Wow, one and half months have passed and I’m now
back in Livingstone and to my African life. I’ve had an AMAZING time in South
Africa enjoying life both with friends, family and a lot of nice people I’ve
met on my way :) Before I go on, I quickly want to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I hope you all have had a good start in the new year ;)
Right, let me go back to Knysna, where I left
you last time. However, instead of going through every single activity and
thing I’ve done in the last weeks, I’ll try to keep it short and just give you
the highlights ;)
In Knysna we spent two really nice days with
good food, beer tasting, jumping from cliffs (the highest was about 8 metres)
and trying to feel Christmassy :) On the 13th of December we had a
lovely evening with homemade mulled wine and Lucia bread, and with singing the traditional Lucia
song :) Even though we still weren’t in the biggest Christmas mood, we
enjoyed the evening a lot.
Beer tasting
Lucia bread
More pictures are coming :)
On our way to the surfer town Jeffry’s bay
Johanne, Vegard and I had to prove ourselves that we had the courage to jump
from the Bloukrans Bridge, which is the world’s highest bungy bridge (216
metres)! It was AMAZING!!! I’ve to admit that I was quite terrified before my
first jump in Livingstone and that I didn’t enjoy it that much :D However, this
time I still was quite scared and asked myself why I’m doing this BUT from the
moment on, where I was standing at the edge, listening to the count down, I
enjoyed it a LOT! It was such a great feeling :) Nevertheless, I think you don’t have to worry anymore
that I’m doing more jumps, since there are no higher bungy bridges :D No, I’m
kidding, I think I’m done with jumping ;)
Here some impressions
The Bloukrans Bridge
Johanne and I before the jump
on my way to the edge
on my way down
on my way up
Safely back on the bridge
Happy faces after the jump :)
As I already mentioned, our last stop was Jeffry’s
Bay. What did we do? Since, it’s a quite good spot for surfing, we spent some
hours with surfing and enjoying the heavy rain, while being in the water :) The
15th of December was our last evening all together, so we went out
for a really nice dinner, followed by some good partying and celebration of my
birthday! We had a lot of fun and it was the perfect ending of a nice road trip
:)
Those who know me can probably imagine that I,
while surfing in the heavy rain, got a bit “worried” about, how the weather would be on
my birthday :D Well, luckily the sun was shining from a blue sky when I woke up
in the morning =
perfect birthday weather and for lying at the beach = I was happy and had a lovely day :)
Unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye to Arnt, Vegard, Lina and Johanne at
the airport in the afternoon.
warm up for my birthday evening
Thanks for a nice road trip
The rest of my birthday I spent together with
Janita and Ingrid having a nice dinner, while enjoying fireworks in Port Elizabeth :)
Janita, Ingrid and me
delicious desert
The following two days Ingrid, Janita and I
spent with driving back to Cape Town, where it was time for me to meet Pascal
and start my holiday with my family :)
It was really nice seeing him and being back in
Cape Town again. Pascal and I spent some really nice days with relaxing, exploring the city,
enjoying the sunset from Lion’s Head, going surfing, eating nice food and
enjoying good wine :)
Here some impressions:
At the beach in Camps Bay
Surfing in Muizenberg
"surfing" :D
Nice houses
Pascal and me
Daniel and me on our way up to the top of Lion's Head
The view from the top
Picnic at the top
Lovely sunset
Nice view
On the 23rd Patrick arrived in Cape
Town. You can’t imagine, how glad I was to have both my brothers around me and
to celebrate Christmas with them :) How did we celebrate the Christmas days?
All in all, we had a really good time with exploring the city during day and
night, and with a lot of good food and wine :)
On the 24th we drove down to see the
penguins in Simon’s Town and to the Cape Point. It was a really good trip,
followed by a lovely Christmas dinner :) A hike up to the top of Table Mountain
and a nice Christmas BBQ were on the programme for the 25th and
boxing day (the 26th), we spent at the beach and on Robben Island.
On the 27th it finally was time for
me being together with my whole family :) I was sooooo happy to see my mum and
to be together with my whole family!!!
Christmas breakfast
Penguins
The three of us with the penguins
Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to go closer
Cape Point
the three of us
Nice view
At the cape point
Pascal and me on our way to the top of Table Mountain
The three of us on our way up
On robben Island
enjoying the Christmas BBQ
nice Christmas dinner
Our road trip started and the first stop was in
the wine area Franschhoek. Uhhh, you can’t imagine how tasty the wine was!!! We
spent a whole day going from winery to winery, doing wine and also some cheese
tasting :) It was sooo good!
