The Traveling Penguin

long time, no travel writing

2008-07-20T12:09:00.002+02:00

Shame on me for not posting about my past travels. I have had quite a few actually, so I'll try to write something or other about these in the near future...

airport shenanigans

2008-07-20T11:39:00.005+02:00

Baggage theft at airports is a big problem, and the claim is that homeless people are responsible for most of the thefts...

I call bullshit. What kind of airport allows just anyone to go into the baggage claim area these days anyway? I've been in and out of a lot of airports lately, and the baggage claim areas were all inaccessible to the public. If people are sneaking in, then it's a failure of airport "security" for one, but even if there is the chance of sneaking in, I only see it as so minimal that it doesn't warrant an article like the one I just posted. A few isolated cases, sure. But not something that happens on a large-scale basis.

I see this as airports not wanting to admit that most of their baggage-handling employees are a bunch of filthy thieves...

"the important thing to remember when you're invited into a silverback gorilla's backyard is just who's the boss"

2008-01-05T15:01:00.001+01:00

Uh, no shit, Sherlock?

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid tourists go into a natural habitat and think that human rules apply in these habitats.

There are some good comments along with the article, one of them being:

"Quite what provoked the normally placid silverback into stamping his authority so forcefully is uncertain."

This statement shows the complete lack of understanding that animals are not here to entertain and amuse us without having thoughts and feelings of their own. These tourists were as far as the gorilla may have felt, invading his territory.
Are people that disconnected from reality that it would have made more sense if the gorilla pulled out his teapot and invited them all for a cuppa?

back to earth and reality...

2008-01-05T14:48:00.000+01:00

Urk... said I would get the SA report done before the end of 2007. Didn't happen. There's only two short blurbs to go. Here's one of them...

05/10-2007
After returning to Melville, we walked to a shopping center in the area to see if we could find anything interesting, as the weather was quite nice. We bought some CDs with South African music, most notably Freshly Ground (we listen to their latest CD quite regularly). As we walked out of the CD shop, we looked through one of the windows, or maybe doors, or whatever... we got a view of what was going on outside. It looked like a nice little tropical storm had appeared out of nowhere – it was thundering and there was lightning and lots of wind and rain. Ugh. This must have been the bad weather that was detected while we were in flight. I'm so glad this happened now and not while we were airborne or even at 4 am so that we would have to turn back like last time... whew... we got our balloon ride! :-D

Just as well it was lunchtime too, so we wandered into Mimmo's, a steakhouse of sorts. I had a steak topped with cheese and avocado, along with a side Greek salad. I'm glad they had the option of selecting a salad instead of chips/fries/pommes frites. Salad is good...

We had the following wine with our lunch:

Angel's Tears "Red" (Merlot/Cab Sauv) 2006
color: deep, opaque violet
nose: red meat, cherry liqueur, tobacco
palate: Urk, this was served too warm. Otherwise powerful with well-rounded tannins, flavor of concentrated spicy (especially cloves) cherry liqueur, easy to drink. Nice table wine.
grade: :-)+ (for what it is)

After we were done eating, the weather had cleared, so we decided to haul our asses to the guesthouse before the storm started up again. We had to start packing for our flight back to Oslo anyway. Blech. That was not fun. Packing all our wine was an especially annoying task, as we had to deal with weight regulations and all. They really need to get rid of that liquids ban on carry-on luggage too. It's stupid and has nothing to do with security whatsoever, and this has been proven by real scientists, not idiot politicians who think they know about anything in the real world at all. The people who created this ban are selfish, useless, and extremely dumb...

After getting most of the packing done, we got some tasty thin-crust pizzas at The Ant in Melville. It was very good pizza – we got one with bacon, feta, and avocado and one with olives, salami, and various other vegetables. Yum yum...

up, up, and away!

2007-12-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

05/10-2007
Urgh... got up before 4 am for a 4:15 pickup for our balloon safari. When the driver didn't show up at 4:15 (he arrived early yesterday) we were afraid that they forgot about us, our re-booking... but yay, finally, he showed up around 4:25. No big deal; South Africans have a tendency to drive a bit fast ;-)

When we arrived at the balloon grounds, there were quite a few people already there, waiting. There was a booth set up where coffee and rusks (hard biscuits/cookies) were served, so we got some coffee and rusks while watching the crew set up the balloon.

About hot air balloons in general

The balloon finally inflated and we were ready to board! The basket was huge and fit lots of people. There were several compartments where four people fit in one compartment. It was somewhat crowded but that was OK. Our pilot was Tracey; she has 30+ years of experience as a pilot (and also the most photographed armpits in South Africa). She gave us some instructions, particularly regarding landing, and then we were airborne. Wheeeeee!

Being airborne was... amazing... so quiet and peaceful (well, except for that noise when that hot air blaster went off)...

The scenery... wow...

People looked so small...

And trucks looked like toys...

The weather suddenly got kind of dodgy though, at least according to Tracey, who was communicating with people on the ground who had that kind of information, so we had to land a bit sooner than planned. Safety and all. Bah. We almost landed on a tree or perhaps a house, but eventually we hit the ground properly and everything was ok...

After landing, we all celebrated with a glass of Cap classique (or orange juice for those who didn't want alcohol); some people chose mimosas. We enjoyed this as we watched the crew pack up the balloon...

Then we returned to “headquarters” for a big buffet breakfast. There were lots of goodies – eggs, bacon, beans, cheese, yoghurt, fruit salad, freshly squeezed orange juice, several different kinds of bread... and nicely chilled Cap classique of course ;-)

After pigging out on this wonderful breakfast, I took several bird photos while waiting for our ride back to Melville...

All of the balloon safari photos (except the bird photos) start here and end here. The birds are here...

Some stats (WGS84):
Start:
S 25°48.887'
E 027°44.288'

End:
S 25°53.474'
E 027°36.660'

Our highest altitude was 5610 ft. above sea level; our starting point (the balloon field) was 4115 ft. above sea level. You do the math ;-)

in the Cradle - lions and rhinos and caves, oh my!

2007-12-22T19:58:00.000+01:00

04/10-2007
Urgh... got up before 4 am for a 4:15 pickup for our balloon ride. Well, we got picked up and after about 15-20 minutes of driving, and seeing flashes of lightning in the sky, I got a call from the guy who runs the balloon place – they weren't going to fly due to bad weather conditions. Bah. So we turned around and were delivered back to our guesthouse. (Later on we arranged for a flight the next day.)

Urgh urgh. We went back to bed and got up around 7-ish. Our hostess gave us a curious look, as we asked if it was possible to get breakfast (included with our room, but we had said we wouldn't be having any because we were going on the balloon ride hmmf). It was no problem getting breakfast, so we sat down, ate, and figured out what we were going to do... ah yes! Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site...

I didn't write too many notes about this part of the trip. We started at Sterkfontein Caves, limestone caves that are the location of many hominid remains. Some of the more famous remains are Mrs. Ples and Little Foot. Inside the caves, the rock formations are interesting but not as spectacular as the Cango Caves or Wonder Cave. There are some interesting underground lakes though...

The next stop was the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve, also the location of the Wonder Cave.

We had just missed a tour of the cave, so we drove around the park, looking at the animals, while keeping our eye on the clock to make it for the next tour. We finally got to see some white rhinos; they were not so very white as they were covered in red dirt. They're also wild, but the people running the reserve created some artificial conditions. For example, someone had left a pile of green grass for the rhinos to eat. As it was the end of winter/start of spring and the grass everywhere was dry and brown as a result, so green grass? It had to come from somewhere “manmade.” Also, they had predators in various enclosures, not mixed in with the prey as it would be in nature. What a way to tease the lions and cheetahs, being fenced in, without access to the tasty springbok grazing happily... ;-)

It was finally time to go to Wonder Cave. The formations inside are really fascinating, especially the one that looks like a jellyfish and the one that looks like the Virgin Mary (take that, creationists!). This was similar to though very different from Cango Caves. For one, no harrowing chimneys or narrow tunnels of love. They also use natural colored lights inside Wonder Cave, as opposed to the colored lights in Cango.

After the cave, we looked around the park some more, and stopped at the animal creche, where I got to rub a baby tiger on the belly (oooh so soft!) and meet some white lion cubs up close. The cubs were more interested in their chunks of meat than any of us...

I have mixed feelings about the interaction with cubs, but I'll leave that for The Plump Penguin some day...

We ate dinner at another Portuguese restaurant that was across the street from Nino's. Don't remember the name, and I remember eating grilled bacalhau, as nothing else was written down... :-/

Melville

2007-12-09T22:16:00.000+01:00

03/10-2007
Aaaah, finally in Johannesburg, in a district called Melville. We arrived at our guesthouse, got our room and dumped our stuff, and then went out to find some lunch. The lady in charge of the guesthouse pointed out where we could find some restaurants, so we walked over there. The most interesting restaurant was a place called Nuno's Portuguese Restaurant. As we sat down and looked at the menu, we noticed some people at a table near us; one of the people sitting there had a huge professional SLR camera just sitting on the table, with the strap loose. All worries about this area being unsafe went up in smoke ;-) It was quite relaxed here. As opposed to downtown Johannesburg, after getting our car and driving out here... eish ;-)

Anyway, food. We were quite hungry, so we decided on both a starter and a main meal. Our starter was the snack platter. It included chorizo, liver, giblets, haloumi, trinchado, prawn cakes, and calamari. Damn, it was HUGE! That was more than enough lunch for two people... and we still had a main course to eat! ;-) It was also very, very tasty...

We had the Mozambique-style seafood curry as our main course. It was very rich and flavorful, and very nicely spiced. Yum yum yum...

Our wine: Windmeul Kelder Sauvignon blanc 2007

color: very pale gold

nose: guava

palate: dry, refreshing, fresh, pomelo, grapefruit and guava flavors. Aftertaste of lemons and lemon zest

grade: :-D

Heh, on the menu there was a disclaimer: We do not take responsibility for meat ordered well-done, Later on, we saw that other restaurants had this on their menus. Excellent ;-)

There were quite a few guys out trying to sell stuff made of steel thread and beads...

Oh, I also had to go to a pharmacy that was across the street from the restaurant, as I managed to pick up some kind of nasty cough on the train (because of the air conditioning system). The pharmacist on duty was lovely, and picked out some medication for me and explained the dosages... we also chatted a little as she was curious about where I was from and whether I was enjoying South Africa. This was my second visit to a pharmacy during this trip, and I'm still very impressed with the competency and professional-ness (is that a word?) I was met with... always a good thing when on the road...

We spent the rest of the day just chilling out at the guest house. We bought a bottle of wine after lunch, and we had leftovers that we had planned to eat for dinner, but we were so stuffed that we didn't need to eat at all...

But the wine... we drank that ;-)
Mischa Estate (Wellington) 2003 Shiraz

color: deep, opaque violet

nose: spices, prunes, bell peppers

palate: full-bodied, fruity, peppery, slightly acidic but well-rounded. Long aftertaste of sour cherries. Pleasant tannins. Would go nicely with steak, ostrich, lamb, game, hearty dishes. Very easy to drink for a South African shiraz...

grade: :-D-

All aboard the posh purple train of Ring of Fat doom!

2007-12-09T20:54:00.000+01:00

02/10 – 03/10/2007
We got up quite early to get a taxi to the train station, arriving at the Premier Classe lounge a bit too early, so we had to wait outside, but that didn't really matter... while it seemed kind of dodgy in the area, we never really felt unsafe. And we didn't have to wait that long...

When the lounge opened, we checked in and sat in one of the sofas. We were served coffee and muffins while waiting for the train to arrive for boarding. While waiting, we walked around the tracks area, and watched as they were loading cars onto the train, including a bunch of Ferraris.. really weird...

Things were running a bit late; apparently a lot of the cars that were going on the train arrived late, which delayed everything. After a while, we finally boarded the train, and found our berth. It was supplied with, among other things, a bathrobe each. And slippers. Nice :)

Quite shortly after boarding, we were herded into the dining area, where we were given a glass of sparkling wine (nasty sweet – bah) and fed snacks (potato chips, nuts, and biltong) and scones and sandwiches and coffee or tea... let the feeding commence!

After the snacks and before lunch, we sat in the lounge area, enjoying the scenery from the train. We walked back and forth a lot, between our berth and the lounge area, hanging out and observing stuff. The scenery was amazing... everything from farms, vineyards, etc...

It was soon lunch time. Our lunch was:

Avocado ritz – shrimps in a seafood sauce, served in an avocado half. Absolutely delicious! The avocado was perfectly ripe, and the shrimps and the sauce were tasty. An excellent combination! The bread they served with it was on the dry side though...

Grilled hunter's steak (ordered medium rare), served with a bacon-, onion-, and mushroom sauce, tomatoes, potatoes, and vegetables. The steak was good, but a bit overcooked for medium rare...

strawberry custard slice, with berries and cream. Was OK... not too crazy about desserts ;-)

And the wine: Graham Beck "Railroad Red" Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

color: ruby red
nose: fruity, red berries, spices, pepper. Very aromatic
palate: Fruity, rounded and pleasant tanins, full-bodied. Primarily a wine to be paired with food, preferably red meat and maybe spicy dishes.
grade: :-)+ for food, :-) otherwise

After lunch, we continued to enjoy the scenery; you get a good dose of wonderful scenery from the train! It's not easy taking photos while the train is moving, but it's not impossible...

At 3 pm it was time for high tea. We were starting to feel like geese that were being overfed to fatten up the livers, but hey... tea and cake ;-) I chose rooibos tea and carrot cake. The tea was nice, the cake was OK but a bit dry. What's with the dry baked goods here?

At some point between high tea and dinner, we were passing through the Karoo, a semi-desert region. It was raining. Quite heavily. With thunder and lightning too. At some points, while the sun was shining. And it even started to hail! In a desert! How cool is that?

Dinner was the following:

Marego soup – a cream of wild spinach and potato soup, flambéed with South African brandy. Very tasty!

Kingklip Hout Bay – pan-fried kingklip with smoked snoek cream sauce. This was also very delicious, though the fish was slightly overcooked. The sauce was very different and interesting, but quite tasty...

Lamb chops “Saratoga” - Karoo lamb chops with potatoes and vegetables. Mmmm... lovely lamb! Nice and tender. It was served with potatoes, green beans, pumpkin, cauliflower in a cheese sauce, and half a peach. It's especially the peach-lamb combination that was excellent...

Chocolate mousse. Didn't eat much of this as chocolate bugs my stomach... :-/

Cheese board. Mmm... cheese!

The wines:
White wine: Vrede en Lust 2006 Karien (chenin blanc + semillon) – from Paarl

color: pale gold

nose: citrus, melon, peaches

palate: dry and acidic, flavor of minerals, blood orange. Standard white table wine
grade: :-)

Red wine: Stormhoek Pinotage 2006

color: (too dark to see properly)

nose: prunes, spices, blackberries

palate: pepper, plums, cocoa-bitterness towards the finish. Pleasant tannins. Very well-balanced.

grade: :-)+

After dinner, we were kind of tired, and we wanted to get up early to try to get some sunrise shots, and everyone else had gone to bed, so...

We made the lame attempt to get up early but, well, forget it! ;-) (Well, we did manage to take showers before everyone else wanted a shower, and then get back into bed)

We did get a wake-up “call” at 7 am; we were served coffee in our berth. We sipped our coffee, and then went to the dining car to have some breakfast. And as usual, breakfast was a big affair. We had juice and yoghurt, followed by an omelette with bacon and a sausage on the side. Good stuff :-)

Now the rest of the train ride was a bit of a “disaster” - we were delayed due to some accident earlier. People were getting restless, the staff was restless and nervous and frustrated, there was no more food left. We were supposed to arrive in Johannesburg at 11 am, and we didn't get there until 1 pm... bah...

But what can one do? When we finally arrived, we grabbed our luggage, went to get our rental car (a big Volvo!), and drove to Melville, where we would be staying for the rest of our trip...

Photos for the train ride start here - keep clicking forward until you get to here...

title replaced by incomprehensible baby babble

2007-12-04T20:02:00.000+01:00

*gagagoooteeheeheepenguinsgoogoogooheeheelookathelittlepenguinsgagaheehee*

01/10-2007
We got up early so that we could get to Betty's Bay relatively early. Our backpackers' didn't serve breakfast, so we took off hoping we would find a place to get something to eat. But alas, no. Fortunately I had a package of peanuts with me, so we munched on that and drank some water... not ideal, but better than nothing...

The actual penguin reserve is at a place called Stony Point Nature Reserve. It's a bit more “off the beaten track” than Boulder's Beach, the better-known locale for penguins in South Africa. I think Betty's Bay is nicer than Boulder's Beach (except that you don't get the nice sandy beach photos), as the area seems bigger and there are more bushes and “caves” and holes in the ground for the penguins to hide if the humans (and other creatures) get to be too much for them.

So we saw penguins. Lots and lots of penguins. Adult penguins. Fuzzy baby penguins. ”Teenage” penguins. And among the penguins, lots of cormorants. The cormorants were busy gathering nesting material, but a few took the time to walk among the penguins, invoking curiosity in the babies (“huh, what's this?”) and aggression in the adults, who were pecking at the rather indifferent cormorants.

And if the photos here and the links posted weren't enough, there are even more penguin photos on my flickr site... just click around and enjoy ;-)

We spent about an hour at the penguin colony. Afterwards, we headed towards Cape Town, making lots of scenery stops to take photos...

Our next major stop was Somerset West, to go to a shopping center there. Boyfriend of feitpingvin was hoping to find some clothes there. We got some lunch first though... at Dros, a chain restaurant. We ate at their Stellenbosch locale last year and enjoyed the food. This year – ugh. Bad mistake. First of all, it took forever for our food to get to us. Secondly, I threw up around a half hour after eating it :-/ Boyfriend of feitpingvin didn't get sick, so it must have been something Ms. Stomach didn't care for... grrmf...

He didn't find what he was looking for in the mall either. So we just headed towards Cape Town. First, the car was in desperate need of a good wash. We used the same car wash place as we did last year when we were going to return the car; their price had gone up to what... 60 rand for a complete wash (including vacuuming the interior) or something. We then went to our backpackers' (Inn Long Street) to dump our luggage, but this was a bit of a hassle. The girl at the desk, although rather sweet, wanted us to just sit down and relax. She didn't seem to get that 1) we were parked out on Long Street and parking costs money (a few rand hah!) and we really didn't want to stay parked out there anyway, 2) we had to get the car returned to the rental agency and we wanted to get that done right away so that we could relax properly afterwards. Sheesh :-) But we finally made it clear that this had to be done right away and everything was cool...

Heh. And when we returned the car, boyfriend of feitpingvin noted that he had driven over 2700 km :-) The guy who we handed the car over to also failed to see where we had that little accident pre-Harrismith, so boyfriend of feitpingvin pointed it out to him. It's best to be honest about it. Sure, we were insured and had to pay some administration costs, but that's better than getting caught later on. Oh, and he was also quite pleased that we got the car washed properly...

So we finally got back to Long Street, and hung out for a good part of the afternoon at Bob's Bar & Bistro. It's a really cool place; they have brews from Boston Breweries in Cape Town (a microbrewery). Yum yum, whale tail ale!

We decided to go walk around a little and then go back to the backpackers' to rest before dinner; we were planning on meeting some people I met through the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree African Board (South Africa). We eventually met at Khaya-Nyama - a restaurant specializing in meat dishes. I think the vegetarian platter that one of the women ordered was the “deadliest” of all though. It was huge! Not to say that anyone else got small portions. The food was plentiful and very tasty. At least my eland steak was tasty. And boyfriend of feitpingvin's grilled meat was presented in an “interesting” manner :-) Though we wanted the warthog ribs... but they were out. Boo hoo ;-)

Our wine: Fleur du Cap Pinotage 2005 (Stellenbosch)

color: (too dark to see properly)
nose: mint, tobacco, spices
palate: full-bodied and powerful, slightly acidic, flavor of very ripe dark berries, with a hint of cocoa
grade: :-)+

They had some cool live music going on as we were eating and chatting. The overall atmosphere was great. I highly recommend this place. And it was a very nice evening... the people who were able to show up – carolineb + husband, CTLocal, and tc_sebba were all very lovely and I wouldn't hesitate meeting them again :-)

whales are good food....

2007-11-29T22:16:00.001+01:00

ooooops, that was supposed to be whales and good food ;-)

30/09-2007

Bloody Sunday everything's closed... bah... we went to Raka, hoping they were open, but nope. Closed on Sunday. Bummer...

Now in Hermanus, having lunch at SeaFood at the Marine, this really posh place with a nice view of the sea. We sort of picked the first place we saw, as we were both quite hungry and wanted to get lunch out of the way before heading towards our backpackers' and whale watching and stuff. I guess we should have known it would be really posh judging from the outside and the finely-dressed parking lot attendants... didn't think they would let us in either, considering how we were dressed ;-)

Anyway, food. They had a two-course lunch for 155 Rand (or so) – which is quite up there by South African standards, but, well... we've paid more for lunch in Norway. And we were hungry :-) It's really strange how we quickly assimilated to the price standards here though... I'll discuss that later... Anyway, I ordered fish cakes as a starter, and boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered tomato soup. We both ordered “rich man's fish and chips” as the main. Being the non-driver, I ordered a Birkenhead lager to wash it all down with; it was very nice! (Birkenhead is a local microbrewery that we also tried to visit but they were closed for a private party. Bah.)

Mmm... excellent fishcake! You can see that it's actually made of chunks of fish, not some kind of pasty over-starchy stuff. Boyfriend of feitpingvin's tomato (tomato and basil actually) soup was also very tasty..

As for the main course... wow! The best fish and chips I have ever had! I stopped caring about the price of the meal after this – this was amazing stuff! The fish was nice and crispy on the outside, with a thin layer of batter, and the fish itself was cooked perfectly – neither too cooked or too raw. Just perfect. The chips were nice and crispy and not too heavy (though rather filling, ugh :) See how beautifully it was presented...

We had coffee afterwards... that was a bit of a downer. It was quite thin. South Africans are good at a lot of things, and not-so-good at a lot of things, and coffee is one of those things. I kind of expected better at such a posh place. I guess not...

The afternoon was spent watching whales along the shoreline. There were quite a few whales out and playing, but none of them were jumping out of the water, which was kind of a disappointment. Well, one of them started jumping out of the water when we put our cameras away... typical...

We went to Annie se Kombuis (Annie's Kitchen) for dinner; they serve traditional South African food. It's a cosy little place with rustic décor, where the menu you get is a list of the offerings written on a chalkboard. Kind of neat...

I was in the mood for something fish, so I got fish soup as a starter, while boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered mussels. To go with my fish soup, I ordered a glass of Hermanuspietersfontein (local winery) Sauvignon blanc. It was served in a huge glass, filled to the top. And it was very delicious ;-)

So was the soup. It was a fishy tomato-y broth with lots of bits of fish. Boyfriend of feitpingvin's mussels were also very nice, served with a wonderful very garlicy sauce...

Our main course was the ostrich pot – tender and tasty ostrich neck pieces in a wonderful sauce, served in a little black pot of RoF doom. Sweet potatoes, green beans and rice were served with the stew...

We had the following wine with our main course:

Hermanuspietersfontein Swartskaap 2006 (100% Cab franc)
color: deep blue-violet
nose: prunes, raisins, cloves
palate: full-bodied, slightly acidic and bitter, flavor of cherries, spices, anise, licorice. Good match to hearty meat dishes and stews, steaks, grilled meats
grade: :-) +

After dinner, we went back to the backpackers' to watch the rugby match between South Africa and the US... we both konked out at some point... SA won though (and eventually won the World Cup) :-)

in vino veritas...

2007-11-25T20:35:00.001+01:00

It's the truth. South African wine is fantastic! :-D

29/09-2007
This was a happy day for everyone, especially Mini Wolfgang! It was the big wine tasting day! Woohoo!

But first, we had some morning drama. We were eating breakfast and boyfriend of feitpingvin heard a strange sound in the Moroccan room. He took a quick look and came back to the breakfast table, saying that a dove had managed to get into the room and was trying to fly out through the window, and that the dogs were rather curious. We grabbed our cameras as this was a potential charming photo op, and you could hear that something going on. But then suddenly... silence. We went to have a look, and the only thing you could see was Floyd with his nose buried in the sofa, with feathers flying everywhere; you could hear a muffled growl and chewing. Ugh...

Floyd had managed to capture the dove, and it looked like he was eating it. Who can blame him though... the doves like to get at his and Roxy's food dishes (placed outside). He was chomping and growling and shaking his head, releasing feathers... the cover on the sofa was stained with blood and bird crap, and after moving the sofa, we found the poor dove on the floor, badly injured... poor ting had to be put down, it was best that way...

We never expected that we would see this kind of a kill. Lions killing buffalo, sure, if we were lucky. But a dog killing a dove? Very freaky. It was kind of grotesque, but at the same time, overwhelmingly funny...

Darn, I could use some wine now ;-)

Robertson is the second largest wine producing region in South Africa, and is part of the Route 62 wine route, the longest in the world (and one of the most underrated activities in South Africa).

Our host at Robertson Backpackers was also our driver/wine guide. I'll just use his first initial (K.) as I'd like to avoid using people's names on blogs, even though his name is on his webpage. Anyway, considering it was Saturday and most places closed early, we managed to hit an impressive 6 wineries. Now keep in mind that I swallowed most of what I tasted, and what I ended up writing in my little notebook (if anything at all in the end) reflects this ;-)

Rusticus
It was kind of dangerous going to this place first, as it seemed to “ruin” us for everything else ;-)

Rusticus produces their wines the “old fashioned way” - quite literally. The owners (the Busch family) use restored antique wine-making equipment and machinery, with minimal use of modern technology. I don't know to what extent making wine this way makes the difference, but the wines here are beyond fantastic...

(more cool photos of Rusticus on my flickr site)

Arabella
This wasn't in the original plan, but K. hadn't visited the place before and it was along the way to the next stop, so why not?

