jhb cpt

thanks to steve's ipaq & gprs here in cai I now have another kulula flight (you can change your kulula flights online for R85 up to a couple of hrs b4 departure - make a mental note).

will b in cpt around 1500 on 01.07.

now for that swiim!

30.06

Happy birthday to Gustav (London) and Elrina (CapeTown). EgyptAir was very kind and gave me a gr8 hotel walking distance from the airport. Mind you, haven't heard anyplanes 2day... hope they're flying. I'll test the pool facilities a bit later.

I lower my head in a technological shame... managed to get the Ipaq and SonyEricsson talking via bluetooth. Eqypt has gprs (unlike Spain), hene I'm posting again. Had this worked from day 1 I might not have gone awal in Paris - apologies.

So I managed a couple of hrs sleep, 4.30 - 9.00. Hoping to find Giza a bit l8r to see what the big fuss re pyramids are about. Upon request hotel front desk informed me that a taxi to Giza should be about E£ 45 and then tried to sell me a US$70 trip there. Given my adventure it would be wrong to take the guide and aircon trip, so me & mr taxi / bus it will be! When in Cairo, do as the locals do! Who knows, I might start using SA mini busses too!

Flying out of CAI at 0240 2morrow to arrive in JHB at 0940. Then to make my way to Cpt!

30.06

Its more difficult to keep a blog whilst "on the road" than I thought. Just getting to your gmail acc is sometimes enough of a challenge (not to mention keeping a cell phonre charged - airport scanners seem to be rather unfriendly).

Last Sunday on the mountain of Montserat I decided that I'd had enough of youth hostels and everything else that is associated with a budget trip (roughing it) in Europe. So the evening I booked an EasyJet flight from Barcelona to London Luton for Wed 28.06 and emailed my travel agent in SA about my intentions to head home. Toni was on it 1st t ing Monday morning, even b4 I made my way back to an internet connection. I quickly realised that the time between landinding at Luton and departure for Cairo at Heathrow was insufficient, so I promptly went through the motions of changing the flight to Tuesday evening. There was an outside chance that I'd sleep at Luton Airport that night if I was too late to reach Gustav & Janet - no problem I thought, after all it could only add to the adventure. EasyJet cancelled our flight. The put us up in a hotel in Bcn without indication of a replacement flight. End of stiry is that I arrived at Luton at 15.15 Wed, 15 mins after the flight to Cai had departed! Thanks EasyJet, 'cause there goes my Kulula.com ticket (non change-able) Jhb 2 Cpt as well. Bumped into a girl on the Luton bus speaking Afrikaans on her mobile and immediately struck up a conversation - amazing how nice it is to hear Afr for the 1st time in 4 weeks.

Once at Gustav's I used all internet time to re-book flights etc. Once again Toni was a life saver.

Thurs a.m. it was off to LHR - 1.5hrs by bus, but no transfers with all my kiting kit & luggage. EgyptAir bowled me over when I heard that they fly to CAI every day, hence theoretically allowing me to only fly to CAI on 30.06 because my CAI JHB flight only departs at 02.40 on 01.07. Totally gatvol - 'cause no-one told me this before (neither Toni knew or a call to EgyptAir on Wed brought this to the light), I decided to go ahead and board the flight rather than travel back and forth between LHR. After all, I have a 30 day visa for Egypt and might as well join my uncle (who is in Cai for work) on a trip to the Pyramids - Fri is w-end here so he should have the day off.

We had a whole arab creche on board & not as gr8 a flight as I've had to date. Then I spent 3hrs in CAI intl arrivals until they finally (after much negotiation an interviews) decided that my visa is no good and decided to trf me to 'in transit'. Here I discovered free wifi internet (who said CAI intl is a bad place!), hence t is post! I am however luggage-less and will be so until Jhb on Saturday. They also have my ticket & passport. Traveling is gr8!

There was some mention of a hotel & a transit visa (not sure if that would allow me into the country. But at least I have inte net whilst I'm suffering (and paying E£6 per small Mars bar!). Now all I need is an electric hub to charge all the electronics - yip clever me packed inly the ipod & cell phone charger as hand luggage. If the Ipaq battery goes I'm offline again...

Enough moaning. I'm really enjoying the trip and have learnt loads about traveling, fe & who knows what else! Wouldn't change it for anything in the world. It is however time to return home (Cpt 4ever!) and return to corporate life - hopefully strategy consulting within financial services, based in Cpt with some intl exposure. Any offers?

Time to get some rest, else the sore throat might get me down. Lekker slaap!

Montserat today

  

the local market & me having a beer!

 
  

Gaudi in Bcn

 
 
  

more Paris by night

 
  

okay, picasa isn´t uploading the whole lot - will do it in batches

 
 
 
  

finally, some more pics!

 
 
 
  

Montserat

Today I made a day trip to the monestery of Montserat about 40km outside Bcn. Had a lovely walk in the mountains. More later.

Was time for a shower and something to eat - because its Sunday there isn´t much open in the line of supermarket and the hostel doens´t have kitchen facilities, hence I had a pizza (an attempt at having something substantial) for €6.90. The oliva tapas for €3.5 was a rip-off.