Swellendam was the next town on the programme
and on the way to it, we visited Cape Agulhas (the southernmost tip of Africa)
and Hermanus.
In Franschhoek
The four of us
Dolphins in Hermanus :)
Have a look at the next picture. Do you see the smoke? Well, what we didn't know at that time was that we one hour later were driving directly through the fire! I doubt that it would have been possible to do in other places in the world :D
Driving through the smoke of the fires next to us
Safely arrived at Cape Agulhas
After a night in Swellendam, we drove further to Outshorn, where I, at the ostrich farm, had the crazy experience to ride on an ostrich :D It was really funny! Just look:
Later the same day we did an adventure tour in
the Cango Caves. Before I go on, I have to say that during our entire road trip
we never felt like being in Africa (Cape Town and the Garden Route are more like Europe and USA). Well, when we did our adventure tour in the
caves, we felt it :D We knew it was the adventure trip we had booked but that
it would be that adventurous, we didn’t expect at all (it didn't say in the programme)
:D However, I could maybe have guessed that aspects like communication and
safety, are aspects which you don’t have that much focus on in Africa :D
Nevertheless, the tour was great fun!!!
Plettenberg Bay was the last destination,
before we headed to Port Elizabeth for flying home (Pascal) and to Livingstone
(my mum, Patrick and me). We had a lovely new years eve with good food, nice
wine and some dancing in Plettenberg Bay :) However, the best thing was still that
we all were together! We kick-started the new year with a good hike in both sun
and heavy rain. Have look at the picture:
New Years Eve
Before the rain caught us
Funny animal
The black dots are seals
Nice colours
The rain on its way
In the Cango caves
In the Cango caves
Pascal climbing up in "the chimney"(we all had to to it)
On the 2nd of January we made our
way to Jeffry’s Bay to spend some time at the beach. It was really nice to have
a proper day at the beach again after all the rain :D
Well, then the day had come, where the holiday
with Pascal was over and my mum, Patrick and I were flying to Livingstone.
Last dinner with the whole family
Nice sushi :) (and for me, last fish for the next 5 months)
Livingstone welcomed us with a nice heat and
sun :) However, also with difficulties to get money from the ATMs (Zambia has
got new notes and coins – basically they have removed the last three zero’s = chaos in the banks. In addition to that, the Zambian "chip-system" (the chip on the credit card) is too old for some of the new credit cards from Europe = no money) and a LOT of
rain (yep, the rain season has started)!
I was back to T.I.A. :D Even though
the rain had chosen to accompany us the first three days, we had an amazing
time at the Victoria Falls in both Zambia and Zimbabwe, and with rafting :)
When we went on a two days safari in Botswana, the sun luckily was back and we
had an amazing time with watching all the animals! Even for the sunset cruise
on the 10th, the sun was with us :) Those who know me and also my
mum can maybe imagine, how happy we were to have the sun back :D
Besides enjoying all the tourist things in and
around Livingstone, I showed them my African life in for instance the compound
and at my work. It was really nice to show them everything down here and
introduce them to my African family and friends. I think, they now have a much better
understanding of what I’m doing and experiencing here in Livingstone :)
Lovely sunset at the sunset cruise
at the Victoria Falls in Zambia
On the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Well, one has to turn around :D
At the Vic Falls in Zimbabwe
At the Vic Falls in Zimbabwe
Vic Falls in Zimbabwe (the spray made it almost impossible to see the falls)
Just a few pictures from the safari
Rain in the compound
My two families
Way too fast the 12th and 13th had
arrived, where it was time to say goodbye :( After saying goodbye to my mum,
Patrick and I watched the friendly game Zambia vs. Norway. It was great fun,
even though it ended 0:0 and wasn’t the best football :D However, I’m really
looking forward to the 19th of January, where the Africa Cup of
Nations starts!!! I just love, how Zambians go crazy, when the national team is
playing :)
Good, I think I’ve come to the end. Patrick
left yesterday, I’m back in the compound and Wednesday it’s back to work. The
next two weeks are going to be quite busy with writing my exam paper, making
work plans for Kwenuha and getting used to the African life again. However, I’m
already looking forward to all the new experiences and things I’m going to
learn :)
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