The Robertson area is known for more than just wine. Among the other things Robertson is famous for – thoroughbred horses. Part of the Arabella estate is a stud farm. The horses we saw there were beautiful.

Viljoensdrift
They're set right by the Breede River; it was very beautiful there. It's a popular picnic spot...

De Wetshof Estate
We tasted the best dessert wine ever – the Edeloes 2001. Too bad they didn't sell it, though they did let us take the bottle with the remaining contents – that was cool :-)

We did buy a bottle of a 2005 vintage to store though; can't wait to drink it :-) It was almost a disaster. The bottle we bought turned out to be defective, and it took several phone calls and several De Wetshof representatives trying to figure out where we were (we had been travelling here and there). But eventually, they caught up to us when we were in Johannesburg. We exchanged the bad bottle for a good one; everyone was happy :-)

Oh, we also bought a bottle of their lovely rosé wine...

Bon Courage
We were served a very lovely sparkling wine (cap classique), something we would have loved to take home with us had it been possible. Stupid, selfish fucks who keep the liquids ban going :-(

We had a very tasty lunch here – salad with smoked chicken and avocado, oranges, pineapple, nuts, and feta. This was washed down with sparkling red grape juice...

Springfield
This was our last stop. They had a very lovely “Life from Stone” Sauvignon blanc.

We relaxed in the back yard when we were done with the wine tour, and Floyd (the proud hunter) and Roxy got their obligatory belly rubs. After drinking a small can of Lesothan beer (geez, more to drink? ;), I wanted to go for a walk. Boyfriend of feitpingvin didn't want to come along, so I explored the area on my own... no problems whatsoever. In fact, I noticed that there were very few people who had the typical high fences and/or walls and barbed wire. Everything was open, and you had the feeling of safety and tranquility. It was such a nice feeling...

And the area is sooo beautiful! Mountains, valleys, new flowers to let the world that spring had arrived... lots of birds... good stuff!

When I got back from my walk, I played with the dogs some more, and then we had a delicious red chicken curry for dinner (home cooked by our hostess), along with some of the wine we bought on one of the visits (don't remember what we had, and we didn't take notes). We also shared the remaining dessert wine. Darn, that was good stuff!

my new career?

2007-11-12T20:39:00.000+01:00

28/09-2007
Once again, we had a lovely ostrich egg breakfast :-)

I forgot to write in the 27/09 report that when we returned from dinner at Jemima's, we found the Irish couple that we met at Viva Safaris staying at Backpackers' Paradise, sitting in the common area. So we chatted with them for a while about what we had been doing, and made temporary plans to meet up again in Cape Town...

The 28th of September, 2007 was the start of a potential career as an ostrich jockey. But before my big debut, we visited the rest of the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm. We started by driving out to the actual farm area, where we first passed a bunch of baby ostriches of varying ages. Baby ostriches are freakishly cute. They look totally clueless and their bums are whiteish and baldish and really strange-looking. And then we got to see the adult ostriches – the big males with their red beaks (their beaks turn red during mating season) and lots of females. One of the females was really snappy with her beak. It made for interesting facial expressions and thus interesting photos...

We were given a quick lecture about ostriches, and the one thing that has glued into the depths of my brain is that the eyeball of the ostrich is 60 grams, while its brain is 40 grams. Otherwise, they're raised for meat (ostrich meat is very lean and healthy and tasty), feathers (boas, dusters, hat decorations etc.), and leather (wallets, purses, belts, etc.).

We got the chance to hold an ostrich egg, to get a feel for the size and weight. We were also allowed to stand on the eggs; they tolerate quite a lot of weight! In a building, we got to see an incubator with a baby ostrich on its way to come out of the egg. It takes them about 8 hours to get out!

And then it was almost time for my big debut! We went to this show area where they first brought out a big male ostrich, put this bag over his head, and started showing and describing his body parts – neck, wings (wow!) etc. After that, they were looking for people who 1) wanted to only sit on the ostrich, 2) wanted to ride the ostrich. Surprisingly, I was the only one who wanted to ride. Well, boyfriend of feitpingvin wanted to ride too, but he was borderline at the weight limit for riding (75 kg). So he just sat on the ostrich. Only one other guy was willing to sit.

For riding, I had to first sign a disclaimer. Fine, whatever. Then they brought out an ostrich, and instructed me on how to get up on it. A patch feathers on the ostrich's back had been plucked to make a sort of “saddle” (ostriches have thick skin), and I sat on that. It was a really neat feeling sitting on the ostrich; they have very soft feathers and it was funky-neat to feel the feathers on my bare legs! The ostrich handlers told me to hold on to the wings and lean back, and then suddenly wooooooooosh! The ostrich was running. Fast. And I was hanging on for dear life :-) Wheeeeee!!!

I got a certificate for my efforts hehe...

After my big debut, we watched some real ostrich jockeys in a little race. Cool stuff. Though I'm sure I can kick all of their asses :-)

To reward myself for a great debut, I bought myself a really funky ostrich leather purse at the gift shop. And a cute little t-shirt. Boyfriend of feitpingvin bought a really nice ostrich skin wallet. Hindsight is 20-20; I wish I bought more stuff while I was there. Not that we had any space in the luggage for it or anything, but still...

Next on the agenda was Robertson, so we headed out on Route 62 in that direction. Our lunch stop was in Calitzdorp (the port wine capital of South Africa), at Die Dorpshuis guesthouse and restaurant. We both ordered the "Klein Karoo Special" - smoked ostrich with potato salad, bean salad, Greek salad, and red beets. It was nice having a cold lunch for a change, and the food was very tasty. The bean salad was especially delicious. We washed this down with a lovely homemade ginger beer.

Before lunch, we stopped at the Calitzdorp Wine Cellar and tasted a few of their wines. They were OK, but not spectacular, so we didn't buy anything. The woman working there seemed kind of indifferent, and we weren't really motivated to stick around... better luck next time...

Our next stop after lunch was Ronnie's Sex Shop. The story about the place is in the link. My own evaluation – ummmm... it's quite a place. Ronnie is quite a character, but really rather harmless. If you're driving along Route 62, I highly recommend a stop here...

After Ronnie's we had another stop, though a more gruesome one. There had just been an accident where a car drove off the road and flipped over. Several other people had stopped to see what was going on, and the cops were already there investigating and getting information, witness observations, etc. It was a really weird accident; there were skidmarks on the road and based on the skidmarks it was hard to tell what really happened, other than the driver must have been driving very fast. This accident was just as bad as some of the others we've seen, where the front of the car was completely crushed and the windshield was shattered...

We arrived at Robertson Backpackers at some point in the afternoon, while the sun was still shining. They have a big backyard with a nice green lawn there, and we decided to just stay there and relax for the rest of the day and evening. The rest of the house was quite cool too – especially the "Moroccan room" where you can sit and chill out to some music, and even smoke a water pipe if you'd like.

The couple who run Robertson Backpackers have two dogs – Floyd and Roxy. They are such characters! The very moment boyfriend of feitpingvin and I showed up, they demanded attention, and immediately rolled on their backs and spread their legs out in the hopes of a belly rub. And being the sucker that I am, I rubbed their bellies. And played the "grab the rope" game with this old tattered dog rope; Floyd was especially eager. It was actually quite fun running around barefoot on the lawn, playing with the crazy dogs.

We had a lovely braai for dinner and the following wine:

Swartberg Reserve Pinotage 2005 (from Kango Winery
color: deep red-violet
nose: very ripe cherries, hint of herbs
palate: hint of red apples, red grape peel and black currants, pleasant tannins. Goes nicely with red meat but should not be paired with fatty red meat.
grade: :-)+

Cango, Cango, Kango!

2007-11-08T21:11:00.000+01:00

27/09-2007
Guess what we had for breakfast? Guess! Guess!

Hah... scrambled ostrich egg! :-D With cheese, tomato, and toast. Yoghurt, cereal, juice and coffee (or tea) was also included in the breakfast. Yum!

Ostrich egg is quite interesting, with a richer flavor and texture that was nothing like chicken eggs at all. I really enjoyed it. Ostrich eggs are supposed to be the most unhealthy thing from an ostrich you can eat because of the high cholesterol level. Otherwise, ostrich meat is very lean and healthy. And tasty :-)

Cango Caves! We had been looking forward to this for quite some time. And of course we were going to do the adventure tour!

The adventure tour involves a lot of crawling in very narrow passages, climbing up “chimneys,” and sliding through “postbox slots.” The caves are warm (18-20 C) and very humid, so you get very sweaty, and it can be somewhat problematic if you're asthmatic, so if you are asthmatic and want to do the tour, it would be a good idea to take your inhaler. Be sure you wear lightweight clothes that you can climb in, especially when the humidity and sweat make the clothes stick to your body, good shoes, a headlamp if you have one, and keep stuff to a minimum – no big camera bags like boyfriend of feitpingvin and I had. (It went OK, but it was rather annoying.) You'll crawl around on the cave floors and sometimes it will be wet, but you won't get very dirty. We were surprised over this...

The only time I had a little bit of trouble was when I climbed up the chimney, because of my shoulder injury. Fortunately, I managed...

I'm glad I didn't get my fat ass stuck in the narrow passages. But people getting their fat asses stuck in the narrow passages has happened; early this year, this woman went on the adventure tour. Despite being warned not to. She got stuck in “lover's lane.” For 10 hours. Other people were trapped because of this. I can only imagine how badly it sucked for them...

We had actually talked about this with our hostess and her family in King William's Town, when we mentioned we were planning on going to Cango Caves. They said “she was enormous!” and even gestured to indicate a very wide girth. We also asked some of the people working in the information booths at Cango Caves, and they were all like “well, you know, she was warned...” and generally kind of polite about it. Our guide, a petite and fit young woman, was not very diplomatic about discussing that particular incident. She mentioned that rescue workers brought food to the people who were trapped by this woman, and that as they were passing the food along, the woman asked for a muffin, and everyone was screaming "what?! You want a muffin?! The last thing you need..."

So now there's soap and Vaseline readily available to the guides hahaha...

And there is now a disclaimer in the information pamphlet for Cango Caves – you have to be lean and fit to do the adventure tour. I don't see the disclaimer on the Website though... weird...

The caves themselves are very beautiful and fascinating. You have to see it to believe it...

Cango Wildlife Ranch
Our next stop was the Cango Wildlife Ranch. We were quite hungry, so we had lunch first. We went to a restaurant called "Turtles" - there was an enclosure with a pair of tortoises nearby. I photographed some swallows that were darting about the dining area, and then we sat down and ordered lunch. I ordered the crocodile filet, and boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered the crocodile ribs. It's not every day you get to eat crocodile!

While we were waiting for our food, I noticed something going on in the tortoise enclosure. So I went to have a closer look, and... well... the big tortoise was up on top of the other smaller tortoise. He was humping along, and making this really strange noise. I snapped a few shots and went back to the table; we could hear him from the table. They went on for quite some time, and the tortoise underneath kept trying to get away. We later learned that both tortoises are male, and that the big one is named Bonk and he likes to bonk everything ;-)

Anyway, our food arrived, and as usual in this country, everything looked great and the portion was enormous! And the taste – YUM! Crocodile is neutral like chicken, though with a “fishier” taste. This crocodile was very tender, and marinated with a very nice flavor. It was served with rice, vegetables, and salad.

The ribs, which I got to sample, were quite different from the filet, which comes from the tail. The ribs had a more “meaty” flavor and different texture. They were still quite delicious ;-)

After lunch, we had a guided tour of the ranch. There were way too many people on it. Other than that, it was nice. We saw lots of birds, some crocodiles (including one that jumped up from the water to grab some meat from this guy's hand), lemurs (including one with a baby), meerkats, large cats, and other cool creatures.

Kango Winery
After our visit to the ranch, we headed back into town so that we could do a tasting at the Kango Winery before they closed. The winery is within walking distance of Backpacker's Paradise, and as we weren't in a hurry, we stopped by a few shops to find a hat for boyfriend of feitpingvin, to replace the one the monkeys stole from him at Moholoholo. He managed to find three ;-)

Hmm, I just realized I didn't tell that story. The quick and easy version was that boyfriend of feitpingvin left his hat in the car when we went into Moholoholo. The window was open slightly, and it was apparently just enough for the monkeys to get in, take the hat, and take off again. So when we returned to the car, no hat. It was unlikely someone in the area would have stolen it. Just the darn cheeky monkeys...

OK, back to the wine. Wow, for a little winery in a semi-desert region, they make some really nice wines! Mini Wolfgang was having a good time – the friendly staff made sure his tasting glass was never empty! The white wines were very nice and refreshing, and the reds were brilliant, especially that blend we had with our dinner at Jemima's. We bought a bottle to take home to Norway, as well as a bottle of Swartberg Pinotage Reserve.

On our way back from the winery, we stopped in this one fancyish shop that sold ostrich leather products and big, fluffy boas. I bought myself a beautiful white boa, with brown flecks. “Au naturel” - boas come from the wings of female ostriches and that is the natural coloring. It is absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to use it!

We ate dinner at Paljas Restaurant. We each ordered ostrich liver paté as a starter; this was very nice. I had the Moroccan chicken with lemon, garlic and chili for my main course, and boyfriend of feitpingvin had the Cape Malay chicken curry (“Bo Kaap-style”).

Our wine was the Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon blanc 2007
color: too dark to see
nose: gooseberries, hint of grapefruit peel
palate: dry and refreshing with flavors of gooseberries and citrus fruits. OK with spicy food, but not the best choice. Otherwise a very lovely wine.
grade: :-)+

Hahaha, we're sitting in the outdoor area, and there's this stage out here for shows and whatnot... one can only imagine... ;-)

getting to our routes - from the Garden Route to Route 62

2007-11-07T20:50:00.000+01:00

26/09-2007
Ya wanna know what? There's nothing better than waking up with your eye glued shut with yellow, crusty pus. Let me tell ya... and once you chisel that layer of pus away, out oozes more yellow, gooey pus. Isn't that just peachy?

Dammit, where did this eye infection come from? All the sand from yesterday? Dodgy pillowcases? Hmm... this is not good...

The Jeffreys Bay Backpackers didn't serve breakfast so we had to go and find a café to get something. I was feeling rather miserable, so I didn't even write down the name of the place where we had breakfast. The meal was called "Biker's Breakfast" though (maybe someone will recognize the place based on the name?) – eggs and bacon and toast and probably other things I don't remember because I was too out of it and didn't write it down. I'm also a bit peeved that I didn't write much down, as the owner or manager (I think) of the place told me where I could go to deal with the eye. I was whining about it, and he was really nice and all like “oh, go to this pharmacy, it's just around the corner, ask for S., he'll take care of you!” So we went to that pharmacy, found S., and he gave (well, sold (for 20 Rand)) me a little tube of ointment and everything was hunky dory. Wheee! I had to use it three times a day for the next few days, but once I started using it, everything got so much better!

We were now on our way to Oudtshoorn (a main stop along Route 62). This was an action-packed journey. Some of the highlights along the way (along the Garden Route):

Stormsrivier/Storms River. It's easy to see why this place is one of the most highly recommended stops along the Garden Route. We had a walk over the bridge, and took pictures of the breathtaking scenery.

We also had lunch at Rafter's Restaurant – ostrich bobotie, washed down with mango juice. It was delicious! Bobotie rules! Everyone should eat bobotie – for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! We also got to see part of the village, with it's funky colorful buildings...

Bloukrans Bridge. This bridge offers the world's highest commercially operated bungee jump. No, I didn't jump ;-) I would have considered it had it not been for the darn eye...

Birds of Eden. Birds of Eden is the largest free-flight bird aviary in the world. It is full of plants and trees and lots of other good places for the birds to hide. You know they're there, even though you don't see them. You can feel their little beady eyes piercing right through you. Good stuff... :-)

I kind of feel bad about making boyfriend of feitpingvin come here, as our visit here gave us too little time to go to the elephant park next door (if we were to make it to The Heads). I had seen lots of birds already and we visited a bird park last year... and he has never interacted with elephants. Next time I guess... :-/

The Heads at Knysna. The views are breathtaking! They even have a webcam

..........

We arrived at Backpacker's Paradise in Oudtshoorn early evening. It's quite a big place – the common room and dining area are huge, and it looks like there are a lot of rooms in general. Our en-suite room was big and cosy-looking. It's supposedly one of the best backpackers' in all of South Africa. I must say that I agree with this!

We ate dinner at Jemima's Restaurant; this place was recommended by a trusted someone on the Lonely Planet message boards (hey, thanks!). We didn't order a starter, but we were given a starter/amuse bouche anyway – spinach, mushrooms, and feta in phyllo pastry along with sourdough bread and a sun-dried tomato pesto. This was delicious!

My main course was the “tandem” - a steak duo. My duo was of ostrich and springbok, prepared medium rare. This was served with an amazing port- and cranberry sauce. And “parmesan potatoes.”

Boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered grilled Karoo lamb. This was served with a puff pastry “pot” (with a lid and everything) filled with leg of lamb. He also got a portion of “parmesan potatoes.”

Our meals were simple, but very delicious. It was just what we wanted. The meat melted in our mouths...mmmm. South African meat, especially the game, is just wonderful.

The wine we chose to quaff with our meal was out of this world:

Kango Winery Cabernet sauvignon/Merlot/Shiraz 2006. Local wine!
color: it was too dark to see
nose: prunes, raisins, alcohol
palate: anise, cloves, cranberries, apricot and raspberry finish. It's very “different” and difficult to characterize. It's a great all-around wine for pairing with food (especially red meat) as well as drinking on its own.
grade: :-D

I managed to stir some interest, as I was feverishly writing notes at the table and taking photos of the food. First, there was a Danish woman who asked (in Danish; boyfriend of feitpingvin had asked her earlier, in Norwegian, if she was Danish) if I was a food journalist. And then the couple who were at the table next to us asked the same thing. I just told them I was a silly amateur who likes to write silly things and post silly photos in her travel blog... ;-)

Getting paid to travel around South Africa and the rest of the world to write about food and wine would be a really cool job though! :-D

We chatted with the couple for a little while; they were on their honeymoon. She is a wine buyer/sommelier in Scotland. She said that she loved South African wines and that there were so many fantastic wines available. The problem was that they were inexpensive. Too inexpensive. Such that even with the markup in say, a restaurant, people always associated low price with bad quality wine. This shows that many people who go and buy wine don't know shit about what they're buying and drinking, but what can one really do to resolve this problem?

heading out to sea...

2007-11-06T19:21:00.000+01:00

25/09-2007
We woke up rather early once again. To give the birdies the paparazzi treatment, of course. Some of the more interesting specimens included an African paradise flycatcher and a scarlet-chested sunbird. And of course there were tons of little yellow weaver birds darting around here and there. Yes, I really do get excited over stuff like this. Yes, it annoys the hell out of boyfriend of feitpingvin ;-)

Birds weren't the only thing we saw. From the veranda (on the 2nd floor of the house), we watched as the groundkeeper washed our car. We didn't ask for this, so we were pleasantly surprised over the situation. The car was quite filthy, especially after the dustbath it got at Sani, and we had been thinking of taking it to a car wash. This kind gesture made our lives a lot easier. He got a nice tip for this! :-)

Breakfast was a big, delicious affair, as expected. We started with some lovely oatmeal; I had mine with fruit and some yoghurt. This was followed by a cheese and mushroom omelette, bacon, and kudu sausage! Kudu! Oh, it was soooo good! Why can't I get stuff like that here? *sigh*

We had a good chat with our hostess and her son about where to go along our route. Among the places that were recommended – Stormsrivier and The Heads at Knysna. We were also ordered to do the adventure tour when we got to Cango Caves ;-)

I didn't write very many notes for this part of the trip. We stopped at Grahamstown for lunch. Grahamstown has a lot of nice old buildings, but I wasn't really in the mood to photograph anything. We ate at Dulcé Café. I ordered grilled vegetables with cheese and tomato-basil sauce (I was in the mood for something vegetarian), and boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered tortillas. Both were lovely :-)

We arrived at Jeffreys Bay and settled into our accommodation – Jeffreys Bay Backpackers. It was OK; a bit on the expensive side for what we got, considering it was a backpacker place. Our room was en-suite, and the passageway to the bathroom/shower was very narrow. We're not that big and we had to squeeze through. It was also very obvious that Jeffreys Bay is known for surfing, as the backpackers' was very set-up for people with surfboards.

It was very windy there when we went out for a walk. Windy and somewhat chilly. I tried photographing seagulls that were kind of floating in the wind, but they kept floating away too quickly. Heh. Plus there was sand blowing on my lens and in my eyes, and that's not cool. The beach is surely a very nice to be when the weather is good - the sand is nice and white and the water is bright blue and inviting. We did see this one guy getting into the water, so I can't imagine the water being that cold. Either that or he's a crazy Scandinavian ;-)

We ate dinner at The Mexican, a sort of pseudo-Mexican restaurant. We had jalepeño poppers for our starter and the seafood platter for two for our main course. The poppers were OK but not really what I wanted at the time... couldn't really eat them, so I gave them to boyfriend of feitpingvin, who gobbled them down with no problem whatsoever ;-)

The seafood platter – dang! Is this for 2 people or for 10? ;-) The Neverending Seafood Platter of Ring of Fat Doom. Let's see... fish, mussels in sauce, prawns, calamari, rice, pommes frites... lots of food. Lots of tasty food. This was quite good... but very filling!

Our wine was the Hill & Dale Sauvignon Blanc 2006.
color: (it was too dark here to be able to see this)
nose: honey melon, green apples, slight pear, green pepper, and lichee
palate: fresh, almost the feel of carbonation, flavor of melon, green apples. Slight «bite» in the aftertaste
grade: :-)+

A little observation - "everyone" here is white. Even the wait and bar staff (they are surf instructors/pro or semi-pro surfers by day, wait and bar staff by night). The city also seems very "we cater to the wealthy who want a beach holiday."

traversing the Transkei

2007-11-01T21:51:00.000+01:00

24/09-2007
We got up as late as we possibly could before breakfast (served at 7:30 am) as to get plenty of sleep. This was kind of weird as we were used to getting up quite early. We ate breakfast quickly, paid our bill, and headed out towards King William's Town. This was going to be the drive from hell and we needed to start as early as possible. Eight hours of driving. Yuck.

I didn't write any notes for this trip before we got to the guesthouse, so I'm relying on my Teflon memory. We took the N2, a route that included the Transkei. It was very isolated there. We passed several small villages made up of brightly colored houses and rondawels. It was kind of scary driving through these areas at times, as there were cattle and goats on the road here and there, as well as small children and other people...

We also passed a few larger cities, including Mthatha. However, there were few places where we could actually stop. There were very few gas stations along the way, and there weren't any obvious places (that we could see) where it was realistic to stop and have lunch or get out and stretch our legs. When we passed the cities, the roads were crowded with cars and people. It was kind of unnerving to see people piled out on the highway like that. There were hawkers galore, there were people waiting for minibusses, holding cards – CE, XA, CB, XE, etc. We had no idea what any of these codes meant. If anyone knows, please say something ;-)

Fortunately we had water, biltong, and that bread we bought in Lesotho to survive on until we got to our guesthouse in King William's Town, where we had booked dinner. Not having coffee was really difficult though...

We finally did have a stop at the Nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu (yes, I know how to pronounce it correctly, with the click). Qunu is the village where Nelson Mandela grew up and reportedly enjoyed some of the happiest moments of his life; it's about 25 km from Mthatha. The museum itself was closed, I think, but we were still allowed to see the exhibit with a guide. Not only is there a museum on the premises, there was also a education center, accommodation, and a cafeteria. There were some school groups there when we toured the area. It was great to finally get out and stretch our legs. Unfortunately, we were unable to get any coffee :-(

We arrived at Panorama Guesthouse in King William's Town around 17:30-ish, tired and hungry. Our lovely hostess brought us some coffee, and we enjoyed that while sitting on the veranda, watching the birds (hah! Can't wait to get up early in the morning to see them!). Our guesthouse had a huge, lush garden with several birdbaths, and it was the same with the neighbor houses, and this attracted lots of sweet little birds. After relaxing and then washing up, we went to the dining room for dinner. We were really hungry now!

Our starter was butternut soup, with wholegrain bread on the side. It was one of the best butternut soups I have ever had, if not the best. No, it's not because I was very hungry. This was fantastic stuff! Hmm, I have to remember to e-mail her and ask for the recipe ;-)

The main course was lamb chops (or was it cutlets?) with pineapple, onions, and some soy sauce and curry, served with brown rice, mealie bake (I have to get the recipe for this too), and vegetables. All of this was so good! Lamb and pineapple are a great combination. Mmmm!!! There's nothing like a delicious home-cooked meal after a long, tiring day. We had a nice white wine with both our soup and the lamb. Namaqua. Bag in box. Don't remember the type of grape...

Dessert was a fluffy caramelly-minty mousse. I don't know what it's called but it's supposed to be a popular South African dessert. I'm not overly crazy about sweets, but this wasn't too bad, at least in small quantities :)

Oh, and all of this was 60 Rand! Totally unreal. If any of you reading this ever stay at Panorama Guesthouse in King William's Town, GET THE DINNER! :-D

After dinner we went up to our room to relax and watch TV (yay, Muvhango!). We also shared a bottle of wine:

Raka Quinary 2003
general info: 14% alcohol. 62% Cab sauv, 12% Cab franc, 2% Merlot, 3% Malbec, 3% Petit verdot
color: deep and opaque reddish-brown with hints of violet
nose: spices, red meat, dark berries, hint of tobacco and moldy sawdust
palate: spices, green pepper, asparagus. Full-bodied and powerful. Pleasant tannins. Aftertaste of red apple peel, grapefruit/pomelo finish.
grade: :-D

Oh, and we also washed our travel zip-off trousers in the bathroom sink. This was a dire necessity after yesterday's Lesotho dust bath. The water was screaming in pain as we put the filthy clothes in ;-)

And now Motswako on TV. Wheeeee!

"I suspect that this is based on science."

2007-11-01T18:40:00.000+01:00

(taking a little break from the South Africa stuff to bring you this message)

Lords debate airline liquids ban

Isn't that precious?

