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[jurassicjarrah]

Eastern Europe - Autumn 2015

Croatia:

Here we go again – off to Eastern Europe to visit our Croatian Crew and to set out for new horizons. Lucky, we left Germany when we did, because as it turned out at the border Jarrah had fewer days in the Schengen left than we had calculated. While the Slovenian side of the border was perfectly fine with that we somehow found ourselves confronted with a cranky young wench wanting to bite our heads off at the Croatian side. Obviously, no one had told her that Croatia is OUTSIDE of the Schengen borders and that therefore it made perfect sense for Jarrah to be travelling this way. Later, we found out that this lady has quite the border Nazi reputation throughout Eastern Europe, spanning from Croatia all the way to Bulgaria and Romania!

Our timing to get to Buzet couldn't have been more perfect as its famous Subotina Festival was on when we arrived. This 3-day festival had a lot to offer, including a free open-air concert, as well as two separate street fairs in the new and old town respectively. We learnt that the festival marks the start of the white-truffle season, but at least the main event in the old town looked more like a medieval fair.

Lots of people dressed up in traditional costumes performing traditional crafts such as forging iron or old-school carpentry. The event gave us the opportunity to finally try some of the local truffle produce, which strangely enough did not give us any clarity AT ALL as to whether we fall within the truffle 'lovers' or  'haters' camp. The taste is just too ambiguous, strangely appealing and revolting at the same time. Weird...

In any case, thanks to our good friend Dean who hooked us up with tickets to partake in this event!

On this trip we were stepping it up in the grown-up world, staying with beautiful Enna, Gogo and their son Malik in their apartment in Pazin. Unsurprisingly, this bunch turned out to be exceptional hosts – good company, good climbing, good vibes, what more could we ask for? They also introduced us to a Slovenian crusher Klemen Becan and his wife Anja (which was also when we learned that Istrians and Slovenians somehow manage to magically communicate with each other using different languages- say whaaaaaat?!):

http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/klemen-bean-runs-out-of-hard-routes-in-slovenia-bolts-new-ones-in-croatia-%7C-the-slovenians-ep-1/600408

We tried to climb on the wall mentioned at the end of this clip, but were shut down on its lowest graded climb. Oh well, back to sending all the nemeses that we'd left on the last trip instead. I also found a new perfect project called Asylantin (23), which I literally sent at the very last minute before driving further east. Happy days!

When we didn't climb, we either pulled the classic – let's party like we're 20 again – all-nighter at our favourite youth club, BUM, in Buzet, went to the beautiful seaside in Rovinj, or explored the area. During one of these trips our friend Luka took us hiking up the Ćićarija mountain range, adding another unforgettable Istrian adventure to our list.

Oh, how we love these Istrian folks; their kindness, generosity and unbelievable hospitality! Not to mention the world class climbing destination that lies right at their doorstep! This is why we're happily missing out on other planned Eastern European destinations on every trip and had we not made prior plans with Chris in Bulgaria, we'd probably still be in Croatia! Thank you Enna, Gogo, Malik, Antonio, Melani, Dean, Noan, Luka, Marin, Ivana, Klemen, Anja and everyone else I forgot to mention for showing us your beautiful part of the world – you guys are AMAZING!

Bulgaria:

After once again saying goodbye to our Istrian friends, we raced off to Bulgaria to meet our Australian friend Chris in Sofia. On our way, we caught up with our previous couchsurfing host Dario in Osijek. You can probably see a repeating theme here – i.e. us visiting all of the great people from the first trip once again! It is thus not surprising that we decided to add Vladimir in Sofia to that list, who was happy to have all three of us surf his couch (or rather hand over his bed in classic hospitable Eastern European fashion).

Jarrah and I did our best to pick up Chris from Sofia airport on time, but there were some complications. First, our tyre burst in the middle of the highway somewhere between Belgrade and Nis. Lucky we had brought a spare, so that was an easy fix. However, what we were not able to do was to turn back time – yes, as it turns out there is a one hour time difference between Serbia and Bulgaria. Damn! Of course, this was also the first time during our trip where there was a big line-up at the border. Poor Chris learnt a lesson that day, that is 'don't trust vagabond travellers with time'. Luckily, Vladimir was there for the rescue and gave Chris a hand in navigating his way around Sofia and after a small city search we actually found Chris right in front of Vlads apartment. After that we pulled an all-nighter involving way too much Rakia for those of us with a competitive edge driving them 'to drink like the locals'.

