TravelStream™ news feed for member arjenandeline on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/arjenandeline en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:05:07 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1246293762/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1246293762/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1246293762/tpod.html Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:05:07 -0400 Southern Africa, here we come!!!

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Maun, North West, Botswana

List of close encounters
(we've seen far too many animals to mention here, so we just list the ones we’ve eaten)

Pig
Cow
Sheep
Oryx (= Gemsbok)
Kudu
Blesbuck
Zebra
Springbok
Eland (we’ve actually only seen this massive antelope on our plates)
Impala
Wildebeast
Warthog
Mopani worms (which are not worms but caterillars, unfortunately)
Crocodile
Turtle
Guinea fowl
Duck
Chicken
Ostrich
Bream (the fish of the Okavango Delta)
Anchovies
Tuna
Salmon
Squid
Octopus
Snoek
Crayfish
Mussels
Sailfish
Barracuda
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1246211857/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1246211857/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1246211857/tpod.html Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:03:30 -0400 Southern Africa, here we come!!!

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Praia do Tofo, Inhambane, Mozambique

Hi friends and family!

It's been a while, and we’re home since yesterday, but for completeness sake (and to show lots of cool pics!) we share the last month and a half of our Southern African holiday with you.

We posted our last update in Maun, Botswana, just before heading to the Makgadikgadi salt pans. First we headed towards a bird sanctuary near Nata, where it became clear that the pans were not completely dried up. The upper layer of the pan consisted of a dry, white crust, but we soon discovered that it hid a thick layer of black, sticky mud underneath (just like it says in the guidebooks, actually…).

After 7000km our tyres were worn down significantly, which didn’t help much when retrieving the car from the mud. But with our barbeque grid underneath the rear left wheel, and all our remaining firewood underneath the others we got out. That night we had to cook on gas...

We drove on to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, where we spent some of our most memorable nights. We had to bring lots of extra petrol, wood, water and food, as it is a very isolated park. There are no facilities and no fences, so you basically sleep with the animals. Key thing here is to make a fire ('bush t.v.’), eat and get into your tent before it gets dark, because that is when the lions start hunting. There was a pride of about 8 roaming around our campsite, plus a single male. To hear the lion’s roar at night truly puts you on your place as a human being.
Tucked-away deep in a sleeping bag that is, as it it’s freezing cold in the Kalahari…

On our way back to Maun we saw a dead horse next to the road. It attracted hundreds of vultures, a little hungry (/angry) dog and – as we found out when opening our window to make some pictures – thousands of flies. The minibus that drove into the horse stood abandoned on the other side of the road. We praised ourselves lucky not to have had any accidents while driving, though we had come close to hitting a stressed giraffe, a racing wildebeest, some confused oryx and lots of stupid domestic animals. Tens of birds were less fortunate though, one of which was squashed at just 40km/h (that kind of bird won’t make it far in evolution).
As for other cars, we only experienced one minor incident when reversing into a taxi at a petrol station. It attracted a lot of attention, but we soon started bargaining and agreed on paying about 30 NOK / €3,40 for the small scratch on his bumper.

We handed our bakkie in after about 8000km, feeling sorry for the guys that had to clean and fix it. Kilo’s of dust, boxes of juice and milk, wine, washing-up liquid and all sorts of other ranz had accumulated over the 37 days we had been driving around with it, and it sure needed some new tyres and new locks (they were full of dust). We guessed some other new parts were needed in places where funny noises started to come from.

Being ordinary backpackers again, it was time to indulge in some luxury. We stepped into a small aircraft and flew over almost the entire Okavango Delta. It was a nice scenic flight, spotting elephants, hippos, giraffe, etc. and watching the delta from the air before landing near the beautifully located Kwetsani Lodge. Here we spent four days and did a safari every morning and afternoon with super guides that led us to leopards, lions, elephants and lots of birds. We stayed in a chalet on stilts, had a pool with a view and the food was just the best.

