Beach Life

Wrong Harness, Dude!

I have been kitesurfing with a seat harness since I started kitesurfing. The only reason why I have never changed over to a waist harness was probably financial reasons. It is hard to support all my hobbies with my mediocre salary. I should've considered barefoot running instead. Anyway, lately I have realized that I have to make the harness change, for three reasons basically. One...the seat harness looks like an adult nappy. Two...lately it has been crushing my nuts as my kiting is getting more ambitious and daring, and three...I find the seat harness a bit restrictive when wave riding. So, as I usually do before I go out and buy something, I did some research on the Internet first. I typed in "body harness" and what I found was a bit of a shock to my system and not exactly what I was looking for......

Eventually I narrowed my search down to "kitsesurfing waist harness" and along with the help of a kitesurfing buddy I eventually found the harness I was looking for, the Mystic Warrior III. A bit on the pricey side but one cannot go skimpy when your life depends on your equipment. Not really hey, but telling myself that makes me feel better for the money I spend. I was told that the switch over to a waist harness is going to be tricky at first. I will not be pulled from my nuts anymore, but from my back. It might pull me over and I will end up with "excruciating stomach pain". I was a bit worried about the "stomach pain", but when I heard that the stomach pain would be the result of abdominal muscles now doing all the hard work instead of my ass, I was comfortable with the idea. Six-pack exercise included in the price, not a bad deal at all. I wonder where the dude in the photo got his six-pack from though? All I can do now is sit and wait for the next southeaster to return so that I can try out my new gear....

Read more: Waist vs seat harness

Surf's Up....not exactly

I have been surfing for nearly 30 years now and I realized the other day that I don't have ANY pictures of me actually surfing. I guess it is probably because I have no friends that have waterproof cameras or cameras with lenses long enough to reach the backline. This morning while having breakfast at a restaurant overlooking Blouberg Beach, I noticed that despite the waves being very small, that they are breaking close to the beach. Close enough to take a picture I thought. Knowing that I have a lens that might just make me visible on the picture, I decided to have a quick session and asked my wife to play photographer. She hates that job because she says I am never happy with the end results of anything she has taken in the past, but that is not entirely true. I have one or two pictures that she has taken of me that are good, but none of them in the water unfortunately. The waves on the other hand was not really picture quality waves either and the few times I managed to get up on the lazy ice cold waves, she was either running after my son on the beach or the wave had closed out before she could get the focus right. What she did manage to do though was to take a good picture of a perfectly executed duck dive which I might blow up and post on my wall some day. One might think that after 30 years of surfing that I could get a better wave than the one below, but sadly that is all the Atlantic Ocean had on offer today. But even though she might not think that I appreciate her efforts, at least I have one picture of me surfing and that means a lot. I think I will try Outer Pool in Mossel Bay next time, there she can sit on the rocks and fire away. Watch this space.

Location, location, location

Any job can be good, it just depends on where they put you up for your stay while traveling. This is what I have to endure when I travel to Mtwara in Tanzania....

Breakfast Review - Voila!

It's not always easy doing a breakfast review when you were invited for breakfast by someone else. I mean, what would your host say if you decide that the breakfast sucked while you didn't even have to pay for it? So when my wife invited me this morning, I didn't take my camera with, but when she asked me where my camera was I knew I was free to speak my mind.

Voila! Restaurant is at The Cape Quarter is in Somerset Road, close to the Harley Davidson shop. That should already tell you that you won't find cheap surfer dudes like me hanging around there. It was indeed true, the people that frequent the square spend more money on their wardrobes than what I spend on Christmas shopping. The shops are quite trendy and if you want something for your house that no-one else in your street has, then this is the place to buy it. I didn't know what to expect on my plate, but I was sure that it would not be a breakfast for twenty bucks. Fortunately I wasn't paying.

When I open a menu I search for the cheapest breakfast first. If that is not "bacon and eggs" then I move my way up until I order something slightly more expensive or I leave the place to find a cheaper joint. Today I was sponsored so I stayed put. My bacon and eggs on the menu called the "Voila" breakfast, was a whopping  R56! Normally that would've been my cue to leave, but my wife guaranteed me that the food was good and you don't argue with your wife on an empty stomach.