There are lots of gems in this story, but my personal favorite:

"What damage can be done by 105 millilitres of liquid that cannot be done by 100 millilitres of liquid?" he snapped, testily.

This completely floored Baron Bassam. "My briefing does not extend to that," muttered the confused government toff. "I suspect that this is based on science."

Based on science. Isn't that special?

filling in the blanks... LESOTHO!

2007-10-29T21:18:00.000+01:00

LESOTHO! 23/09-2007
I'm finding that I quite enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn, to enjoy the sunrise, the morning air, the birds, the scenery in the morning light... I really feel at peace...

We started the day by getting up early to take photos of birds and the mountains. After breakfast and after leaving our laundry with the San Lodge staff (they do laundry (wash, line dry, and fold) for you for 35 Rand - wheee!), we were ready to go on a daytrip to Lesotho!

We met our guide and got into a 4X4 vehicle; you need one of those to drive up Sani Pass and you can actually be stopped and made to turn back if you don't have an appropriate vehicle. I was a bit apprehensive at first as there were no seatbelts in the 4X4 and if something were to happen, the insurance companies would go tell me to bite myself. As we drove along, our guide casually mentioned something or other about how if the driver jumps out of the vehicle, that everyone should jump out... just as well there were no seatbelts ;-)

Anyway, we drove up along the Sani Pass, which is used as a trade route between South Africa and Lesotho. The actual road is nuts – unpaved, narrow, steep, twisting. It's why you need a 4X4. And even with 4X4s people had problems. We saw at least two breakdowns during the whole trip. Anyway, drivers going up have the right of way, and I can see where this rule can be difficult for drivers going down. Along the Sani Pass as a whole, you could see the remains of cars and trucks that have driven off the road. Not a pretty sight. I'm glad we chose an organized tour as opposed to doing it on our own. We didn't have a 4X4 for starters...

Originally, donkey-pulled carts were used but now even big trucks (eek) use the road. There were several old trade posts (houses) along the way; we stopped at these for closer looks and photographs. There were quite a few interesting stops along the way, which was good as there were so many nice things to see and photograph. There were lots of weird things too. Like this one dude who was carrying a big bundle of branches on his back. As we were in a World Heritage site, it was not legal to take things like branches from it. However, according to our guide, this guy did it day in and day out...

Another interesting section was a mountain route used for marijuana smuggling. The Lesothan government did little to stop the traffic from Lesotho to South Africa, leaving the South African border police with the bulk of the work. Lesotho is a poor country and with poverty comes the desire to make “quick and easy” money, legally or not...

The vegetation was also quite interesting, varying tremendously between the Sani Lodge and Lesotho itself. It's amazing how much differences in altitude affect things...

Unfortunately, there are plans to pave this road, and work has already started. I say unfortunately, as maintenance of the road will be expensive, and because it takes away a lot of the charm of the area. Tourists specifically traverse the Sani Pass because the road is so primitive and harrowing. In addition to the plans to pave the road, there are plans on building more luxury resorts in the area, as well as setting up a ski resort in Lesotho. Among the arguments to counter the arguments that this will ruin the environment, "but it will help the local economy." Bullshit. Lesothans* will still get their low wages, and the owners of the lodge will profit, profit, profit. And most of the money will go abroad. Let's get real here...

Heh, speaking of "abroad," our guide was talking about this tour agency called Saga, dubbed "send a granny abroad" by a lot of local guides. They allegedly sell relatively "tame" package tours to the elderly, and they always had to get back to the luxury lodge by a certain time, so that the old folks could take their medication ;-)

Anyway, when we got to the border control to go out of South Africa, there weren't too many people there. However, the queue grew and grew, so it was a good thing we got there when we did. It was a public holiday, so there were crowds. But things went quickly and smoothly. We then went to the passport control at the Lesotho border and that went smoothly as well. Our guide had taken all our passports in, and when he returned with them there was a Lesothan border guard with him. He looked at me and said “you're feitpingvin!” Really weird. I said yes, I am, and I shook hands with him. He said that he had seen my passport, which is what I figured. So we got back into the vehicle and yay! We were finally in Lesotho! We can finally fill in that darn spot in the middle of South Africa in our “countries visited” maps ;-)

The part of Lesotho we visited is very isolated and barren. There were no trees to be seen due to the high altitude; only dryish shrubs. The primary industry in Lesotho is sheep farming (for wool), as sheep and goats are the only thing that can survive and be "grown" there.

Young Lesothan men spend time in these isolated areas to work/train as shepherds, from the age of 13 or so. They live a very simple life, but they are able to get a piece of land for free. They don't go to school as they have their land and their sheep; they don't need very much else. Schooling is not compulsory in Lesotho, but primary education is free, and 85% of the population is literate, which is high by African standards. Secondary education is not free and thus limited to the wealthy who can afford it. University education, on the other hand, is free. It's really weird that secondary education isn't free but everything else is...

It was a very windy day, and we got lots of reddish-brownish dust blown all over us... urk. We were washing it out for days. The wind made it quite chilly too...

Not too long after lunch, some of us went out for a hike with the guide; a woman with three small children stayed behind in the vehicle. The hike was very nice, but we could really feel the effects of the thin air. It took a lot more effort to do something as simple as walk for a half hour than it would normally take at, hmm, sea level...

When we returned to the vehicle, there was a shepherd there. Just standing there. As if he appeared from nowhere. Very spooky...

We started heading back towards the border. Our next stop was at a private rondawel (or rondavel – it can be spelled both ways), to visit one of the locals. We met a lovely woman who sells bread, beer, homemade beer (similar to umqombothi, made of maize and sorghum – if anyone knows that the local term for this "beer" is, let me know!), and other things to shepherds and tourists. We got to sample the homemade beer (this was passed around in a big mug), which was actually quite nice, refreshing, and fruity, as well as the bread (also passed around), which was absolutely delicious. The bread was wholegrain and very flavorful; it came in large, triangular chunks. This was the kind of bread that appeals to northern Europeans. Yum yum! We were told we could buy some bread if we wanted to, so we bought a few pieces (we could pay with ZAR). Boyfriend of feitpingvin bought a big bottle of regular beer as well, even though he could have easily purchased beer in South Africa. It's always nice to help out the locals, especially when they have six kids to feed!

I was a bit disappointed to not find wool products for sale, like the beautiful bright-colored shawl/poncho-thing the woman was wearing. I would have loved to have something like that!

On a side note, the Lesothan vendors usually had a colored flags code system to let shepherds and whoever else know what was being sold. I don't remember what color was for what though.

Our final stop was at the Sani Top Chalet, to visit Africa's highest pub. This was something for Mini Wolfgang for sure! He had been rather bored for most of the trip ;-)

We shared a mug of hot cocoa (yum) and a pint of beer (Mini Wolfgang drank most of that) and took some photos in the general area. The beer on tap was from the Nottingham Road Brewing Company – yay! :-D

Along our return to South Africa and the Sani Lodge, we stopped by this place called "the Fountain of Youth," where we could drink the streaming water.

When we returned, our laundry was washed, dried, and folded, which was nice. The electricity had gone out though, which made things interesting. The common area was lit with candles, and we were wondering how dinner would be handled (we booked dinner again). It wasn't a problem as the stoves were gas, and we had a simple, but filling dinner.

The electricity came back eventually, but it didn't really matter for us. Again, we went to bed at 21:00...

* From what I have heard, it is offensive to call them “Lesothans.” I don't know if it comes from the mouths of the people of Lesotho, or if the PC-brigade has stuck their nose where it doesn't belong once again. If I'm going to have to use each individual ethnic group, then I have to know who/what they actually are. So if someone can let me know what the people of the Sani Pass area of Lesotho are “supposed” to be called, I'd appreciate it.

I love the singing of birds early in the morning...

2007-10-27T10:41:00.000+02:00

Howick to Sani Pass, 22/09-2007
Ooooops, forgot to post the tasting notes for the wine we had the evening of the 21st so here goes:

Five's Reserve Pinotage 2005 (With the “big five” on the label, purchased in Kruger National Park! Produced by Van Loveren in Robertson.)
color: deep violet
nose: strawberries (I was the only one who got this), tobacco, prunes, some herbs
palate: powerful and full-bodied, pleasant tannins. Flavor of vanilla, blackberries, red apple peel (says boyfriend of feitpingvin), spices, pepper, hint of chili. “Snippy” at the end. Will go well with meat dishes, but also ok alone.
Grade: :-)

OK, now we can continue...

We planned on getting up early to enjoy the sunrise and the birds and stuff. Did you know that you could order a wake-up call for 5 a.m? Isn't that great? What service! What we didn't realize was that there were other orders for wake-up calls before ours. The roosters started around 3:45 a.m, and the hadeda ibises, not wanting to be outdone, started screeching around 4 a.m. The songbirds followed shortly after... pip pip pip... chirp chirp chirp... very sweet...

hadeda ibis - the official alarm clock of South Africa

So I was already more or less awake at 5, so I got out of bed, threw on yesterday's clothes, and made some coffee. Then I went out to walk the grounds of the farm and look at the birds; boyfriend of feitpingvin joined me shortly after. And I was far from disappointed in the amount of birds I saw, but the darn things just wouldn't stay still to be photographed ;-)

We told our hostess we would have breakfast at 7:30, so around 7 we went back to our apartment to shower and get dressed in fresh clothes. Breakfast was pre-ordered the night before; we were given a sheet with breakfast options that we were supposed to check off. We thought that we could only choose one of the many options; we ordered oatmeal with apples and yoghurt, and I had requested one soft-boiled egg in addition, if it were possible, so that I could get some protein...

It turned out that we could order everything on the breakfast menu if we really wanted to. So we had our tasty oatmeal (I loved the combination of oatmeal, shredded apples, and yoghurt. This is something I'm going to do at home!), plus soft-boiled eggs with "soldiers" in addition. We didn't know what soldiers were, and a couple of elderly English guests were snickering at us :-) We laughed when we got our plate...

It was a really nice breakfast, and a good break from all that bacon and sausages. Yes, I was starting to get sick of bacon. I didn't think that was possible. Don't worry, I'm over it now. Mmmmm, bacon ;-)

After breakfast, we first headed in the opposite direction to where we were going next (Sani Lodge Backpackers) but we wanted to find a local winery. After an hour of driving we still didn't find it, so we stopped at a farm stall instead and bought some proper ginger beer. It had been ages since I had that. It was made of ginger, sugar, lemon, and water. Nothing else. You don't need anything else. Most certainly not any ingredients that require a degree in chemistry to understand. I wish more people and companies would get that *sigh* I'm going to have to try making it here at home. It shouldn't be too difficult...

We eventually took the R617 to Sani Pass. It started out kind of boring but got really nice in the end. The very last part of the journey was on a dusty, unpaved road...

We arrived at Sani Lodge Backpackers just before 2 pm. I noted the time as we were hoping to catch a rugby match, but Sani Lodge didn't have a TV anyway, and if we wanted to go to a pub, we'd have to drive back to the nearest town and that would take a while. Sani Lodge is a sort of "middle of nowhere" place, and very simple – the rooms are very basic but suitable for the environment and (for the most part) the kind of people who typically go there in the first place. It's not a bad place though; it's brilliant if you want to get away from it all. They have a café there (Giant Cup's Café), so we went there for lunch. We had smoked trout with mustard sauce (I pushed that aside as mustard makes me sick for some reason), pickles, and wholegrain bread. It was delicious. I washed it down with milk that comes from Jersey cows farmed in the area. Very nice.

After lunch, we hiked on a trail in the area. There were a few birds and some very nice orange flowers, and the scenery was lovely. Absolutely lovely. I would love to go back to the area and do a much longer hike. They have a set of trails where you can hike from cabin to cabin over a period of several days, kind of like what they have here in Norway. That would be so cool. They really should market that to Norwegians; they would really go for that!

We had booked dinner at the backpackers' and it was served at the café. It was simple but worked for us – chicken, rice, and vegetables.

We read a little bit after dinner, and then went to bed at 21:00. On a Saturday night. Hah!

(We also got up at 5 the next morning. Voluntarily :)

mountains, Midlands, and microbrewery

2007-10-24T19:43:00.000+02:00

Harrismith to Howick, 21/09-2007
A quick note – I didn't write too many notes for today's events. So I'm basing things on the sparse notes that I have and my Teflon memory...

After a very good night's sleep in the very comfortable bed, we (at least I) got up early and hung around the yard looking at birds, both wild backyard birds and "domesticated" birds. Like our hostess' black swans. The guard swans. You don't mess with swans. We then had a very tasty breakfast...

South African breakfasts are interesting. At least the breakfasts served to tourists; I hope they don't eat like this all the time. You usually start with some cold cereal or maybe oatmeal, followed by fruit salad and yoghurt (sometimes these two are switched around), followed by eggs along with bacon, or sausage, or fried tomatoes, or fried mushrooms, or all of the above :) That's a lot of food...

We started with fruit salad and yoghurt, followed with eggs and bacon and sausage (don't remember what else) and toast, along with some coffee. It was all very tasty and filling. While we were eating, one of the hostess' dogs approached me and sat down next to my chair, looking at me with her big brown sad eyes (more extreme than the photo shown), as if she hadn't been fed for weeks hehe... very funny...

Dogs are very popular pets in South Africa. While one may think that people would want them as guard dogs, because of the crime and all, it seems like people genuinely enjoy having dogs for the sake of companionship. At least this was the case here at The View and in other places we visited, both this year and last year.

After breakfast, we headed towards our next destination, Howick, in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Here are some of the highlights of the drive over:

Sterkfontein Dam Nature Reserve. We really didn't have time to look around here, but there are supposed to be loads of birds. The scenery is also very beautiful...

The Amphitheatre (Northern Drakensberg). The view of it though; we didn't actually climb it or anything. Quite spectacular.

I would have loved to stay longer in the Northern Drakensberg (and the Midlands too for that matter), and at the very least see Royal Natal National Park (we skipped this due to lack of time). However, as someone (*cough* *cough*) insisted on wine tours, I had to compromise on certain things, as that someone was going to do all the driving ;-) The positive side was that we got a nice “sampler” of everything and ideas of what we would like to do "in depth" next time...

Bergville B&B/Restaurant. We had lunch here. I'm not sure how much it's a "highlight" compared to, say, the gorgeous mountains, but it was a rather amusing place. We had hamburgers with lots of stuff in it – cheese, bacon, a fried egg, sausage, pineapple... It was very strange, and very filling, and actually tasted pretty good... :-) The milkshake I ordered, however, was not so good. Bah...

Nottingham Road Brewing Company. Finally, something for Mini Wolfgang to enjoy! ;-) A proper microbrewery with lots of good things to drink! Unfortunately, we arrived too late for a tour and talk about the brewery. But we were able to buy stuff in the shop – a t-shirt each and some beer to take with us to Stocklands Farm, where we were going to be spending the night. I also had a "sampler" of four different kinds of brew, all named after animals. They included the Tiddly Toad Lager, the Pye-Eyed Possum Pilsner, the Whistling Weasel Pale Ale, and the Pickled Pig Porter. I liked the Pale Ale best. Boyfriend of feitpingvin could only take a sip of each, as he was driving. Mini Wolfgang took more than just a sip, and ended up drinking most of everything ;-)

(To those of you tuning in for the first time, Mini Wolfgang is my travelling penguin. He loves beer and wine more than he loves life itself. This can sometimes cause trouble when we visit wineries and breweries.)

We finally made it to Stocklands Farm late in the afternoon. We had originally hoped to stay in Nottingham Road, but everything was booked. This was the Heritage Day weekend so it was difficult to find accommodation at all in the area. So when a room was available in Stocklands Farm, we took it right away. And we don't regret it one bit!

The farm area itself is huge and has lots of gardens, perfect for attracting birds. Our hostess said she started planting a lot of indigenous plants and flowers, and once she did that all the birds showed up. The farm is also right next to a game reserve, so there's the chance of seeing game animals, though from behind the fence.

Our room (uh, "apartment") was very nice and cosy... check out the teddy bears on the bed! ;-)

Dinner was at Yellowwood Café at Fairfell Farm, about 500 meters away from Stocklands. Neither one of us was really hungry for some reason or other. I ordered tagliatelle with shrimp and calamari in a tomato sauce, and boyfriend of feitpingvin had pasta with asparagus, bacon, goat cheese, and cream sauce. It was excellent, but we could barely eat half of our portions and ended up taking the leftovers back to Stocklands with us, just in case we got hungry later on. (Our "apartment" had a fridge.)

We chatted a little bit with a retired couple, who told us that there were a lot of retirement communities/housing in Howick. I don't really blame them for wanting to live there. It's nice and peaceful.

The evening was spent drinking the beer we bought earlier, as well as some wine, and watching rugby on TV...

the harrowing journey to Harrismith...

2007-10-22T21:08:00.001+02:00

20/09-2007
So we were done with our safari and had plans to drive to Harrismith (in the Free State) this evening. Getting the car at Avis went smoothly; we got a nice shiny new Volkswagen Polo. Not a bad car, but for boyfriend of feitpingvin's sake it was not a good one either. No cruise control for one. And most certainly not the Mercedes we got last year ;-)

It was kind of a pain in the ass getting out of Johannesburg, but we managed to get out and properly on our way on N3. I called the B&B we had booked to say we were on our way. That way, they could call out the troops if we didn't show up within a certain amount of time :)

As we drove along, we finally understood why they say you should never drive at night/when it's dark in South Africa. The roads are lit poorly. All the big transport vehicles are out, and they drive like madmen. There's crap on the road, and you don't see it until you're about to drive over it... Yep. We were driving past a big truck, and suddenly there was something on the road. Probably tire scraps though it looked like a rock at first. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had no choice but to drive over it; there was no way we could switch quickly to the other lane or swing anywhere else, or brake without causing the truck behind us to ram into the car...

*KA-THUD*

The rest of the drive over was spent recovering from the shakes and from worrying about the state of the chassis...

We finally arrived at The View, shaken and stirred, and hungry. Fortunately, we had booked dinner. We were fed with a fantastic home-cooked meal of chicken, lots of yummy vegetables, and a tasty Greek salad with a fantastic vinaigrette of South African olive oil and orange balsamico (if I remember correctly). The vegetables were especially appreciated, as we had nearly no vegetables at all during the safari. We had a nice Rosendal rosé wine (Summer Blush) to wash it all down with. This was a very pleasant end to a somewhat stressful evening...

I wish I had taken more notes about this meal, and at least wine notes, but I was just too tired and frazzled I think. At least boyfriend of feitpingvin remembered to take a photo... ;-)

Viva Safaris - days five and six

2007-10-22T19:59:00.000+02:00

Day Five - 19/09-2007
We started the day with a visit to the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre. This place is amazing! I have never seen a place oozing with such dedication and passion, where the people working there truly believed in what they were doing to the extent I saw it here... it was fantastic... inspiring...

Moholoholo is a place filled with sad stories. The first eagle we met, a black eagle, lost its wing after flying into a power line. Fortunately, it did not lose its life. It was one of the lucky ones. There were lots of stories like this. Too many...

The story that really made my blood boil was one about one of many eagles that can never ever be released into the wild again. It had been captured by some waste-of-space people who had pinned it down; one guy was cutting off its wing with the intention of keeping it as a souvenir! WTF?! I had tears in my eyes. And I was angry, as in shaking-with-rage angry. I wanted to find that useless bastard and pin him down and slice off his arm. And smack him with it. Oh, and keep that as a souvenir of course, sheeeeesh!

A bittersweet story that really touched my heart was the story about this beautiful female eagle (don't remember the species, crowned eagle I think) that was imprinted to think it was a human. When we first saw her, she was chirping really sweetly. Like a cute little songbird would chirp. One doesn't think that a big raptor can chirp like that, but wow! Our guide told us that she was chirping like that because it was mating season. And the object of her affection? Brian Jones, the man who founded Moholoholo. He told the story of this eagle and many others. Everyone on the tour just stood there, captivated, as he spoke. He's one of the most passionate people I have ever come across, which makes it understandable why this eagle fell in love with him...

It's very interesting to see how affectionate raptors can be, not just this one but a few others that we saw! They're really quite cuddly!

Brian and the eagle have been a "couple" for quite some time; being his mate she would lay eggs for him during breeding season. Duds, of course, but still. This and many other species of eagle lay two eggs – one that is going to be raised and the "spare." What happens is that the first bird hatches, and the second usually hatches a few days later. The first chick, who has grown considerably in that short amount of time, kills the second. The parents can only afford to raise and feed one chick. Someone got the idea that it would help bring the eagle population up if they took the second egg from a wild eagle's nest and switch it with one of the dud eggs in this eagle's nest. They had to get special permission to do this, but in the end it worked... the eagle managed to raise something like 6 or 7 chicks that were able to be released into the wild. That's so cool...

The best part of the whole Moholoholo experience, at least for me, was "playing" with the vultures. We were in a vulture enclosure with lots of Cape vultures, and our guide asked if anyone would like to hold a vulture. Immediately, I raised my arm and was all like "me! me! me!" So I got to put on a big leather glove, and the guide gave me a bit of meat to hold. Then suddenly, a bunch of vultures flew up on my arm to try to get the meat! Wheeeee!

The next best part was "cuddling" with a baby rhino. It liked being scratched under the belly and it had a rather soft belly! Our guide was the one who raised him, and in the process had to be with the baby rhino 24/7 and even sleep with the baby rhino. This resulted in facial injuries and the such (when the baby rhino rolled over on top of him in the middle of the night). Nonetheless, our guide was "mom" and when we approached the enclosure where the rhino was being kept, it started running over to our guide, like a puppy. Very cute :-)

Finally, we saw a some honey badgers and one of the workers gave a little talk about them before heading out...

We spent a lot more time at Moholoholo than planned, and had to inhale our lunch to keep on schedule. After lunch, we went on a bush walk in Kruger. With two armed rangers. We drove out to this remote area, and the moment we got out of the jeep, we heard rustling... looked around... and saw two big bull elephants! We walked some more and encountered fresh rhino dung (but no rhinos), giraffe, and a big herd of buffalo...

The buffalo were interesting. They noticed us, and at first kept their distance. Then one big male moved forward. And as he did, the rest of the herd moved forward. He moved forward again, and the rest of the herd followed. This went on a few times, while one of the rangers explained that buffalo can come as close as 10-15 meters to you. He said that while they can be quite dangerous, they were also the easiest animal to scare away. And he demonstrated this by jumping straight up into the air. The buffalo turned around and ran about 20 meters away. Good fun :)

Tonight's dinner was soup (oops, didn't write down what kind) and a braai (chicken and woers).

Day Six - 20/09-2007
Today was our last day at Viva Safaris. It was sad to be leaving (I was getting very attached to the treehouse and the nyalas), but at the same time we were ready for new adventures!

We started with an early morning bush walk. We didn't see much other than dung and lots of birds (yay!). Including a woodland kingfisher (double yay!). But no matter, it was nice to be up early and walk around. After breakfast, we headed back to Johannesburg.

We had a scheduled stop at the Blyde River Canyon, where we could see and photograph the river, canyon, scenery in general, and the Three Rondavels. It was very beautiful there. There was a bunch of vendors where we stopped, and I ended up buying a necklace. The vendors were somewhat pushy, but not obnoxiously in-your-face like in Thailand or Egypt...

We had lunch at The Flying Dutchman again, and we got the duck and cherry pie this time (one of their specialties) – also very tasty! We encouraged one of the other travellers to have the pan-fried trout, and she too thought it was wonderful :-)

We finally got back to Johannesburg around 4 pm or 5 pm and were dropped off at the car rental area at the airport... now it was time to get our rental car and drive to Harrismith!

Viva Safaris - days three and four

2007-10-21T14:21:00.000+02:00

Day Three - 17/09-2007

Another full-day game drive on the agenda! This wasn't on the original schedule, but no big deal. As long as we got to do what we paid to do (or more) then we were open to schedule shifts...

It was cooler and windier this time, and in addition to most of what we saw yesterday, we saw lions – a big male and three lionesses. They were 50 m.away from our vehicle, lying under a tree being lazy. I don't blame them one bit. They were probably wondering why we weren't chilling out under a tree...

Today's theme was "animals crossing the road."

There were elephants crossing the road. And impalas. And zebras (zebra crossing hah! I'm so original!). And impala. Can't forget the impala ;-)

Speaking of impala, they were nicknamed «McDonald's» because of the "M" on their bums...

Tonight's dinner was pea soup and then spaghetti with salad. It was very good.

Day Four - 18/09-2007
We started with a morning game drive. I was excited as I saw several eagles and some mystery owls (not sure what kind they are – perhaps scops?), but as for other animals, there weren't too many out. The park itself, a private game reserve, was very nice...

We then had lunch at Cheetah Inn, which is the conference center part of Viva Safaris. The decor was, well, "interesting," and played on a cheetah theme. We all just had to chuckle. My lunch – piri-piri chicken with vegetables and rice, washed down with Windhoek Draft, was quite nice.

After lunch, we went to the Cheetah Project at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. They rehabilitate cheetahs and other animals. We started the tour watching a 20 minute DVD about cheetahs in general, with a few blurbs about the center. There were some blurbs about poaching. This really upset me. People really suck sometimes :-/

After the DVD we drove through the park to see cheetahs close-up, as well as a few other big cats. We also drove to a "vulture restaurant" to observe the action; this is an area where the big cats' scraps are thrown. The vultures (and Marabou stork) are guaranteed a poison-free meal. Unfortunately, a lot of people put out poisoned meat to kill predators, and then vultures eat the dead predators and get the poison in them :-( Anyway, I like how nothing is wasted – the scraps from the cats go to the vultures, and then the resulting bones are ground into powder to mix into the cats' food, to give them extra calcium.

One of the neatest things we saw was the interaction between wild ground hornbills and two captive hornbills. The wild hornbills would give the captive hornbills food, in exchange for rocks. Or was it the other way around? No matter; I just found it quite interesting. Ground hornbills make a really interesting sound by the way... just listen!