Found a little dodgy internet cafe which sells internet for €1 per hour! Trying to update some pics...

sight c-ing

enjoying bcn, however been fighting an eye infection or allergy since late paris. not great. went searching for a pharmacie early this morning as i couldn´t see and couldn´t stand the itching and burning any longer... what a pitty. no fun traveling if you can´t enjoy the sights! lets hope the antibiotics does the job - quickly, otherwise the trip might come to an abrupt halt.

tried to upload some pictures, but the technology this side isn´t quite what i´m used to... no success.

okay, enough squinting a the screen for now.

still here...!

beunos!

i am in barcelona - arrived yesterday. apologies for not posting whilst in paris - i had too much fun! and i-cafes around there are really few and far between. if you found one, it was unaffordably expensive.

paris was gr8 - i just loved it. found my way around really easily. used the metro like a parisian. took a day or so to get to grips with the bus routes. i stayed in montmartre, with a view of the sacre couer from the door to the room!

on day 1 i explored paris by foot - enough sou that my knee is still hurting. museum wise the musea d orsay was the highlight with musea rodin close behind. spent a fair amount of time in the parks - all very nice. versailles was a bit of a disaster as they are renovating the hall of mirrors.

barcelona is good fun too. totally different charm to it than paris. more difficult to navigate, thus leading to a open bus tour today.

more later... the hostel has internet but there is quite a que.

15.06

Been abusing Gustav's internet to look at some flights. Flying to Barcelona on 22.06. Time to pack and then explore a bit more of London. Flying to Paris fom Luton at 19:30 tonight.

For a bit more than £10 I made my way to London for the afternoon. Managed to wind my way around the underground and avoided the busses (that got me into trouble yesterday). I bumped into a Virgin Mega Store, found the Bank of England and spotted the Tower Bridge. Also bought some travel guides on Paris & Spain at Waterstones - that should help when I get to Paris 2night and need to find a place to stay! All in all a descent trek and my first walking blister! Cought the train back to StAlbans with 6 minutes to spare - sorted.

Now its off to Luton by train to get the flight to Paris with a singe bag (which feels too heavy already). Back in SA its already 18:00 and the long weekend has started - enjoy! I'll be finding my way through Paris & learning French to survive!

14.06

Arrived in London (Heathrow) and made my way to Paddington Station. Decided to leave my kite bag (all 24kgs of it) with excess luggage for £6 and set about exploring. My mission was to find Gustav and finally did so, albeit an hour later and totally different station than initially intended. We washed down a lager and an ale and then headed for St Albans (where Gus & Janet lives). We had a gr8 curry (Englands national dish) at the spot around the corner and caught up a bit.

13.06

The moon is just rising over the red sea - gr8 sight!

Today was the last day here at ColonaWatersports. I took a couple of hundred photos of Martin kiting. All my kites are packed and ready to go. The flight for Cai leaves ar 7:50. Should be in London sometime afterb13:00. Then I have the afternoon to find Gustav's place and have a look around.

Some feedbach about Hrg... We stayed ar Magawish - must have been a gr8 spot in its time but a bit old fashioned now. What is worse is all the dirt and dust. Sofitel is about 800m down the beach & is a lot more modern - actually quite nice. We also heard the food down there is better too. Don't expect much from Magawish's menu. ColonaWatersports is based at Magawish. Bengan runs a gr8 show - beach boys, zodiacs, sand bar, the whole trip. If you opt for Magawish, try to get rooms 116 - 126 as they're close to the kite center.

Time to pack the last stuff.

and more pics...

 
 
 
  

pics from a couple of days ago

 
 
  

12.06

Yesterday afternoon the breeze eased up & we squeezed in another powered session on small kites.

Last night we went to a rather fancy restaurant with Mark, Flo & Bengan. Good european food.

Today's morning session was quite nice. I tried Dave's Flexifoil Ion 9m in super gusty breeze & liked the way it jumped. Having a bow-type kite as your smallest, does make sense, but it'll take a while before I'm used to them.

Tomorrow is the last day here in Hrg. I seem to be close to a personal record: I've kited every day since 02.06! Despite not being on the Shinn clinic, I've learned a lot, added a couple of tricks and polished some others. Also gr8 to have met a bunch of die-hard Dubai boys - we have it easy in SA. They drive 7hrs each way to Oman for a weekend's worth of kiting.

11.06

After lunch yesterday we managed a session as the storm passed. Was the first time that I came in 'cause I was cold. Quite gusty though.

Decided to have dinner here & catch up some sleep.

Today we have similar conditions to yesterday - thus been a slow morning. Had a chat to the locals about prices... 1l of petrol cost 1 Egyptian Pound, diesel about 60 pessas a litre. A plate of food should set you back 10 to 15 E£ - if you know where to go! A mini bus ride to town should be 1 E£, we've been paying 20! Beer comes in 500ml servings, standard & is expensive at 16 in clubs. Stella (not Artois) & Sakhara is the main local variants. 5.75 E£ = 1 USD

10.06

Germany won! We consumed due amounts of beer to celebrate. Think I know Hrg's night life better than Cpt - some interesting beach-related concepts here. all outdoors as it never rains.

