Friday, October 30, 2009

Back in Amsterdam

After a month in Africa, it is nice to be back in Amsterdam and sleep in your own bed again. But I must admit I had a hard time getting going in the office, writing all those stories. You need recuperate after almost two months of constant travelling.

One way of doing that was to go to the Bokbier Festival in Amsterdam with Femke, then have a brilliant dinner at Restaurant Open. That way we also celebrated (if somewhat late) being together for five wonderful years :-)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I like Cape Town
















It was wonderful to be back in Cape Town, if only for a few days. So much has happened since I visited last time, two years ago. Mostly to the better. Lots of new funny bars, restaurants and shops. And more new housing in the townships. But of course there is still a long way to go in South Africa, the poverty in the townships is a stark contrast to the cool bars downtown.

BTW, I stayed at a little design hotel called Antrim Villa, owned by a Swedish guy who moved down.

There will soon be a short story about it all in Expressen.

More photos here.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Paragliding in Wilderness









My plan was to paraglide five days in Wilderness together with Jan and Khobi at Cloudbase Paragliding, to produce a story about that, then continue to Cape Town for another story.
I followed the plan but was unlucky with the weather. So only got eight flights and around an hour in the air. Better than nothing but the potential in this area is huge. But these is pre-season and you can be unlucky.
I still had a nice time, drinking Windhoek with the local pilots and spotting whales while para-waiting.

You'll find more photos here.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Drakensberg and Durban





After Hluhluwe we drove to the Drakensberg area to enjoy the views of the majestic mountains there. But the weather had other plans and covered the peaks in thick rainy clouds. Actually, we didn’t care so much, it was nice to relax for once, eat good food and play carcassone.

After two days of rest we continued to Durban, where we stayed in a simple but funky hotel called the Bordello. Even better was there bar/restaurant Bean Bag Bohemia, where an interesting and mixed crowd knocked down good yet dirt-cheap cocktails and feasted on excellent dim sum.

We also enjoyed visiting the huge aquarium in Durban, partly built inside of what looks like a ship-wreck.

Our last evening together we had a brilliant Indian dinner at the Indian Connection Restaurant. After that Femke flew home to Amsterdam and I flew down to the Wilderness area for some paragliding.


You'll find some more photos here.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Hluhluwe National Park






We spent two nights at the Hilltop Camp in Hluhluwe National Park in North Eastern South Africa. The park is huge and you can drive around with your own car, creating your own private game drives, something that we found very exciting.

I uploaded lots of photos on my web page:
http://waterglobe.net/hluhluwe/

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Done with the winelands, now Swaziland!

Just arrived to the little kingdom Swaziland after five fantastic days in the South African winelands.
Posted lots of photos on my web page:
http://waterglobe.net/sawines/

Here are just a few:






Sunday, October 04, 2009

Paragliding over Neuschwanstein













Me and Bonen (longtime friend) took the train to Southern Bavaria for a week of paragliding and a visit to the paragliding festival Free Flight Tegelberg.
We were flying from the mountain Tegelberg, just next to the famous castle Neuschwanstein.
All in all a great week with lots of fun, good flying and nice food :-)