Other cool things that we saw – a spotted eagle owl (and I saw it first!) and a baby nyala that was no more than a week old!

When we got back to our treehouse, it was still daylight, and the others at the camp were still out on their game drive. We spent the rest of the afternoon washing clothes; we only took clothes for 5 days or so to cut down on luggage weight/clutter. So we borrowed a big plastic wash tub from the treehouse staff, and with Biotex and water from the shower we were in good washing action. We had to hang things up to dry inside the treehouse, even though it would have been preferable to hang them outside and get that «fresh air» smell. If we hung our clothes up outside, the vervet monkeys would have had a go at everything. Imagine – the alpha male running around with my underwear on his head OOH OOH OOOOH AAAAAH!

Anyway, while the clothes were soaking, I went out of the treehouse to take a peek, There were giraffes in the vicinity! How cool is that?! And of course, as usual, the camp was crawling with nyalas...

Tonight's dinner was butternut soup, followed by chicken with potatoes, rice, salad, and sauce. We learned that another group who were out on their full-day game drive saw, among other things, lions mating!

Viva Safaris - days one and two

2007-10-20T17:46:00.000+02:00

Day One - 15/09-2007
Finally... on our way to Marc's Treehouse Lodge for our six-day safari with Viva Safaris!

We were taken there in a mini-bus, together with four other people – an Irish couple, an Australian, and a Pakistani. We drove past several insteresting little places, but our first actual stop was for lunch, in a city called Dullstroom, at a restaurant called The Flying Dutchman. Boyfriend of feitpingvin and I ordered the pan-fried trout, along with some mango juice as a sort of "starter" and some white wine to go with the fish. This particular area (Highlands Meander) is a touristy area focusing on trout fishing. And the trout was... mmmmmdelicious!

When we finally arrived, we were first greeted at Viva Safari's more "upscale" lodge. It had electric fences to keep the animals out. I guess some people prefer that. Anyway, we were given some guava juice, and then we all hopped into an open jeep for a night game drive in a private game reserve.

The first thing we saw was a dead giraffe, killed by lions. But we didn't see any lions around. We did see some giraffes (living ones), various antelope, a big porcupine, a hyena, and a rabbit. After the game drive, we were taken to the treehouses where we were going to spend the next five nights.

Now, the treehouses were the reason why we chose Viva Safaris in the first place. We wanted a close-to-nature experience and hey, we got it. In the treehouses, you could hear the river and all the animals, day and night – frogs, birds, vervet monkeys jumping on the roof, the mooing of African buffalo. You also ran the risk of frogs in your bathroom and lizards on your walls. One couple had bats in their treehouse. Another left the door open, only to return to a treehouse invaded by vervet monkeys. The monkeys took this poor guy's anti-diarrhea pils and ate them. And the whole camp was crawling with nyala. They were everywhere. You literally get up early in the morning, sit on your treehouse balcony, and watch the nyalas...

We loved it! It was the next best thing to sleeping in a tent. Who needs a posh luxury lodge... this is luxury! Animals, birds, fresh air... who could ask for anything more?

After dumping our luggage into the treehouse, we had dinner. We were really hungry by then, and the meal was very welcome. We started with a nice carrot soup, followed by a lovely potjiekos (meat stew) with rice and salad. This was washed down with red wine purchased at the cash bar. Yum yum...

Everyone staying at Marc's ate dinner together. Not everyone started their safaris together, nor was everyone doing the six-day safari, so it was interesting to talk to people from all over the world about what they've experienced, to get/give tips (mine was "take advantage of all toilet breaks" and "sit close to the food buffet table"), to discuss things in general. I really enjoyed the social part just as much as the animals and nature. I've promised several people to e-mail them the address to this blog. Hopefully they're reading ;-)

Day Two - 16/09-2997
After a nice breakfast of fruit salad and eggs and bacon, we were off on an all-day game drive in Kruger (Orpen Gate).

We saw: giraffes, elephants, zebra, wildebeest/gnu, impala, kudu, waterbuck, warthogs, one almost-submerged hippo, crocodiles, spotted hyenas (including a mother with her pup), ground hornbills, yellow-billed (flying bananas) and red-billed (flying chiles) hornbills, leopard tortoise, African fish eagle, steenbok, African buffalo, springbok, tons of birds... I'm sure I missed something...

Our guide, "King Charles," was really cool. He had lots of stories about how stupid and stubborn some tourists could be. For example, he had a group that insisted that warthogs were baby rhinos and that wildebeest were buffalo...

He also told us some interesting animal facts. Like how the kudu got its name. Kudus can jump two meters high from a standing position, and they're otherwise known to jump away from danger. They got the name kudu because of the sound they make when they land after a jump... *ku* *du*

It's a true story! Really!

It was really hot and sunny today. Except for at the end of the day; it suddenly got very windy and cloudy.

Tonight's dinner: vegetable soup, braai (chicken and woers) with pap and salad, and some dessert (I didn't eat that or dessert any other day for that matter), washed down with Windhoek. Very lovely.

The unpleasant journey to the most pleasant place...

2007-10-18T21:51:00.000+02:00

Yep. I think our trip to Johannesburg was the most unpleasant trip to somewhere, anywhere, I have ever had in my entire life. We had actually been looking forward to flying with Air France, as they had better luggage (especially carry on) rules than British Airways, and that we didn't have to go through Heathrow. Now we're going to have to find another airline for our next trip to the region... *sigh*

So what went very, very wrong? First of all, after waking up at 3 am to get to the airport in time for a 6 am flight to Paris, the plane was late leaving from Oslo. Because of some fuck-up with somebody's tickets. Because we departed late, we knew we would arrive in Paris late. We told the flight attendants about this (three flight attendants, all three male in case you're interested, as I personally found it amusing) and asked them to make sure they didn't leave without us and that someone is at the arrival gate to point out where we are supposed to go. The Three Stooges said it would be no problem catching our plane to Johannesburg, that we would arrive on time. They said we would have plenty of time. They said it would be no problem switching terminals...

What a load of merde. When we landed, it was well past the boarding time for the flight to Johannesburg. And not only could we not find the right terminal, none of the Charles de Gaulle staff that we asked for assistance was willing to help us. In fact, they went out of their way to be very rude and unhelpful. So we were running, literally, from one place to the other. We finally met one guy at the gate where we were supposed to go to in the first place who helped us to the desk where we got booked on the next flight to Johannesburg (to leave in the evening). He didn't look ethnic French though. North African, I think...

So we were stuck at CDG for 12 more hours (I guess the Three Losers were right in saying we would have plenty of time - hah!). Nobody was giving us any information. Nobody knew anything or spoke English or both. For being stuck in the damn place for 12 hours for something that was not our fault but Air France's, we were only given some lousy vouchers for a sandwich and a drink at the café at the terminal. These sandwiches looked very unappetizing; you'd think they'd manage to serve something decent in a country that prides itself on its cuisine, but no. They couldn't do something as simple as that...

After making a few phone calls (I had to cancel for the guest house we were going to stay at in Johannesburg and re-arrange pickup for our safari) and reading for a little while, we needed some food. I was able to get a salad instead of the nasty sandwich (I can't eat white bread as it bugs my stomach) and some Perrier. We also bought some mini bottles of really lousy wine (Just Merlot, by Paul Sapin) at the café, to go with our free "food." We found out that we were supposed to be in a different terminal for our late flight while trying to find out where we could get a proper meal. You know, at a restaurant or something. We were told to go to that terminal for our flight and that there were restaurants there. When we got to that terminal, we were told that the restaurants were in yet another terminal, not the one where we just moved over to. This terminal was like the other one – only a substandard café serving unappetizing baguette sandwiches. However, we weren't allowed to leave the terminal we were in...

Drastic measures had to be taken. I started crying (literally – flood out of my eyes) and whining about low blood sugar and how I needed to eat and not just any kind of food but proteiny meaty food and that I was allergic to wheat (not true) and thus couldn't eat bread and that I was going to be sick. Finally, after a bit of drama and pretending to be nearly fainting and more crying, we were allowed through to the terminal where they had restaurants.

And you think that was the end of the story? Ooooh, noooo. After checking out the dumps, we ended up in a place called Maxim's Restaurant; they had the best menu and seemed like an OK place. We sat down and ordered duck confit and some red wine. The food came quite quickly, and we both started to eat. I started chomping on my duck, potatoes, and salad and boyfriend of feitpingvin started chomping on his duck, potatoes, and... what the? There was a spider in the salad. A big, long-legged spider. Dead, but still...

We looked at one another and burst out laughing. There really wasn't much more we could do. What else could possibly go wrong?

Boyfriend of feitpingvin called the waiter over to our table (he was and probably still is a lovely South Asian fellow). He was horrified at the sight of the spider. He called his manager, who was also horrified. They whisked the plate back into the kitchen (and we could hear some yelling in French) and brought out a new one pronto (and no, it wasn't the same food re-arranged, it was a new plate). We were nice about it though (hard to not be nice while laughing and snickering) – the waiter was really a nice guy and well, shit happens sometimes and they were professional in dealing with it. Boyfriend of feitpingvin got his meal on the house, for the trouble...

The food wasn't too bad. Neither was the wine:

Cotes du Rhone Reservé Honoré Laubanel
color: deep red-violet
nose: red apples, (dark) red roses, flowers/perfume
palate: sharp with a hint of bitterness. Dark chocolate, plums, prunes. Pleasant tannins but on the soft side. Very nice with duck and probably other food, but not really a wine to drink alone.
grade: :-)+ with food, :-) alone

When we went back to the terminal for the flight to Johannesburg, the «security» peon took away this little lightweight aluminum ring that was on my backpack. Apparently, it could be used as a brass knuckle. At least it is what Security Peon claimed. Now this takes the cake when it comes to the kind of bullshit "security" staff come up with. This ring could barely go around my knuckles to be used as a brass knuckle to begin with. And if I did have small enough hands to use it, I seriously doubt it would do much damage. But there was nothing I could do, as useless clods like that stupid bitch are on constant power trips on the job, as that's the only place where anyone even bothers to sort of notice them.

What makes this incident all the more bullshit, and convinces me that "security" is all for show and nothing else, was that we saw this woman with an armful of metal bracelets. Now if anything could be used as a weapon, that could. Yet she had her big metal bracelets and I didn't have my pathetic little aluminium ring. What's up with that?

We finally got on the plane, and to make a long story short, the flight was unpleasant. The food was surprisingly quite OK though...

Arrival at Johannesburg was a relief. Going through passport control, customs, and getting our luggage was very pain-free, plus it took less than an hour from when we landed. Another plus was the staff working passports, customs, etc. They were very friendly. And smiling. Who would have thought it could be so difficult?

I'll write more about O. R. Tambo International Airport later on. CDG has lots to learn from Tambo. CDG is an unbelievably bad airport where only a minute minority can do anything right (I mean, even teeny tiny airports in the middle-of-nowhere Norway can manage to serve travellers a hot meal), and a shame for all "first world" nations everywhere. Just like most "first world" air travel these days, I suppose...

After the quick jaunt through customs etc., we finally met our contact for our safari, took some money out of the ATM, met some others who were also going on the safari, and we were on our way to Kruger...

you know you're in love when...

2007-10-13T21:04:00.000+02:00

...you're really missing the screeching of the hadedas early in the morning... *sigh* ;-)

I'm quite busy for the time being - lots going on at work, conference coming up, etc. But I'll try to get the trip report going as soon as possible. Some of the photos are already available on my flickr site or boyfriend of feitpingvin's flickr site...

the world's best cities...

2007-09-02T19:09:00.000+02:00

...according to Travel and Leisure Magazine:

1 Florence
2 Buenos Aires
3 Bangkok
4 Rome
5 Sydney
6 New York
7 Udaipur, India
8 Istanbul
9 San Francisco
10 Cape Town

Well, um, OK. Their opinion. Of the places I've actually been to on the list, I would rank Cape Town first, San Francisco second, and Bangkok third. New York wouldn't even be on my top 10 list, and I would actually take Bangkok out and put Chiang Mai in. That's just my opinion though...

What cites are your favorites?

Drakensberg help!

2007-08-15T20:38:00.000+02:00

We are trying to figure out what route to take for the Drakensberg and perhaps some of the battlefields in KwaZulu-Natal. Some alternatives are as shown on the map (you can click on it to make it bigger):

We start from Harrismith, and the purple indicates our main route. We'd like to make a stop in Royal Natal National Park; the orange indicates a possible side trip.

Red and blue are alternative routes between getting back to the main purple route. There would be another possible side trip (orange) to Lesotho (organized tour so no worries about the car).

We will have a car, but it will not be a 4X4. We are also fully aware that there are lots of interesting places to stop along the way :-)

So, to those in the know, how would you do this trip? That is, which alternatives? Are there any other alternatives?

How much time will we need from getting to one specific place to another (if you know this)?

Any recommended places to stay for the night (camping, backpacker dives, b&b, whatever)?

Any recommended things/places to see?

Any places to avoid?

How are the roads in the area?

Anything else we need to know?

counting down the days...

2007-08-14T15:31:00.000+02:00

So close, yet so far away... *sigh* :-)

Heathrow is hazardous to your health

2007-08-12T12:32:00.000+02:00

(Still waiting for the rest of the Madrid report? I know, I'm sorry... anyway...)

This doesn't surprise me one bit. Heathrow is a piece of shit airport that should be avoided at all costs...

Heathrow is bad for your health

Holidaymakers flying out of Heathrow Airport suffer more stress than fighter pilots in action or police in riots.

Heartbeat rates soar to levels often higher than athletes' during a race. And blood pressure levels also hit danger levels, a medical study warns.

The cause... queues, unfriendly staff, lack of information, poor air and lack of basic facilities like toilets, says top neuropsychologist David Lewis.

Last month his research team wired up four people passing through Heathrow's Terminal 4 to test their stress levels. And the team found the experience is putting everyday passengers in grave danger. And Dr Lewis insists: "This is not alarmist but the result of in-depth research into what happens as people negotiate our overcrowded flagship airport."

Within minutes of entering Terminal 4, heartbeats increased from a healthy 55 per minute to more than 70 - and some even exceeded 200. Blood pressure levels rose from an average 123/81 to peaks of 170/99.

Dr Lewis said: "In trying to escape the stresses of life by going on holiday, we are harming our health."

the harbinger of things to come...

2007-07-26T13:23:00.001+02:00

(Um, more Madrid stuff will come later this week. Sorry I've been so slow about it.)

Way back when I got my first passport ever, a friend of mine looked at the empty pages and said "this is going to get full of stamps..."

Well, I'm on my second passport now. I just got back from the US Embassy because I had to get new pages put into this passport, as I'm running out of un-stamped pages. Just like I had to do with my first passport...

Madrid - more museums

2007-07-02T21:25:00.001+02:00

The Prado report is out there. Here are the other museums we visited while in Madrid:

We went to La Reina Sofia on Saturday the 19th. Our primary reason for visiting was to see the Picasso and Dali exhibits (oh, and I like modern art in general, so I wanted to come here), but there were lots of other interesting things to see, including the works of Miro and Man Ray.

One of the more “memorable” (hah) exhibits was Jesús Rafael Soto’s Penetrable - an interactive piece of art (I don’t think it’s part of the permanent exhibit). It was an 8mX8m curtain of plastic "tentacles" (well, tubing) that you could walk through. Fun stuff. Kind of freaky. Another amusing one was a work of Carmen Calvo that was a canvas with lots of plaster bananas on it.

The Picassos are on the second floor of the museum. We saw Woman in blue of course, one of the most famous paintings in the museum (people were crowding around it as if it were La Gioconda), but we weren’t overly impressed…

Salvador Dali was one really weird character. I saw a lot of his stuff when I was at the Dali Museum in Figueres (near Barcelona) in 2003, and I even bought a book about him. It’s equally fascinating every time though. There is an incredible amount of details in each of his paintings. You have to spend a good amount of time in front of each painting, and you still don’t catch everything the first time.

Oh, and there was this freaky metronome on exhibit. I can’t forget to mention that ;-)

Oh, there are a few cool sculpture exhibits outside of the museum as well…

On our final day in Madrid, a rainy Sunday, we decided to go to some more museums as we had a late-ish flight and time to kill. We were pleasantly surprised to find out admission was free on Sundays... :-)

National Anthropology Museum. This museum is interesting, but very small. It took us less than an hour to go through the whole thing.

National Archaeological Museum.
This is an excellent museum with a lot of interesting, well-presented (aside from not being able to read the information in Spanish) exhibits. We could have spent hours here had we been a little less tired. Unfortunately, I didn’t write many notes about this place :-/

Madrid - Corral de la Moreria

2007-07-02T20:08:00.001+02:00

We went to a flamenco show (with dinner) while we were in Madrid - to Corral de la Moreria. Several trusted sources recommended this place for both the dinner and flamenco show, even though they're otherwise the type to not recommend such "touristy" places. So we booked a table for our second evening in Madrid (16th of May). Everything went fine at first... the booking for the evening we wanted went through (we made the reservation via the Website), but we had to confirm our booking the day of the dinner and show. No problem. Or so we thought. There was a moment of slight panic when we got there, as the idiot who supposedly confirmed our reservation managed to write down that we had changed our booking to the following evening. But we still got a good table. I was happy about it, but it was kind of annoying. I wonder how many other times that person taking in the phone calls has fucked up people's bookings.

The locale was rustic and cosy, with lots of tables placed closely together around a stage. It looked to be fully-booked and that wasn't any real surprise; there was article about Corral de la Moreria in the New York Times around that time, and it’s mentioned in some book about the top 100 places you must see before you die (not sure what it’s called, not going to look it up either). Corral de la Moreria attracts a lot of Spain’s and the world’s top flamenco artists as performers, and it attracts a lot of celebrities as guests. If there were any celebs there, we didn’t see/notice them, nor would have we cared. We had a good table and the atmosphere was lively; this was what we were after!

Anyway, we ordered the Menú Degustación (tasting menu). The first thing that came was a shot glass filled with cream. (This was something everyone got, and wasn't on the menu.) Yuck. I can't consume cream on its own (or with strawberries for that matter). I'm sure it would have been good for making ice cream or a sauce or whatever, but a shot glass to drink down? Eeeww...

Next was a glass of sherry. The sherry was dry and OK tasting, but it's not my favorite thing to drink. Sherry to me is stuff you use for cooking, not for drinking on its own. Then we got two rolls each, one white and one wholegrain. This was kind of interesting, as it seems like wholegrain bread is non-existent in Spain. But who were we to complain? And right after we got our rolls, our first starter arrived - a plate of cured hams and sausages. One of the hams was made from pigs that have been fed a diet of acorns. Spain is known for its cured meats and sausages, and we weren't disappointed here!

The next starter was a vegetable-cream cheese concoction served with some shrimp. It was OK, but not the most exciting thing in the world. Nothing worth writing any more about.

The main course was roast lamb. Now after what we had gotten so far - two small portion starters - we were expecting some slices of lamb with potatoes and sauce or something along those lines. Oh, no. What we got was a whole big chunk of lamb. Dang! It was very tender and flavorful and FATTY. Mmmm... That really stuffed us, and we still had dessert to come! At least we had a good pause before they served dessert and coffee. Ooof ;-)

The wine served with the second starter and the main course was Montecillo Reserva 2001 (Rioja). Color - didn't get this. It was too dark to figure it out. Nose - spices and earth (barnyard), perfumey. Palate - Powerful, medium-bodied, slightly acidic with soft tannins, flavor of cherries. Definitely a wine for serving with lamb, but we agreed that it would also go nicely with cod or wolf fish (or other really "meaty" fish) that is served with a rich sauce. It was a nice wine, but only worthy of a :-) in our database…

Dessert was served just as the flamenco show was about to begin.

We each had a "sampler" plate of different Spanish desserts - rice pudding served in a cinnamon cookie mini-"bowl," some kind of caramel pudding (flan, I guess), and vanilla ice cream, also served in a little cookie bowl. They were each very nice. Dessert was served with a glass of Pedro Ximénez. It was kind of weird; it was black and tasted sort of like licorice and raisins. We also had coffee with our dessert. We needed that coffee after such a big meal. Otherwise we would have slept through the whole flamenco show, despite how loud it was ;-)

The flamenco show itself was quite interesting, energetic, and at some moments rather exciting.

In the first part of the show, only women were actually dancing, but there were both men and women sitting around in a ring, singing and clapping. One guy was playing a guitar. The dancing involves lots of movement, clapping, stomping, and intense facial expressions. During the second part of the show, more singing and guitar playing and clapping and stomping, and both men and women were dancing.

One of the men was stomping like mad at one point... he was pretty much stomping in place, like a kind of running in place but more stompy, at über-top speed. Very impressive. Very intense. Very captivating. (Hah, and on our way out, by the separate entrance for the artists and staff, we saw him outside. Smoking.)

Since I’m no expert on flamenco, and can't give a proper critique of the show (other than I really enjoyed it) or any information about flamenco itself, I’ll give you the following flamenco-related links:

Flamenco World
flamenco.org
Foro Flamenco
Wikipedia’s flamenco page

The Madrid report (finally) - at least a start. Prado...

2007-06-30T21:08:00.000+02:00

Wow... it's been over a month since we were in Madrid and still no trip report. Shame on me. Well, now I'm getting my act together. Really, I am.

The trip report will be kind of "haphazard" like the Western Cape trip report, i.e. grouped by random events and stuff like food, not day-by-day. We were there from the 15th of May (arrived late afternoon) to the 20th of May, in case you want to know.

Since the photos are on another machine, I'll start this trip report by discussing the visit to the Prado Museum, where we weren't allowed to take photos...

We went to the Prado Museum on the 17th of May, right after having some Cava in our hotel room after breakfast, to celebrate the fact it was the 17th of May (Constitution Day in Norway)...

Anyway, Prado is one of the most famous art museums in the world. It is a large museum with lots of exhibits, but I noticed that many of the paintings have a religious (Christianity) theme - Jesus or the Virgin Mary or something or other from the Bible. One of the more bizarre of these was Alonso Cano's San Bernardo y la Virgen (The Vision of St. Bernard). It was a painting where the "virgin" was squirting breastmilk into some guy's mouth. So all that kooky fetish stuff you find on the Net these days... nothing new. Another weird one was Juan Martin Cabezalero's La Asunción de la Virgen (Assumption of the Virgin). Among the weird things on the painting, freaky floating babies' heads, some with wings. WTF? I doodled bits of that painting in my Moleskine. I should scan it and show it to you all. It's a rather amusing interpretation... :-P

There also were lots of interesting works by Goya as well; we actually bypassed a lot of exhibits in order to have the energy to look at the Goya exhibit. The most fascinating was Saturno (Saturn devouring one of his children), where some kind of "wolfman" was eating a guy; his head was already devoured. I wonder what inspired that...

Throughout the museum, there were artists scattered here and there, with their easels set up, painting detailed versions of select parts of a painting on exhibit, not the whole painting. It was interesting to watch them work. They seemed rather oblivious to all the tourists watching them...

There were also a lot of groups of schoolchildren throughout the museum. When they were walking past, they would make a sort of train, where the kid behind grabbed the shirt of the kid in front. Very cute...

Overall, a museum well worth a visit. You'll need around 3 hours there, give or take depending on what you actually want to see. Be sure to research what exhibits are actually there before you go and find out what you want to see, if you're on a time crunch. I think some people could spend a whole day there...

adventure travel to... Chad?

2007-06-04T12:56:00.000+02:00

I found this interesting article in the BBC the other day and thought I'd write a little about it. It's both exciting and sad. Exciting in that there is a relatively "untouched" destination out there, a destination that promises fantastic wildlife. Sad due to the conflict in bordering countries, and due to the poaching resulting from the demand for ivory. And that part about using giraffes' tails to make bracelets brought tears to my eyes...

I like the idea of making the villagers tourists in their own area, as well as making them a part of the tourism industry. It helps them respect their wildlife, respect what Chad has to offer to others, and better enable them to show tourists that Chad really isn't such a bad place. Despite a bumpy 11-hour ride to get there ;-)

Tourists brave Chad's wild territory

Chad may not seem like an obvious tourist destination, with the spillover of the Darfur conflict from Sudan and regular clashes between rebels and government soldiers.

But Chad's best-known - and some would say only - tourist destination is growing in popularity with foreign visitors.

Zakouma National Park, in the far south well away from the troubles in the east, is becoming something of a Mecca for adventurous travellers.

Wildlife connoisseurs say it is one of the very best places in Africa to view elephants and the fact that it is off the beaten track only adds to the allure.

It is certainly not easy to get to: an 11-hour drive along bumpy dirt tracks may deter the faint-hearted, but the journey is worth it in the end.

Zakouma is practically virgin territory: it is not unusual to be one of just two or three tourists in the entire park, with 3,000 sq km of truly wild territory all to oneself.

Massive herds

Luis Arranz, a Spaniard who has been running Zakouma for six years, admits it can be hard drawing in the crowds when media coverage of Chad is dominated by violence.

"It's a big problem because there are lots of Europeans who've only read about war and Darfur spreading into Chad, so people don't think of coming here for their holiday," he says.

"But recently people have started to talk about Zakouma. If the situation stays calm, I think people will continue coming."

The real reason people come to Zakouma is for the elephants.

In the rainy season, when elephants begin to leave the park to avoid the muddy terrain, it is possible to see truly massive herds - sometimes up to 1,000 elephants at a time.

Unfortunately, like many things in Chad, there is a darker side to the picture.

The elephant population here is under threat from ivory poachers.

No ban

In the past 12 months, more than 200 elephants have been killed in and around the park, many gunned down in large groups by poachers who attack on horse- and camel-back.

The park employs 80 anti-poaching rangers to deal with the attackers, but it is a bloody and never-ending challenge.

Earlier this year, three of the park's guards were killed in a shoot-out with poachers.

"It's a dangerous life but one we've accepted," says Nicolai Taloua, head of Zakouma's anti-poaching team. "We've chosen this fight and will continue to the end."

The reason for the recent upsurge in elephant killings is that some African countries -Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia - can now legally sell ivory, despite a worldwide ban elsewhere.