In retrospect, it would have been advisable to listen to Vlad who did mention that some Bulgarians have a habit of 'choosing beer as a hangover cure and for sobering up'! You spew you learn...

Thanks Vlad for having us and helping us out with new tyres, logistics, etc. - you are a living legend!

Vratsa: Being one day behind schedule, we finally made it to Vratsa, where we spent a few days climbing before the rain chased us out.

We were in good company with a bunch of other climbers being out and about, which made for good evening get-togethers. Amongst them was an older English guy who seemed genuinely committed to the dirt-bag climbing lifestyle, which is good to see for those of us that just don't want grow up... yet! :)

Prohodna Cave: Following the same path as on our last Bulgaria trip we escaped the rain in Vratsa and made our way to Prohodna Cave, which offers a dry, outdoor climbing despite heavy rain. That is, unless you're planning to climb directy into 'the eyes of god' or 'Oknata' in the middle of the cave's roof. Chris and Jarrah sent and on-sighted a few amazingly hard and beautiful climbing routes here, and I, well I tried really hard to do the same continuously falling off the wall with a hint of terror. Hopefully, the mental training will pay off eventually, fingers crossed!

Of course, Ivan the crazy cow Shepard was also out and about, greeting us with his cows' bells every day.

The three of us managed to build a pretty good rain shelter for our tent at the foot of the cave, so we stayed cozy and dry at night. Chris had moved into our tent at this point, which left me sleeping next to two smelly, snoring boys - thank god there is wine! To be fair we probably all stunk after trying really hard every day in an ever wettening cave, with the rain being too damn cold to shower in it. Showers are overrated anyway...

We had good company during our time here. First, there was a group of cavers exploring the area; then Jarrah made some new Romanian friends while Chris and I had passed out in the tent from exhaustion (I swear it was not a wine-exhaustion), and finally we ran into Yavor and Katharina from Sofia like on our last trip. Those two were indeed a lucky encounter for Chris in particular, because without them he he might have had to walk back to Sofia. As it happens when you go somewhere rural in Eastern Europe, the infrastructure can be a bit of a navigational challenge. In our scenario the problem was that the train station that was supposed to get Chris back into Sofia just wasn't there. Yes, there was a sign for it; and yes it lead us down an albeit very questionable path; and there even were train tracks at the end of it; but unfortunately for Chris that was it. So instead of getting Chris to jump the train Wild Western style he enjoyed a nice and cozy ride with Yavor and Katharina to Sofia. Thanks for another good trip Chris, always a pleasure to catch up!

Romania:

Bucharest: Upon invitation of our new Romanian friends Andrei, Catalina and Ania we decided to have a stop-over in Bucharest. As so many times before on our journey we let the people guide our path to the next destination and – you guessed it - good people make for good experiences. Andrei was super generous and left his brand new apartment to us as a place to crash. From this base we explored the city and its people with our new friends. We even went on a guided city tour to quench our thirst for historical knowledge of which you find so much of in Europe. We might not remember it all, but a view fun facts always remain. So we learned that engineers managed to roll entire churches to saftey to preserve Bucharest's architectural heritage for generations to come when Nicolae Ceaușescu redesigned the city in the 80s. We also learned that Bucharest's Palace of Parliament is the 2nd biggest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon and that there were many inappropriate jokes going on after 9/11 when all of a sudden Bucharest had the biggest one intact. Lastly, we learned that Michael Jackson may have been the 'king of pop' but a 'peasant of geography', which he proved in 1992 when he  came on stage in Bucharest screaming to his fans “how are you doing, Budapest?” Apparently, he is not alone, so just to reiterate:

Of course, we also did a little bit of climbing, however, back in Bulgaria where we found a very questionable ARMED saint sculpture embellishing the entrance of a country church and crossed an even more questionable bridge under construction across the Danube. I guess the Bulgarian's are honest about organised religion and total safety is overrated when crossing a 'tiny' river, we can all swim right?!

We really enjoyed our time in and around Budapest,... eh I mean Bucharest. It's a lovely city with lovely people, beautiful old buildings, nice surrounds and very chaotic traffic (although our friends insist that there is method to this madness).  

Thank you Andrei, Andrei's mum (for all the good homemade Ajvar), Catalina and Ania you made our stay AWESOME!