My wife ordered scramble eggs for R55. Mon Cheri it is called, with "home made pesto, cherry tomatoes, spinach and feta". I could not figure out why it was only one rand cheaper than mine, with spinach and feta it should've been at least twenty-one rand cheaper. Someone who likes spinach and feta probably wouldn't agree with me, but what would the world be like if we agreed on everything?

When the meals arrived I was somewhat upset that my whole breakfast was covered under more rocket than what my tortoises at home could eat in 3 days. But, when I removed it to the side, I saw a reasonable good looking breakfast on Di Marshall's Wonky Ware plates, exactly the same as what we have at home. I took out my camera which prompted the waiter to indicate that he would take the group picture. I told him that I was taking a picture of the food and mentioned that I always take pictures of the food in case I need to show it to the doctor afterwards. He thoroughly enjoyed that one.

What did catch my eye on the Wonky ware plate though was the bacon, nice crispy strips and probably three portions larger than what I had received at Oona's a couple of weeks ago. The white toast was good, the eggs soft but not "easy over" as I have requested, and the single mushroom looked a bit sad.  I have to be honest, the breakfast wasn't bad at all, but I cannot see why a person has to pay R56 for that meal. Maybe for them to pay the rent, but definitely not because of its exquisite taste. But then again, how do you make bacon and eggs taste "exquisite"? My suggestion? Make it cheap and you will see me again. I will bring my wife with, she does  not mind paying R55 for spinach and feta. But R56 for a cheap skate like me? You will probably never see me again unless I am sponsored like I was today. I have to admit that I did leave with a full stomach and that I really liked the overall experience today. Go check it out, even if it is just to see how the real Capetonians with nice clothes and fancy hair styles look like.

Home Sweet Home

I just arrived back in Cape Town from my trip to Tanzania. There is nothing that gives me that contented feeling than seeing Cape Town from the air when coming in for the landing. Home Sweet Home indeed.

Hallo Darkness my Old Friend

Three o'clock in the morning. I can't sleep. Nothing unusual when I know I have to get up early to catch the taxi to the airport the next morning. Especially when pick-up is at 4.30 and I still have to shower, pack and check out. The only problem is that it is pitch dark around me. Have I lost my sight during the night, have I died or is the power off? Usually it is the latter in Africa, but strangely enough only my room is dark. The rest of the hotel has light. I need to shower and pack still.

I try each switch in the room. On, off, on, off, nothing, I even locate the distrubution board and find no tripped switches. On, off, on, off, nother there either. I have just finished a book by Joseph Murphy called "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind", but not even telling myself that the power will come on, helps. I decide I need 3rd party help, like the night watch who is sleeping behind the reception counter.

The night watch enters my room with a torch whose batteries are weaker than my state of mind. He tries each switch in the room. On, off, on, off, nothing. He even locates the distribution board and find no tripped switches. On, off, on, off, nothing there either. At least the first steps of troubleshooting was done correctly by me, I thought to myself. Would like to see what his next step is going to be. The man is baffled, he goes through the process again, each time from trying the switches to tripping the distribution board and then adding another step like looking in a cupboard, then looking under the bed, then looking outside the door. He gets help from what looks like another member of the staff who is on night duty and heard a commotion as he is opening cupboards and doors. She is just as in the dark (pun intended) as he is. This goes on for some time and I am running out of time. I need to shower. What is the rest of my day going to be like? I call in the power of the subconscious mind to convince myself that this is the practicle exam of my latest study in human phsychology and that everything will turn out fine. Can I change the rest of the day by staying positive?

The night watch man takes out his phone, makes a couple of calls. He speaks in Swahili, so I have no idea if he is getting the information he needs to shine a little light on the problem. He disappears down the corridor. The other member of the night staff is still flipping switches in my room. I wonder how many times one has to do that to realize that it is not going to solve the problem. Suddenly the lights come on, fortunately not while she was flipping a switch, otherwise I might have believed that it actually workes. Let's see how the rest of my day goes....