Visibility has now dropped significantly thanks to a sandstorm - wind ave 30 knots, gusting 37, but no
kiting due to viz.

Aarh - the flies are driving us mad.

09.06

Wind's up! I finally had a powered session on the 9. Gusty breeze though. Dave took a bit of video, can't wait to see it

Sounds like we're off to see the World Cup opening match 2night..

Parked off on the water sofa for a snooze this afternoon. There isn't much to do here if you're not kiting - or its just too hot for much else.

08.06

Wind is finally picking up - 9m weather.

Aaron & Bruna left 2day. We had a gr8 afternoon session @ the sand bar. Mark performed on the skim board - amazing! I tried the skim again - gr8 fun.

Tina & I ventured to Hrg in search of real pizza - no luck.

07.06

Partly recovered from minor travel ailment.

It was the end of the first Shinn clinic today. We celebrated with a party @ Ministry of Sound bar in Hrg. Really nice spot.

more pics

 
 
 
  

Pics!

 
 
 
  

06.06.06

The idea was to be at the beach at 6:06 this morning to pose for a photo with our Nobile 666 boards. Anyway...

I took a rain check on breakfast - couldn't imagine eating. By 10:30 I'd gathered enough inspiration to go to the beach - feeling ''pap". So far I can stand the Egyptians, not their food.

My 1st attempt at kiting today wasn't gr8 and I spent most of the day hiding in the shade whilst forcing aqua down my throught. The guys reckon my state might be the result of dehydration.

As if by miracle the breeze filled in and by 18:00 I was out there - what a session! I drilled in 2 new tricks! What a day!

webcam

check out http://www.colonawatersports.com/cam.htm
you'll spot us there!

05.06.06

Internet problems here... therefore the silence. Had a gr8 kite session today. Explored a bit - kited to an island about 8 kms away. No kiting in p.m. due to lack of wind.

Tina & Ruth (German sisters from Dubai) invited Martin & I to join their traveling party to dinner in Hrg. Now we've experienced both Egyptian taxis & busses (= SA mini bus). Driving here is something to experience!

Smoking is the national past time! Everywhere & everyone, all the time.

All is well bar some minor travel ailments!

04.06.06

Martin & I packed in a swim before breakfast. 40 Odd laps later the oak decided I'd given him enough uphill. The clever Egyptian fixed my 14's leading edge, however it konked in again later in afternoon - not great. Did however polish back to toesides & unhooked back & forwards. Wind was pap all day. The lazy afternoon progressed to a beer drinking session on the beach, chatting to Mark as the sun went down - lekke.

03.06.06

Less wind & equipment failure
On the water at about 10.30. Big kite (14m) did the trick in roughly 18 knots of wind. Martin asked me to show him some tricks - he's working on forward rolls, so I demonstrated a couple then added some board grabs to the maneuver for style! We had good fun. Reflecting on yesterday's session: I'd have to add it to my 10 all time best - mainly attributed to the warm water & freedom it allows.

Going in to have some water & change to a long sleeve top (more protection against the sun) wasn't so gr8 - thanks to the extremely warm sand the glue holding the valve to the leading edge bladder failed. After a groot gesukkel I gave up & allowed it to cool, hoping that it would re-seal as yesterday - it didn't. I tried Martin's new North Vegas 12 - nice!

At the death of the day I took Dave's 16 Crossbow & the new Nobile Skim! Skim is gr8. And differenty difficult. Sure I'll get the hang of it in 2 ticks.

We also spent some time on the sand bar taking pics. Another day in warm water!

Egypt & Europe Trip

Hi!

Welcome to my trip to Egypt and Europe.

01.06.06 - slightly stressed moments as I awoke without a passport & tickets in hand, whilst scheduled to depart for Jhb @ 15:00!

Last minute packing ALWAYS takes longer than you hope!

Kululu.com took me for a ride to Jhb. 4h45 min to kill until the EgyptAir flight for Cairo was to depart - with the help of an Amstel prior to check in & some browsing in duty free it felt like a flash. If you're long a Canon Digital Ixus & looking for the original soft leather case (DCC-60), get one at Capi (to date I haven't found this in Cpt. JW Black Label goes for R150 /litre in duty free.

Found Dave, Arlene & Martin. Departed on time! Flight was empty: we had 2 middle rows of 4 seats to ourselves. Planes aren't made for sleeping.

02.06.06 - Cairo is huge & warm. Very warm. Transferred to domestic departures. Lanseria has more modern facilities! They bussed us to the 737 - all 50 meters of it! Off to HRG! Flying over Red Sea, there's wind down there - didn't see any Pyramids. Descending already.

21:15 local time Hurghada - Had 2 kite sessions (14m North Rhino) this afternoon. Coral-blue water at bath tub temperature. Outside temperature totally unbearabe - still around 30deg C. Only got off the water around 18.00. Water is super salty - so much so that my eyes are still burning. Time 4 a snooze...