Category: ‘General Interest’

It’s her birthday…

We have been in the middle of a dramatic shift in spending patterns this past few months. Consciously trying to move away from the pure consumerism that seems to be the western-way. Buying stuff and things that we don’t really need…

We all know the drill; keeping up with the Jones’s is also part of it. Well; the Jones’s can keep their brand new car, and stereo, plasma, ipod, iphone, ipad, imac, idon’t-care…. Read the rest »

Beep. The Kettler announces today’s regime. I take a deep breath and start rowing. 45, 77, 83, the strokes per minute are climbing. I steady around 90 and relax into my rythm.

“What are my plans for this morning?” I close my eyes and wander off.  I need to write that article about the football radio before the world cup is over, those invoices need to be sent off, … my list continues. Read the rest »

Italy rules the world when it comes to exquisite styling and taste. Even in another 30-plusser of summer sun, Italians are perfectly coiffured.

Wearing the latest strappy numbers with matching sandals, and perhaps even a headband to catch their perfectly formed beads of sweat.

Well, that doesn’t happen in my world … here it is dominated by form follows function!

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Good morning!

Yes… once again we’re up before dawn during our holiday… What’s supposed to be a relaxing time to rest and recharge from a long year of hard ‘graft’, feels rather less-so at five a.m., I think to myself, standing in the open-air foyer of the hotel… But it’s about 23 degrees - nice and cool - and the stars in the sky mean it’s going to be a sunny day… Read the rest »

Cousins Ina and Andries live near Groningen in the very top of Holland. We live close to Amsterdam. When we go camping, we often meet in the middle.

Okay, not so much in the middle. We choose a quiet little spot in Vierhuizen. Less crowded than other campings nearby …

The proximity to Lauwersmeer National Park (Lauwer lake) makes it fabulous for cycling. Another drawcard to the area is the ferry to Schiermonnikoog. Read the rest »

I look back at the noughties with mixed feelings. It’s been the toughest decade ever and yet my most rewarding. We gave up the sunny comfort of South Africa and chose to migrate to the Netherlands.

Emmen was our first port of call. Where Marcel started life and still has some family. More to the point, it was chosen ‘cos of the work. For Marcel. And for me? Glad you asked. I couldn’t speak Dutch and being in the North East, there aren’t many English speaking jobs available. So I stayed at home.

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We’re making idle chatter with our hostess when a rather grumpy couple climb aboard the shuttle bus. An onslaught of arbitrary complaints follow in Dutch. We roll our eyes. Great … it´s going to be a long ride! Especially considering that Laguna Vista is nestled further up in Nabq, the new suburb of Sharm el Sheikh.

Perhaps sensing the rest of their travel companion’s desire to “let the holiday begin”, they eventually settle down and keep quiet.

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I have just come back from my first visit to New York. My equally addictive traveling companion took a photograph of me standing and smoking next to a big fat chimney which belched creamy  steam into Lexington Avenue to give our kind of zap sign to their ever so clean mayor, Mr Bloomberg.

Our hotel room was of course non-smoking so we dangled our arms out of a thin slit in the window to pollute the high sky and not our room for the sole reason that we were told that the hotel would fine us 250 dollars to de-tox it. Read the rest »

‘Moki Dugway and The Valley of the Gods’ by Deborah Owen

It was the fall of 1987 when we drove over Moki Dugway to access the Valley of the Gods road. We didn’t know that Moki was not suitable for an RV or that it grew narrower as it went. On that trip, we learned not to follow all the wheel tracks we saw. 

We chugged southbound on SR 261 in our old ‘78 Titan and faced Moki Dugway without hesitation. Our first tremors came during the set of switchbacks, but gravel roads without rails and a 1,000-foot sheer drop-off shook us up more. Halfway to the bottom, we came face to face with another motor home whose occupants were equally as ignorant – but hey, they were on the inside track. All they had to do was watch us go over the edge and report a fatality. Read the rest »

Picture it, day 10 of a tough two weeks in Egypt: tanning, swimming, eating far too much at the buffet, another beer, more sun, more tanning, more swimming… how much of this can you take??!! Time for a snorkel off the coast…  The day starts of with the usual routine - hurry-up and wait…

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The highlight of this year’s trip to Egypt was Cairo!

What an incredibly long and tiring day! But worth every minute of the tortuous journey. We were picked up at the hotel in Sharm el Sheikh at 1:00 am by a small bus (twenty seater) with 15 others. The only problem was that the little truck had no suspension! Combine this glaring oversight from Toyota with roads that are worse than in South Africa and our day was starting off not too well… Read the rest »

60 years ago we would have needed a boat to stand next to the “Dukdalf” that we were now celebrating. And a snorkel and goggles, and possibly a scuba diving dry suit.

