Last Days!

Well folks, time is running out. Our trip is coming to a close... and we're excited! We've had an amazing time, but we are really looking forward to coming home. There are so many things we miss. Our families, our friends, our church, our home, our bikes, our bed, our food, our bikes, our food, oh yeah and family and friends too. Basically we miss home and everything that has to do with that. We're counting down the days now. It's Monday night here now and we leave on Thursday morning. So only two more days to kill now.

So what have we been doing to kill our time? Most of the things would make an amazing holiday that you wouldn't want to end... but we've been on holidays for 4 months now, and we don't really need a break from anything, so the time is going quite slowly. But we've been passing it by reading, lounging by the pool and on the beach, swimming, surfing, playing ping-pong and v-ball with each other and some of the friends we've made here. We've also been going for long walks on the beach (that sounds romantic eh?) and continuing to explore the aquatic life we find. We've played with hermit crabs and other big crabs, and we're also lucky to see dolphins jumping out in the ocean today.

Much of the same is on tap for the next two days. Right now it's off to see if I can regain the ping-pong title against this young lady beside me. She swept everyone today. She's made a few guys thirsty for revenge!

this is our favorite dog here. Xena is lazy beyond belief. Other than the shower, her favorite spot is beside the volleyball court. She know where the action is, even if she's not in it!

A Rainy Day in Cintsa

Well, we're back in blog and email action. And....it's a cold, rainy day....what better way to spend some time than updating everyone on our Cintsa adventures.

I was going to tell you that we were surfing and encountered 5 sharks, and fended them off with our surf boards, just to spice up the blog a bit.....but that never happened....

Anyway, surf's up and so are the Rowaans. After 5 days of surfing I'm standing on the board and even riding the waves a bit. I'm definitely not up to Brian's surfing level, but I'm working on it. I've realized that surfing is a lot of hard work, and we should be able to burn off the grilled cheese that we're having for lunch.

Although we've been doing mostly our own cooking, we took part in the Indian dinner party here on Tuesday night. They really did it up with candles, a two course dinner, including desert. It was excellent food and a lot of fun. Tonight we're going to take part in the Braii....the South African equivalent of a BBQ. We're having lamb, chicken and brotworst. They really like their meat here!

When we need a bit of a break from surfing, we have created what we call our "crab ecosystem". Basically we collect a bunch of little hermit crabs, find some empty shells and hope that we'll see them switching shells. It's actually quite interesting and we've even seen a shell switch!

It's hard to believe but our days here are almost over. We've got exactly one week left in Africa before we begin our 4 flight trip home. It's going to be some long flights, but we're getting really excited to come home...to the snow!

Email Trouble

Hi folks. We're still doing great but are having trouble with our email. This computer won't allow us to send messages. So bear with us, we can't use yahoo!.

I need you, Mom Rowaan, to do me a favour. Could you please email a man by the name of Terry. He's a beekeeper in Alberta. Just let him know I have no email so that's why you're writing him and tell him I don't want any packages from NZ. Ask him to send the check back to me. Let him know I'll contact him as soon as I can. Thanks a lot mom. His email address is terry@highriver.net.

To the rest of you, you'll have to be patient with us. Sorry.

talk to you all soon

Surf's Up!!

Yes were still alive! Sorry we haven't updated you all as to what's been up for the last few days.

We drove took two days to drive from Cape Town to tiny Cintsa, where we arrived at our amazing backpackers for the last leg of our trip. What a place. We think we told you to check it out at Cintsa.com and you should. This place is awesome; as good as the website says it is, or better.

We right on the beach and have an amazing view from our "safari tent", which is a big tent with a bed in it. Yesterday we didn't do much after we arrived accept, play in the surf with some boogie boards. But today the surfing began. We decided to take a short lesson this morning. It's been a while for me and Erin is new to "hanging ten" so we thought it would be a good plan. We had a blast! The wind was really blowing today, so the ocean was like a washing machine, but I managed to regain a little of my form from New Zealand and Erin will be a pro by the time we leave. So she can meet one of her goals of the trip. She did great! No sharks though! Maybe tomorrow.

