Blue Christmas

Heids and I caught a train from Eperney to Bordeaux via Paris. Apart from missing the second train and a short stop when the train hit an animal the trip was pretty straight forward. We got a lift from Louie and Jason (Heidi's family) from the station to the Chateau at night.

OK, now let me explain a little bit about the place we're staying in and the area we're in. "Chateau l'Ecuyer" is a 16+ bedroom chateau in a small countryside town called Marasins (you can try googling it but I think the population is in the 3-figure range so it might not be on any maps). The closest large town near Marasins is Libourne which is about 30ish km south-east. Basically we're smack bang in the middle of one of the best wine producing areas of Bordeaux. Most days Heidi and I will go for a walk and try to find a local local village that's close by to explore. There are lots of villages within walking distance but getting there is a little disorientating, the country roads are easy to get lost on and signs are a luxury. We've also done a lot of xploring around the medieval towns that litter the region here, the cobbleston roads and crooked houses are really interesting.




Saying that the chateau is big doesn't really do it any justice, I did a really rough calculation and I think the volume of one large bedroom is about the same as my entire 2 bedroom apartment in Melbourne. They really don't build them like they used to. The ceilings here are very high (10ft -12ft+) and you can hear an echo in the smallest rooms. There are 16 rooms available to us in the main house and about another 5 or 6 in the summer house which was a much later attachment to the main house. I'm not sure what the acreage is outside, but it's pretty big. There is a working vineyard, a couple of ponds, a pool (yes, I've had a dip) and bbq area and of course a forest out the back (we're not sure exactly where the forest ends, so we're not sure how much land there is here). Not a bad spot to spend some time huh...



The town of Marasins is beautifully simple, it consists of a bakery, a butcher, grocery shop, a church and a post office - everything you need within 100 meters. There is only one road in to town and one road road out, its one of those places that you would miss if you blinked on the drive through. Our chateau is in the middle of 'town' and is opposite the church so we get the church bells in the morning to wake us up, its a nice background sound to have. Heids and I have been for a few walks in the morning and the countryside is picture-perfect. We've walked to the surrounding villages and meet a few locals who told us a bit about the area. Most land here has vineyards that produce a lot of the French wine that gets exported overseas, we were able to sample lots of the local produce as well as a few bottles of the "Chateau l'Ecuyer" which is a surprising good homebrew.



We thought we might get a white Christmas in France but in fact we had ourselves a bright blue Christmas, most days have a top around 10 deg and a minimum of negative something at night. Staying with us at the chateaux are 11 of Heidi's family, so it'd been busy every day. Special mention has to go to Chris for his culinary skills, we've been eating some superb food here. I think the people in Europe really get in the spirit of te season more than people at home, there are festivals, special christmas markets, everything is decorated and the locals are really friendly. On Christmas eve, out of the blue, we had a visit from the local Santa who delivered some toys for the 3 young girls staying here. Pretty impressive for such a small community.



Heidi and I are staying here for another few days then catching a fast train to Paris to meet up with some friends for new years.

Europe

Its been a pretty big week, so if you can't be bothered reading everything below here is the condensed version; we left behind the sun and sand in Africa for Austrian ski slopes and Bavarian beer, we drove to Germany where I discovered that my definition of being 'full' has been redefined, then we made our way to France and the Champagne trail.

OK here is the long version; I'll start at the start. It was a big drive from St Lucia back to Joburg where we spent the night drinking our left over beers and watching dvd's, pretty unremarkable. The next day we had a late flight from Joburg to London and then a connection to Munich.

Sth Africa was a really interesting place and I'm sure I'll be back one day but they still have a lot of work left to do before it feels safe enough to walk in the cities at night. Sth Africa is hosting the 2010 World Cup and all the guides were saying how they were almost ready now, the stadiums were mostly all finished or very close and the new highways were complete, but they only talked about infrastructure. They didn't mention anything about the crime, unemployment or homeless people. Lots of locals we talked to said that about 10 years ago they felt like Sth Africa was finally on the right track but since Nelson has stepped down as president that feeling has disappeared. Now most cities have massive unemployment rates, crime is rampant and there are more homeless people than ever. Apartheid was only stopped this generation so maybe things will improve in the future as new generations get better education, but there is no way they will be able to fix these problems by 2010.