In the Moremi Game Reserve we had a somewhat more economical accommodation, still with a fly-in though, and spent our activities in a mokoro. These dug-out canoes were more stable than we expected, as long as you stay away from the hippo’s. We gave it a go ourselves and guided our guide through the delta ("you see that tree? It’s a nice tree ‘ey??"). We also did two walking safari’s, which was a new experience for us. Apart from the occasional elephant and lots of antelope and birds we mostly identified animal’s droppings and can now tell you the difference between a male and female giraffe’s shite.

We took two local buses to get from Maun to Kasane. There had not been many occasions where we could take local transport (mostly because it did not exist), so we were quite keen to travel a bit more with the locals. As expected this involved hours of waiting and moving slowly with too many people in a dodgy bus. But it was nice to hear where people were heading, how they like their country and what keeps them busy. The new president had apparently made himself very impopular by increasing the price of beer.
There were elephants everywhere along the road, and our bus closely passed a herd of about 30 of them, clearly irritating three of the biggest individuals. Fortunately we were going too fast for them to catch up.

When crossing the Zambezi on a little motorboat to get into Zambia it was like stepping into a completely different world. We suddenly had the feeling that we stepped into ‘real Africa’. There were dozens of trucks blocking each other’s way, people shouting to each other, salesmen trying to sell their stuff (“I like your shoes, let’s trrrrrade them for this wooden hippo”). The usual organised chaos that is so typical to Africa. Namibia and Botswana had been amazing, but a bit sterile in terms of human activity as there’s hardly anybody living in those gigantic countries.

We would have loved to see more of Zambia, but we were heading east and would stay only a few days in Livingstone, to see the Victoria Falls. There had not been as much water since 1963, so there was plenty of mist. We took a helicopter ride through the gorges and over the Vic Falls. It was a bit of a different make than the Sikorsky (aka ‘the bus’) Arjen was used to when working offshore, so it allowed for plenty of manoeuvring, climbing and plunging. The views of the falls were awesome.

The lady had decided to book a ‘high tea’ at Livingstone Island. This little island is right on the very edge of the falls, on the upper Zambezi. It offered some great views of the colourful rainbows in the mist, and down into the deep. And yes, the scones and wines were nice as well :- )

In Livingstone we finally came across the culinary delicacy we had been chasing for two months: mopane worms. These huge caterpillars tasted, well, interesting…

Before heading to Africa we met many people who knew nothing about Zimbabwe, but did try to scare us off. Victoria Falls may not be your average Zimbabwean city, but we have not been in many places where we felt safer than in Victoria Falls and the people were extremely friendly. That said, the city is located right in the middle of a national park, so you have to be careful walking around in the dark as elephants and buffalo roam through town, as it is warmer there at night.

We were lucky to be in Victoria Falls during full moon and see the lunar rainbow, the result of the reflected sunlight going through the mist. It was quite special, but did not beat the colourful rainbows that were visible all day. (God, how spoiled can you get…).

From Victoria Falls we flew to Jo’burg and took a local ‘minibustaxi’ to Maputo, Mozambiques capital. We planned to stay there for a couple of days, but the weather was shite and we’d seen enough of the city in a day, so we decided to take another bus and head north to Tofo. On our first day in Tofo we walked into the dive shop of Liquid Adventures, and were talked into a snorkelling trip and a dive that same day. Scuba diving was our main reason to come to Mozambique, apart from the beaches, good food and palm-tree-atmosphere, so there were plenty of dives to come.

During the snorkelling trip we were the luckiest people of the planet. There were tens of manta rays and we came across 5 or 6 whale sharks. The manta rays often made a looping, showing their white bellies, before plunging into the dark. Some of them allowed us to swim behind them for tens of meters. The whale sharks were not shy either, and more easily to follow. Staying at very shallow depths they showed up beautifully in the sun. From the boat we saw devil rays jumping out of the water, making pirouettes in the sky. An amazing trip…

The scuba diving on the Tofo Reef was awesome as well, coming across manta rays on most of our dives, but also white-tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, leopard sharks, loads of rays (devil-, eagle-, fantail-), sailfish, barracuda, etc. In addition, the macro-life had plenty to offer with colourful anemone, clownfish, nudibranches, cleaner shrimp, and so on. On our way to the various dive sites we often saw humpback whales breaching the surface, or showing their big tails before disappearing under water.