This afternoon the African adventures continued. We decided to take part in the free activity which they offer everyday here. Today it was a "booze cruise". It's not as bad as it sounds. It's basically just a sunset trip on a little boat up the river here, in which they serve you some wine. It started out great, until we noticed a few leaks in the boat. We decided we'd pull over and sit on some rocks and watch the sun set, so that the boat wouldn't fill up with too much water and make it difficult for us to return to camp. Well, when we did get back in the boat it filled up even quicker than before, and before long, myself and two other guys were in the water pushing the boat and attemping to lighten the load, while the ladies kept high and dry, save their feet and eventually their knees. The boat filled right full and we had to drag it to shore and empty it. Everyone walked back except for another guy and I. We stayed on board just in case we had to push again. We made it all the way back, but when we got within 5 metres of shore, the entire outboard motor fell right off the back of the boat and we had to fish it out. Luckily it was only a light 5 horse, but it'll need to be taken apart before the next cruise; and I imagine they'll need to fix the boat as well.

The next two weeks promise to be quite busy for us. We'll need to surf everyday, laze on the secluded beach, rub suntan oil on ourselves, and play beach volleyball. I hope we can handle it. We've heard lots of stories from you about the big snow storm with school closers and all. We're actually a bit jealous. We both love a good snow storm.

Just try to think of how much we miss it as you shovel out the driveway!

The Vineyards of Stellenbosch

We had another great day viewing some beautiful scenery. The more we see of Cape Town and the surrounding areas, the more beautiful we realize South Africa is.

We set off for Stellenbosch this morning, an area filled with vineyards and wineries, all set with a mountain backdrop. It was a hard choice, trying to pick between the hundreds of wineries dotting the hillsides, but the ones we did pick were great. We started the day out by doing some tastings and ended our wine tour with a "romantic Valentines Day lunch" at a small family run winery.

I do find it a bit funny at how romanticized grape growing and wine making is. A lot of places offer hikes through the vineyards and have extravagant settings for sitting and sipping wine. Obviously the view of these vineyards are beautiful and it's very enjoyable to sip wine in a beautiful place....but the flip side of things is that I've trudged my way through vineyards with rubber boots and work clothes. That wasn't quite as romantic!

All in all, it was a great day. We had some great wine, good food, fantastic scenery, and the best company. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Tomorrow we begin our journey up the coast towards Cintsa. Bring on the surf!

Perfect Day!

What an amazing day! No matter what I write on this post, I will not be able to convey what we saw. Nevertheless, I'll do my best to tell you about the day.

This morning Erin and I picked up our rental car. It's a Toyota Tazz! We immediately experienced the freedom we've been missing for the past 3 plus months. We'd forgotten how great it is to have our own set of wheels. It was so great to go where we want to, when we want to, and stop when we want to. Best of all, we didn't have to wait for our car to be full before we left. That being said, we wouldn't trade our memories of "real" african travel for anything.

So where did we go to excerise this new freedom of ours? The Cape of Good Hope was our destination; but what a journey it was there and back again. Today on our way to the southern most point on the continent of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet, we had the priveledge of seeing some of the most beautiful scenery we've seen on our trip. Some would say Cape Point is some of the best scenery in the world. We'd agree! We had some great weather for it as well!

On our drive south we stopped several times to look at the sights, listen to the crashing waves, see the penguins, yes penguins, and just soak in everything around us. I'll say it again, what a wonderful maker!

some of the little friends we met today

Today also marked a bit of a bittersweet moment for the travelers. Not only did we have an amazing day in an amazing place, but today also marked the end of our journey from the top of Africa to the bottom. Although we've still got some time left, it'd felt like the destination we were trying to reach, since it's as far south as we can get. I guess it was a little sad. It's been a good one!

a view of two oceans at once

these are pictures from the drive up and down the cape

We drove down the east side of the cape and returned to Cape Town via the west coast. Along the way while we had a picnic lunch in a beautiful place, we whitnessed the return of our friends the babboons. Two were climbing on our car and entering our open windows. I ran over to get rid of them before any damage was done, and they ran straight over to my lovely wife. While screaming for my help, Erin was able to shake her water bottle in their direction. Luckily I heard her shrilling cries and came bearing rocks. Another rescue by the Beeman!

