the Flash player I had yet to come across a project that truly challenged my existing abilities.

When we started we had very little knowledge of video content delivery via the web. With the help of some really trustworthy sites like actionscript.org and kirupa.com we quickly brushed up on our Flash video knowledge and before long we were streaming little test videos all over the place! After many hours of playing with the NetStream object we realised that it had it's flaws, but we decided that we loved it anyway and would raise it as our own.

After conquering the movie mountain we started dabbling in the dark arts of Flash remoting. It didn't prove to be that big a deal and once we implemented some open source architecture into the equation, data was flying back and forth between the database and the Flash front-end. It is really quite a rewarding feeling when you first hit that log in button and the site allows you in.

In the backend development we learned a whole new set of abilities which will come in handy in the coming months.

In general, if I had to point out three outstanding features of the website, I would have to go with the following:

1. The dock. This little beauty allows you to queue up your loads so as to speed up the process of devouring content. Simply drag and throw your story to the far right side of the screen and watch as it loads up. The site alerts you when it is complete by having the story "stick out".

2. The Live.space. If you like a story, simply add it to your live space drawer on the left of the screen. This functionality will be extended later on to add even greater user interaction.

3. The linear menu. If you have an analytical brain like me, then the linear menu comes in very handy. The menu in itself was actually written to have an unlimited amount of levels and is populated by using dynamically generated XML. You can find it in the submenu.

Often during a six-month development process one gets bored and generally loses interest after about four months tops. Not this project though - It has been one of discovery, amazement and a great sense of accomplishment. We went from panic to sheer amazement as to what the web allows us to do.

We are looking forward to bringing the users of this website more useful features that will enhance their experience and ultimately guide them toward a greater awareness of the world around us.

A matter of pride

By Andy Crawford, field crew

Brad and I assumed that we could continue our lives as a filming team once our child was born. We had great visions of slinging up a hammock in the back of the filming vehicle to rock the little guy to sleep, and Brad even went so far as to design a mini chair to attach to his camera box between our two front seats where Rio would happily sit, gurgling away contentedly as we bounced through aardvark holes and over anthills in our quest for interesting subjects to film. Stupidly we expected him to behave in a civilised manner and be quiet while we filmed these interesting subjects.

To say this was naive is an understatement. It quickly became apparent that either the job or the kid had to go, but the two were clearly mutually exclusive. As it turned out Rio and I went and Brad got Nick to be the new me, in most respects …

Post-children I have not been able to venture out into the bush as much as I would have liked. As much as I miss it, this is probably not a bad thing considering the situations we have often found ourselves in. One incident that immediately springs to mind is the memorable day Brad came within 10 seconds of being devoured by lions. Had we had children at that stage I would have been put in an untenable situation and Brad would probably not be here today.

It was early evening and we had returned to our camp after a full day filming. At that stage our camp consisted of nothing more than a tent and a long drop toilet. Our vehicle served as our primary home and was better equipped than the camp. We would often sleep, cook, shower and live out of our vehicle for days on end and had learnt how to do this surprisingly comfortably. That evening I set about attempting to make something for dinner. As Brad can subsist on biltong and tinned tuna for weeks on end I was catering solely to my own food cravings and was busy in the back of the filming vehicle making a salad (which is just about the best I can do considering I am the world’s worst cook).

Brad had ventured into the flood plain about 60m (200ft) away from where our vehicle was parked by our tent. He was watching the sunset and enjoying the solitude – a very necessary thing when living together 24/7. One can tend to get frazzled by the constant togetherness and as much as possible, one tries to find some space for oneself. I was in the process of cutting up a green pepper when I heard what I thought was possibly a shout. A good rule of thumb in the bush is to investigate all unusual noises. I am very well aware of this but on this occasion I continued to chop the pepper, wondering vaguely what that noise could have been. My failure to react at that point probably had much to do with the fact that Brad and I had spent six months solidly filming and the longest we had been physically apart during this time was about three hours. We had had a rather fraught day and frankly, I couldn’t have cared less about what Brad was up to or why he was making odd noises at dusk.

About two minutes later (in retrospect I wonder why so long) I heard Brad yell ‘Bring a torch, there is a lion!’ Thankfully my instincts kicked in (had my rational self been in charge I may well have left him there to get eaten) and I leapt like a superhero into the driver’s seat and floored it to where I assumed Brad was, lettuce, tomatoes, cutlery and crockery flying out the open sides of the vehicle. It was dark at this stage and in the headlights I could just make out Brad.

As I got closer I saw he had three lions (two males and a female) all within about 2m (6ft) of him, all fully focused on him. Our vehicle has no doors so I drove up to Brad and he leapt in. A simple rescue.

As Brad explained to me afterwards, he had been sitting watching the sun set and contemplating the universe. The sun had disappeared below the horizon and it had started to get dark. He was quietly swatting away mosquitos (as one does in Botswana) and when he looked up he saw the silhouette of a lioness walking from left to right, about 10m (33ft) in front of him. He wasn’t sure at this stage whether she had noticed him, so he stayed still and silent, hoping she would just walk on by. As it turns out she didn’t just walk on by. She spotted him and started to approach him, head low and curious. Brad was not particularly worried at this stage as lions are generally afraid of humans.