Chad enforces the ivory ban, but as long as an ivory trade exists, demand in the region continues.

"A few years ago the ivory trade was banned and poaching decreased," explains Mr Arranz.

"But recently some African countries struck a deal to export ivory to Japan and since then we've seen an increase in poaching.

"People know Zakouma is famous for elephants so that's a problem for us."

'It's a war'

Dotted around the park is evidence of the poachers' handiwork: carcasses of elephants lie rotting, with their faces brutally hacked off in a bid to remove their tusks.

Recently other animals such as giraffes and buffalos have been targeted too.

"Poachers have begun to kill giraffes, as people like to make bracelets out of giraffe tails to give to their wives," says Mr Arranz.

"It's ridiculous. They are trying to kill off all the animals not because of necessity, but because someone wants a little ivory statue or a piece of jewellery."

"Maybe they don't know how many animals' lives this cost, or how many people died as well," he continues.

"Really, it's a war. And people who buy ivory are causing this war."

To help in the battle against the ivory trade, the park is trying to keep local villagers onside, not only to better relations but also to encourage people to report sightings of poachers.

As well as building wells and health centres in the area, European Union cash is being used to take villagers on safari trips into the park, where they become bona fide tourists for the day.

"It really helps for villagers to see the wildlife," says Bachir, one of the tour guides.

"Sometimes they are ignorant about the park. But now they are developing a conscience about the animals and are learning what the park can do for them."

Mr Arranz says the project also helps break down misconceptions.

"Locals always had this idea that the park was built by whites, for whites," he says.

"But one day we will all leave and this park will be theirs to look after, and that's what we want to show."

who's Oslo are we talking about?

2007-05-30T14:13:00.000+02:00

I just read this travel review about Oslo...

Well... what can I say? I'm amused? Confused? Was he actually in the same city I've been living in for the past decade? All a bit over the top, methinks...

Anyway, here are some excerpts from the article I found particularly amusing... and my comments...

Like his fellow crewmen, he looked like a male model in a construction worker outfit.

Uh, please tell me where these model-construction workers are because I have yet to see any. The contruction workers I see are oldish, uglyish, and Polish... (and they barely speak Norwegian, let alone English)...

All of the other patrons were fit, tall, and fashionably dressed, with impossibly high cheekbones. Three-quarters of them were blond. Think for a moment of the kind of crowd you see swarming around an all-you-can-eat buffet in Las Vegas, and then imagine the extreme opposite.

Again, probably "right place at the right time" combined with the fact that the particular restaurant he visited is a bit more for the "beautiful people" rather than "your regular average Norwegian," who may not be (OK, is not) as fit and tall and fashionable and blond as the writer has seen. I wonder what he would have written had he visited, say, Asylet. Or Ivars Kro. The "typical Norwegian" does not go to Solsiden...

A glass of house white costs $12, a package of muffin mix at the supermarket $6. I even found a store that was selling dish towels—nice dish towels, but dish towels all the same—for $47. Each.

I'm not sure where he found dish towels for 47 bucks (282 NOK), but whoever is dumbass enough to pay that much for a fucking dishtowel gets what he/she deserves. Like getting ripped off. You can probably get them for 1/10th that price at IKEA, for fuck's sake... (OK - I had to look it up - you can get a dishtowel for 5 NOK at IKEA...

I don't know anything about the price of muffin mix though, as I don't buy that kind of crap, but you can actually get a glass of wine for less than 72 NOK many places.

For one thing, Norwegians don't spend all their time talking about real estate.

Has he talked to many Norwegians?

Laura and I spent our last twenty-four hours in Oslo living the ultimate Norwegian day. In the morning, we walked up and down Bygdøy Allé—the main street in an upscale part of town with the amusing name of Frogner—drooling over the storefront displays of custom kitchens. (No one does kitchens like the Scandinavians, not even the Italians.)

For lunch, we grabbed a baguette with seafood salad and smoked salmon, then walked through Frogner's leafy streets to the Artesia Spa, which was also designed by Snøhetta. Laura had a facial. I had a massage and afterward sat in the steam room (which was all white marble and right angles) before proceeding to the sauna. I poured successive ladles of water onto the hot rocks, dunked myself in the cold-water tub, and headed to the pool. It had an infinity edge, and beyond it, projected onto the wall, was a film depicting underwater life. The effect was eerie and womblike, and highly relaxing.

We continued on to Grünerløkka, which everyone had told us was the new and hip part of Oslo—until we actually got there and were informed that Grünerløkka is over and that the real action is now in Grønland.

This is the ultimate Norwegian day? That's news to me. It sounds more to me like having a posh day on the town, something that you can do in most other big cities, but, whatever...

There was a three-bedroom flat with maple floors and a clean white kitchen. That one, I thought, and pondered the joy of purchasing a home in a land where European appliances come standard.

Huh?!

Oslo is exquisitely clean and safe.

Again... huh? He wrote about Grünerløkka and Grønland, but did he really look around? Or is the amount of garbage on the streets of Oslo less than what he's used to? Perhaps he was also in Madrid recently, where the sidewalks that are used as both an ashtray and a deposit for dog shit. Anything after that must seem "clean"...

As for safety, I wonder if he and his precious Laura heard of all the violent rapes that had been going on for a while. Or about the gang wars. Probably not...

well isn't that lovely?

2007-05-30T09:02:00.000+02:00

I hope nobody got infected... yuck. I also hope that this guy didn't know he was infected before getting on both flights. Because if he did know, you then have the question of to what extent he was actually planning on infecting others and then all the bioterrorism FUD... just what we all need... (NOT)

US in TB flight infection warning

US health officials have quarantined a man who may have exposed passengers on board two trans-Atlantic flights to a dangerous form of tuberculosis.

Officials say crew and passengers on the same flights, from Atlanta to Paris and from Prague to Montreal this month, should be checked for the infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified the illness as "extensively drug-resistant TB".

It is the first such federal quarantine order to be issued in over 44 years.

The last such order was issued in 1963, to quarantine a patient with smallpox, according to the CDC.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. It is spread through the air and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood.

There were an estimated 1.6 million deaths from TB in 2005, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

'At risk'

The infected man travelled from Atlanta to Paris on 12 May on Air France flight 385. He returned to the North America on CSA flight 104 from Prague to Montreal on 24 May.

He continued his journey in the US by car and is now under quarantine in hospital, according to the WHO.

CDC officials said the man was potentially infectious during this period and are recommending that crew members and passengers on board the same flights seek medical attention.

"We want to make sure that we have done everything we possibly can to identify people who could be at risk," said Dr Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC.

TB is rare in the US. Last year there were 13,767 recorded cases or 4.6 cases per 100,000 Americans.

About 1.2% of cases in the US are "multidrug-resistant", and can withstand antibiotics commonly used to treat the illness, according to CDC statistics.

The "extensively drug-resistant" TB is more dangerous. Medical treatment can cost $500,000 (£250,000) or more, CDC officials say.

misunderstanding local culture...

2007-05-24T13:39:00.000+02:00

Naked US tourist shocks German city

BERLIN (Reuters) - A naked American tourist raised eyebrows when he went for a walk through a German city and told police he thought this was acceptable behavior in Germany.

"We have been having unusually hot weather here lately but, all the same, we can't have this," a spokesman for police in the southern city of Nuremberg said Tuesday. "The man said he thought walking around naked was tolerated in Germany."

Many Germans enjoy nude sunbathing which is allowed in public parks. The 41-year-old was carrying his clothes in a bag when police stopped him Monday evening after complaints from pedestrians.

The tourist was not under the influence of drugs, said police. They made him get dressed and pay a 200 euro ($269) deposit pending his investigation for indecent behavior.

sometimes you have to wonder...

2007-05-24T11:29:00.001+02:00

I found this amusing make your own warning labels site and started speculating about the real reason for the dumbass liquids ban...

well, that sucked...

2007-05-21T20:52:00.000+02:00

We got back home from Madrid very late last night. It was probably the suckiest last day of a trip anyone could possibly have...

Madrid Barajas International Airport has taken the honor of acheiving first place on my least favorite airports list. What a dump of an airport. No sense order whatsoever, and you had to struggle to find anyone who could speak at least two complete sentences of decent English. This is an international airport with heavy traffic, mind you, not some small town in the middle of nowhere, where the inhabitants have never gone further than 5 km from their own homes. They're doing a lot of fixing-up there, and OK, fine. But they couldn't even manage to keep at least one proper restaurant/café open (and we (at least I) hadn't had a proper meal since breakfast). At least when Oslo Airport was being reconstructed, they managed to keep a café up and running. And we eventually did find some cafés at another terminal (nobody pointed us out to those when we asked if there was anyplace where we could get food). The food was substandard though. Quite shocking when you're in a country that likes to pride itself on its cuisine...

The only positive thing about the place was the nice lady at the tax-free gourmet food shop where I bought some chorizo and manchego cheese. She fed me with samples of chorizo and ham and cheese and even gave me a free chocolate bar because I bought so much stuff there :-)

Getting back to Oslo wasn't that much better... there were lots of flights that came in at the same time as ours... too many people, too little space, we were the only ones going through the red zone as usual - there was a nice bottleneck at the green zone hahaha, random checks and all. But for the first time since I can remember, we were actually within quota. We were sure we were over...

Anyway, and then the train ride into town... a train overstuffed with people and luggage. We got on at the last few seconds, and people inside were just standing there like a bunch of retards, not moving when the train staff was yelling at them to make way for the last passengers. And my being hit in the back and nearly twisting my ankle from being shoved by the stupid bitch as she was trying to stuff me into the train because of the idiots who were too dumbstruck to move. Sheesh...

Oh, the trip was nice, but very exhausting (mostly because of the extreme heat)... I could use some more sleep but I have to be at work... blah... proper trip report will come eventually...

St. Lucia Wetland Park is no longer...

2007-05-14T20:11:00.000+02:00

...it is now called iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 13 May 2007
Title: New name for SA's first World Heritage site
---------------------------------------------------------------

By Bongani Mlangeni; tel: (012) 314 2404

South Africa's first World Heritage Site, the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, has been renamed in an effort to give the park a name that better reflects its unique identity and sense of place.

The new name is iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced on Sunday.

"We are delighted to have a new name that will take the park into the future.

"This will be integrated with the launch later this year of our new branding linked to specific marketing, advertising and public relations activities," said Minister van Schalkwyk.

The name has been approved by the National Cabinet and was gazetted this past Friday in terms of the World Heritage Convention Act and will be effective from the 01 November 2007.

He added that the 220 000 hectare Wetland Park had outgrown the name of St Lucia, linked to the town and lake of the same name.

The consolidated boundaries of the park now include a third of the length of the KwaZulu-Natal coastline, and destinations such as Kosi Bay, Lake Sibaya, Sodwana Bay and uMkhuze Game Reserve.

"In the broad consultations throughout the past two years it was clear that there was overwhelming support to change the name.

"It was widely accepted that the description of Wetland Park be retained and be linked with a descriptive indigenous word," the minister said.

The park has improved its infrastructure and increased a number of species in the game resulting in economic growth.

According to the department there's a significant growth in tourism beds in the region including a 60 percent growth in the number of establishments as a direct result of the development in the park and marketing value added through its World Heritage status. - BuaNews

As if bad things never happen to men...

2007-04-24T11:19:00.000+02:00

So the BBC Online has published an article about the dangers for woman travelling solo. Yippee. FUD galore.

Why the focus on women only? Why not write an article about the dangers of travelling solo and leave it at that? Sure it's a problem when women flirt in the wrong cultural context. But is it not a problem when men flirt with women only to wake up the next day in some strange room, without his clothes or wallet?

travel-inspired eating - Portugal

2007-04-15T10:34:00.000+02:00

porco à Alentejana

They had some very nice hjerteskjell (cockles) at the fish monger's, so I made this traditional Portuguese dish for dinner last night. I used a version of the following recipe. I used 1/2 a (400 g) can of tomatoes instead of tomato paste, and olive oil instead of butter...

I served the dish with oven-roasted potatoes, a salad, and a lovely Portuguese white wine...

Ingredients
300 ml white wine
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 clove
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper

450 g loin of pork, cut into 1 inch cubes
450 g leg of pork cut the same way

110 g lard (or 2-4 Tb butter)

1 tsp concentrated tomato paste (or 1 sun-dried tomato, soaked, mashed)
2 Tb olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 sprigs parsley, chopped
675 g (1 1/2 lb) cockles (Long Island littleneck clams, or any small clams)

Procedure
Marinate the meat 4-5 hours. Drain meat, reserving marinade, & fry
gently in lard until golden brown all over. Strain the marinade &
add to pan. Cover & boil with the meat until it is very tender and
the sauce is reduced by half.

Meanwhile, make another sauce with the tomato paste, oil, onion,
parsley, salt & pepper, simmering it on low heat for 6-8 minutes.

Add the cockles & simmer until they open (discard any that do not
open). Shake the pan & transger contents to the top of the meat.
Cover. Simmer gently for 3 mins & serve in same pan.

Source

other versions of the same recipe

British Air, you suck

2007-03-19T19:05:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time, I actually enjoyed flying with British Air and would go out of my way to fly with them. Since that time, the quality of BA has plummeted like a skydiver who forgot to put on his chute. For higher prices, you get to take less luggage and eat crappier food and deal with staff who struggle to be nice to you...

Apparently I'm not the only one who has issues with BA. What kind of crap is that anyway, dumping a corpse next to a passenger? (Do we even know what she died of? Is it safe and hygienic to place a corpse next to someone for 5 hours in room temperature heat and recirculated air?) Oh, and with the wailing relatives bonus prize? With no real explanation or apology. Especially when the passenger who has to deal with it all is a first class passenger who paid for first class service?

If this is how first class passengers are treated, imagine how bad things are in economy class...

And then to top things off, when asking about compensation for the ordeal, being told to "get over it"?! What kind of shit is that?!

The worst thing about it is that crap like this is going to become more commonplace as airlines are cutting service and brain cells (sheesh, don't they have routines for dealing with dead passengers and their wailing relatives?!) so that the CEOs can get bigger, fatter bonuses...

Vigelandsparken censored...

2007-03-15T14:28:00.000+01:00

Censorship at the famous Vigeland Park in Oslo. Someone couldn't handle naked statues or nudity at all and thought it would be worthwhile to put black paper "porn bars" on the statues' genitals and boobs...

OK... while vandalism is vandalism, it could have been much worse... that crying baby's head has been cut off a few times for starters, so this is really "nothing" in comparison, but still... that someone must really have a lot of time on their hands...

(btw - it's a bit too early for "russ" pranks)

worth its weight in gold... and then some...

2007-03-04T15:53:00.000+01:00

SA tourism overtakes gold in foreign exchange

South Africa has beaten all previous tourism records - attracting more than six million visitors in the first nine months of last year.

The latest statistics, covering the period from January to September 2006, show a 14 percent increase in tourism compared to the same time in 2005.

Opening a conference on business tourism in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said: "We are well on our way to surpassing the annual record set in 2006."

The largest source of tourism growth came from Africa, with an 18 percent increase, but the overall growth was also swelled by an increase of about 10 percent more visitors from North America. "Although it was off a low base, we saw a massive 42 percent increase in visitors from the Russian Federation, 24 percent more visitors from Hungary and 17 percent more visitors from Finland," Van Schalkwyk said.

He noted that the tourism industry now generated more foreign exchange than gold, and was one of the biggest contributors to the sustained economic growth spurt that started in 1999.

From Asia there had been a 4,5 percent increase in visitors - which included a 17,5 percent increase in Indian tourists and "excellent growth" from Japan, Thailand and Singapore.

However, a disappointment was the decrease in visitors from China, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Van Schalkwyk said there were opportunities to expand the more lucrative "business tourism" sector from the present figure of five percent by doubling the number of business tourists over the next three years.

Now this is all despite safety concerns...

Ring of Fat Travels - food tourism

2007-03-02T16:51:00.000+01:00

From CNN.com:

Traveling to eat: A growing taste for food tourism

NEW YORK (AP) -- Surrounded by imported pasta and grains, Carol Berger inhales deeply, raises her arms and shuts her eyes in appreciation.

"Look at that beautiful prosciutto over there," she sighs, pointing at a glass case filled with meats, while others on the guided tasting tour shuffle into the shop to gape at a large jar of black truffles.

The expedition through the specialty shops of Manhattan's Chelsea Market is just one stop on the Florida resident's culinary ramble through New York City -- and she's not alone.

A new study says that 27 million Americans have made culinary activities a part of their travels within the last three years.

"It's something that really took off in the past five years or so," said Cathy Keefe, the manager of media relations for the Travel Industry Association of America, which helped pay for the study along with Gourmet magazine and other organizations.

Of the 160 million U.S. residents who travel for leisure, about 1 in 6 have recently taken a food tour, enrolled in a cooking class, toured a winery or otherwise participated in culinary activities as part of a vacation, according to the study.

Nearly half of that group took a trip or chose a destination because of the food and wine activities they would find there.

Walking from a bread bakery toward a wholesale seafood shop across the way, Berger, a payroll tax accountant from Del Ray Beach, Florida, said her trip to New York -- planned with a group of foodie friends she calls her "dinner club" -- was motivated by food.

"We come to New York to do restaurants," she said, recounting one particularly eye-opening experience: "It was the first time I tried sea urchin, and it was fabulous."

New York state is one of the most popular destinations for food travel, outdone only by California and Florida, according to the TIA study.

Cultural connections
For Carmen Botez, that crush of interest became apparent last year, when the 29-year-old found herself essentially drafted into becoming a tour guide. After launching a Web magazine offering a virtual "chocolate tour of New York," Botez was deluged by hundreds of requests for the real thing. She has since launched her own company, New York Chocolate Tours, which charges visitors $70 apiece for a tasting tour of the city's high-end sweets shops.

The interest in culinary tourism has accompanied a rise in emphasis on food throughout American culture, said Barry Glassner, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California and author of the book "Gospel of Food," published last month.

"We define ourselves by how we eat. We show others and we show ourselves what kind of people we are by how adventurous we are about food," he said.

Glassner attributed the shift, which he said has accelerated over the last five to 10 years, in part to the many foods that new waves of immigrants have brought with them to America.

The increased availability of new items at supermarkets around the nation, the appearance of more food-oriented television programming, and the many Internet food discussion boards have also played a role, he said.

"Many people now when they travel would be ashamed to come home and say they didn't see the main museum or didn't taste the national dish," said Glassner. "We believe that if we've tasted their food we've gotten closer to their culture."

Guided tours
That may account for the success of companies like The International Kitchen. The Chicago-based enterprise, which offers cooking-class vacations to Europe, has been growing each year, said owner Karen Herbst.

Foods of New York Tours Inc., which charges $40 for the tour of Chelsea Market and for its other excursions around the city, is also drawing a growing crowd. After recent expansion of 30 percent yearly, ticket sales for 2006 totaled more than 14,000 -- up from about 2,500 in 2000, said owner Todd Lefkovic.

Companies following a similar model -- offering tours that alternate walking, talking and tasting -- have been springing up elsewhere around the country. Shane Kost, who opened Chicago Food Planet tours last year, said the company became profitable almost immediately. Kelly Hamilton said her New Orleans Culinary History Tours were fully booked within months after opening in 2004, although business has since slowed following Hurricane Katrina.

The tours, Hamilton said, allow people to go beyond the usual sightseeing to experience a destination more intimately, incorporating the senses of taste, touch and smell. In Chicago, Kost focuses on showing people spots that are local secrets, helping them feel like they're going off the beaten path.

Of course, for many tourists, culinary travel is less about education and more about finding unique eating and drinking experiences. More than half the travelers who seek out food and wine activities make a point of trying local cuisine and restaurants, according to the TIA study, which was performed by Edge Research and surveyed 2,364 leisure travelers between July 21 and August 9.

The study respondents had volunteered to participate in online questionnaires, and results were then weighted to reflect the general population.

Pam Hays, of Fayetteville, Texas, said she and her husband make sure to sample the local cuisine wherever they travel.

"In New York," she said, "at breakfast we discuss lunch; at lunch we discuss afternoon snack; at afternoon snack we discuss dinner."

Hays, who was on the Chelsea Market tour, is a general manager at a restaurant, but plenty of others can enjoy such activities without that kind of expertise.

"We're not connoisseurs," said Mark Littlejohn, a merchant sailor from Long Beach, California, also on the tour. "This is to me more interesting than museums. ... You can actually experience it."

Hmm... I think I want to go to Tuscany or something... ;-)

US travel - the best places for value vacations for 2007

2007-02-23T10:42:00.000+01:00

Hotwire Travel Value Index: Best Places for Value Vacations for 2007.

Atlanta, Georgia tops the list. It's an OK place; I don't find their top three bargain bullets of "things to do" particularly appealing, but whatever. My personal recommendation from the top ten list is Washington, DC. The Smithsonian museums are fantastic, the National Zoo is also great, and it's very easy to get around to all the sites in Washington, DC without having to drive a car.

I've been to seven of the top ten cities, but it's been a while since I've been to any of them...

how not to travel by air...

2007-02-20T13:19:00.000+01:00

From News24:

Why plane stowaways die

The body of a young South African plane stowaway has been returned home from Los Angeles.

Stowaways on boats or trucks often die from lack of oxygen or from dehydration. Those on planes have a far quicker exit. Few people know how inhospitable conditions can be 10 000 metres up in the air.

Why do almost none of these plane stowaways survive?
The hiding place is unsafe. Most stowaways hide in the wheel wells of aeroplanes. This is the area near to the wing recess where the landing gear retracts. Most wheel wells have enough space for a small adult to crawl into and hide. Access is gained when the plane is stationary. A stowaway would climb the landing gear into the area where the wheel retracts. Once the plane takes off a stowaway is protected by metal coverings that close over the wheel well opening. But if the landing gear does not retract properly the pilot will keep trying until it does. This could lead to the stowaway being crushed.

Wheel wells are not pressurised. As the plane ascends, there is a corresponding drop in atmospheric pressure. Because the wheel wells are not pressurised (as the inside of the plane is), there is a lack of oxygen. Decompression sickness occurs when pressure surrounding the body is reduced. Nitrogen gas bubbles form in the bloodstream and tissue fluids. This causes pain in muscles and joints and can damage tissue, nerves and organs. Divers who surface too quickly also suffer from decompression sickness.

No air and no heat. A stowaway faces two life-threatening conditions: hypoxia and hypothermia. Hypoxia occurs because of a lack of oxygen. Hypothermia occurs when there is a drop in the core body temperature to below 32 degrees Celsius. The body is unable to perform normal functions. This results in unconsciousness and if the temperature remains freezing, death will follow. At such high altitudes it is extremely cold - colder than most people will ever experience - and the temperature could fall to minus 45 degrees Celsius. It is more or less impossible to survive this kind of cold without adequate gear.

Fall to pieces. A stowaway can plunge to death when the landing gear is lowered. Landing gear is lowered well before landing – sometimes a few hundred metres - and if there is nothing to hold on to, preventing a fall would be difficult. It is thought that many stowaways on planes are never discovered, because they fall out before planes land. Lack of oxygen also causes blackouts, rendering stowaways unconscious and unable to do anything for themselves.

(Leandra Engelbrecht, Health24, February 2007)
Sources: Wikipedia.org, Flightsafety.org

tourist in my own town - the Madiba: Man of Destiny exhibit

2007-02-18T17:45:00.000+01:00

boyfriend of feitpingvin and I went to see Peter Magubane's "Madiba: Man of Destiny" photo exhibit at the International Cultural Center and Museum here in Oslo. It is about the life of Nelson Mandela and the fight against apartheid from the end of the 1950s to Mandela's release to now - the new South Africa.

Magubane captured many disturbing episodes during the apartheid regime, including Mandela's arrest, student demonstrations, various massacres, and the resulting funerals. His photographs have been show in, among others, Life magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic and Time magazine. For his efforts, Magubane has been jailed and tortured, and even banned from taking any photographs at all. It's a good thing he never let anything stop him...

I think some of my favorite photos were ones where white people were also included. It's very obvious that the blacks were opposed to the evils of the apartheid regime. It's easy to forget how many white South Africans were also involved in the struggle. I'm not sure what my absolute favorite photo was though. I think I'll have to go back and have a look again. The exhibit was free after all ;-)

There are lots of good museums in Oslo. Several of them have free admission. We really need to get our act together and visit them more often...

the new seven wonders...

2007-02-11T13:09:00.000+01:00

Yes! You can vote for the new seven wonders of the world. The results will be announced the 7th of July, 2007. 07-07-07. Get it? ;-)

dragon temporarily slayed - idiots ruining things for everyone

2007-02-09T17:42:00.000+01:00

I was saddened to read that a bunch of asshats vandalized Gaudi's famous dragon that does nothing but mind its own business at the entrance of Parc Güell in Barcelona, Spain...

What kind of losers would do something like this? *sigh*

By the way, don't let this stop you from going to Parc Güell. It is one of the nicest places I have ever visited in my life. Even if you're not into Gaudi or architecture, the park itself is beautiful, and it's a good place to relax, people-watch, and maybe even catch a concert like my friends and I did when we were there in 2003...

Here's my photo of the famous dragon:

the more-than-mile high club

2007-02-06T15:28:00.000+01:00

sex in space tourism?

child-free travel

2007-02-06T14:33:00.000+01:00

Recently in Aftenposten's consumer section for travfel, there have been articles about how some charter tour companies are setting up various forms of child-free travel.

In the first article, one company is setting up a special class on their plane to Thailand - the customer pays extra for it, and children between the ages of 0 and 12 are not allowed to travel in this class.

The second article is about a hotel that another tour company uses; this hotel has a minimum age limit of 18 years but if you shell out a ton of money, you can bring your children.

And, of course, there have been complaints about this. I really don't understand why. There are plenty of things out there for families with children that are not suitable for people without children. Why are they so upset that options are also being made for the child-free, a growing (and relatively wealthy) demographic group? Is it because of that? Are they jealous of the lifestyle that the once had but can never have again?