Anyway, our flights were fine and we arrived in Munich on the morning of the 11th. We got a transfer to the hotel where we were going to meet up with Heidi's parents, dumped our bags and went for a walk. It was just starting to snow, so it was a really big change from 40 deg sunshine to snow and about -2 deg. I bet I was the only person in Munich to be suffering from an annoying case of sunburn whilst also enjoying the snow. We meet up with Heidi's folks that night and the next day we drove to Innsbruck in Austria to meet some of Heidi's family. I

nnsbruck is amazing, it’s a small city wedged between mountains with only about 150,000 people. The hospitality was endless. I think Austrians are the friendliest people on earth. I ate and drank my bodyweight in different types of cheeses, meats, beer and wines. When I thought I would burst, I was told to eat more, and saying no was not an option (I only learnt how to say "Sorry I'm full" on the last day). We did manage to get out from the table though; we had a guided tour of Innsbruck from Michael, one of Heidi's relatives - which naturally included 'gluwine' (warm spiced wine) and coffee with cakes.

Veronica, another of Heidi's family, took us for a day of skiing at Kuhtai, one of many local mountains. It was probably on par with the best skiing I've ever had in Canada or Colorado - it had wide runs, loads of space, and lots of fresh snow. The weather was perfect and it wasn't busy at all so we had a ball.

We left Austria and drove up through Germany to another small town called Remscheid, to see more of Heidi's relatives. Again, we ate and drank more than we thought was humany possible and again the hospitality is unbelievable. I'm sure these people, who until yesterday wouldnt have even recognised me in the street, would glady donate a kidney if I asked. Actually they'd probably ask if I'd like a lung as well - it seems like there is nothing they wont do to make sure we have a great time. The houses there are pretty big, they even have their own bars in the basements along with stocked cellars!

After a couple of days in Germany we headed towards the Champagne region in France. We made it to Reims on the first day, we didn't see much of the city becuase we got in llate after driving all day. The next day we drove to Eperney which is a smaller town outside of Reims on the Champagne Trail.

Epernay is the perfect French town and there are lots of small streets with shops, bars and cafes. We decided to stay a couple of extra nights in Eperney, its a really cool place. We wet on a tour of the "Catllane" Champagne cellars yesterday, they have a massive network of underground caves that they store and age their bottles in - they have over 8 mllion bottles down there covered in layers of dust and mould, some of the bottles have been aging there since 1915. We were shown how the aging process occurs (basically they leave in the sediment which ages the champagne, once the sediment is removed you should drink the champagne asap, you can't age it at home) and also how the corking process happens which was interesting.

Today we're getting a train to a small town called Libourne which is near Bordeaux so we can meet up with more of Heidi's family for Christmas.

Almost forgot: Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you all have a great summer in the sun, and if you're reading this from work after the new year break, just remember that I'm still on holidays for another 6 months! Ha!

St. Lucia

On our way from Selati to St Lucia we took a detour down through Kruger national park. At Selati we'd seen animals at a distance, and we thought it might be cool to see some animals closer up at Kruger. On the first day we almost had a run in with a moody elephant when it crossed the road and we got a bit close, then later we almost ran over a small pride of lions who were sleeping on the edge of the road. We could have leaned out the window and touched them, it's hard to remember that these animals could really mess you up.



We spent 2 nights in Kruger, the first night at a stop called Setara and the second night at Pretoriaskop (my spelling of place names is probably way wrong, sorry). I was surprised how cheap Kruger was, they have a captured audience so they could charge whatever they want for things but its pretty reasonable, even for lowly backpackers like us. Unfortunately Kruger does feel a bit like Disneyland or maybe a large zoo (which it is I suppose) - the animals are so used to traffic and people that they hardly even look up. It does feel a bit fake at times, but at least we can get a really close view.


After Kruger we made a long drive through Neilspruit, around Swaziland, then along the coast to St Lucia. I'd have really liked to have visited Swaziland on the way, but the hire car companies charge an arm and a leg for taking cars to other countries so we couldn't really afford it. Eventually we arrived at St Lucia, which is a small bit of land between the Indian ocean and an estuary so they get all sorts of wildlife. In fact its been heritage listed and is (if I believe the posters) the only pace in the world where you get the largest land and sea mammals in the same area (i.e. elephants and whales). It feels like a beach side holiday town, very similar to Lorne or Victor Harbor. Its a nice spot to fill in a few days until we leave for Europe.



