South Africa Chapter one

After some relaxing days in the fridge we left Switzerland towards Capetown. We flew from Munich since AirBerlin has still the most competitive offer in case of a overweight or sports equipment and it's a direct flight.

We drank a bit too much Vodka Redbull and could both not sleep during the overnight flight. But as the flight turned into bumpy over Kinshasa all others couldn't sleep either.

After arrival in Capetown we started with a big day with good wind and nice waves.The following days the wind became less strong and turned to south. Together with Andy, we spent the rest of the week to search good winds for paragliding. It ended in a so called para-driving and para-waiting.

Ueli our former paragliding teacher from paraworld.ch stays in South Africa too and suggested us to come to Porterville well known for it's incredible cross country conditions. After two nice days in Porterville we went back to Capetown. The forecast showed again some good waves and a strong southeaster.

Tuesday the 11th Gandalf our good old friend from Switzerland arrived in CT. I picked him up at the airport but unfortunately the dude arrived without his kite equipment. His stuff made a little journey to Coleman (Texas). After seven days he was again the happy owner of his kitestuff. 

Sunday the 16th of Jan. we went to the aircooled VW braai at the beach house. Around 12 old T1/T2 VW buses showed up. It was relaxed to chat and talk with the owners and listen to the stories and surprises they experienced with their buses. In the evening we climbed up to the Lions Head. The mountain was completly surrounded by rainshowers. What a mystic scenery!

Sabrina and me will remember Monday the 17th. We went to a downwinder from Big Bay to Haakgat. The waves were huge from 4-6 meters and i was proud of Sabrina that she easily made it downwind to Haakgat in these big waves!

Tuesday the 18th we started our roadtrip (we still don't know exactly to where) and ended for the first three days in Porterville. Sabrina flew from Dasklippass 31 km and i made it to 26 km. Unfortunately i got damn airsick after fighting half an hour in dirty +/- 7m/s thermals while trying to cross over Citrusdaal.

Yesterday we left Porterville towards Wilderness. First we drove for round three hours through the Karoo a so called desert until we arrived in Prince Albert at the foot of Swartberg Pass. Rob (the owner of Flyers Lodge in Porterville) suggested us to drive over Swartberg on a dirt road. The first half hour we followed a little river in a beautiful valley after the road got narrow and turned into a steep climb. We both where happy that we rented a VW Vivo  instead of the cheaper but less powerful opportunity which would have been a Kia Picanto. Another half an hour later we stopped on top of the pass to our big surprise we couldn't see the coastline nor the sea. After another two hours drive trough the Kleinkaroo we reached Wilderness.

Today we expected to soar along the Coastline with our paragliders but as the whole day was covered with heavy rainshowers and and cool temps around 15°Celsius we decided to discover the area next to us, enjoying delicious tapas in the Beejuice Cafe (the former railway station of Wilderness) and to relax a bit at the Wildfarm a nice hippie backpacker we stay overnight at the moment.

Life sucks ;-)