From some of the reader comments, it also seems like some individuals are taking child-free travel arrangements personally. A critique of their parenting skills... or should I say lack of? It's no wonder people don't want to sit next to kids on planes when the kid screams the whole flight and kicks the back of your seat and the parents don't do a damn thing about it. And before you get your knickers in a knot, I'm not talking about babies who cry during take-off and landing. Especially considering most shut up and go to sleep in between...

Oh, and I can't even imagine why any responsible parent would take their children to an adults-only hotel where the guests want to do, well, adult things...

Table Mountain muggers spark vigilante fears

2007-02-01T12:04:00.000+01:00

I can see how vigilantism would be tempting. The fact that there is a risk of it shows that the police aren't doing their job properly.

You will also see a quote in the article: 'Take off all your jewellery when you're on the mountain'. OK, fine. We all know that muggers like shiny jewelry. (As opposed to the 35 Rand (because I was too lazy to bargain down) necklace I was wearing while I was up there.) But general advice you read "everywhere" includes "not flashing your fancy camera" or something along those lines... um, duh? The reason a lot of us go up there in the first place is... *drumroll*... TO TAKE PICTURES!

Anyway...

From IOL.co.za:

Vigilantes will not be tolerated on Table Mountain.

That was the word from Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) manager Brett Myrdal, following offers to TMNP from people wanting to take the law into their own hands by mounting armed patrols to "deal" with robbers responsible for a spate of muggings in the park in recent months.

The current hotspot is around Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, adjacent to TMNP, and Skeleton Gorge, where more than 20 people have been robbed - mostly at knifepoint - in the past two months.

So far, no arrests have been made that have led to successful prosecutions.

Sources close to the investigation say that in response to the attacks, representatives of some hiking and climbing clubs on the Peninsula have threatened to arm themselves, group together and hunt down the gang believed to be responsible for the attacks.

Myrdal said: "We welcome public support of our efforts to put an end to crime in the park but we cannot, and will not, tolerate vigilante groups taking the law into their own hands.

What I would like to see happen is for some Krav Maga practitioner (or whatever other self defense/martial art) tourist kick the ass of some mugger, only for the mugger to stumble back and step on and get bitten by a poisonous snake. That would be so cool...

worse than terrorism...

2007-01-17T19:01:00.000+01:00

Those of you who have ever been to Egypt will probably be nodding your heads in agreement here...

Egyptian tourism minister bemoans pushy merchants

Pushy bazaar merchants and poor waiter service are a bigger threat to Egypt's tourism industry than the bombs of Islamic militants, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah told AFP in an interview.

When I was in Egypt in 1993, there was all this crap going on about militants attacking tourists blah blah... well, aside from an alleged bomb threat to a Western-style nightclub at the hotel we stayed at, we didn't encounter any crazy militants. For the most part, we found Egyptians to be quite friendly towards tourists...

We did encounter the pushy merchants. And damn, they were obnoxious. The most annoying ones were the ones who would physically push/drag you into their stores, maybe serve you a drink (always refuse these!), and expect you to buy something before you leave... The guys at Khan el-Khalili who swarm you and put a flower necklace/bracelet on you and expect payment are also rather irritating... blah...

Otherwise, I don't remember customer service (restaurants, hotels etc.) being too bad, but of course this trip was 14 years ago...

travel-inspired eating - Portugal

2007-01-14T20:21:00.000+01:00

Bacalhau is king in Portugal. Everyone eats it, and there are countless ways to prepare it. Here is one of those ways...

Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá. This variant of bacalhau comes from Porto.

Ingredients:
600 g. bacalhau (soaked overnight)
1 kg potatoes
2 dl olive oil
2 cloves garlic, cut into round slices
2 onions, sliced into thin round half-moon rings
1 bay leaf
1 soupspooon chopped parsley
2 chopped hard-boiled eggs + 1 hard boiled egg sliced in rings
30 g black olives, pitted and sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Skin the potatoes, and boil them in salted water. When cooked, drain water and cut into round slices.

Boil the bacalhau and drain it. Pick it clean of skin and bones and shred it into small flakes.

Heat up the olive oil, onion, garlic, and bay leaf in a wide pot. Stir from time to time until the mixture cooks without getting brown.

Add bacalhau and potatoes, and season with pepper. Stir carefully, and transfer to a baking dish and spread the mixture without pressing it down.

Bake in an oven set to 170 C until the dish browns (around 15 minutes). Take the dish out of the oven and fold in the hard-boiled eggs, olives, and parsley. Garnish with the remaining egg.

Yummy yum...

township tourism is booming...

2007-01-10T20:20:00.000+01:00

Township tourism is booming in South Africa

The article mentions, among other things Major Ndaba. We met him when we did a township tour hehe... it's interesting reading about him in CNN...

travelling to Oslo? (with update)

2007-01-04T09:16:00.000+01:00

If you are, I strongly recommend not staying at any Scandic hotel. Here's why...

The hotel discriminates against Cubans - article in Norwegian - article in English

So because the United States government has some kind of childish gripe with Cuba, a Cuban delegation to a conference in Norway was suddenly told they were not allowed to stay in a Norwegian hotel. In Norway. A country that does not have some kind of childish gripe with Cuba. How dignified and mature of the hotel owners and certain members of its staff (not). This group of Cubans had otherwise been using the hotel for the past five years for this conference, before the chain was bought up by Hilton...

All that the administrative director of the hotel, Geir Lundkvist, has to say is that he "regrets the situation." Wow. Regrets? What a spineless wanker! (I'll bet he's more sorry about this making Aftenposten and probably a few other blogs than my own than kicking out the Cubans.) He doesn't even have the balls to explain himself. Or tell big boss Hilton to piss off. I wonder what the deal is anyway, what kind of kickbacks he's getting... Then again, it could be a ploy to bring attention to the fact that the hotel owners are a bunch of twats...

Nonetheless, this kind of discrimination is unacceptable. And un-Norwegian. It is not normal to suddenly start banning specific nationalities from hotels or whatever here. I really hope that there is an investigation as to what extent this is legal in Norway. I hope Scandic gets sued for this. In the meantime, stay away from the hotels...

Update: Hah! Charges filed!

stupid, irresponsible tourist

2007-01-02T19:28:00.000+01:00

Liquid paraffin frees woman

Oudtshoorn - Rescuers battled for 10 hours at the Cango Caves near Oudtshoorn to free an overweight woman who became stuck in a narrow passage, trapping 23 other tourists in the caves.

Overweight must be the first major understatement of 2007. I mean damn, 23 other people were trapped by that stupid cow's fat ass!

"The woman had been warned she was not suited for the route... She was told at the ticket office that she was too big to take part in the specific section.... The woman was extremely offended and laid a charge with management.

When you're told you're too big to walk through caves with narrow passages, you should listen. The people who work at the Caves know more about them than you do...

Well, I guess it's better to be humiliated than offended. I really hope these others photographed the ordeal and blogged it...

Fortunately, there was no damage to the caves. I really hope they start to get more strict about enforcing the rules regarding who can, and more importantly can not enter the caves...

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T08:41:00.000+01:00

May 2007 bring you happiness, prosperity, good health, and lots of new adventures...

travel-inspired eating

2006-12-30T21:19:00.000+01:00

Once again, I'm in a South Africa mood. On another site where I hang out, we're doing a Secret Santa, and a few days ago, I got my gift - South Africa-themed random items. Among these items, a CD filled with interesting South African music, including The Click Song...

Anyway, RoF doesn't care about music. Only food. So on to the recipe...

A few things first. A little warning - this is meant to be made a day ahead of serving time. I didn't do this (didn't read the recipe carefully enough before making it :). The dish was still quite delicious...

Also, the recipe says serve with pasta. I made pan-fried potatoes and salad to go with the dish and it worked out nicely.

Braised chicken thighs with red wine, sun-dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar

(Serves 8)

16-18 chicken thigh portions (ca 2 kg)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
salt and milled black pepper
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup shredded basil leaves, or 2 tsp dried oregano
125 g sun-dried tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Trim excess fat from the chicken. Heat oil in a heavy, ovenproof casserole and brown the chicken on both sides over a medium-high heat, in 3-4 batches. When finished with each batch, remove chicken and set aside.

Reduce the heat and add the onions, some salt and pepper. Cook gently for 5-10 minutes or until very soft but not browned. Add small amounts of water to avoid browning, if necessary. Stir in garlic, herbs, and sun-dried tomatoes. Add chicken pieces to casserole. Add stock and wine, and bake in oven at 160 C for about an hour or until chicken is done. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Before reheating the chicken, remove any congealed fat from the surface. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove. Check seasonings. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, and continue reheating on stovetop (or in oven at 160 C) until chicken is heated, about 20-30 minutes.

Serve with hot small pasta sprinkled with shredded basil or chopped parsley.

Recipe source: Cape Town Food

We drank Groot Constantia's 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon with our meal and it was a lovely match.

RoF is very stuffed and happy...

still obsessed sigh ;-)

2006-12-20T11:10:00.000+01:00

On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
A penguin in a baobab tree...

On the second day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Two Cape turtle doves
And a penguin in a baobab tree...

On the third day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Three Guinea fowl
Two Cape turtle doves
And a penguin in a baobab tree...

Uh... OK, OK, I'll stop now hehe...

Won't some nice random person(s) out there give us some free roundtrip tickets from Oslo to Cape Town? ;-)

finished...finally... ;-)

2006-12-10T21:17:00.000+01:00

This is the last entry for the trip we got home from two months ago ;-) So if you haven't read everything, just go through the archives for October, November, and December to read all the reports. And see the links to the photos...

I haven't mentioned where we slept. So here goes:

Accomodation in Stellenbosch: Hazelwood House. Hazelwood House is about a 15-20 minute walk from the city center, and it's safe enough to walk at night. All the rooms have a bird theme (yay!), and we got the room called roller. It is a self-catering unit with a very large living room/bedroom area, a comfortable bed, spacious bathroom, and simple but sufficient kitchen. There is a patio area with a table and chairs if you want to take your meals/drinks outdoors, something we took advantage of. There is a swimming pool for the guests, but we didn't use this. The hosts are very nice people!

Accomodation in Cape Town: Rachel's Bed and Breakfast. Rachel is a very kind and lovely lady who runs this B&B/self-catering from her private home. The style was very different from Hazlewood; there are lots of knick-knacks in the guest area. You always notice something new every time you look around. Rachel also has a nifty, crazy garden with lots of flowers, an aviary, etc. It is also possible to sit/eat outdoors if you'd like. The bedrooms/bathroom are separate from the living room and kitchen, meaning you may or may not interact with other guests (not a problem at all for us). Speaking of the bedroom, the beds are very comfortable! You definitely get a good night's sleep here! Oh, we were also able to get our laundry done here (25 R per load) which was a very good thing considering we only brought 9 days worth of clothes for a 2 week trip ;-) The location isn't very central for the city, but it's a really good location if you have a car and want to take more trips outside the city than inside.

Sooo... what else do I have to say? Let's see... some additions to the observations list...

- Over-perfumey soaps, air fresheners, etc. are widely used. Yuck. Not fun if you get allergic reactions to shit like that :-(

- co.za is pronounced coh-zuh

- traffic lights are called robots

I really miss the Western Cape. It's the first place I've ever been to where I have obsessed about going back ever since my return. I check out ticket prices almost every day, in the hopes for a sale or something... I have never done this for any other place I've been to...

And of course, someone else wants to go back, for the good wine hehehe...

I will continue to write travel-related stuff on this site. Stay tuned...

stuffing the Ring of Fat - part II: Cape Town, etc.

2006-12-04T21:10:00.000+01:00

Just what you've been waiting for! Here's the rest of the RoF food porn report. Again, stay away from this post if you're hungry ;-)

Seaforth Restaurant
Lunch before seeing the penguins at Boulders'. We both had the seafood curry. It was served in one of those Little Black Bottomless Pots of RoF Doom. The curry was quite good; I would have liked it a little spicier but the spices were very nice and complemented the seafood. And the seafood was plentiful – lots of fresh shellfish and fish. Like I said, Little Black Bottomless Pots of RoF Doom...

We also ate at Seaforth a second time, along the way to our second trip to Cape Point. The second time, we each got the grilled tuna steak with bell pepper salsa. Washed down with a Grapetiser, a carbonated grape juice. Yum. Very fresh tuna, and a huge portion of it too. Obesity on the rise in South Africa. With portions like what we've been getting throughout our whole trip... ;-)

Oh, this restaurant is right by a big public beach... and the second time we were there there was a penguin on the beach. I wonder how often they show up, to the delight of the beach-goers ;-)

The restaurant at the Holiday Inn at Eastern Boulevard (Cape Town)
No need for links. We only ate here because we arrived so late into Cape Town and it was near our bed and breakfast. Anyway, we had the butternut soup as a starter, which wasn't too bad. It was actually quite nice...

The main course was "mixed grill" for me and grilled kingklip for boyfriend of feitpingvin. Mine was OK and boyfriend of feitpingvin's was OK but after what we got in Stellenbosch, kind of a letdown.

I'm not going to say anymore here... not really worth saying too many negative things when for all we know it could have been a very “off” night...

Mitchell's Brewery (V&A Waterfront, Cape Town)
More for the tasty beer than the food. We had fish and chips though. It was OK. Not the greatest in the world, but not bad either. Again, people go here for the beer...

Ikhaya African Restaurant (V&A Waterfront, Cape Town)
We both had the "Go Wild" - a platter with kudu, springbok, and ostrich. It's the house specialty. Mmmm...meat... Oh, and we were giggling ourselves silly over having “argued” about how much we were going to spend on wine. We splurged on a R 150 bottle (the Blaauwklippen Shiraz). You will never get a wine of that caliber for R 150 (the NOK equivalent is about the same) in a restaurant. NEVER!

This would be the last time we both had wine with dinner... we took a taxi to Ikhaya. But the whole procedure was kind of a pain and we found it was easiest just to drive to the Waterfront (as there was plenty of easy parking) for most of our dinners and then have wine back at the B&B. Yeah, kind of boring, but, well, what can you do?

Alpenstube (Hout Bay)
After World of Birds, we were desperate for lunch and came across this Austrian restaurant. We got the three-course special of the day, for R 49. As a starter, we got Freittatern soup. It was the typical broth soup with some kind of dumpling in it, just like what we got in Vienna.

The main dish was a choice of roast pork or roast lamb, so I ordered the one while boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered the other. Served with a proper sauerkraut. It was in all OK – good for a cheap lunch.

For dessert, we had Apfelstrüdel and coffee. It was also OK but nothing like what I got in Vienna.

In case you don't like daily specials, you can get a Curry Wurst with a roll and potato salad :-)

The only thing missing here is yodeling and lederhosen ;-)

Constantia Nek Restaurant (Constantia)
While actually just outside of Cape Town, this is the oldest restaurant in Cape Town. We came across this place on the way home from Kirstenbosch. The restaurant itself was very cosy and welcoming, and smelled good.

As for the food... we ordered the filet of ostrich with cherry- and port sauce. It was served with mashed potatoes and vegetables. I must say... DID WE GET THE WHOLE OSTRICH? The portion was huge. It didn't look that big when we got it, but we each got three big chunks of meat. Very tender, tasty meat too. And the mashed potatoes weren't exactly something one would throw out either... dang!

This place was so good we ate here a second time. The second time I ordered the linefish of the day, which was Yellowtail. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had the prawns. Again, big RoF-approved portion, excellent meal. We also got dessert – I got the Cape brandy fruit cake, boyfriend of feitpingvin got the apple crumble. I want to make a fruit cake like that... mmmmmmmmmm...

Oh, and our waiter, Winston, is a really cool guy, so if you're ever at Constantia Nek, you have to say hello from us. Our second time there, he remembered us from the first time and was very happy to see us again :-)

lunch before the Robben Island tour
Pizza at a fast food joint. Not only did we get a big-ass slice of pizza (and good pizza too!), we got a big serving of fries/chips/pommes frites on the side. We also had a choice of drink and got orange juice. To be healthy and all ;-)

Cape Town Fish Market (V&A Waterfront, Cape Town)
We wanted to compare this one and the one in Stellenbosch ;-) I got the stacked kingklip...

Boyfriend of feitpingvin got the "sizzler" - fish and seafood in a piri-piri sauce.

Can't say I could complain about my meal, or boyfriend of feitpingvin's ;-)

We both had some kind of peppermint-chocolate mousse dessert which was OK but a bit on the overly sweet side for my taste...

Krugmann's Grill (V&A Waterfront, Cape Town)
We both got the grilled kudu. Very tender and flavorful (just can't get enough of the wonderful game here), and again, a very huge piece of meat. Mine was a bit more rare than boyfriend of feitpingvin's (what sound does a kudu make when you sink your fork into it?) hehe... This time I just couldn't finish my meal. It was just too much, even for my abominable RoF. The most amusing part of the dining experience here was after ordering our meal, our waiter came with a box of knives and we got to select the steak knife we wanted to use for our steaks. We had the choice of three different sizes, the largest being rather huge. I chose the medium-sized knife ;-)

The Orchard at Elgin
We had some breakfast at this very charming farm/farm stall along the way to Cape Agulhas. We each had the Orchard Breakfast – eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast with homemade jam, orange juice, and coffee. Very tasty and RoF-friendly.

Paulaner
This was a meal we really, really wanted, as we had not eaten since the (huge) breakfast at The Orchard, except for a few oranges. I'm not sure how I managed to not have a severe blood sugar crash... maybe because of all the protein and fat... anyway...

We each had a very large duck breast with red cabbage and a potato dumpling on the side. It was very tasty. And probably eaten within 10 minutes if anyone bothered to time us ;-)

"The Gift" at Imhoff Farm
We came here after our second trip to Cape Point. We were originally thinking of going somewhere else, but they were closed (we later learned they had gone out of business). We eventually spotted this place on our map and decided to go. It was getting late and dark and the place looked kind of isolated... but lo and behold, the restaurant was indeed open! And it looked like a nice cosy place, even with the screaming peacocks in the yard (beautiful birds – though they make noises like cats being strangled), so we ventured in...

We had escargot as a starter. The snails weren't as large as the ones we had in Stellenbosch, but they were tasty all the same. And very, very garlicky!

We had the duck breast with orange sauce for our main course. Yes, we also had duck breast the evening before. I don't care. I love duck breast. And this duck breast was enormous, juicy, and very yummy... I barely had room for the vegetables and potatoes on the side... urk ;-)

This place was kind of "special," more for the owner than anything else. He was a bit of character, though in a good way. He came over to our table several times, to chat with us. Already when we first arrived, he was on the phone, and while apparently on hold, he asked us if we were the ones he saw walking near this township... but then he was back on the phone again. When he came to our table the first time, he asked us again if we were the couple he saw walking near a township. We said no, we were driving... he stated the obvious – as a non-black you just don't go into townships unless you know what you're doing, where you're going, who you're going to see, etc.

As he came over to our table back and forth, we talked about a lot of different things. Just pleasant smalltalk. Eventually, a conversation turned to wine. He asked us what we thought about the wine here, where we've visited, etc. We told him that the wine was excellent here, and very cheap compared to Norway. He asked us what the most expensive wine we bought to take home was... we answered 170 rand. He suddenly asked us if we wanted a bottle of wine, from the Scarborough region (where the farm is located or something like that). Wow! No way we were going to say no to an offer like that! :-) We were quite overwhelmed with such a gesture. We hope to be able to do something as kind in return some day...

Information about this wine in the tasting notes...

Hudson's at Vredenheim Winery
We had lunch here before returning to the airport. I had a biltong salad with sun-dried tomatoes and avocado, washed down with sparkling grape juice made of grapes from the farm, and boyfriend of feitpingvin had a “wineland breakfast” - omelette, sausage, bacon, fried mushrooms and tomatoes, a little salad, and bread with jam and cheese, and some juice and coffee.

Darn... I'm really hungry and missing South Africa now... :-/

walking in the parks, discovering all things green are good...

2006-11-27T20:26:00.000+01:00

If I haven't already said so directly, South Africa is a must for nature lovers. I know that we only got a small taste of what is actually available to experience. We want to go back for more. The sooner the better...

I've already discussed penguins and other critters. Now it's time to write about the flora (or at least try... I'm far from an expert on plants and flowers), while at the same time giving an overview of some of the parks we visited (excluding Jonkershoek)... I think the overview of the parks will be slightly better than any attempt to describe the Cape flora...

The Cape Floral Kingdom
In general, fynbos is the major vegetation type of the botanical region known as the Cape Floral Kingdom, a member of the World Heritage list and the world's smallest and richest floral kingdom. It has the highest known concentration of plant species – 1300 per 10000 square km. 70% of the world's fynbos species are only found in the Cape Floral Kingdom. Fynbos includes proteas, including the king protea, the national flower of South Africa, and ericas (heaths). There are over 700 species of erica found in South Africa!

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden only exhibits plants that are native to South Africa, which is quite impressive considering the size of the place (528 hectares) and the vast diversity of the plants, flowers, trees etc. on exhibit. Absolutely amazing! It's very beautiful and tranquil here - lots of green with bright colored flowers splashed here and there, good smells, and the peaceful sound of chirping birds...

My favorite part of Kirstenbosch was the Useful Plants exhibit, linked to the medicinal garden. You learn about what kind of plants can be used to cure illnesses, or alleviate symptoms, etc., as well as plants for food, making things (baskets etc), assisting in land conservation... they even had a whole section of plants that are used to treat sexually transmitted infections/diseases and another whole section of plants dedicated to treating the symptoms of HIV/AIDS in some way or other. Another interesting exhibit was one about how to choose plants for your garden at home, in particular plants that use little water.

One can easily spend a lot of time here. There's plenty of lawn space for a picnic... we'll try that next time ;-)

Table Mountain National Park
Table Mountain
Table Mountain is the most prominent landmark and a top tourist attraction in Cape Town. Table Mountain is called so because of its flat top; cloud cover looks like a tablecloth. The place is quite indescribable, but the website has a rather good way of expressing the splendor of the park:

The Park is recognised globally for its extraordinarily rich, diverse and unique fauna and flora - with rugged cliffs, steep slopes and sandy flats - is a truly remarkable natural, scenic, historical, cultural and recreational asset both locally and internationally. Nowhere else in the world does an area of such spectacular beauty and such rich bio-diversity exist almost entirely within a metropolitan area - the thriving and cosmopolitan city of Cape Town.

We took the aerial cableway up the mountain; we wanted to save time. Next time we'll do the hike up. We took this trail (don't remember the name – will edit once I do) which can be "hairy" if you're afraid of heights (I somehow managed OK), but well worth it. The views are spectacular, and there's lots of plant life to see; most of the animals were hiding. Be sure to wear long pants and proper shoes (not sandals!) when you're up there. There's lots of tall grass, bushes, Cape reed, and the such that can easily scrape you up... and it's a good hiding place for poisonous snakes...

Cape Point
A part of Table Mountain National Park, this park is one of the most incredible places I have ever been to in my entire life. It includes famous landmarks such as Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Pssst... it seems like ostriches like to hang out on/around the road that leads to the Cape of Good Hope!

The whole area is huge and it's a good idea to have a car to get around. Also, if you visit Cape Point, bring some kind of jacket or sweater to protect yourself against the wind. Even if it's otherwise hot and sunny, the wind can make things chilly very quickly...

Oh, there are plenty of great photo opportunities, like the obligatory Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope shots...

as well as shots like this...

See boyfriend of feitpingvin's flickr site for the rest of the Kirstenbosch, Table Mountain, and Cape Point photos... (I may edit this page to link to them later on.)

District Six

2006-11-25T20:12:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note before this quickie entry... I've been really busy lately and haven't had the time to add much here... but the good news is that there isn't that much left to go... don't forget to check in... everything should be up by the first week of December. Now, on with District Six... :-)

At the start of our township tour, our guide took us to the District Six Museum. It's a very interesting museum, and unfortunately, we didn't spend as much time here as we ought to have as we had a schedule to stick to.

The museum focuses on the history of District Six in Cape Town, with reconstructions of the homes and businesses of District Six and other interesting exhibits. It also displays bits and pieces of the apartheid legacy – benches for Europeans only, whites only signs, etc...

The historical information is well worth reading. Yet seeing is believing... if you're ever in Cape Town, don't forget to make a stop here...

sky and sea, though in captivity...

2006-11-20T21:16:00.000+01:00

World of Birds at Hout Bay
World of Birds is the largest bird park in Africa and is an absolute must for bird lovers. After you pay the admission, you go into a very large circular area where you go in and out of different walk-through aviaries with lots of different species in them. The whole park has over 400 different species with a head count of over 3000 birds...

One of the first birds we met was this gorgeous golden pheasant. It's definitely one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen – look at those colors! The picture doesn't do it any justice though. This is something you need to see for real!

What I really liked was that you could meet most of the birds up close and personal, quite literally. Sometimes, the birds would come up to you to have a closer look. Other times, you would go into the aviary and see nothing... then suddenly you notice lots of bird poop on the ground and then look up above you to see a bird glaring at you...

"Whaddya lookin' at, freak?!"

One thing that was kind of funny, was that some of the aviaries were “open air” but with wire mesh "ceilings." One of these housed cape sacred ibises, among other species. This of course caught the attention of a large flock of wild cape sacred ibises, so you would see a bunch of wild ibises standing on the wire mesh ceiling, looking into the aviary, while the ibises in the aviary looked towards... freedom?

As it was springtime, love was in the air. But sometimes, the Romeos go a little too far hehe...

World of Birds has more than just birds. It has lots of other animals, including meerkats, tortoises, big lizards, and different kinds of monkeys...

Two Oceans Aquarium
Located at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town, this aquarium houses species from the Atlantic and Indian oceans, from fish to aquatic mammals to...yes...penguins ;-) Two Oceans Aquarium is also one of only two aquariums in the world that has a kelp forest exhibit. It's a very nice place – a good way to spend a few hours on a rainy day (or not).

In addition to seeing the wide variety of species on display, you can also watch the aquarium staff feed the fish, sharks, penguins...