Would you trust this?

I was sitting at the airport in Dar Es Salaam hoping to find WiFi access. I was a bit reluctant to click on the only one that was available......

Welcoming Party at Mtwara

When I arrived at Mtwara I was surprized to find a welcoming party for me.....

It turned out that they were indeed waiting, but not for me. A class from a local school was out on a day-trip visiting the airport and they were waiting for their tour through one of the aeroplanes from Presicion Air. Most of these kids will probably never ever get the opportunity to fly in one of these, but hopefully their first experience with a plane will encourage them to work hard and never to give up on reaching for their dreams.

Dress Casual for Tanzania

I have been traveling to Tanzania a few times now, and I like to compare it with countries like Angola to show that on the eastern side of Africa things seems to work a bit more effective than on the opposite side. Take for instance the arrival procedures at the airports. I have written many times about the time it takes to move through the airport in Luanda, and even about the difficulties in acquiring visas for Angola. In Tanzania, getting a visa is very quick, you can even get it on arrival with no extra documentation needed other than a passport.

So, I have gone through the Immigration counters in Dar Es Salaam a few times, effortlessly and in a reasonably quick time. I applied for my visa in South Africa and eventually received a multiple entry visa valid for a year. Things couldn't be more on my side.

So, I was due for another visit and arrived at the airport in Dar. This time not armed with my magic passport with the multiple entry visa. That passport was lying at the Angolan Consulate in Cape Town waiting for a visa to go to Luanda. Needless to say procedures were not followed by the visa team and I have not received my passport back from the Consulate. As a matter of fact, my letter of invitation is still stuck somewhere between two fax machines. Fortunately I have two passports, so I took the second one and was ready to get my visa on arrival at Dar Es Salaam Airport.

When I arrived it was business as usual. Fill in the landing card and instead of going to the Immigration counters, line up for a visa. Once in the line I noticed everyone else had a white paper as well. You know how it goes in most of these airports, you have no way of knowing what you have to do, so you look and listen what others do. Ah, I had to fill in a white paper too, with exactly the same questions than the landing card, except that it asks you what your business is in Tanzania. This apparently determines which visa you get. Note, visa prices range from 50 USD to 600 USD, from single entry to "'special visa", so make sure you know what you have to say to get away with the lowest priced visa. From those who know your dress code also plays in important role. Look like a business man and your in for a heavy business visa; wear work boots and you have to apply for working visa, and dress like me and you might get away with a single entry for tourist for only 50 bucks.

Being the honest person I am, I decided that I will tell them exactly what I am doing there. Funny enough the guy in front of me was doing the same, so after he said "Four nights in Tanzania for a meeting", I decided that the 250 USD is a lot but if that is what you have to pay for a meeting in Tanzania, then so be it. "Your business in Tanzania?" I was asked. "Uhm...", I started, still wondering if a lie could not save me some bucks here. "Fifty dollars" the gentleman replied before I could even say anything.  OK, I can do with that, but why was I not interrogated like the people in front of me, I wondered?

That was quite quick and easy I though, but soon I was to find out that "quick" is still not a word very often associated with Africa. Once the gentleman who decides which visa fits your profile best has taken your passport, your landing card, your white visa application form and your money, you have to wait for your name to be called out from behind a window to complete the last steps in "getting a visa on arrival". The problem here is that your name could be called out at any time, and if you were first off the plane and in line, that does not mean that you will get your passport back in that same order. After every ten or so passport collections by the gentleman in the uniform, the passports gets put on a pile where someone pastes the visa in your passport. From there it goes to the Immigration officer that calls out your name, looks to see if your face matches the photo in your passport, and then instructs you to put your fingers on the fingerprint scanning device. There are no receipts, so I paid the visa out of my own pocket. Fortunately I looked like a tourist and only had to cough up 50 bucks. What was NOT so fortunate was the time I stood there waiting for my name to be called out. You have no idea where your passport is lying in the pile of passports in front of the Immigration officer. I stood there 45 minutes before my name was called out, which is longer than a good day at Luanda Airport.