We decided to stay in Tofo until the end of our trip. It was just too nice to leave and we didn’t have the immediate need to travel further north and explore new places. Also, we were not feeling 100% ok. We both had a bad cold and our stomachs started to protest a little. Still not bad after more than 2.5 months without any health issue at all.

Eline spent most of the time doing some serious ‘avslappen’ on the beach after difficulties equalising her ear during the descent of a dive. Arjen started a 5-day Rescue Diving course, which was a lot of fun and very useful. It refreshed emergency response skills, learned how to deal with divers who are panicked, out of air, shoot up towards the surface, have cramps or, as in the final scenario dive, are unconsciously laying at the bottom of the sea. So if you find yourself in such a situation you know who to call…

After two mid-winter nights in Johannesburg (where it was freezing at night!) we had to head back to Stavanger. But the sun is shining and the strawberries are sweet this year. It’s good to be home.

Hope to see you soon!

Stor klem, veel liefs,

Eline en Arjen
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1242144420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1242144420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1242144420/tpod.html Tue, 12 May 2009 06:12:49 -0400 Southern Africa, here we come!!!

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Windhoek, Namibia

Hello again! Howzit?

During the last 4 weeks we've been travelling through Namibia in our bakkie with rooftop tent. Here's a summary of our 6500 km drive so far:

From Windhoek (not a very exciting city) we drove south, via the Hardap Dam with loads of birds to Quivertree Forest, close to Keetmanshoop. While the sun was setting, beautiful colors were casted over these remarkable trees. We took some nice pictures , visited the nearby Giant's playground where some giant marbles were placed on top of one another to give a playful effect. An army of crickets wanted to take part in our braai (bbq).

Further south lies the Fish River Canyon, according to the Namibians the second largest Canyon in the world. People with a little bit more time can hike 91km through this canyon on a 7 day trip, but we decided to just admire the views from above, and feed some of the local birds.

We drove to Luderitz, via the Orange river, which makes up the border between Namibia and South Africa. The road we wanted to take was partly closed for cars, since the Fish River had flushed away a bridge and had eaten away lots of road. We were told that some cars made it through the day before, so even though the ROAD CLOSED sign was still there we decided to go for it. It was a beautiful route, with gorgeous mountains and green valleys. The bridge over the Fish River was good enough to pass, so we were really glad we took the decision to ignore the sign.

Luderitz itself is perhaps the most German town we've visited in Namibia. We only went there to pay a visit to an ATM. The winds here can drive you crazy and sand is swept inland, entering the old mining town of Kolmanskop. We had some time left and visited the abandoned colonial houses, which are all filled with sand. Kolmanskop is slowly being eaten by the sand dunes.

We drove further north towards Sossusvlei, which is famous for its red sand dunes of 200 to 300 meter high. The colors are best just after sunrise, so we and about 150 other people were driving the same route in the early morning to find the best spot. People drove like madmen, ignoring the springbok and oryx 4m beside the road. We found our own dune and climbed it, which was really hard!

In Swakopmund we jumped out of a plain (a tandem skydive) and went for a hot air balloon ride. Both with great views over the Namib dessert, but with a slightly different adrenaline level.

We ignored the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Twijfelfontein Rock Paintings and the Petrified Forest but instead visited the Wondergat, which is in fact a big hole in the ground. Who could have guessed?! One night an elephant walked around our tent. It ripped off some branches of a nearby tree.

In Sesfontein we found a local guide who navigated us through the (partially) dry bedding of the Hoanib river, in search of desert-adapted elephants. The track was pretty rough, with plenty of sand, mud, rocks and holes. We drove and drove, saw some giraffes, baboons and dik-diks, but no elephants. At the last waterhole our guide had a final look at the tracks and sent us further down the riverbed. After 65km we finally found a group of 6 elephants, including a big male and two little ones. We were happy they ignored us, as there was no way to escape from them by car. They looked happy as well...

On our way to Opuwo we picked up a hitch-hiker. This lady, belonging to the Herero tribe and wearing her traditional dress and fancy hat, did not speak much English. She did like peppermint and our Now 50 cd with the song 'I kissed a girl' (not that she knew what it meant though). We found out what animals live in the region by pointing at pictures in the Mammals guidebook. Her name was Julienne. So now you know.