Most days we get up pretty early then jump in the car and drive through the national park to a place called Cape Vidal, it has some stunning beaches and some good spots for snorkelling. Along the way we've seen lots of Rhino and antelope in the national park, still yet to see elephants (or whales for that matter). We'd seen a lot of sun at Selati so we were both already pretty brown, but there is something about the sun in St Lucia that just burns, so we both got bit burned at the beach, even through lots of SPF 30 sunblock.



We've heard lots of news about Zimbabwe on the car radio while we've been here, every day the number of people confirmed with cholera increases. We heard yesterday that the leaders of other countries (UK mainly I think) are talking about removing Mugabe because he's useless. Most of the people here think he should have been taken out of power a long time ago.

Leaving Selati

Today was our last day at Selati. Heidi and I have both had such a great time here, I don't think 2 weeks is enough time. We're only just starting to get used to the sounds animals make, their tracks and learning where they might be hiding, it would be nice to stay for another few weeks to see what else we could find. Every day we seem to find new animals: snakes, birds, lizards, bugs or mammals.
I think the best night we had was earlier this week. It was a very hot and still night and just as the sun started to set we drove in to a large clearing that has some waterholes. We saw about ten elephants in the distance drinking from the far waterhole when another 20 or so elephants entered the clearing from behind the first group and joined them at the waterhole. After having a quick drink and playing in the water all the elephants turned in a direction roughly towards our truck and started walking to the edge of the clearing to exit. Watching such a large group of elephants was amazing, you could see how the cows take care of the young calves and how the juvenile elephants play up and get in trouble - there is always an adult on hand to bring the juveniles back in line with a whack when needed. We had a couple of young bulls come very close to the car to investigate, and it was about this time that the first elephants to exit the cearing meet up with another group of thirsty male elephants entering. The males from the new group started to trumpet loudly letting everyone know they should make way, then from from a concealed spot just behind us, we could hear Shaka, one of the collared male lions, start to roar loudly as well. He was just letting everyone know that he thought he was still the boss of the clearing. All the birds started to pipe up and we just sat there in the middle and enjoyed the show. It must have taken an hour or so for all the elephants to leave and the darkness to fall.

I'm really surprised how quiet animals can be, especially elephants and lions. They hardly make a sound when they walk, and yet when they want to be loud they can be deafening. We were collecting firewood yesterday when we noticed a few trees rustle and branches break only 10 metres in front of us, it was either an elephant that decided we got too close or a giraffe that we started, but we had no idea it was even there in the first place. And its not like they're small animals! On another night we were drivng through the bush and almost ran over Shaka as he was walking towards us silently down a road, he didn't even turn to look at us after we passed. When animals don't want to be found, they can be very very hard to spot.

When we weren't chasing animals, there was not a lot to do in the house at Selati so we needed to make our own fun. For someone with the mind of a 5 year old, such as myself, this was no problem. I think my legacy to Selati will be Dung Beetle Racing. Despite their name, Dung Beetles are pretty cool. They're not dirty and they don't stink. They're large, about the size of a 50c coin, they can fly, they're harmless, easy to catch and are abundant. The rules are very simmilar to cane toad racing, which was the inspiration: everyone catches a beetle, marks it then puts it in a cup. The cup is shaken a bit (gently of course, to minimise any damage) to make it interesting and then placed on the ground. Once the cup is removed the frst beetle to cross the circular finish line wins. Flying is an instant disqualification. The winner doesn't have to clean up the coffee cups from the tea break, so the stakes are pretty high. I'm sure that the next group to stay here will enjoy this new game, and if it catches on elsewhere maybe I'll start a little bettle ranch...

Anyway, today we're starting our last adventure in Sth Africa before heading to Europe. Originally we were going to try to get to Mozambique, but we just don't have enough time; we'd spend 3 days getting to the good sopts, then have a night there before we'd have to turn around for a 4 day trip back to Jo'burg. So instead of Moz, we've decided to hire a car, spend a couple of nights driving through and exploring Kruger really well before heading to a place called St Lucia for a few nights. St Lucia comes very highly reommended by the locals here, its basically a game park on a beach and its the only place in the world where you have rhino & elephants in the same reserve as sharks & whales. And the beaches are suppposed to be excellent. And its pretty cheap. And its not far. All good things. After St Lucia we'll drive back to Jo'burg and then fly out to Munich.