When we got back to Cape Town we drove up to two very spectacular vantage points that allowed us to look out over the city 1000 feet above. Because of the clear skies we were rewarded with some perfect views of the beautiful city.

cape town
some guy

We then returned to our hostel, changed our duds, and went down to the Waterfront for some "classic" views of Cape Town, a walk "down by the bay", and a fabulous dinner. The Waterfront is an incredibly pretty spot, and no visit to Cape Town would be complete without seeing it.

this hot chick I spotted

the waterfront

Our dinner was the best we've eaten in the last 3 months, hands down. It's the first time we really splashed out for food, and it didn't dissapoint. We ate at Belthazars, which was in a prime loaction, right on the water. It was also voted the best steak house in S.A. We each had a mouthwatering filet mingion with all the trimmings, and complemented it with some great South African wine, which we ordered off the "the largest wine menu in the world." Mmmmm good! "I'm lovin' it!" Or am I borrowing that from an even greater resturant?

I even clean up well enough to be seen with the largest wine list in the world. it has another side too!

Well I hope the pictures do some justice to what we saw today. I'm still smiling from a great day with my favourite person in some of God's most splendid scenery! We worship an awesome creator!

The Cape Town Life

So, what do we have to report from one of the world's most beautiful cities....not too much, other than the fact that we're really enjoying ourselves. This is a super trendy city with a mountain in the background and ocean only a 30 min. walk from the city centre. There are surf shops and coffee shops on every street corner and cool cafes and restaurants everywhere else.

We've been passing our time eating at "Noodlebosch", drinking coffee and cappucino's, and just walking through the city looking at all the cool shops. Our plans have been on hold a bit since we can't rent a car until tomorrow (every rental place is all booked up!).

In the meantime I've come up with a few different reasons about how South Africa has changed my life:

1. I'm going to become a professional cricket bowler.

2. I am going to become a pro surfer (when I'm not playing cricket).

3. I'm going to open a Noodlebosch in Niagara on the Lake.

That's the list so far....I may add to it yet. Tomorrow we're off to the Cape of Good Hope! Until then....hang ten!

In S.A.!

Well, we are here in Cape Town. We had a great trip on the Intercape Sleepliner. The name was right, we slept like little babies the entire way. The trip actually only took 19.5 hrs instead of the forcasted 20hrs; another first for us!

We're in a beautiful city. We haven't seen to much of it yet, but it's said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We'll have pictures plus our personal opinion, which I know you all value, on here soon enough.

We'll just leave you with a few pictures from Windhoek.

what? what city are we in? interestingly enough, nothing in this store was actually "Beaver Conoe".

"save me Brian!"

"hole in one!"

beethoven, or mozart?

Country 12, here we come!

Well, it's hard to believe but we are leaving today for our final destination, South Africa. This marks the end in a lot of ways.....this will be our last country, our last 20 hour bus ride, we will be leaving "rural" Africa behind in a sense, and experiencing something maybe a bit more like home; in summer that is! Places with shopping malls, Western food, car rental places......

We've had a good past few days. We splurged a bit on a place to stay for Brian's birthday. It was like having our own house complete with satelite tv, a kitchen and a great pool with lounge chairs. Having a kitchen meant we could even bake a birthday cake.....although eating a whole cake can be quite a challenge for 2 people, even when one of them is Brian. All in all, it's been a great time relaxing by the pool and drinking Granadilla Twist (passionfruit flavoured gingerale) and Pepsi....not to mention eating the cake.

So, what are we looking forward to for our next few weeks? After our long, overnight busride we should arrive in Cape Town tomorrow afternoon sometime. The plan is to rent a car for 5 days to tour Cape Town. We're planning to do a winery tour, check out the Cape Beaches which are supposed to be beautiful, climb Table Mountain and head out to the Cape of Good Hope...and do some shoppping. It would be a lie to say that I'm not excited about that (even Brian is a bit excited). They've got really nice clothes here for a fraction of what they cost at home.

From there we are travelling to Cintsa to spend a couple weeks surfing and basking in the sun. If you haven't already, check out the place that we're staying. www.cintsa.com. We're really excited! And excited to come home too.

Etosha Safari Part II

Ok we're in action. Here's the scoop...

We left on Monday on a camping safari to Etosha National Park in Northern Namibia. The park is huge. I think 23 000 square km. It has one of the highest concentrations of animals in Africa and also recieves a fraction of vistors compared with the "famous" parks. The cost is also only $10usd a day for entry compared with $50 and higher for other parks in the continent.