Kaokoland was next, an area sometimes described as one of the last true wildernesses on the planet. It was time to test the limits of our 4x4 and to socialize with the Himba's (some dutch folks may know them from 'Groeten uit de Rimboe'). This nomadic tribe lives with their cattle in beehive-like mudhuts and the women paint themselves in red ochre. In addition they use smoke to clean themselves (there's hardly any water available). The men race around on their donkeys and drink beer. We parked our bakkie next to a Himba village and spent the night there. We made lots of friends - partly by buying their friendship with an old loaf of bread and some pens. As for the limits of our 4x4, we got terribly stuck on a track defined as 'not recommended' on our GPS and 'should only be attempted in a group of two or more vehicles' in our guide book. The next couple of hundred meters looked even worse so we jacked up our car, placed some rocks underneath, freed the car, and built a reversing point a few tens of meters downhill. A morning was gone.

We drove back to Opuwo and found a hotel with swimming pool where we could lick our wounds and decided to head for the far north, now we had a few spare days. The Ruacana falls at the Angola border were very pretty, since there had been a lot of rain during the last couple of months. Massive crocodiles were swimming in the Kunene river, 10m from our camp site. There were lots of tracks around our tent as well so we decided to go to bed a bit early. A little dog took the bones we placed in front of our tent to lure some crocs...

In Etosha National Park we did five days of self-drive safari, driving from waterhole to waterhole. Actually, the best waterhole was right next to the Okaukuejo camp where we spent most of our time. Black rhino's, elephants, lions, cheetah, giraffe, zebra, springbok, hyena, jackal, etc. could be ticked-off from our list. Great to have a bit of time in the park, such that we could sometimes wake up before sunrise and watch the early water drinkers, and sometimes not. The four lion cubs nearly made us cry.

We then raced towards the Caprivi Strip in NE Namibia, did another self-drive safari in the small Mahango Game Reserve, spotted a few new animals, and pulled a Mercedes Vito out of the sand. The seven Afrikaners were apparently very surprised that it got stuck in the first place...
During the night we were surrounded by hippo's.

The border crossing with Botswana was not very painful and before we knew we reached the Tsodillo Hills. Here we did not skip the rock paintings (there's not much else to see) and took a 2 hour tour. After 10 minutes the guide pointed us at a black mamba hiding in a bush, and after 15 minutes another black mamba fell out of a little tree, about 2m away from us. Both Eline and the guide jumped into the air in utter fear, Arjen was solidified. We guess the snake was scared as well.

On our way to Maun we had to hand in our newly bought meat again. There are so many veterinary check-points in Namibia and Botswana! This one was for foot and mouth disease. We had to either cook the meat on the spot, or hand it in and witness it being burnt. We decided to hand it in.

And now we're in Maun, planning to drive through the Makgadikgadi salt pans and Central Kalahari Game Reserve, before we take a small plane and disappear into the Okavango Delta...

We hope you're all doing fine and are enjoying Spring!

All the best,
Eline and Arjen



]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1239469140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1239469140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1239469140/tpod.html Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:03:15 -0400 Southern Africa, here we come!!!

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Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Sooo... Eline and Arjen went to Africa and you get an update via this website, every now and then. Ignore, un-subscribe or read thoroughly as you please. Here's a wrap-up of our first two weeks on the Western Cape of South Africa.

What can we say about Cape Town? It's got a nice climate, sea, some nice beaches, a harbour, it's surrounded by beautiful mountains and it's really easy-going. A bit like a mediterranean city really, but then surrounded by a hughe stretch of Townships (like Kanaleneiland in Utrecht or Storhaug in Stavanger :-) ).

We got to see a bit of the life in the Langa township when we did the Township day-trip. It felt a little like watching fish from a glass-bottom boat, but it was cool to drink a freshly brewed corn beer in a shabeen (sort of pub), meet the township kids at a creche/barnehage, and to visit a traditional healer/ medicine man. This was probably the weirdest place we've ever been. There were truck loads of animal parts hanging from the ceiling (anteater paws, goat intestants, a dead baby baboon, etc, etc) and a cabinet filled with very healthy lotions, potions, and other brews. All very helpful if you have a headache, a troubled love-life, or if your cattle is not reproducing fast enough... They say.