Brasov (Kronstadt): Next stop in our Romanian adveture – Brasov! Here we stayed with Florin, another last-minute couch-surfing saviour. Jarrah was determined to find some bears in the forests surrounding Brasov, but instead we found beautiful mountainside, covered in lush, green grass and trees with stunning views. I'm sure there were bears around somewhere, but due to our constant habit of 'forgetting the bear spray' I'm kind of glad we did not encounter them. We also had a look at Bran castle (more commonly known as Dracula's castle), which is nestled in a beautiful little country town, however, decided to give the inside of this major tourist attraction a miss. We figured if Vlad Țepeș aka 'Vlad the Impaler' (1448-1476) who was Bram Stoker's historical inspiration for his Dracula novel could give it a miss, so could we.

Instead we had yet another free city tour where we learned about Brasov's German colonist origins as Kronstadt and more about good old Vlad the Impaler. Apparently, Vlad was held hostage in the Ottoman Empire when he was a kid, just to return the favour by massacring tons of Turks with their own punishment of choice (i.e. longitudinal impalement – yes it is what you think it is) later in life. We were told that he erected posts of impaled humans along the path of invading soldiers to break their spirit and weakening their strength. Dracula seems like an angel in comparison.  Another fun fact about Brasov is that to this day you will find the letters 'ALIN' imprinted into the forest surrounding the city - a tribute to Joseph Stalin after whom the city was renamed in the early 1950s, when Brasov became Orașul Stalin.

Through the Carpathians on the Transfăgărășan road : When we left Brasov, I was a little confused by Jarrah's constant peaking into the forest instead of keeping his eyes on the road. I was just about to yell at him to regain his focus, when it dawned on me that Jarrah had never seen a beautiful autumn forest and this one was particularly beautiful. A good time to swap drivers, but not for long... cause there it was - the crazy Transfăgărășan road, also known as Ceaușescu's Folly. This picturesque mountain road with it's many twists and turns is every racer's dream – so you guessed it we swapped spots again! I was glad Jarrah's 'race car' was a VW Polo and not a Porsche 911, although he probably thinks otherwise. No wonder the English TV-show Top Gear used this road in one of its episodes. A stunning road with stunning views indeed and definitely a must-do when travelling in Transylvania. Also, if you do it towards the end of the season a nice 'ice bath' awaits you at the top which I definitely had to take advantage of (to cool down from JT's driving mostly). While we did not see any bears here either, we were rewarded with the most beautiful fox I've ever seen for our persistence in spotting wildlife along the way. What a killer of a day, which ended with us camping somewhere on a field just outside Sibiu in classic gypsy fashion.

Arad: The last stop on our trip was Arad, which we mostly picked due to its proximity to the Hungarian border to shorten our trip back home to Germany. Here Jarrah had his first church experience when it turned out that our couch-surfing hosts were practising Seventh-day Adventist. I wish I could describe to you the look on Jarrah's face when our CS Benji greeted us by letting us know that 'he would go to church now and that we were welcome to join'. It was hilarious. Jarrah quickly realised that he would not understand a word anyway and so experienced his first church service at almost 30. Not sure what to think of this church, but the people were very nice and accommodating, plus there was free food!

Benji, his brother Pratricius and his wife Eunice, as well as the rest of the family turned out to be amazing hosts. We got a couple of insider city tours, one of which included a special visit to Arad's Administrative Palace, where we literally got to sit in the mayor's chair. Benji also took us to a local hot spring to soothe our battered bodies from weeks of travelling and climbing which was just what we needed. Upon learning that we were vegans, Benji's mum decided to stay behind that day to cook us up a vegan feast, of course this happened without our knowledge – still it was good!!! Benji had many talents and his piano playing just blew us away. According to him, the trick to success in many areas of his life was to have had very strict parents. Interesting...

Before we left, Benji showed us his little (or rather big) work shed where he restores old bikes and as a perfect end to a perfect stay we cruised around the city at night on our stylish bikes. Thank you family Lazar for our amazing stay with you guys!

[jurassicjarrah]

Jt and Jamilah facing off in Hamburg. Jt enjoying the beach at the North Sea. Me and Jamilah “buildering” and skating around the city

[jurassicjarrah]

Hamburg, Germany

For this trip we decided to not cross any borders for a change, but to visit one of Germany's beautiful cities instead. While this did not make the trip any shorter (even on the Autobahn), Hamburg was definitely worth a visit. We intended to visit Matt and Jamilah during this trip, a couple we had met in Townsville, but to our surprise they had broken up one week before we arrived : (

We stayed with Jamilah at her mum's apartment in St Pauli and catching up with Matt proved to be more challenging than we thought. While both of them were totally okay with us spending time with the other, we still had to turn down one unfortunate candidate in the process. On the night we  finally arranged to go out with Matt, Jamilah's mum insisted for him to join us at her apartment. What she couldn't know at the time was that Matt was waiting downstairs accompanied by a girl, so naturally he wasn't keen on the idea. Jamilah's mum was obviously disappointed to hear that, which temporarily got us into the awkward position of choosing between spending time with our host and our mate. Thankfully, Jamilah's little sister intervened right there to save the day, i.e. the curfew was lifted!

