Tours and Tales

Since its official opening in April 2009, Bushbabies Monkey Sanctuary, located on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg in Hartbeespoort, has widened its spectrum of primates to over 70 free-released specimens.

Three years ago I went to teach English to the locals of a remote village in the former Transkei. I was 54 and a tad old I thought to be having a mid-life crisis which symptoms included nothing more dramatic ...

But it’s time to hit the road again. It’s about 9 am and the beautiful weather of the last couple of days has turned. Dark clouds loom beyond the hills and there’s that smell of rain in the air.

Can you picture it? You’re sitting in Holland with a couple of days off over the weekend and an (overdue) appointment in the south of France.

We bought our house ‘cos of the view through the kitchen window. The rest of the interior wasn’t to our taste and has sinceforged us into frenetic DIY-ers!

Yup, another delivery in Rotterdam today - yay! Good for business and with this lovely weather, a great drive; 127 km’s from us to the Erasmus Brigde; the white suspension bridge you often see at large events, like the Red Bull airplane racing or when Volvo Ocean Race comes to town.

Join Save The Bay in standing up to the plastics industry and reducing plastic bag pollution to protect our waters and marine animals! Take action at http://www.saveSFbay.org/bayvsbag

En-route to a delivery near Rotterdam this morning, I took my favourite scenic route through the Oostvaarderplassen wildlife nature reserve.

This weekend we drove 2,5 hours to Germany to join Ina and Andries, who’d already been there for two days. They’d found a great camping site and were enthuisiatic about the May Fair being celebrated in Osnabruck. So we packed our tent and bicycles and headed off on Friday morning.

March 2008. It was hot! About 32 degrees and no wind at all. The region we were driving through was dry and dusty. We were on route to Shingwedzi camp and it was around 3 pm. We needed to keep going at a steady pace if we were going to make camp before the gates close…

Coming from South Africa, it hasn’t been difficult to enjoy Zapiro’s political cartoons in the newspaper over the years. And every now and then my father-in-law sends us a fax with another “that’s a goodie”.

Since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to go to the Caribbean. Perhaps inspired by the Bacardi ads or James Bond movies from childhood? But that part of the world has always been my dream destination.