Tanzania is a great country and definitely worth a visit. I do however suggest that when you visit Tanzania to make sure you have your visa before your arrival. If you cannot do that, then at least make sure you have patience and that your dress code says something in the line of "Tourist".

Loo with a view

If you secretly hide a desire to expose yourself in front of a plane full of people, you can now do it legally in the "Toilet with a View" at the SLOW Lounge at Cape Town International Airport.....

Breakfast Review - Sivatherium Coffee Shop

If you have read my previous post on digging up fossils and you know what a "Sivatherium" is, then you would've probably figured out that this coffee shop has something to do with the West Coast Fossil Park. Yes, before we left for the digging site tour we ordered our breakfasts to have it ready on our return. That was probably the only mistake we've made with our breakfast because when we returned most of the stuff on the plate was already cold. They might have made it just before we left instead of making it just before we returned. But, the friendly service and the best looking Cappuccino ever made up for it.

Seeing that according to the fossils found here there must've been some weird looking bears roaming this part of the continent many years ago, I decided to order the Big Bear Breakfast for R49. What I liked about the breakfast was that it could really fill a hungry bear's stomach.  I also liked the "ouma brood" (Grandma's Bread), which compared to the lightweight spongy stuff you usually get when you order white bread, was actually tasting like real bread. This was food for real men and reminded me a lot of the breakfast you get at the Farm Yard Farmstall....just without the flies and traffic noise. What I did find funny was the spread of herbs, spices and sauces they put out on the table, like they were doubting the final proof of their own cooking. I only made use of the Khoisan Fine Sea Salt, locally "mined" from the sea. I was wondering what would make a person come back here, and it would definitely be the breakfast first and then the fossils close second. I believe they are planning a whole new building closer to the digging sites, and I am sure that they would then upgrade the place and make it even look more appealing to the coffee shop visitors.

I however doubt whether I would soon go back here for breakfast, not because of the breakfast itself, but just because I feel that I've been here, done it and got the T-shirt. I would however suggest that you come and look at the fossils and if you are planning on having breakfast as well order your breakfast on your return from the digging site and not before you leave. Not a bad place, definitely worth a visit.

I Dig Fossils

My son has been going on about dinosaurs for a while now. They have been talking about them at school, he has seen them on TV and he has many books about them. All he still needed to do was to dig for some fossils and he would be happy. Finding dinosaurs around Cape Town is not an easy task, but finding fossils is not that difficult. I thought it would be a great opportunity to take him to the West Coast Fossil Park and learn a thing or two myself on digging up fossils.

The West Coast Fossil Park is situated on a piece of land close to Langebaan that was previously used for phosphate mining. While the mining activities were going on, about 80% of the fossils were lost in the process. It was only after a while that someone mentioned the fossils and eventually the area was declared a national heritage site. That was when they really started digging up the fossils of many animals that are now extinct. The site looks like a burial site for animals over thousands of years, because this is the site with the most amount of diverse species in the world all together in one small area.

When we arrived at the site we were the first visitors for the day.We paid the R50 per person fee for a guided tour and also ordered our breakfast before the tour started. Kids under 5 go free. A short walk through the museum was followed to a drive down to the "digs" as the tour lady called it. Here my son just wanted to get into the dirt and dig out some fossils. Fortunately we could explain to him that the site is only for people who has a lot of patience and experience and that a beach spade would not exactly do the trick. Yet again I learned that even at my age I could still be wowed with things I have never really took much interest in....like digging for fossils. It was amazing to see the dig site and how they go about finding and identifying fossils. What looked to me as just ordinary rocks were actually fossils with more information in them than my external hard drive were I store my pictures in. I always thought I never had the patience to be a fisherman, but I am sure I would've wrecked a couple of fossils as well had I been a paleontologist.

After the short visit to the dig site, we returned to the lab to look at some more fossils that were found there and how they are being sorted, numbered and eventually put together. I still think that sometimes this is as good as guessing how the earth was created, I mean they can even predict what colour the animals were...or can they really? What I do know is that there are some strange looking skeletons that does not fit the profile of the animals we currently have around Cape Town, so maybe these dinosaurs were for real. Well, at least my son believes they existed.