During the three days we drove across the bottom of the park and camped at 2 different camp sites. During the driving we saw tons of animals. We saw everything from worthogs, to elephants. We saw countless giraffe, springbok, gazelle, ostrich, zebra, wildebeast and colourful birds. We also saw four lions and the rare rhino. It was really great to see a rhino! The only two "big" animals that we missed out on were cheetahs and leopards, but we weren't dissapointed.

We had a great time looking at the scenery as well. We witnessed some beautiful sunsets and were stunned by the vastness of the flat salt pan. This continent continues to capture our heart with it's beauty. Everywhere we travel is so diverse.

The park has three camp sites. Each one is placed at a very important watering hole for the animals. Thus, giving the campers excellent views of wildlife at night as the come down to drink. The holes are lit up at night by lights, and this doesn't bother the animals. Unfortunately, we were there during the wet season and water is also found in other places so it isn't nessecary for the animals to come to these watering holes, so we didn't see too much at night. Three people on our tour did stay up very late and actually got to see two lions come down for a drink and then proceeded to mate. Erin and I were far to tired out from spending all day driving around looking at animals in the 38c weather, so we went to bed early.

The people we had with us on the trip were also interesting. One guy from Italy is a salesman for Selle Italia. For those of you who know what company that is, you've guessed that him and I talked at length about the cycling world. Sorry Marv, I couldn't get anything for free.

All in all it was a great trip. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Etosha Safari

Hi everyone. This is going to be the blog post of our safari in Etosha.

We had an amazing time, but...we're not going to tell you about it until we can find a computer that allows us to put pictures on.

Sorry. We're in Windhoek now, and have 2 more days before we leave on Friday night for Cape Town. We'll try to have it done tomorrow.

Until then, thanks to all those who have emailed and posted comments. A few of you in particular have a great sense of homour!

later hosen!

Tsumeb

Well, even in Africa you can have normal, not so exciting days. We are in a great little town right now, the only thing is there isn't a lot to do! So, what do you do when you don't have a book to read because you've already read the last three you bought, and it's Sunday so nothing is open......

You play the German version of Settlers! It's great, being in Namibia with a lot of German influence, we were lucky to find Settlers, and Cities and Knights! We played two games complete with the "handelmeister" and I'm sad to say that Brian got more "spiegpunkts" than me and won both games.

One thing you probably didn't know that there are 10 minerals here in Tsumeb that can be found no where else in the world. We haven't seen them yet....the mineral gallery was closed. Brian was pretty excited to be there.



We also spent some time walking through the city....ie the park and the main street....about 5 times. These pictures were the results of our lazy afternoon. We figured that no trip is complete without a few silly pictures.

Namibia!

Well we're back in North America...or are we? Well Namibia isn't exactly the west but it sure feels like it after coming from central/east africa. Things here are really not what we expected. For starters my bank card worked! Ya! Everything is so clean an so modern. People shop in gracery stores rather than at the market, the roads are better than they are in Canada, and things are EXPENSIVE. Everything here is almost double what is was in the other countries we've been in. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. That's what happens when you have a good economy and border South Africa.

Well, after arriving in Katima Mulilo, we had a huge meal and spent the night. The meal was ridiculous. Have you ever been served a pork-chop, a lamb-chop, more than a foot of sausage, fries, peas, squash, and a salad all on one plate? Well, that's what we had and it was huge! It was expensive for Africa, but still under $10.

It's also extremely hot here! It's pushing 40c everyday and it sure feels like it. We're sweltering here. We here it's a winter wonderland at home. Maybe someone can send us pictures of the snow. We miss it a bit. But sand is kind of like snow, right?

Yesterday we were reminded that we were still in the same continent. After seeing how modern everything was and how efficient things seemed to be, we expected our bus ride to be the same. We missed the big bus from South Africa that passes through here only twice a week, so we had to take a mini bus. Everyone is going back to school here now after their break, so the bus actually filled up very fast. We arrived at the bus station at 6:30am and we were full shortly after 8am. That's really good for a long distance mini bus. The problem came in when a few of the clients went missing. We drove the the villages picking up a few people that the driver was counting on getting. When we got there we found them. However, it as clear that the drinking had begun. It was only shortly after 8am and they had clearly had a few. We waited for quite a while for these drunks to get their act together, and the driver spent some time looking for one passenger, who was "at the bank machine". He found him in the bar. In the one area at 10am we saw a couple of families sitting around a table with many full and empty 750ml bottles of beer. One lady was even giving some to a toddler. By the time we got on the road it was noon.