I have seen Brad on foot with lions on a number of occasions and if approached by a lion the trick is to simply reveal yourself as a human. For example, if crouching, stand up. If standing, shout and wave your arms. The lion then runs off. When it became clear that this lioness thought he may be a meal and had approached to within about 5m (16ft) of him he stood up and shooed her away. She turned and ran off, obviously a little put out that this thing was bigger that she thought. The lioness, however, only ran off a few metres and turned to face him again. Lions are much bolder at night and clearly this lioness wasn’t put off by the fact that Brad was a human. Brad’s next trick was to throw something at her, however he had nothing on him, no knife, no torch, not even a pair of shoes that would have been useful ammunition at that stage. Instantly, he decided he had only one option and charged at her flailing and waving and yelling.

This was the initial shout that I had heard but (subconsciously) decided not to investigate. As he did this, a young male lion ran at him from his left. He had not been aware that this lion was there and it was at this stage that he yelled for a torch. I am consistently amused by the fact that in the circumstances this is what he elected to shout out. It is a measure of his butchness that he yells ‘Bring a torch!’ Lesser beings would have yelled ‘help!’ or ‘Bring a gun!’ or probably just yelled. My heroic husband had made a split-second decision that if he had a torch he could fend them off. In desperation Brad rushed at the young male but as he did this he was forced to turn his back on the female who then made a charge at him. Brad was wheeling around between the two when another male approached. Now three lions were within leaping distance of him (a truly horrible situation) and it would only have been a matter of seconds before one of them made the initial attack.

Although Brad was only aware of three lions, with the help of the vehicle headlights and spotlight we counted 11 lions. It was a pride we had watched a few days earlier killing a buffalo cow using the same tactic. When lions are after larger, slower prey such as buffalo (and people stranded on flood plains) they do not have to rely on stealth and speed. Instead, they surround the victim and leap on it when its back is turned.

Feeding time…

By Graeme Duanne, field crew

Hmmm, time to feed, are we talking about lions, sharks or satellite dishes here? I guess all three if you’re in the field. For me the great whites are easier to deal with than Jacque’s dish, which I have to use to serve my footage.

Feeding for Earth-Touch is actually proving to be quite a pleasure. Although the hours are tough and getting the live feeds going is quite stressful, it’s like a breath of fresh air shooting content that actually means something before it gets to the timeline. Even after being cut twice it still maintains its integrity, so the value stays with the environment and individual animals from whence it came… amazing!

For once the celebration is the goings-on of intricate environs of many types, and not the kitsch packaging or cutting style of some ratings-driven channel.

On not using deodorant

By Pierre Minnie, field crew

It took me a while to realise why I had felt uncomfortable on my first filming assignment to the raw and natural environment of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

I first thought that it might be because of fear of the unknown.
I lay awake on my first evening there, and listened and plotted an escape route in case an elephant walked over and flattened me and the small bell tent which was my home for the duration of my stay.

Surely then, it was only withdrawal symptoms kicking in. I had spent the whole day without a single cup of my favourite Kenyan filter coffee, to which I have become addicted.

Or perhaps it was the smell and feel of the remnants of sweat, mud and dust from the day’s activities still clinging to my body. We were conserving water and I had not showered that evening. I had the distinct feeling from my fellow filmmakers that ablutions would only become necessary once they found your body odour to be unsavoury.

And then it struck me.

I had been thrust back into a natural environment and my reactions had ‘bust’ me for being a typical ‘city boy’ at heart. I had left the comforts of my home base in the city of Johannesburg behind and was feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable by my reactions to the new venue.

I realise now that I had become numbed and seduced by (amongst others) shopping malls, traffic fines, cappuccinos and foreign foods dished up in pseudo-designer surroundings.

All five of my senses had now been given a wake-up call in the Delta and I consider myself lucky.

Welcome to Earth-Touch!

By Richard van Wyk and Brian Palmer
(Earth-Touch head honchos)

It's taken many years to finally arrive at this point – the test launch of Earth-Touch.com, to a group of 100 friends, relatives and generally clever people we'd like to associate ourselves with, and whose opinions we value. Earth-Touch strives to connect people better with the natural world as it is now so that they can marvel at its beauty in a medium - the world wide web - that is more immediate, personal and interactive than a TV set or a cinema screen.

There's nothing new in the idea that the earth can be compared to a living organism. We are part of that organism, cohabiting with a diversity of species and landscapes that live, change and die in perpetual rhythm, as we do ourselves. How much more we would know and understand about this planet if we could just see it unfold in front of us as wildlife film-makers do? And not have to wait for ages to do so, when what we’re watching becomes removed from the present? We believe in presenting something simpler, more continuous, something that will connect us better.

We invite you to join our crews daily and witness the beauty of this planet as they do. This is your space and opportunity to connect with the earth. Be part of the wilderness we co-habit. We would like you to join us in sharing our special locations and to become part of the process.

You are one of just 100 people whom we're letting loose on Earth-Touch. We hope you'll give us your honest feedback and constructive comments as you enjoy new technology in action, capturing some of the beauty of life on earth as it takes place.

Start to engage with us RIGHT NOW by posting a comment of what you think so far on this blog entry.

Thank you for taking this first, tentative step out into the world with us! May we enjoy an exciting and wonderful journey together...