Vancouver - City of glass

Let's call it serendipity. I had some extra miles to spend and the next available flight left to Canada.

After a relaxed flight over Island (thanks Eyjafjalla for not throwing lavastones towards us) the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the Rockies we landed in Vancouver.




 





For the next five days we stay in downtown city of glass and planning a trip with a motorhome through the wilderness of Canada and eventually USA during the next five weeks.

Let us know if you have some travel advice for the Northwest of America!
 





People from more than 100 different nations found their new home in Vancouver. It's a friendly and multicultural mixture. We discover the city by feet and bicycles.

Into the wild

At the moment we stay in Witsand well known for it's excellent flatwater kitesurf conditions in Breede River. Today it's rainy and foggy and the little town seems to be a bit lost. It could also be part of a Hitchcock movie. Scary! But all in all the people here are easy going an when we brought our dirty clothes to the local laundry this morning Maerike the lady from the laundry gave me a friendly but hard smack to my ass to say goodbye. I wasn't surprised at all :-D

The last days we spent cruising along the garden route up to Port Elisabeth. We stayed one night in PE and visited the Sea View Lion Park the other day. This might be my first and last time that I spent with a lion in the same cage. Thanks good this two guys were born in August 2010 still tiny and very lazy.

The biggest attraction in the park are two five weeks old siblings and a eight week old cub. Have a look at the photos. You can see some nice scratches on the caretakers arms as these little guys do not know how to use the claws in the right meaning.

Sunday the 30^th of January we wanted to see the real lions and visited Addo Elephant Park. We were surprisingly lucky and spotted a lot of animals. In the evening an older dutch couple told us that they spent three days in the park and did not see the lion, the rhino nor the buffalo.

 


We ended that day with a nice Kudu carpaccio and a bottle of Durbanville Hills Chardonnay.

On the way back to Witsand we stayed overnight in a lodge in Titsikamma. It was a nice place but a typical tourist trap and therefore expensive. But we were to tired to find another option. We indulged ourseleves the private jaccuzzi to get rid of the dirt from the last days!

We also spent one night at Mosselbaai in the Santos express http://www.santosexpress.co.za/ an old train that has been parked 30 meters from the beach and been converted into a hotel.

Typical men!!!

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 ;-)

Jeri and Barra Grande

After a few days hanging around in Jeri we have the feeling to do something. Jeri isn't the great spot for kitesurfing because it is too gusty and choppy with one exception: the place where the windsurfers ride. But the windsurfers don't accept kiters at their place. So we decide to do something else - some touristic things. First we go to the dune Duna Pôr-de-Sol to see the sunset with hundreds other tourists, later a Capoeira show takes place at the beach.
The next day I have the chance to bring Beat on a horseback. He's afraid, because it's his second time on a horse. In gallop we ride to Pedra Furada a special formation of stones. On the way back Beat misses the beat of the gallop and fall almost off the horse, but he manages it well. After one hour on a horseback Beat is so happy to chill again in a comfortable hammock and we can mark the touristic things in Jeri off... :-)

As we are looking for some good kitespots we leave Jericoacoara and are up on the drive towards Barra Grande which is 150 km northerly from Jeri.

Barra Grande is a small and therefore quiet fishing village in the state of Piauí where the thermometer indicates sometimes 40°. It's a upcoming place for kiters. Flat water, huge space plus a lagoon next to the mangroves. Big playground for freestylers! As I learn some jumps Beat enjoys to slalom in the mangroves.