Selati

Heidi and I caught the bus from Johannesburg to a northern town called Phalabowra which is close to where we're starting our 2 week volunteer programme at Selati Game Reserve. Selati was originally farm land owned independently but has since been turned into a private game reserve with about a 14 or 15 people who are owners. The size of the property is around 33,000 hectares (I think), the longest boundary is around 70km.

Selati is stocked with most of the usual animals including 'The Big 5' which are Buffalo, Elephant, Lions, Leopards and Rhino. There are also plenty of species of antelopes (Impala, Kuru, Sable etc), a large variety of birds including vultures and raptors and thousands of species of insects, bugs, snakes and spiders. There is never a moment when you can't see something interesting.



The accommodation at Selati is pretty basic, but Heidi and I are both fine with it. As the locals say 'TIA' which means 'This Is Africa - What did you expect?'. Unfortunately there is no internet and we have to wait until we go to town to use a computer which is why it has taken me a while to write something here. There are about 10 volunteers at any one time and our main job is to track and record the location of certain types of game on the property. We'll get up really early and go for a morning drive starting around 530 or 6am until about 10am. In this time we'll try to track down some Elephants and see where they have been and where they are going. There are 2 Elephants that are collared (many, many more that are not collared) as well as 3 Lions and 1 Leopard. The collars emit a small signal that we can track using a hand held telemetry receiver. Unfortunately the telemetry set only gives us a rough idea of where the animals are. Once we get close we have to look for tracks or listen really hard for sounds. Elephants don't have big tracks (they are actually very light walkers) but they are one of the nosiest animals, so we can usually find them by the sounds of them ripping down trees or trumpeting. After recording data for the Elephants we'll usually head back home for breakfast.


At about 4pm we depart on an afternoon drive to look for the lions. Lions are much harder to find because they are quiet and move quite quickly. Sometimes we spend hours trying to track them down without finding anything. Once we get close enough, we can look for the paw prints in the sand to tell how many, where, when and how fast the lions are moving which helps to narrow down their hiding spots. After that, we just have to listen really carefully to try and hear the cubs playing or Shaka (one of the collared males) roaring. Its good fun, but spending lots of time on the back of a ute or truck is annoying and I really want to stretch my legs sometimes - until you remember what might be just around the corner! We see loads of other wildlife on the drives that we also record. There are thousands of giraffe, rhino and antelope on the property so its always fun. The data we collect gets used by a couple of South African universities to help with their game park conservation planning. Because Selati is a private reserve they have more freedom in the way they run the property so they are a really use full tool for the universities to try different conservation strategies. So far it seems to be working really well. The data is also used by the land owners who come down on the weekend to see lions and elephants etc etc. We've already learned a lot from the guides, we can tell lots of tracks now as well as guess good hiding spots for the Lions.

Last Sunday Heidi and I took a day off and drove to Kruger National Park with a few other people. Kruger is about an hour away, and it took us another 9 or 10 hours to complete a self drive tour. Kruger was really nice, the animals were very used to cars and people and came very close, but I think I prefer the animals at Selati. The Selati animals are as close to wild animals as you can possibly get, which makes finding them and getting good pictures more of a challenge - I think I've filled a couple of memory cards with pictures of the rear end of animals as they run away. At Kruger we saw plenty of Elephants (even an Elephant heard taking a mud bath!), Giraffe, Rhino and Impala. As we were driving out we were a bit sad we didn't see any big cats but right at the last moment we managed to spot a Leopard, which is the rarest and hardest animal to find, so we were all really happy. We're still waiting to find the ultimate prize of spotting a Leopard in Selati.



I've eaten some interesting things here, the locals make a kind of jerky out of Ostrich meat which they call 'Billtong'. It tastes pretty good. We had a big bbq last Friday night at the reserve, the local way of cooking is called 'Braai', and is simmilar to grilling over an open flame or coals. I got to try some Impala which tastes great; very gamey and a little tough but if you marinade it just right its fantastic. And it's also nice to eat one of the most frustrating animals - Impala are very shy and run at the first sight of our trucks which tends to scare of other animals in the area. My revenge is eating them, I think that's a fair trade (Impale is the dark meat on the bottom of this picture)



Heidi and I have another week here, then we're thinking we might get a bus from Phalabowra down to Neilspruit and then over to Maputo in Mozambique. We've heard really good stories of Mozambique so we'd like to check it out.