Erin and I have constantly been asking ourselves as we travel through Africa, "why is it that things just don't work here"? That's not an easy question to answer, but we think we got a few insights yesterday. Obviously alcohol can be a major problem, three of our passengers bought many beers on all of our stops along the 860km journey yesterday. But this is probably just a result of bordom, or a means to hide their problems. Perhaps acountability is also problem. It was clear that the other passenger were frustrated by the drunks and the driver was also getting a little hot under the collar. But know one said anything. No one said "what's wrong with you!" When we were ready to go, the one guy bolted out of the bus and ran/stumbled over to a corner store to get some beer for the road. The driver was really mad, but sad nothing. Erin and I both said "leave without him", he inched forward but couldn't do it. And when the drunk returned he said nothing to him. In Mauritania we learn that it was entirely a no-no to tell someone, even a close friend, that they've done something they shouldn't have. Perhaps it's the same here. Anyway, we were clearly reminded that just because the economy is ok, doesn't mean that everything is ok. I realize this is also the same in the west.

We're at a really great place here in Tsumeb. It's only our second place with a self catering kitchen! We love having one, since we can make food we love and save some loot in the process. Tomorrow we're off to Etosha National Park. It's a huge salt pan, with a very high concentration of game. It's far from the tourist traps as well, which is why we picked Namibia for our "safari".

Onward Bound

We're on to Namibia today. We've had a great time in Zambia, even though it was quick.

Our plans for the next few days are to travel into Namibia through the Caprivi Strip and then towards Tsumeb which will act as our jumping off point for a safari we've planned. We're looking forward to our safari and will attempt to see "the Big Five" in Etosha National Park. From there we'll travel to Windhoek and perhaps celebrate Brian's birthday there before heading onto our final country, South Africa.

Thanks again for all our letters and comments. We love hearing from you!

"Smoke that Thunders!"

Well there it is folks. I know it's not that impressive is it? We were told that water is normally rushing over the side of the gorge, and that the falls normally spans more than 2km in length. But since the water is so low this is all we got to see. So it didn't really leave us all that impressed.

After viewing the disappointing falls we just went to a place up stream to have lunch. As you can see, I was pretty happy!

After some meat-pies and carrots we walked around a little more. It wasn't long until I slipped on one of my banana peels and this happened.

luckily Erin was there to pull me to safety!

Now we realized that we had been told incorrect information regarding the location of the actual falls. I guess we should have guess that the roaring we were hearing obviously wasn't coming from that pseudo Victoria Falls.

not bad eh?

Well there it is. The Africans call it "Smoke that Thunders". It's a more suiting name we think. It's a little sad that some white guy shows up in 1851 and renames it.

Anyway, it truly was worthy of being on the list of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. We were once again stunned by the beauty of creation. I really don't know what to say, other than that it's an amazing place that you should see if given the chance.

After viewing the falls from the top, we decided we'd hike down to the bottom, to what is known as "The Boiling Pot". This is the first bend in the river after the gorge, and it makes the whirlpool in Niagara look like a toilet bowl. It was quite good. We had a view of the falls, and we really got a perspective of how far the water was falling. We were also the only ones down there so that made it even better.

"The Boiling Pot"

On the hike back to the top, we encountered some babboons. There were literally 50 of them. They were everywhere! We were watching them nurse their young, carry them on their backs, playfight, and eat. We also got to see them making the next generation of babboons. That was a bit strange, since we were watching all of this from within a few feet of them. We didn't think they minded us being there, until one of the big males started screaming at us. We started to move back and then he charged! It was crazy. We thought maybe that would be the end. We started to run, up the very steep enbankment, at a much slower pace than this crazy babboon was capable of. I even picked up a rock and was ready to bash his skull! But it was all in vane since, he was only bluffing. I think he knew I could take him!

After returning to Livingstone, we cooled off from the 35c weather in the awesome pool at our hostel. All in all it was a really sweet day!