Luckily, this was the only awkward situation in Hamburg, however, thanks to Jamilah, awkward was beaten by scary when she and her acrobatic friend suggested to climb up the scaffolding on a 100 metre high church tower in the middle of Hamburg one night. Of course, JT did not need much convincing for such a mission, so you can guess where we ended up...

It was calming to learn that several previous climbers had been caught and got away with a slap on the wrist, which to be fair could be far more devastating for a climber : )

I'll be honest, there were definitely a few points when I wanted to abandon the mission. The first such moment was when Jamilah's friend started to climb on the outside of the scaffolding to make less noise. Naturally, I chose to go the safe way up the actual stairs of the scaffolding instead while making an effort to be really, really quiet. Then, as so many times this year my (under the circumstances) super irrational fear of falling to the ground yet again caught up with me half-way up the tower. In this instance an incredibly convincing motivational speech from JT got me through, i.e. 'some things are fun while you do them and some things are even more fun looking back' or something along those lines. He later confessed that he just did not want me to ruin the climb for him – awww isn't he sweet! Lucky for him the view over the harbour and the city from the top was breathtaking, so he shall be forgiven for being selfish just this once.

[jurassicjarrah]

[jurassicjarrah]

Innsbruck, Austria

We can't exactly remember when we went to Austria, but we do remember that the weather finally fit the season. Considering there was snow, Innsbruck must have fallen somewhere between January and March 2015 on our travel itinerary. Our good friend Miri lives in this cute and colourful city embedded within the Alps and she is definitely one of the best, most fun girls on the planet! Unfortunately, when we arrived she was stressing out over one of her recently failed exams (or so she thought), so she wasn't her usual cheerful self. Luckily, there was the right cure just around the corner – delicious Austrian bakery sweets! JT obviously did not need much convincing, so the first thing we did was to indulge in some vegan cakes and pastries. The next day held a pleasant surprise for Miri, since she found two extra point on her supposedly failed exam when meeting with her professor. Crisis averted, exam passed and Miri back to her usual happy self – now for more sweets to celebrate! You can probably tell that we indulged a lot while being in Innsbruck, but hey we did go snowboarding one day, so we definitely needed the energy! ;-) Thanks Miri for your glorious hospitality and all the fun that was had...

[jurassicjarrah]

JT and me by the Mediterranean at Poseidon’s Temple in Greece 

[jurassicjarrah]

Filling in the gaps...

Athens:

After various ailments suffered by JT and me during the depths of German winter, i.e. a weird itchy rash for JT and some intense 'want to die right now' kidney infection for me we decided to escape the winter for a while. A friend of mine had invited us to join her at her grandma's house in the middle of Athens for a week, so the destination was easily decided upon. We hoped for some sunny, warm spring weather, considering Greece was pretty much as far south as we could go in Europe. At first things were looking good, as we were welcomed by a stunning, bright, blue spring sky. We spent our first day soaking up as much sun as we could get to replenish all that vitamin B that we had been deprived of in Germany for so long.

However, the very next day held a big surprise for us, because believe it or not it snowed! This is very uncommon for Athens during the time we were there and my friend was close to sending us home to take back the bad weather we had brought along :)

That much to going rock-climbing around Athens! Not to worry, as there are plenty of other exciting things to do, since even just navigating through the crazy city traffic can be quite the experience. How Jarrah managed not to crash the rental car I do not know, but well done!

We checked out the Acropolis and various other ancient sights in the snow, an experience that I'm sure not many people share. Luckily, the snow vanished as quickly as it came, so on our drive to the Temple of Poseidon along the Mediterranean coastline the sun was back on our side. Ignoring the cold that was still omnipresent, we even braved rock-climbing one day and the location was superb. We enjoyed spending time with my friend, browsing Athens' countless food markets, having relaxing dinners in front of the wood-burning stove at her grandma's cute little house, meeting her various animal (two cats she adopted) and human friends, and getting a taste of Athens' night life. She also had the brilliant idea to go to a hot spring close to the site of the Battle of Thermopylae, where Hollywood will have you believe 300 bare-chested Spartan soldiers heroically fought against a vastly greater Persian army for several days until the last man fell in battle. Historians have a slightly different take on the events that happened 480 BC, but I guess it's good enough for Hollywood history.