South Africa!

I'm being slack and rolling everything in to one post:

We arrived safely in South Africa after pretty long flight. We were delayed in Melbourne due to thunderstorms then we had another 2hr delay in Sydney when someone was sick on the place and needed a doctor. Our flight path from Sydney to Jo'burg took us over Antarctica which was very cool to see.



We're staying in a hostel that is close to the airport, a few people told us not to stay too close to Jo'burg while we were here. I asked the hostel owner if Jo'burg was OK to visit during the day on foot, he said that was not a good ideas, he'd been mugged (well at least attempted) just last week for his mobile phone while he was driving, but instead he managed to make of with the muggers knife and didn't lose his phone. The knife now sits behind the bar.

On Saturday we went for a tour around Soweto. It wasn't really what I expected, there were quite a few homes that wouldn't look out of place in Melbourne and were probably worth a couple of million Rands. Of course there are areas where poverty is more visible, we went for a short walk through a shanty town where we got to meet some of the locals who were very friendly. We didn't feel un-safe at all (probably because they rely on the money from tourists). After Soweto we drove through Jo'burg - nothing to see there really.





On Sunday morning we had a great idea to drive to Lethoso, but all the car hire places had massive excesses we needed to pay to drive that far in to another country. Instead we hired a car and drive just past Pretoria to the 'De Wildt Cheetah Park'. Its a smaller reserve that was one of the first places to breed Cheetahs in captivity, now they have about 10% of the world population. Although the Cheetahs are only about as big as a large dog, and very skinny, they were quite fierce. If you stare them in the eye for long enough they will hiss and stamp their paws in front of you! As soon as the guide and handler come near, they lie down and start to purr or meow like a little house cat because they know they're about to get food. Once the food is tossed over the wall they become wild again and fight for the food.



To give the Cheetahs some exercise the park handlers tie lumps of meat to a little shuttle on a rail 9like at the greyhound track) and fire it off down a clearing, the Cheetahs can accelerate from 0 - 100km/h in 3 seconds, so they can catch it pretty quickly. As well as Cheetahs we saw Wild Dogs, Hyenas, lots of smaller species of native wild cats, Ostriches, Impala, and even a few small monkeys that steal food from the other animals (well, only the slower ones). Overall it was very cool to see these animals, we even got to pat a Cheetah. That night we stayed in Pretoria which was the first place that felt very dodgy. At least we had the car, but we made sure the doors were locked and windows were up!



Yesterday was Monday and unfortunately most of the cool things are closed on Monday's. We still had the car so we drove to Stekfontain Caves which is in a reserve called 'The Cradle of Human Life'. The caves that we walked through are absolutely massive (each cavern was the size of a cathedral or large hall) and contain the oldest bones of human ancestors ever found. The biggest find was in about 1997 (I think) and it was of a complete skeleton of a small child which they called 'Little Foot'. It was a pretty big find because it filled in an important gap in the evolution tree. The oldest bones that have been found have been dated to over 4 million years old, so people (or our ancestors at least) have been visiting, living, and hunting in the area for a very long time.

Today we're catching a bus to a place near Kruger. We then get to start our volunteer program. We've been told that we'll be helping to track and record lions in a reserve, so the next 2 weeks will be like one huge safari. Should be good!

T-3 days...

3 days to go before we leave, and only about 4 days worth of
organising left to do...

Welcome everyone, I set up this blog to share some pictures and to let you all know where Heidi and I are in the world. Hopefully you're not using it to retrace our last steps or to find out where we went missing (dammit Alex, don't jinx it!!).

Thanks to everyone who came along to the drinks last Friday, it was a great night. To those who couldn't make it: you're soft and you won't be getting Christmas postcards. To those of you who did make it: sorry, you won't be getting Christmas postcards either, I'm really not that organized. But hey, at least you're not soft!!

Heidi's friend Elly gave us both some pedometers from her work today, so we'll try and answer a question that has plagued mankind for days (probably) : "exactly how long does a pedometer battery last?" And maybe we'll also see how many steps it's takes to go around the world. Any one care to sponsor us by the step? All proceeds raised will help cure sobriety of poor Australian backpackers throughout which ever country I happen to be in. Maybe you guys at work can find a way to fit it in with a 'GKN Way Day'?

Anyway that's probably enough for the first post considering we haven't actually done anything yet.