Quite an interesting excursion which really triggered my interests. I might just get myself a little spade and a brush and start digging in my back yard. Who knows, I might still discover the "missing link" under those Agapanthus Africana.

Portuguese Man o' War

The Western Cape weather for this time of the year is rather strange at the moment. The northwestern that has been blowing for weeks now is about 180 degrees out from what we usually experience this time of the year. In every kite surfing shop you find frustrated kite surfers who feel they are being robbed from time in the water by this strange phenomenon. The kite surfing season should have started already, but seeing kites in the water has been few and far between the last few weeks. The only good thing about this wind is that the water is relatively warm, so it is nice for swimming and surfing, but that's about it. The onshore wind doesn't help much for the waves either, so there is really nothing much good in what is happening at the moment.

This afternoon I took my son to the beach with the hope of getting a few pictures as well. The breeze was rather chilly but not preventing him from getting wet from head to toes. He was really enjoying the water, but I noticed that the constant wind had blown a magnitude of blue bottles (Portuguese Man-of-war) towards the shore, and it wasn't going to be long before he gets tangled in their long tentacles. I took a few pictures of them on the beach. They are quite unique organisms and definitely worth reading up on. After putting my camera away I joined him in the water, guiding him away from the blue bottle without putting too much emphasis on them. One sight and he would've left the water immediately. Then of course it happened. A scream that turned heads as far as the car park. He got stung on his leg. After a huge commotion we eventually calmed him down. It is widely believed that urine makes the burn go away, but I wasn't going to wee on my sons leg in front of 200 plus spectators. With a bit of "Zam-buk" ointment and a promise of an ice cream we eventually managed to save the day.

One step at a time

What seems like "basics" to most people who have had an SLR camera for more than 6 months, myself on the other hand took a while to get to know my camera. The fact that there is an "auto" option has prevented me from really exploring the possibilties of my camera. Last weekend I went to a "Basic inroduction course to your SLR camera", and after they showed us how to take it out of the box and switch it on, we looked at Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. I've read about these things before, so I knew exactly what it was, I just never played around with it before. Why would I, I have an "auto" option remember? I did however realize that there are a couple of things I wanted to do in the past that I could never achieve with my point-and-shoot, and that if I don't play with the camera's manual settings I probably would never be able to do it with this one either. One is making that weird water flowing effect. Somehow I could never grasp the relations between Shutter Speed and Aperture, so when my water was "flowing" then my picture was too bright. So, after my course my first attemp was to see if I could get this right, and the closest flowing water I could find was in my fish pond. Here is my results. I'm taking it one step at a time, ok?!

Breakfast Review - Oona's

I haven't done a breakfast review for a while. Not that I don't do breakfasts anymore, but just because I seem to frequent the same places and don't explore that much anymore. I think that after finding the places I like most, I don't seem to find the need for discovering new places. Last weekend though I was in town on my way to a photography course. My wife suggested a place she had been to previously and we decided to have breakfast there. It wasn't my intention to take picture of the place and to review their breakfast, but I thought seeing that I don't blog that much anymore, I might as well do it.  This morning a friend of mine living in New Zealand was telling me via email that she loves reading my breakfasts reviews, so here it is.....

So finding this place was a bit difficult as there are a lot of construction going on around Wembley Square. Parking outside was a problem, but I was on my bike and ended up on the pavement right in front of the entrance door. My wife in the car parked somewhere else and arrived a couple of minutes after me. The friendly waiter asked me if I would like to have some coffee and pointed out that their "Basic Brunch" at R39 is a very good option because it includes the coffee. What he didn't tell me is that you start with bacon and eggs as the "basic" and everything else you add costs you extra. Oh, I think there was a single slice of white toast included as well. My wife was a bit better off than me because she ordered extra fruit and "pancakes" (to me it looked more like flapjacks). I eventually had to eat one of her toast slices and one egg because I knew that I was going to be starving by 12 am, and that would've been smack bang in the middle of my photography class. The appearance of the food on the plate looked good, except that my bacon looked more like an insult to my ability to distinguish between a "portion" and an "excuse for a portion". I didn't take pictures of my food as it was finished before I thought of taking out my camera. The colourful meal in the picture however is what my wife had ordered and the second one was for my son.