An afternoon trip to Table mountain (yes, by cable cart, we were lazy) on a clear day gave some fine pictures. Great views and we spotted some dassies. These leaf-eating rabbit-dogs are made famous by the dutch song 'Annie, hou jij mn dassie effe vast'. Watching the sun go down from Table mountain with the locals was fun as well, drinking some wine and enjoying the view.

One of the top items on our to-do list was to dive with the Cape fur seals at (one of the many) Seal Island near Hout Bay. The water was only 12 degrees, a bit chilly, but watching the seals come and have a look at us in return and doing their acrobatics was awesome! Especially the pups were fun to play with. They showed great interest in our fins and took the occasional nibble (we had to keep our fingers close to our bodies so they would not mistake them for fish). The seals deserved their applause when we returned to the surface. Eline was frozen.

After a day or 5 we left Cape Town, cruising around in our 1.6l Toyota Yaris (oh, yeah!). We were very lucky with the weather when driving around the Cape Peninsula (no wind, clear views). Walking to the small light house at Cape Point was beautiful and just driving around the Peninsula was very nice. Lots of ostriches and a few baboons. Eline got clear instructions not to feed the baboons, but had to choose between eating or being eaten. Both baboon and Eline survived but the Powerade bottle was lost in the battle (how could we know that they need that kind of a sporty drink...).

Next stop: Boulders Beach for some quality time with the penguins. How funny are they! Walking and hopping around, not at all interested in people watching them constantly. Arjen tried to do some swimming with them but that turned out to be a little difficult (and freakin' cold).

We then went on to the winelands east of Cape Town where we spent 5 nights in a relaxed cottage right next to a trout-filled lake. Franschhoek is, apart from their great wines, mainly known as the food capital of Africa. We had some amazing food at a couple of places, but, quite frankly, having our rucksacks filled with survival stuff we were not really in the right setting. The top restaurant had too many middle-aged men with pink sweaters over their shoulders (we tend to call them 'piemels') so we skipped that one.

In short, Cape Town was awesome. But now it's time for some wild animals, sand and lots of dust. We're currently in Windhoek, Namibia, which is a bit of a sleepy town compared with Cape Town especially since it is Easter and all the locals have headed to the coast. But it gives us a few days to find out what to do when our tent-topped 4WD is surrounded by hyena's...

Vi snakkes!

E and A
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1236279300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1236279300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1236279300/tpod.html Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:46:32 -0400 Southern Africa, here we come!!!

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Stavanger, Norway

Hei!

Finally the time has come! After a few months of preparation we are finally ready for our trip to Southern Africa! This website will keep you updated on where we are and what we do.
Just a warning: we will not be able to regularly update this site, since internet access is not that available when you are in the Namib dessert etc. So if we don't post anything for a few weeks, it does not necissarily mean we are eaten by a big lion or crushed by a hippo ;-)

Let's start with a refresher:
we are leaving on Sunday the 29th of March and will be back in Norway the 28th of June. In the three months in between we will be doing the following:

~10 days in South Africa: Cape Town, Simon's Town, Franschhoek - Table Mountain, watching penguins, drinking wine...

~29 days in Namibia: just cruising with a big Jeep and a tent on the rooftop, sandboarding, hot air ballooning and much more...

~17 days in Botswana: Okavango delta, Kalahari, Moremi, Chobe etc: mostly watching game...

~7 days Victoria Falls: abseiling, rafting, high roping, bungee jumping (if we dare)...

~3 days Johannesburg and Nelspruit: waiting for a Visa that allows us to enter Mozambique

~16 days Mozambique: diving, relaxing, sunbathing...


We are looking forward to all of this, and hope you will join us on our journey. So enjoy!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1236881520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1236881520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arjenandeline/1/1236881520/tpod.html Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:15:55 -0400 Southern Africa, here we come!!!

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Stavanger, Norway

Today we got our international drivers license and some vaccinations: Hepatitis B (1st of three), Rabies (1st of three) and Typhoid. Tonight we will drink our first anti Cholera brew. NICE ;-)

The packing continues...
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