Yesterday evening, just after Rexon and Alex came upon Karula on Gowrie cutline, a huge storm hit Djuma. WE immediately executed our bad weather plan, which involves getting the game drive vehicle under cover, disconnecting all antennas, powering everything down and the final control shut down procedure. The storm carried on for hours. Monstrous lightning struck all around Vuyatela. We think that the staff village as well as the tower at Jurie and Pippa’s house received direct hits. At about 01:00 AM the worst appeared to be over, so Jan began slowly bringing all the systems back on line. Gowrie waterhole camera would not restart and the Internet connection to the video server in Pretoria would not re-establish.
At first light Jan went to the Gowrie camera and began checking all systems. It didn’t take long for him to realise that the UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply), buried underground near the camera had failed to restart. He has been forced to power the system directly, which is fine for a while, but WE will need to get this restored before the next big storm.
The Internet connection to the video server was still down. Now you can tell when this happens, because if you see the ‘sorry’ slide it means that the server cannot connect to the encoder at Djuma and usually that means there is a problem with the data line. WE reported the fault early this morning and within a few hours Telkom was able to trace and repair the problem.
So although WE took several direct hits … nothing can stop a dynamic team, committed to broadcasting LIVE to you from the African bush … its in our nature.
Big Storm hits Djuma, but WE recover.
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As wildcall said ” Wow ” . Hope the WE people know what a gem you have in Jan ! He has workd his magic many times , and I enjoyed the drives he hosted , and when he talks and shares things from the cam with us you can,t help but share the joy he feels .
Thanks to all .
Pammie
Hello…
At a time when game drives are
getting shorter and getting access to the stream is getting tougher…isn’t it about time that WildEarth came clean with all their fans? It has been 6 or 7 months since WildEarth promised a content distribution network to expand on the meager 80 slots now available. Perhaps WE owes their loyal fans some concrete information regarding expansion. Is it really going to happen? And if so…specifically when? I personally am still amazed that the great talent that WE has in Pieter and Rexson is only being seen by 80 people at any given time. It’s such a waste. WE has asked that people be patient, and I think they have shown the patience of Job in hanging in there through all the technical problems associated with broadcasting from the bush. They have shown not only patience…but courtesy. Two traits that I ran out of long ago, as evidenced by this post. At this point, very few believe that WE is actually looking to expand the viewing slots and I certainly don’t blame them for this belief since it also happens to be my belief as well. It is true that I am not a regular WE watcher, but I have done my best to help those who are. These people love Wildearth. They love Pieter, Rexson and all the others. They spend hours a day trying to get to see them and the wildlife they present. I say again, Wildearth…will you expand beyond 80 slots and if so, when?
Thank you for your time….
maxx from africam forum
Wow!! The level of commitment from the WE team is amazing!! Kudos to Jan and all for working so hard to bring us our beloved stream! I hope the storm didn’t do too much damage!
Thanks for all you do!
WildCall (Bev)