"Mine, mine, all mine mowahahaha!"

Don't miss the freaky puppet shows either; they're meant for children but are rather entertaining for adults. They each have their own save-the-environment message, and have a sort of South Park feel to them, as indicated with the presence of the singing turd...

And, if you're willing to pay for it and plan well ahead of time, you can dive with some sharks or in the kelp forest. We didn't do this because it because we felt it was a bit of a hassle to have to do the advanced booking and know exactly when we were going to go etc. It would have sucked if we booked on a nice day and it rained the rest of the time, right?

Oh, and love was in the air here as well, though I'm not too sure about this one... interspecies love? Hmm...

where two oceans meet...

2006-11-19T17:46:00.000+01:00

Cape Agulhas, or “Cape of Needles”, is the southernmost point in Africa. The official position of the tip is 34° 49’ 58" south and 20° 00’ 12’’ east. Cape Agulhas is also the official meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It makes for good photo opportunities...

Look, we're in the Indian Ocean!

And now we're in the Atlantic!

Because it was so easy to figure out where south was, I was able to show Mini Wolfgang (our beer- and wine-loving travel penguin) the way to Antarctica...

See how he longs for "home"... (though don't tell him they don't have beer there hehe)

While Cape Agulhas National Park may not be as spectacular as Cape Point, it's still worth the trip. The drive out is interesting, and there's plenty of fantastic nature and breathtaking views in the area. Plus you get the general amusement of being able to do the touch two oceans thing. Going up the lighthouse is also fun (we got to see the rock kestrel up there after all!); the admission to the lighthouse also includes admission to a lighthouse museum housed within.

It also seems like the area is being better developed for tourism at the moment - lots of building of beachfront properties, etc. going on. So the area will probably be set up to do much more activities than just the national park and the beach/aquatic sports within a few years, or at least in time for the World Cup...

For some interesting historical information about Cape Agulhas, see Wikipedia's Cape Agulhas page...

Robben Island

2006-11-18T10:43:00.000+01:00

There's more to South Africa than just beautiful nature, good food, and good wine. South Africa has a turbulent historical past that includes colonization and racial persecution, rebellion and resistance. However, the policy of the day is reconcilliation and hope. One of the best ways to learn about South Africa's dark past and potential for a bright future is by taking the Robben Island tour...

Robben Island is the location of the infamous prison for political prisoners during South Africa's apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress is probably the most famous former resident. It's a half hour (I think it was) by boat to get there...

When we got there, we were greeted by Yasein Mohamed, once secretary for the Pan-African Congress in the Western Cape and a former political prisoner: He was our guide for the first part of the tour. He talked about the history of Robben Island - it has always been an on-and-off prison island. From the 1800s to 1932, the island served as a leper colony where people of all colors were sent if they had leprosy or any other "unknown" disease (unknown diseases = leprosy). Non-white male anti-apartheid political prisoners, i.e. black and colored political activists were sent to Robben Island starting around 1960 with Pan-African Congress founder Robert Sobukwe, once considered the most dangerous man in South Africa. White male political activists and all female activists were imprisoned on the mainland. The international boycotts against South Africa started after the sending of political prisoners to Robben Island...

Conditions for the prisoners were beyond harsh, and the blacks were treated worst of all. For example, you can see the different diets for blacks and coloreds. Furthermore, prisoners were forced to work at a quarry, without any sunglasses to protect their eyes from the glare from the white limestone... and all this was only "busywork"!! There was no demand for the limestone from the quarry at all! A lot of prisoners became blind or permanently vision-impaired because of this. Nelson Mandela included; ever notice his shades? You are not allowed to take flash pictures of him either (or something along those lines).

Certain prisoners were segregated from other prisoners, as to avoid "bad influence." However, it was relatively easy for prisoners to communicate with one another. For example, tennis balls would be cut open and messages stuffed into the tennis balls, and these tennis balls would be hit over walls separating cell blocks. The wardens dismissed it as blacks not knowing how to play tennis. No prisoner was allowed to communicate with the outside world; their visitors would sneak messages out for them. This was easiest for priests, who would hide messages inside their Bibles; wardens didn't dare search a priest!

Nelson Mandela brought about change, despite the conditions he was forced to live under. One of his goals was to make sure that the prisoners who didn't have an education, got one. Many political prisoners were doctors, lawyers, and other academics; they were able to sneak around the ban on educating inmates. Mandela (and other prisoners) even helped the prison wardens, hired for their brutality more for their brains, get an education and better themselves. The idea was that they too were victims of apartheid, that they wouldn't be the way they were had things been different. The right to education for prisoners was eventually given in 1966.

Our second guide gave us a tour of the prison blocks and tiny, spartan cells, including Nelson Mandela's prison cell, which nearly has “shrine status” now. We also visited the only current prisoner, in the slammer for protesting high alcohol prices and drunken rowdiness. We managed to help him escape hehe ;-P

Anyway, apartheid is officially over and the prisoners are doing their best not to hold a grudge – forgiveness and reconciliation and all. The idea is to not seek revenge for past wrongs, as this would make you just as evil as your oppressors. If only the whole world could think like that! However, one must not forget the wrongs of the past. The Robben Island tour is a good way for people to confront the harsh realities of the injustices of the past, in order to head towards a better future.

Besides the prison, housing for former prison wardens and officials, some churches, and the such. Robben Island has a lot of wildlife, including springbok, bontebok, ostriches, rabbits, and a penguin colony. It also has a bunch of eucalyptus trees brought in around 1890 – because of these water-slurping trees, there is no fresh water on the island.

Robben Island became a National Monument in 1996 and a World Heritage Site in 1999. It's one of the absolutely-must-see's if you're ever in Cape Town. Do get your tickets ahead of time though, especially if you're travelling during high season.

monkey business

2006-11-15T20:11:00.000+01:00

South Africa has a reputation for high crime. Among the more infamous perps, gang banger baboons. Here are some safety tips for dealing with these little criminals...

OK, all joking aside, the relationship between humans and baboons is love-hate. The chacma baboons are a protected species, and I do believe it's important to protect them. However, I can understand the frustrations some people may have, especially when you're dealing with animals that are smart enough to be able to open your door, go to your fridge, eat all your food, drink all your beer, and fling poo everywhere...

But who's fault is that? How do the baboons know to go to people and their homes in the first place, while other mammals shy away? For starters, you have dumbass tourists, South African and foreign, who deliberately feed the baboons, despite all the signs that are up and all the pamphlets given out saying not to. I mean, can you put it an a more blunt manner?

So you have these idiots teaching intelligent animals people = free food. And of course you have people who are generally careless, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and leave food where the baboons can get "easy" access. Anything from setting up a picnic to careless disposal of trash. The baboons quickly learn that where there's people, there's good stuff to eat, and well... the trouble begins. They go after human food instead of foraging for grubs like good baboons should...

The baboons themselves are kind of cute, especially the little ones, and they're interesting to watch. They seem to like to watch people just as much as we like to watch them. Like ostriches, they also have no regard for the rules of the road, so you have to watch out for them when you're out driving in places like Cape Point...

Some extra links for you:

some good information about chacma baboons

Wikipedia's site on chacma baboons

random activities in the Cape Winelands

2006-11-13T20:04:00.000+01:00

Here are some of the Cape Winelands activities that you can enjoy that aren't winery visits/wine tasting...

Jonkershoek Nature Reserve
We spent our first (almost) full day in South Africa here, as most wineries are closed on Sundays. It was good to get out in the fresh air and do some hiking, after our long plane trip and the stress of getting everything in order the day we arrived. This place is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the region. Lots of gorgeous scenery here. We didn't see too many animals though, which is a shame. Do take the trail that goes to two different waterfalls. Very beautiful!

Stellenbosch Village Museum
The museum is made up of 4 different houses that reflect Stellenbosch life during various times in the past. You start at the oldest house which is from 1709 and end at a house from around the 1850s. It's interesting to see how housing standards changed over the times. Especially the “toilets” (chamber pots hah!) and the eventual development of the first showers. And among the things that didn't change – onions hanging up in the kitchen. They say it keeps the flies away...

The Afrikaans Language Monument in Paarl
It's hard to get an idea of the impressiveness of this monument without actually being there. When you go inside and play around a little, you get a freaky echo...

Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm
OK, it's one thing looking at all the crocodiles that are farmed there. It's another thing to get the chance to hold a baby crocodile. A little Schnappi, though its name was Charlie. Baby crocodiles are very cute, and soft to the touch, like really old, broken-into leather. Which is what the crocodiles are actually farmed for – leather. Though there are a bunch of crocodile tails that go towards food. They also had this nifty albino crocodile that they kept in a tank indoors, and a few crocodiles that had birth defects or whatnot that would make them unable to fend for themselves in the wild...

And some general information about the main cities in the Winelands:

township tours

2006-11-12T20:44:00.000+01:00

A township tour is a must-do if you're ever in one of the large cities in South Africa. It's the only way to get a vague idea about how the majority of South African blacks live (unless you actually live there, you will never know)...

The guides for the township tours live in the townships you visit. Our guide, Godfrey, comes from Langa township outside of Cape Town, which was established in 1927 and has around 40,000 people. We also visited Guguletu and Khayelitsha townships.

Among some of the shocking eye-openers, you have this "shack" with one bedroom that houses 3 families, each family consisting of 5 or so people. The sanitary conditions aren't great either – if you're lucky enough, your shack has running cold water. Otherwise, you have to use the common water faucets outside. Some places have (reliable) electricity, and some don't. Though it seems like all the townships had an Internet café or two... heh...

If you're "rich" by township standards (earning R 6000-7000 a month), you could live in the "Beverly Hills" of the townships – tiny brick houses that look decent enough. They're a lot better than the shacks or the "cardboard box houses" that are set up illegally. You still have a lot of people/families living in these nicer houses though. Privacy seems to be non-existent. People who live in these often hire people living in the worst of the worst cardboard box houses as maids...

According to Godfrey, the blacks prefer living in the townships as to stay together. One big happy family; everyone looks out for one another. I can sort of understand that mindset, though it comes with a lot of other things and thoughts that I would rather not post here. At the same time, South Africa has a very high rate of rapes and violent crime, most of it within these townships... one big happy family? Hmmm... I can only imagine the tensions that brew when so many people are living so close together...

Anyway...

A township isn't a township without a shebeen, and our tour included a visit to a shebeen. Township shebeens are run by women but frequented by men (excluding female tourists). The drink of death is called umqombothi. One must be brave to drink that... and lots of township men sit in the shebeen and drink this stuff all day long. A cannister of that stuff costs R 7. It only has around 2% alcohol, so you really can't get drunk on it...

We also visited a witch doctor. We were told his specialty is love potions. OK. Whatever...

Our final stops were to Vicky's Bed and Breakfast in Khayelitsha township – a B&B intends to give tourists a more "real" township experience – and a daycare that was right next to Vicky's. Vicky's was interesting – the rooms were actually quite nice, and for R 190 per night, you get dinner and breakfast in the package. I would consider staying there for a night; it would be a good chance to get some more insight into township life once the tourist minivans are gone.

I'm still not sure how I felt about the daycare visit – if there's anything that made me feel like I was going on a "people safari", this was it. It was nice to see the kids so enthusiastic to see the tourists and sing for us and all, but I also got the "performing for us like trained animals" feeling :-/ Aside from that, despite cramming a lot of small children into two very small rooms, they seem to get a decent deal. They have a regular schedule of learning and play, and they get breakfast, a hot lunch (we arrived as lunch was being prepared), and snacks as well.

The kids were very cute...

beautiful creatures

2006-11-11T15:48:00.000+01:00

Here is a list of the animals we saw in the wild. Click on the links provided to see boyfriend of feitpingvin's pictures of these animals from his flickr site, or else to read some interesting supplementary information about these animals on Wikipedia or other sites.

This list does not include birds. The birds are in a separate post...

berg adder (Bitis atropos)
We are quite certain it's a berg adder. I sort of disturbed it while it was sunbathing on one of the many trails at Table Mountain. It hissed and slithered off, but boyfriend of feitpingvin was able to get a picture of it (see first link if you haven't already done so). Eventually, I found out what would have happened had one of us gotten bitten. Um, nice...

various lizards
Lizards were all over the place, in particular agamas and black zonures. They like to sunbathe on the rocks, and they don't really like being disturbed. But they're so cute! ;-)

tortoises
This one almost became a splat – we were going to stop to get a closer look at some bontebok, and boyfriend of feitpingvin thought it was a rock at first but suddenly stopped... "is that a tortoise?" Indeed! And it was so small and cute and... confused...

At Cape Agulhas, there were even warning signs about tortoises, warning drivers not to drive over them...

springbok
Springbok is Afrikaans for succulent steak. OK, maybe not, but the steaks are succulent... :-)

bontebok
We saw them at Booi se Skerm. Bontebok are a threatened species of antelope and consequently illegal to kill, for food or otherwise. So no bontebok steaks for us... :-P

southern right whales
September/October is the peak of whale watching season. We were driving along our way to Boulders Beach and Cape Point when we saw all these cars stopped along the side of the road, and people were looking out into the sea... whales! Lots of whales, blowing water from their blowholes and hopping up into the air and waving their tails... so we had to stop too. You could even hear the whales making noise. A German couple we were standing next to told us we had missed the drama of the previous day – a whale had given birth, and moments after the birth, a great white shark came along and ate the calf!!

The whale-watching viewpoint near Rooikrans at Cape Point is another good place to watch whales. The ones we saw there were only swimming along; no jumping or tail waving or anything like that...

Cape hyraxes (dassies)
Dassies, or rock rabbits (link to Wikipedia site), look like big rodents or rabbits, but they're actually related to elephants!

baboons
There's a lot to be said about the baboons, so I think I'll give them their own post... please stay tuned...

Cape fur seals. We saw these seals sleeping peacefully on the sunny docks, after our Robben Island tour...

tourists with cameras
Not sure if they fall into the "beautiful" category though ;-P

unidentified frogs

unidentified furry animal with a tail (rodent-like)

winery tours, part III

2006-11-08T20:06:00.000+01:00

Here are some random wineries we visited while on the way to some place or other...

Haute Cabrière
We stopped here after our meal at La Petite Ferme. This Franchhoek winery is known for sparkling wines. We had a cellar tour as well as a tasting.

Their most interesting bubbly was a pink one – the Bella Rosa – which is a chardonnay with a hint of pinot noir. We bought a bottle and drank it when we were at our guest house in Cape Town...

From the bottle:

In vino veritas

Lurking in every glass
Of our Chardonnay Pinot Noir
Is Bacchus and reality
Mingling
Sun, soil, vine, man
In a delicious manner
To celebrate life
And our dreams.

- Achim von Arnim

Groot Constantia
We came here after a trip to Table Mountain; it was along the way to a restaurant where we were planning on having dinner. Tasting had already closed for the day when we got there, but there was a group there and the lady in charge let us in anyway, and we didn't have to pay anything for the tasting, even though we offered. That was really nice of her! So we got to taste a few red and dessert wines. And it's a good thing the lady let us taste, because we ended up buying a bottle of their wonderful cab sauv ;-)

Raka
We were on our way to Betty's Bay when we drove by Raka... and then turned around to check it out. We did so because we drank a Raka Shiraz a few days earlier (see tasting notes), loved it, and were therefore curious about what else they had. When we arrived, we entered the main building, and nobody was there. We thought this was kind of strange, as there were wine bottles and tasting glasses set up at a table. We called out “hello...” and nobody showed up. OK...fine. (And very strange that we could just walk into a place like that.) We turned and walked out. As we were leaving, we heard a voice call out to us and saw a woman run out of a house nearby. When we met, she mumbled something about how typical it was that the moment she went to the house to take care of some laundry, people would show up...

Anyway, we told her about the wine we had (biography shiraz), which was why we stopped at Raka at all. She immediately poured us the 2003 version of the wine... DANG! The 2004 was quite good, but this... this was great! We also got to try lots of other good stuff, including good stuff that she tapped from the tanks :-)

We didn't buy anything though... hmmf... next time ;-)

This woman, Elna, was very interesting. Although she had knowledge about wine, she wasn't much of a wine drinker. It was fun talking to her. We could have talked all night, had we not been on our way to Betty's Bay to see the penguins ;-)

stuffing the Ring of Fat - part I: Stellenbosch/Cape Winelands

2006-11-05T17:04:00.000+01:00

DISCLAIMER: Food porn coming up! Do not read this report if you're very hungry!

Along with good wine, one must have good food and lots of it. Our Rings of Fat (RoF) demanded it! And the Western Cape does not disappoint in that department! By Norwegian standards, food is extremely cheap. Furthermore, the portions are quite large, like US supersizing, but the quality of what you get typically get in South African restaurants is superior to what you get in the States. The meat and fish you get is out of this world. Don't come here if you're on a strict weight loss diet ;-)

Information on the wines are in the tasting notes posts, either for whites or rosés or sparking, or for reds...

I'll write a separate post on South African cuisine in general.

OK. OK, enough of this boring chit-chat. On with the goodies!

The café at the airport. After we got the rental car in order, we decided to get a proper breakfast (the crap we got on our flight just wasn't working for us) and some coffee at the café at the airport, before heading out to Stellenbosch. We had oatmeal with bananas, and orange juice and coffee to wash it down. Very nice. European prices though.

Dros Restaurant and Wine Cellar at Stellenbosch. Grilled chicken with piri-piri sauce for me, calamari steak for boyfriend of feitpingvin. The chicken was tender and juicy and the piri-piri sauce gave a nice kick. And of course I tasted the calamari steak, which was tender and tasty. Afterwards, we had a huge piece of cheesecake for dessert, along with a glass of local port and some coffee.

We had a bottle of wine with our meal (Drostdty-Hof Chardonnay 2005)... and got a second bottle of wine for free! They had this 2-for-1 special going. The bottle that was on special was sold out, and we ordered a different bottle, not really caring that we were missing out on the deal, and ended up getting a second bottle anyway. Very nice. That would never happen in Norway, or most other places in Europe ;-) We took the second bottle back to the guest house to have there...

Homemade dinner at the guest house. I made tasty ostrich burgers and salad. We had originally planned on eating out part of the time and cooking with local ingredients part of the time, but we found out that eating out was so friggin' cheap (for us) that it was best to eat out the rest of the time. Let someone else do the dishes ;-)

Breakfast at the guest house. We had a self-catering unit, so I always made breakfast. I would do that while boyfriend of feitpingvin was showering. Breakfast ingredients were pretty cheap – I usually made omelettes with free-range eggs, bacon, organic cheese, and tomatoes. Served with bread. Or we would just have slices of bread with peanut butter and jam, or meat and cheese, or whatever else. Washed down with skim milk and coffee made from powder (eek)...

Oh, and at least in Stellenbosch, we usually had breakfast outside, on the porch ;-)

The café at Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. A very simple (but good) lunch, as we snacked on protein bars during our hike. I had a chicken salad and boyfriend of feitpingvin had a sandwich with egg and bacon, I think it was. All washed down with orange juice and coffee.

Cape Town Fish Market at Stellenbosch: we started the evening by drinking a Castle Lager. I had been warned that Castle = pisswater. I should have listened to these warnings ;-P

Starter – escargot with butter and parmesean. The snails were gigantic! I've had escargot lots of times, and I don't remember ever getting snails that were so big. And very tasty.

Main course – grilled linefish and calamari platter for me. Linefish is the South African term for fish of the day – didn't write down what it actually was and don't remember now). Boyfriend of feitpingvin had the grilled calamari cajun-style. Both were lovely and the portions were huge. RoF was very stuffed and happy. We had the Delheim Pinotage Rosé 2005 to go with the meal. Kind of unusual to have a rosé with seafood, but the combination wasn't too bad...

Basic Bistro (Stellenbosch): Mmm...lunch. I had a gypsy ham sandwich on “health bread” with mozerella cheese and gooseberry jam. Very tasty and filling. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had a chicken pasta with Egyptian spices (dukkah?). It was also quite tasty; the spices were wonderful. We both had Windhoek Lager, from Namibia, with our meals. Windhoek Lager is brewed according to German purity laws. It's not too bad for a mass-produced product. We also had some Tafel Lager, also from Namibia.

Fishmonger (Stellenbosch): an upscale fish restaurant in Stellenbosch. As our aperitif, we had a Savanna Dry Cider each. It's a popular cider from Stellenbosch and I can understand why it's popular – it's refreshing and tastes great!

Starter – I had calamari stuffed with salmon, spinach, feta cheese, and garlic. Excellent stuff. Very tender calamari. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had mussels in a very tasty white wine sauce. Mmmm...

We both had kingklip stuffed with with mushrooms, onion, tomato, and mozerella with paprika, beer, and garlic sauce as our main course. The fish was interesting – a very different flavor and consistency, but very pleasant, and the sauce was wonderful and rich. We had different side dishes though. I had vegetables on the side, as shown in the picture, while boyfriend of feitpingvin had potatoes.

Our wine was the Della Cia Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (Meerlust).

Booking is essential here! This place is very popular!

Oh, and this is what a kingklip looks like ;-)

Goederust Farm Kitchen (Franschhoek): This was the lunch stop that was included in our first wine tour. We had bobotie for lunch. Bobotie is a traditional Cape Malay curry topped with custard, and is considered a regional (if not national) specialty. It was pretty good here, but I eventually made it here at home and got a much better result ;-) I'll try to post a recipe later on...

Jan Cats (Stellenbosch): starter – duo of crocodile and calamari with homemade tartare. Crocodile meat is light and has a nice, mild flavor. I eventually learned that crocodile meat comes from the tail of the crocodile. I'm surprised it isn't more popular...

We had springbok with berry sauce as our main dish. The meat was lovely, a “light” (in color) red meat. It was very tender and juicy and tasty. The sauce was also quite nice.

The wine was the Imbizo Cabernet Sauvignon - a wonderful game wine!
The Vineyard Kitchen at Dombeya/Haskell. I had an ostrich, strawberry, and pear salad and boyfriend of feitpingvin had ostrich fajitas. The salad was very nice and had a fantastic dressing. The fajitas weren't too bad either :-)

We had a bottle of their shiraz with our meal, the one that wasn't a part of the wines they have visitors taste. Again, this is a shame, as the shiraz is excellent, and if people got a chance to sample it, they would be more likely to buy it...

It was nice and peaceful here, with a nice view of the vineyards and mountains.

Sosati Braai Restaurant: this place is across the street from Basic Bistro.

Starter – "Crocodile Sosati" - crocodile marinated in orange zest and chili. Mmmm...

Main course – I had gembok (oryx) lasagne made with sweet potatoes instead of noodles. It was a very interesting version of lasagne. Gembok is very lamb-like (at least what I had) and the combination of meat in the tomato sauce, the bechamel sauce, and the sweet potatoes were surprisingly perfect. I'd like to try making something similar at home. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had grilled gnu (wildebeest). That was also delicious – the meat just melted in your mouth. Mmmm...

Our wine of choice was the Slaley Pinotage.

We also ordered dessert. I had milktart (melktert), a traditional Cape Malay dessert. It's kind of like a custard pie, but with more milk than eggs, and flavored with cinnamon. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had koeksisters, another traditional dessert, a sort of doughnut-like thing drenched in syrup.

La Petite Ferme: we had a very lovely lunch here after our trip to the language monument and the crocodile farm. They only serve lunch, from what I understand.

Anyway, we had the Franschhoek rainbow trout served with tomato- and coriander-braised baby fennel gratinated in parmesean, diced potato with caramelized onion, rosemary, celery, white wine, and sherry. Oh my Flying Spaghetti Monster, the fish was absolutely perfectly prepared! It was amazing! And the portion again was huuuuuuuge!

RoF also wanted dessert so it got dessert. I had the limoncello-doused polenta cake served with lemon ice cream and candied lime.

Boyfriend of feitpingvin had the Aztec chocolate and chili pot lavished with coffee marscapone cheese and Marula nut brittle.

De Volkskombuis: my starter was "wild salad" – carpaccio of three different kinds of game wrapped in goat cheese, served on a bed of salad.

Boyfriend of feitpingvin's starter was a crispy duck spring roll. We shared all of this – everything was absolutely delicious in each their own way.

I ordered the pork loin stuffed with prunes and apricots for my main course: This was served with sweet potato mash and lots of vegetables. Tender and tasty meat. Mmm...pork...

Boyfriend of feitpingvin had lamb curry, served in a potjie - a Little Black Bottomless Pot of RoF Doom. What's a Little Black Bottomless Pot of RoF Doom you ask? Let me tell you... you get served this cute though seemingly little black pot of food. And then you take a big serving of food, eat it up, and then get some more food out of the pot, eat it, get more food out, eat it, get more food out... it never seems to end...

The Cape Town food report will come later on, when you're done digesting this one... :-)

tasting notes - part II

2006-11-04T17:49:00.000+01:00

Here are some of the wonderful red wines we drank during our trip. Again, these are only notes for bottles of wine we had at restaurants or at our guest house. It would be a bit much to write up all the wines we tasted on the winery tours...

Beyerskloof Pinotage 2005 (Stellenbosch)
color: deep and opaque violet
nose: tobacco, anise, and other spices
palate: full-bodied, biting, slightly sour. Tanniny but not “snippy.” Flavors of licorice, tobacco, anise, spices, pepper. Should be consumed with a heavy meat dish.
grade: :-)-

Imbizo Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 (Stellenbosch)
Imbizo means “gathering of people.”
color: dark red
nose: over-ripe red apples, prunes
palate: mild and light but with a certain degree of full-bodiness. Flavor of cherries, slightly peppery aftertaste. An excellent wine to go with game!
grade: :-)+

Dombeya (Haskell) Shiraz 2003
color: deep and opaque violet
nose: powerful, with alcohol, tobacco, cherries, spices, and overripe red apples
palate: powerful and fruity, with paprika and ripe red apples.
grade: :-D-

Slaley Pinotage 2003 (Stellenbosch)
color: deep violet
nose: very fruity with a hint of tobacco
palate: full-bodied, but somewhat anonymous
grade: :-)

Rainbow's End Shiraz 2004. (Stellenbosch/Jonkershoek Mountains)
color: opaque, deep violet
nose: chocolate, concentrated cherry juice
palate: powerful, flavor of cocoa, some spices (cloves), hint of licorice. Slightly “sharp.”
grade: :-D-

Blaauwklippen Shiraz 2003 (Coastal Region)
color: clear and ruby-red
nose: earth cellar
palate: light, but nice with meat. Soft tannins. Flavor of cooked paprika. Bitter coffee aftertaste. Would also be nice with grilled bacalhau (dried cod/klippfisk) with lots of garlic, and perhaps even bacalhau com natas.
grade: forgot to give a grade...