So, will I visit the place again? For the service and atmosphere, yes. For the menu, probably not. I don't like it when I leave a restaurant with an empty stomach or an empty wallet. If I wanted to fill my stomach at Oona's I would've had to empty my wallet. Fortunately my wife paid this time and helped my semi-empty stomach out with her great ability to "share food".

Sunderland beach in 10 minutes flat

It is my last day in Sunderland before I return back to South Africa. It has been two longs weeks, and mostly to blame on the weather. Today, after two weeks of cold, wind and rain the sun decided to come out and the wind died down. I took quick stroll to get my last Fish & Chips from my favourite fish shop. With only my iPhone I managed to take a couple of pictures. This is my Sundderland in 10 minutes flat....

Breakfast disaster

On the left is a typical breakfast my wife would make me at home. On the right hand side is the breakfast I had to be content with this morning at the Roker Hotel here in Sunderland. Now tell me if I have reason to complain...? Note, the piece of bacon was already cold when the plate was put on my table...

Sunrise in Sunderland

If and when the sun does shine in Sunderland, it can really be something to appreciate...

UK's local dish...or at least in Sunderland

On my first trip to France many years ago I had McDonalds the first night because I was too scared to order anything from a menu that was written in French. This totally freaked out my wife who is a food fundi and would've done anything in her power to try all the local dishes. So, I eventually decided that even though it is more 'safe' and easy to order a Big Mac in most countries, I will at least try one local dish. I have been to the UK many times before, but never actually looked into what their "local dish" might be, probably because it is so similar to what we eat in South Africa. I have found that the food here compared to the way we have it in South Africa tastes a bit bland. No wonder the locals worship the likes of Jamie Oliver and that foul mouthed Gordon Ramsay who dared to add something with flavour to their food and then sold themselves to the world as "food experts". I think their are housewives in South Africa that make better food than those two, they just don't advertise themselves as well and will properly never receive the recognition they deserve.

So, I was looking around to see if I could find some restaurant that might give me an indication of what the people around here eat. I have seen the "English Breakfast" on the menus, but apart from that dark round thing on my plate which resembles a black ice hockey puck, everything else that is part of the "English" breakfast, you can find in almost any restaurant in South Africa that serves a descent breakfast. So, guided by what I could see along the main road on the Sunderland beach front, I figured that the local dish must be "Fish & Chips" then. People are prepared to stand in long queues waiting to be served and there are in a radius of 1 kilometer probably 10 Fish & Chips outlets selling exactly the same thing....fish, fish cakes, pork sausages....and chips. All deep-fried in oil. So I decided to join the queue and see what the local dish tastes like.

The prices are  more or less the same in all the outlets, between 4 and 5 quit for the "dish of the day". The fish all seems to be from the same species too...which is Cod. I have not seen Haddock around. If you want to add something on the side you would go for a deep fried pork sausage in batter, maybe deep-fried scampi in batter or simply leftovers from the batter that stays behind in the oil...aptly called "batter". I have to mentioned that the chips here are similar to what we call "slap (flacid) chips" in South Africa, and probably the best take-away chips I've ever had outside the street corner Portuguese Fish & Chips cafes from South Africa. The fish, which once you get through the batter, is not bad tasting either. When you eat it with the batter however, you consume enough vegetable oil to fuel a Massey Ferguson for 8 hours non-stop. There will definitely be strong competition once the world moves over to diesel fuel, and with the proposed "fat tax" that they want to introduce in the UK to fight obesity, don't be surprized if the price of UK's favourite dish rises to 10 quit overnight.

If you like to treat yourself every now and then, do try this. Even if it is just for the sake of the chips. If you are into health foods and weight conscious...stay clear! I am for sure having one last Fish & Chips before I return to South Africa next week....