But there we were, standing on dry land 5 metres below sea level. It’s all rather mind boggling!  Read the rest »

This is a photo journal of our visit to the Normandy beaches.

Our first visit to the north of France and having come from Newcastle, the north of England, with all our camping gear onboard, the choice of pitching a tent at one of the (many) camping grounds was easily made… We found a site on the cliffs overlooking Omaha beach. We had a couple of objectives: the American cemetry, the beaches and from there…..

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‘Our Story’ written by André Craye

Since its official opening in April 2009, Bushbabies Monkey Sanctuary, located on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg in Hartbeespoort, has widened its spectrum of primates to over 70 free-released specimens.

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Three years ago I went to teach English to the locals of a remote village in the  former Transkei. I was 54 and a tad old I thought to be having a mid-life crisis which symptoms included nothing more dramatic than a restlessness, a constant shifting about in the seat of my oh-so-comfortable existence.

I lived 6 months of the year in an idyllic provençal village in France and the other 6 in another idyllic village Kommetjie, 35 minutes from Cape Town. There was no epiphanaic moment, my goals were clear and simple: I wanted to go back to teaching and where better than somewhere in Africa. Read the rest »

Sunday morning!

Yep, we’re still in Provénce… This isn’t a dream…

But it’s time to hit the road again…

It’s about 9 am and the beautiful weather of the last couple of days has turned. Dark clouds loom beyond the hills and there’s that smell of rain in the air. Read the rest »

‘Many Roads to Rome’ by Pasha Alden

Whether globe trotting on a well earned break, or simply attending an important meeting it is safe to say that there are many ways to kill a cat or should the adage be adapted to read ‘Many roads to Rome?

Despite the limitations brought about by blindness there are many myths.  One of these is that blind people always travel on the arm of someone.  This is in some situations certainly the case.  However, through completing a course in mobility, that is the use of a long cane, or a guide-dog, travelling independently can be a most liberating experience for people who are blind.   Read the rest »

Get this picture in your head…

You’re sitting in Holland with a couple of days off over a long weekend, and an (overdue) appointment in the south of France.

What would YOU do?

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We bought our house ‘cos of the view through the kitchen window. The rest of the interior wasn’t to our taste and has since forged us into frenetic DIY-ers!

In the past three years, we’ve stripped kilometers of wallpaper, ripped out ornamental arches and cornices and stroked numerous layers of paint onto the once bare concrete walls.

But through all of this, we’ve kept our budget on a diet. It has to be said … we muuuch prefer travelling! Read the rest »

Yup, another delivery in Rotterdam today - yay! Good for business and with this lovely weather, a great drive; 127 km’s from us to the Erasmus Brigde; the white suspension bridge you often see at large events, like the Red Bull airplane racing or when Volvo Ocean Race comes to town.

During WWII most of Rotterdam’s ancient buildings were decimated and the city had to rebuild itself, so a lot of the architecture is new. Read the rest »

En-route to a delivery near Rotterdam this morning, I took my favourite scenic route through the Oostvaarderplassen wildlife nature reserve.

There’s a viewpoint overlooking a huge plain that always reminds us of Africa. Occassionally we see herds of Heck Cows and at other times herds of Red Deer.

But we’ve heard of a herd of horses that lived in the region, and on occassion have seen a horse (or two) here and there …  Read the rest »

An Egyptian city, Sharm El Sheikh is located at the southern most tip of the Sinai Peninsula, which is on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and the beautiful Mount Sinai.

The city overlooks the Straits of Tiran, which are a set of narrow passages running between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas. Unlike most of Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh has a wealth of greenery which sets it apart from the harsh desert surrounding it.

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Alive! The word pops into my head as we enter Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo Airport.

Ironic really, isn’t it, for a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world? Yet I feel it. Sense it. Am reminded of a friend who says he comes alive every time he returns – feels boring, bland and disconnected for weeks in his new country, Australia every time he goes back.

“An electricity in the air” is how another friend describes it. People seem to laugh more, live more. Read the rest »

March 2008. It was hot! About 32 degrees and no wind at all. The region we were driving through was dry and dusty. We were on route to Shingwedzi camp and it was around 3 pm. We needed to keep going at a steady pace if we were going to make camp before the gates close…

On the Old Main Road loop there was nobody else on the road. We had spotted a couple of elephants at the waterhole and were baking in the heat. The road was dirt and the shrub quite thick and close. This made spotting quite difficult and the sun was keeping the wildlife in the shade - or so we thought… Read the rest »