(Thierry and Guy) Fat Bastard Shiraz 2004 (Robertson).
color: clear and ruby-red
nose: our spiced cherry liqueur, cloves, anise, cinnamon
palate: sourish, spicy, fruity, with a hint of red apples and cocoa and vanilla. Would work with hearty meat dishes. Also OK on its own.
grade: :-)

Raka Biography Shiraz 2004
color: opaque, deep dark red
nose: spices, earth, chocolate, cloves
palate: smooth and velvety, pleasant tannins, full-bodied but “cautious”. Lots of flavor.
grade: :-D-

Doolhof Renaissance Pinotage 2005 (Wellington)
color: deep and opaque violet
nose: butcher's shop/red meat (!!), barnyard
palate: Flavors of licorice and dark chocolate. Full-bodied and powerful, but not heavy. Pleasant tannins. Pleasant bitter aftertaste. Hints of pepper and paprika when exhaling. We asked the guy at the wine shop for a challenging wine – and we got one!
grade: :-D

Sequillo 2003 (Swartland)
(63% Syrah, 30% Mourvedre, 7% Grenache)
color: deep red
nose: spicy overripe apples
palate: full-bodied, discreet biterness, hint of lingonberries and sour cherries. Would be nice with red meat.
grade: :-)+

We had this last one on this list at home, but it's worth putting the notes up here. The story behind this wine will appear in the upcoming food report ;-)

Scarborough Red (Cape Point)
color: violet/ruby red
nose: prunes and raisins, very pleasant
palate: powerful flavor of dark berries, ripe red apples. Pleasant, discreet tannins in the aftertaste. Good aging potential.
Grade: :-)+

the birds of South Africa

2006-11-02T17:37:00.000+01:00

South Africa is among the top birding destinations in the world. This was a motivating factor for wanting to visit, at least for me. This site provides excellent information about the birds of South Africa.

Here's a partial list of the birds we saw in the wild. As much as I love birds, I'm not enough of an expert to be able to recognize everything. We also lacked binoculars - something which is now up towards the top of my wish list ;-)

PENGUINS!
African, or jackass penguins (Spheniscus demersus)to be more precise. I wrote about penguins earlier. Yes, they're so special they got their own entry... :-)

Good information about African penguins

and more good information

Guinea fowl
Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) are very common, especially in places like Stellenbosch, where there are plenty of nice lawns for finding food, such the ticks that cause Lyme disease. When you get close to them, they run away (instead of flying). Even when they are in the street and a car comes along, they run, as fast as they can. They look really stupid when they run...

Ostriches
We saw several ostriches (Struthio camelus) along the road that goes to the Cape of Good Hope (at Cape Point National Park), both times we were there. We also saw a couple of adult ostriches and a bunch of chicks at Bordjiesrif (also at Cape Point). From a safe distance, of course.

Rock kestrel
We saw this gorgeous little birdie (Falco rupicolus, previously Falco tinnunculus) while up at the lighthouse at Cape Aghulas. I think we really hit the jackpot here; when we looked at some pictures of the lighthouse boyfriend of feitpingvin took before we went up, there were no birds there. But when I came up and started looking around, I saw it there, just sitting quietly on the rail, looking at me, and then boyfriend of feitpingvin, as if we were a bunch of freaks. In other words, too fascinated to be scared...

Sugar birds

Sugar birds

Promerops cafer

protea flowers

Redwinged starlings

Redwinged starlings

Onychognathus morio

Cape glossy starlings

Cape turtle doves (they like to start coo-coo-ing very early in the morning) and other pigeons

various birds of prey (in addition to the kestrel), out and about flying...

various ibises, such as the Cape sacred ibis, and cranes

various seagulls

various crows

various geese and ducks

Cape cormorants

PENGUINS!!!

2006-11-01T20:40:00.000+01:00

(I have posted most of this previously on another blog - I've updated some stuff and added some pictures ;)

Here's a nifty article about helping African penguins with fiberglass igloos (perhaps burrow is more correct) - manmade habitats to provide suitable nesting conditions, in order to bring their population up...

According to the article, the penguin colony at Dyer Island is off-limits to anyone other than researchers. The colony at Robben Island is also off-limits from what I understand. That's OK - there are two other penguin colonies that are accessible to the public, for those interested in seeing these wonderful birds in the wild. So boyfriend of feitpingvin and I visited both of them while we were in the area...

One of the colonies is at Boulders Beach near Simonstown (or Simon's Town - it's different in different maps and guide books). The other one is at Betty's Bay. Boulders Beach, as shown in the photo, seems to be the more "popular" of the two, the one you read about in all the guidebooks and the such, the one all the tour busses go to. I thought the colony at Betty's Bay was nicer in general and more interesting. We were there late in the evening (as opposed to being at Boulder's in the middle of the day), which was a shame as I would have liked to stay there longer...

The penguins are great - totally to-die-for cute, especially the baby penguins. At both places, you walk along a boardwalk... Sometimes the penguins are on the boardwalk and start running away when you approach them; you hear their big webbed feet clomping on the boardwalk, and since they're oh-so-graceful on land, they're constantly stumbling, as if piss-ass drunk, over their feet, quickly picking themselves up and running away again... if you approach them slowly enough, they'll look at you, look down at the sand, wondering if they should stay put or hop down...

Other penguins are on the sand but near the boardwalk, staring at you... some are sleeping... some are preening... lots of action...

Some of them were moulting and looked kind of scruffy, like my little friend with the mohawk... Others liked to show off their fine fatty plumage... and others just liked to make noise... there's a reason why they're also called jackass penguins... they sound like a braying jackass... other interesting noises we heard were the squirting sounds of the penguins shitting :-P

And speaking of shit, a lot of penguins had shit all over their feathers... I think that if not careful enough, a tourist could easily get caught in the line of fire...

More cool penguin pictures on boyfriend of feitpingvin's flickr site...

tasting notes - part I

2006-11-01T17:57:00.000+01:00

As mentioned, South Africa being a wine-producting country was a big motivating factor in choosing it as our holiday/vacation destination. Here are our tasting notes for the bottles of wines we shared. I have not written up the tasting notes from the winery tours (way too many to write up), nor have I written tasting notes for wines by the glass I have had at restaurants.

White, rosé, and sparkling wines are in the first part of the tasting notes report. Red wines will come later, in part II.

White wines:

Drostdty-Hof Chardonnay 2005 (Western Cape)
color: pale yellow
nose: citrus
palate: full-bodied yet dry and refreshing, flavors of citrus and tropical fruits, long aftertaste. “Bites back.” Goes well with seafood and chicken. Also nice on its own.
grade: :-)+

Della Cia Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (Meerlust)
color: very pale
nose: citrus, grass, honey melon
palate: refreshing. "Anonymous" at the start but really develops itself. A different kind of dry, with a powerful grapefruity aftertaste (“bites” in the end). Flavors of tropical fruits, grass, hint of grapefruit.
grade: :-)+ with food, and :-) on its own

Haute Cabrière Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2006 (Franschhoek)
color: golden
nose: flowers, perfume
palate: interesting blend – the flavor of chardonnay with the hint Pinot Noir to make it all refreshing. Full-bodied, refreshing, slightly bubbly. Flavor of green apples and pears. Easy to drink. Lovely wine for summer, for example with seafood.
Grade: :-)+

Rosé and Sparkling Wines

Delheim Pinotage Rosé 2005 (Simonsberg, Stellenbosch)
color: pale for a rosé
nose: strawberries and raspberries
palate: round, full-bodied, slightly sourish aftertaste but not in a bad way. Refreshing, with the flavor of raspberries. Goes nicely with fish and seafood, also good on its own.
grade: :-)

Haute Cabrière Bella Rosa
color: orange with hints of pink. Very pleasing color.
nose: citrusy but otherwise difficult to determine
palate: refreshing dry flavor of grapefruit with a hint of orange. Slightly bitter aftertaste.
Grade: :-)+

winery tours, part II

2006-10-30T20:38:00.000+01:00

27th of September, 2006. We used the Vinehopper to visit the following five wineries. It is a hop-on hop-off tour, as you see in the link, but as we were the only two on the tour that day, we didn't have to follow the schedule exactly. So in reality, we had our own private chauffeur. For the price of a hop-on hop-off minibus. That was very nice because we could visit the wineries at our own pace.

Vredenheim
They have a very nice rosé, and one of their reds was quite nice. They have a lovely garden, where you can have a picnic under a weird umbrella. Wouldn't you love to have a back yard like that? *sigh* :) They also have a mini game park on their grounds, with zebras, springbok, ostriches, etc.

Spier
We did 2 different kinds of tasting here. The first one was a wine and cheese tasting. And then a “regular” tasting of five wines, though not the same wines that were with the cheese.

The wine and cheese pairings were as follows:
1. Spier Classic Merlot 2004/5 with Fairview White Rock with Cranberries.
2. Spier Classic Shiraz 2004 with Dutch Old Master
3. Spier Discover Sweet 2005 with Cape Salut with a sultana and peppadew compote.

All the wines were given a :-)+ rating while all the cheeses got a :-D As I mentioned in another post, the cheeses here are so gooooooooooooooooood... And as you can see in the photo, even Mini Wolfgang was enjoying all the good wine and cheese action!

We were given a pamphlet about the wines and cheeses for the tasting; it has some information about how to match wine and cheese. I'll post that information somewhere, someday...

Spier is very “commercial” and “touristy,” but nonetheless an interesting place with excellent wines. Aside from the wines, you can do cool things like the Eagle Encounters (excellent for people like me who dig birds of prey)...

Or you could visit the Cheetah Outreach program, where you can pet a live cheetah!

Haskell (formerly Dombeya)
We tasted some wonderful white wines here and ended up buying a chardonnay. We also had lunch on the patio of their restaurant, overlooking some beautiful scenery, and enjoyed a bottle of their lovely shiraz 2003 (since we weren't allowed to try it during the tasting – big mistake on their side as this is a wine people would want to buy once they know what it tastes like) along with our very tasty lunch.

(btw - wine tasting notes and food review will be posted in the future.)

Bilton
This was the biggest pleasant surprise, as Bilton is a small winery and relatively unknown, especially when compared to places like Boschendal, Spier and Fairview. I'm glad they were on the tour; there's nothing wrong with the über-touristy wine estates per se, but it's also fun giving the new, not-so-established places a chance. I've already written a little bit about Bilton.

Kleine Zalze
By now, we were a bit tipsy, but we were able to acknowledge that this winery had some really nice white wines. The 2006 Sauvignon blanc was especially noteworthy. I've heard (after our return home of course! Hmmf!) that the restaurant here is quite amazing... maybe we'll try it next time we're in the area :-)

nice South Africans... and the top five freak list

2006-10-29T20:15:00.000+01:00

Back in the mid-80s, a TV show called Spitting Image put out a single called I've never met a nice South African. It was to protest Apartheid; here is an analysis of the song.

Well... we found quite the opposite of the song title. The people of South Africa are great. They are friendly - almost everyone, black or white, smiled and said hello to you as you passed them on the street, or if people were sitting on a bench and saw you walking by, they would wave. That kind of thing. Shop owners were polite and usually helpful, and never breathing down your neck all the time like in the US or Asia (well, my only reference is Thailand). It was easy to strike up interesting conversations with almost anyone, and at the same time most people seemed to respect others' space and weren't overly nosy in the questions they may have asked you.

Of course, every place has its freaks, for better or for worse. The ones we encountered during our trip were pretty "harmless" compared to what I have to deal with in Oslo sometimes. Interaction with these freaks was minimal. We just observed ;-)

Now onto the list...

At an Engen petrol station in Hout Bay, there was this guy leaning over his car. He had a motorcycle gang-type beard, pierced ears, and his arms were completely covered with tattoos. When he stood up, he exposed another interesting feature. Tits. Big tits too. And we're not talking mighty manboobs, but proper lady tits. With visible nipples. It would have been nice to take a picture of him. He probably would have shot us though...

During a township tour, we visited the township witch doctor. Um... uh... right... fascinating...

At the café at Jonkershoek, we were peacefully eating our lunch when this guy came up to me and gave me a little purple flower. He said that Mother Nature told him to give me the flower, because the purple matched my t-shirt. Charming. It actually made me smile a bit :-)

While eating at Krugmann's Grill at the Waterfront, on the second floor, we watched as a couple came into the restaurant from the first floor, pushing a shopping cart full of food. Uh?

The freaky turkey at the Stellenbosch Village Museum. He was strutting around like he owned the place... *gobble* *gobble* *gobble* :-)

things that make you go WTF...

2006-10-29T16:44:00.001+01:00

Here are some of the experiences that, very simply, made us say "what the fuck..." They're not necessarily negative things. They're just, um, strange ;-)

When we arrived in Cape Town (at the airport), we both went to take a leak before our luggage showed up. In the ladies' there was an attendant there who handed everyone a piece of paper towel after washing their hands. The same thing was going on in the men's room, according to boyfriend of feitpingvin. Having just arrived though, I had nothing to give as a tip...

My first experience with an ATM and South African money was kind of freaky. If you take out, say, R 3000, it all comes in R 100 notes. Yeah, that means you get a big fucking wad of cash. I guess there aren't that many people that take out so much cash at once (*duh* - it's more than what a lot of people earn in a month), and it takes a while to spend that much too, and we weren't exactly being miserly...

For the guys – you'll sometimes find urinals filled with ice...

Vyfster. We were watching TV one evening and found this while flipping channels. We thought it was a movie, but apparently it's a TV series. From the Apartheid era. In Afrikaans. Without subtitles. It's set in a prison, and of course the first scene is when the main guy is arriving at the prison, getting into his prison garb, and getting all his bedding and linens and stuff. And then at some point they showed this guy who took out some kind of drawing hidden in the sole of his shoe, and then you see him filing some metal... aha. The drawing is of a key and he's trying to make a key. But of course, the key broke in the lock when he tried it... and so on and so on. And then there was this boxing scene. And all kind of scenes revolving around “power games” within the prison community. It was rather fascinating to watch...

While we're on the subject of weird TV shows, I may as well mention Muvhango, a Venda-language soap opera. Though once in a while, English sentences and phrases would be thrown in.

The Singing Turd of the puppet shows at the Two Oceans Aquarium.

They had this puppet shows exhibit where they played 3 different shows at regular intervals. Each one had some kind of "how you can save the environment" message. The Singing Turd show was about what not to throw into the toilets...

We were at this pub and this woman ordered these freaky drinks – a shot of Jagermeister was placed in a glass, and the glass was filled up with Red Bull (up to the edge of the shot glass). Eeeewwww...

The supersized t-shirt. We were at this t-shirt shop and I saw this t-shirt that I thought was really cute and wanted to buy. So I first tried on an extra small. It was too big. As in drowning in it too big. I asked the salesgirl if they had anything smaller, so I ended up trying on children's sizes. I finally found the right fit – the ages 9-10 size!

There's a rugby team called the Pot-Bellied Pigs. They have pink uniforms. (OK, just found out they're a Hong Kong team... I guess they have lots of SA players)

At World of Birds, we were about to exit one of the exhibits when there was this bird that took a keen interest in boyfriend of feitpingvin's shoe.

It was screaming and pecking at it. At first I thought it thought the shoelace was a tasty worm or something, but then the bird tried to mount the shoe...!!

see here for a larger version of the picture along with comments.

And a bonus WTF: Not really South Africa-related, but while listening to "News from Africa" (or something like that) on SBC, I learned that some Kenyan parents get their boys circumcized and pierce the ears of their girls in order to make them "undesirable" for witch doctors that kidnap children for use in rituals. These witch doctors only use "untouched" children, not children that have had their bodies manipulated and/or mutilated.

the South African wine industry - and winery tours, part I

2006-10-29T14:17:00.001+01:00

The South African Wine Industry – Historical and General Information
The South African wine industry began in 1652 with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape region. His first wine was made in 1659.

The history of what has happened in between then and now is rather interesting. Lots of politics, and I'm not talking about Apartheid...

Currently, depending on what statistics you look at, the South African wine industry is the 6th or 7th largest in the world and growing. Producers are divided according to one of three different types - estate wineries, co-operatives, and independent cellars.

Wine regions include the Cape Winelands, which includes Stellenbosch, Paarl, Franschhoek and more. Contantia is the oldest, and there are lots of others outside of Cape Town, such as Swartland and Cape Point.

The Pinotage grape, a cross between Cinsault and Pinot Noir is exclusively South African, and the youngest grape variety in the world. However, Cabernet sauvignon dominates the red varieties, while Shiraz is becoming more and more popular. Chenin blanc is the most planted variety of all...

Winery tours – 26th of September
We went on the Easy Riders group wine tour that included the following four wineries:

Simonsig
The highlight of this trip was watching a bottle of sparkling wine be opened with a sword ;-) This was the only winery on this whole tour where we had a guide who presented information about wine production in general and where we got to see a cellar. The wines were OK - we didn't grade them very high. Most likely because we were stingy with the grading at the start...

Fairview
Yes, indeed. Goats do roam here! And they let us taste the good stuff, not just their cheapest stuff – at most wineries, they only have a certain set of “cheaper” wines they let the tourists taste. In order to taste the good stuff, you usually have to book a special appointment/tasting. Or pay extra, though it's difficult to get that in order if the place is busy. And not only did we taste lots of really good wine, we also got to taste some really tasty cheeses, produced from the goats' and cows' milk from the animals on the farm. Too bad it was impossible to take some of the cheese home with me :-/

Kudos to Enoch, who assisted us in the tastings and with buying a few bottles. He was brilliant!

Dieu Donné
They have a very nice sparkling (Methode Cap Classique/Maingard Brut) and a lovlier wooded chardonnay. Not too crazy about the the other wines though.

Boschendal
The wines we tasted were already set up for us when we arrived, i.e. poured in the tasted glasses, which I wasn't overly amused with. However, they have a white wine called Le Bouquet that was just amazing – everyone sitting at the tasting table with us liked the Le Bouquet. Which was interesting because the others we sat with had very different tastes in wine than our tastes... We ended up buying a bottle :-)

General Observations, Part I

2006-10-27T21:56:00.000+02:00

The sun here is very intense. If you visit this area, use lots of sunblock with the highest SPF you can get hold of. (Unless it's cloudy – duh!) Wear a hat. Wear sunglasses. For fuck's sake don't sunbathe!

For being a third world country, the quality of the roads and highways is in general, at least in the Western Cape, very good.

However, being in a third world country, the infrastructure pretty much sucks. Public transportation is more or less non-existent. What does exist is generally unsafe. Will something happen before the World Cup comes to South Africa?

At restaurants, they are very quick to clear your plate away when you're done eating, even when the other person(s) are still eating.

The above is contradictory to “African time”, which is no myth. The pace here is generally slow. On our Robben Island tour, even our guide said “never make an appointment with an African” and said something along the lines of “if you say let's meet in 3 hours, you'll wait 3 weeks”...

Everyone says hello and smiles to one another and it seems like they mean it.

The vast majority of cars are white. Other popular colors are silver/gray, blue, and red.

The most aggressive drivers drive blue cars.

Cyclists are typically suicidal, way beyond the suicidalness of cyclists in Oslo. Among the things we saw – cycling against traffic on the highway and cycling with, against, and perpendicular to traffic in the dark while wearing dark clothes.

Very few restaurants provide proper alcohol-free alternatives as drinks (other than over-sugary pop or water); i.e. no non-alcoholic beer or wine. And yes, combined with the lack of proper public transportation, drunk driving is a big problem in South Africa...
Electronics are extremely expensive here (more expensive than in Norway/Europe), and around 2-3 years behind what we have in Norway/Europe.
Restaurants have smoking sections, and the smoking age is 16 and up, but I didn't see too many smokers in general.
The coffee is more likely to be awful than not. It typically tastes like warm water with brown coloring, or else it tastes burned. It is possible to choose cold milk or hot milk to go with the coffee, which is quite nice, but it doesn't help much when the coffee isn't any good. I guess (rooibos) tea is the big thing there?
Food is cheap, at least by Norwegian standards. However, one thing that isn't cheap is Norwegian salmon, which we saw priced at R 225 per kg. The rand is more or less at 1-1 with the NOK. Here, we pay around 75-80 kroner per kg. I wonder how typical South Africans feel about food prices, especially considering I was recently told by a South African that a bottle of wine for R 50 is considered "on the expensive side."
Rugby is very popular here. It's on TV a lot, and you see lots of rugby fields and lots of young people going to and from training, rugby ball under their arms...
Umqombothi is one of the nastiest drinks on this planet, but very popular in the township shebeens. It's a "homemade" concoction of fermented maize, sorghum and water. The alcohol percentage is low, around 2-3%, and it is served in buckets...

It is not possible to get beer in a regular supermarket, like you can in Norway. You have to get it at a liquor store.

There are lots of beautiful houses here, hidden behind high walls and/or fences, some electrified. Some people also use barbed wire. Armed security patrols are everywhere...

Parmalat has infiltrated – lots of Parmalat dairy products here. But I chose and was rather impressed with the local stuff. The milk was very good, and the local cheeses were to die for! I wish I could get some of that stuff here! *pout*

BEE and the South African wine industry... and a plug for Bilton ;-)

2006-10-27T21:48:00.000+02:00

One of the main motivating factors for going to South Africa at all, is that South Africa is a wine-producing nation. I will get into more details about the South African wine industry, along with information about all the wineries we visited, in a different post. I just wanted to share something I wrote about in my other blogs that is relevant for this travel blog. It singles out a single winery, but hey... they deserve it!

Here goes:

I just read a very interesting article about black economic empowerment in South Africa and its relation to the wine industry in the Western Cape.

This article mentions a young woman by the name of Moira van de Merwe who works for Bilton Wines, near Stellenbosch. Among the many wineries boyfriend of feitpingvin and I visited, Bilton was one of the wineries that impressed us most. Bilton is a relatively new winery; their first product was launched in 1998. They started with red wines and only this year started producing whites. Their wines (at least the ones we tasted) are excellent. If it's available where you are, try it. You won't be disappointed. We bought a few bottles to take back to Oslo with us. I wish we could have taken more...

Anyway, Moira van de Merwe was the young lady who set up the tasting for us. (Well, I'm quite sure it was her; I had forgotten her name. So unless they have several young black women participated in the program in France, it has to be her.) I have nothing but highly positive things to say about her. She's friendly, charming, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. Oddly enough though, of all things, the one thing I remember most about her was our chit-chat about how boyfriend of feitpingvin and I found it strange that you can't get beer in supermarkets in South Africa (I'll save that one for another JE) and her shock and pleasant surprise to be able to buy beer in the supermarkets when she arrived in France... beer chat in a top-notch winery. WTF, right? :-P

It was quite cool reading about her on the BBC. As for the last bit... I think that she has the right personality type, attitude, and knowledge to go around the world marketing or doing some kind of PR for Bilton Wines. I truly hope it works out for her. And that she comes to Norway with her stash first ;-)

The Traveling Penguin

long time, no travel writing

airport shenanigans

"the important thing to remember when you're invited into a silverback gorilla's backyard is just who's the boss"

back to earth and reality...

up, up, and away!

in the Cradle - lions and rhinos and caves, oh my!

Melville

All aboard the posh purple train of Ring of Fat doom!

*title replaced by incomprehensible baby babble*

whales are good food....

in vino veritas...

my new career?

Cango, Cango, Kango!

getting to our routes - from the Garden Route to Route 62

heading out to sea...

traversing the Transkei

"I suspect that this is based on science."

filling in the blanks... LESOTHO!

I love the singing of birds early in the morning...

mountains, Midlands, and microbrewery

the harrowing journey to Harrismith...

Viva Safaris - days five and six

Viva Safaris - days three and four

Viva Safaris - days one and two

The unpleasant journey to the most pleasant place...

you know you're in love when...

the world's best cities...

Drakensberg help!

counting down the days...

Heathrow is hazardous to your health

the harbinger of things to come...

Madrid - more museums

Madrid - Corral de la Moreria

The Madrid report (finally) - at least a start. Prado...

adventure travel to... Chad?

who's Oslo are we talking about?

well isn't that lovely?

misunderstanding local culture...

sometimes you have to wonder...

well, that sucked...

St. Lucia Wetland Park is no longer...

As if bad things never happen to men...

travel-inspired eating - Portugal

British Air, you suck

Vigelandsparken censored...

worth its weight in gold... and then some...

Ring of Fat Travels - food tourism

US travel - the best places for value vacations for 2007

how *not* to travel by air...

tourist in my own town - the Madiba: Man of Destiny exhibit

the new seven wonders...

dragon temporarily slayed - idiots ruining things for everyone

the more-than-mile high club

child-free travel

Table Mountain muggers spark vigilante fears

worse than terrorism...

travel-inspired eating - Portugal

township tourism is booming...

travelling to Oslo? (with update)

stupid, irresponsible tourist

Happy New Year!

travel-inspired eating

still obsessed *sigh* ;-)

finished...finally... ;-)

stuffing the Ring of Fat - part II: Cape Town, etc.

walking in the parks, discovering all things green are good...

District Six

sky and sea, though in captivity...

where two oceans meet...

Robben Island

monkey business

random activities in the Cape Winelands

township tours

beautiful creatures

winery tours, part III

stuffing the Ring of Fat - part I: Stellenbosch/Cape Winelands

tasting notes - part II

the birds of South Africa

PENGUINS!!!

title replaced by incomprehensible baby babble

how not to travel by air...

still obsessed sigh ;-)