Grenoble:

Just before we went to Athens we had bought a car to make us a bit more mobile and moreover less lazy (counter-intuitive, I know)! Our initial idea had been to buy a biiiiig van, but due to the sub-optimal used-car market and the tough environmental regulations in Germany, we got a little VW Polo instead. Our little Polly, as we named her, quickly became our new home away from home on multiple trips throughout Europe. As you would have seen in our previous Eastern Europe posts and pictures, we managed to sleep, cook and do anything else essential in life within its small interior space.

Barely a few days after our Greece trip, we decided to take Polly on her first big European test drive to Grenoble in France. This is the place that Gael and Antoine call their home and they had urged us to visit them, after having returned from their big Australia/Asia trip on which we had initially met. This time we expected to find typical winter conditions, considering Grenoble's location within the French Alps. Hoping to go snowboarding we packed our gear, taking our climbing gear as well – just in case – and we were on our way. There are definitely better ways to spend your birthday than sitting in a car for 10 hours, but our reception in Grenoble made up for it. It turns out, our two friends live in a beautiful, big house within the mountains close to the town of Chautreuse (where the same-named liquor is from) with their several other cheerful French roommates. While there were some communication problems with some of the housemates initially, they quickly vanished as JT and Gael got everyone hooked on their puzzles and various card tricks. Luckily, some social activities are immune to language barriers. We spent many puzzled (see what I did there?) and cheerful nights together and due to the mild weather – surprise, surprise! We got it wrong again! – prospective snowboarding turned into climbing instead. At least we got a little taste of snow up in the high mountains, when we decided to hike up the slopes one day. Several Frenchies stopped us on the way up, bewildered as to why we did not wear any snowshoes or carried ice-axes and other avalanche emergency equipment. Looking back, I do understand why they were so concerned, as one little tumble down from the top of the mountain could have had nasty consequences, but alas we survived staring death into the face once again! :)

And to make sure you won't get bored of reading this blog, here are some puzzles for everyone:

Puzzle 1 - “The one that drove JT crazy”

Add any mathematical symbols that do not involve having to write a number (i.e. using a ‘square root’ symbol is fine, using ‘to the power of’ isn’t) to these equations to make them correct. It can’t be ‘does not equal’, so every equation actually ends up equaling 6, as unlikely as this might seem. To get started 2+2+2=6. Have fun!

0     0     0  =  6

1     1     1  =  6

2     2     2  =  6

3     3     3  =  6

4     4     4  =  6

5     5     5  =  6

6     6     6  =  6

7     7     7  =  6

8     8     8  =  6

9     9     9  =  6

Puzzle 2 - “The one that drove me crazy”

Find this one on the following website:

http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/petals-j.htm

Puzzle 3 - Move two matchsticks and place them back onto the figure to create 4 equal-sized squares (no single matchstick can be pointing into space and all squares have to be connected with each other)

Puzzle 4 -  Move one matchstick to make the equation correct (can't be 'does not equal')

Puzzle 5 - Move one matchstick to make the equation correct (can't be 'does not equal') 

Solutions

Puzzle 1:

(0!  + 0!  + 0!)! = 6

(1!  + 1!  + 1!) = 6

2    + 2   + 2 = 6

3    * 3   – 3 = 6

√ 4 +  √ 4  +  √ 4 = 6

5    / 5    + 5 = 6

6    – 6    + 6 = 6

7    /   (-7)  + 7 = 6

√[8 +  (8    / 8)]! = 6

9    - (9    /  √ 9) = 6

Puzzle 2:

Sorry, you'll have to work this one out yourself!

I know it sucks! :-)

Puzzle 3:

Puzzle 4:

Change 1st part of the equation to show the square root of 1

Puzzle 5:

Change 2nd part of the equation to show the pi symbol (while the result will not give you the infinite decimal of pi starting with 3.14, 22 divided by 7 does give you a result starting with 3.14.

[jurassicjarrah]

Capetown – Cape of Good Hope!

For me, no South Africa trip could have been complete without going to the Cape of Good Hope. I always wanted to visit this place, not sure why, just did (maybe I was sucked in by the name and its implied promise). So the last week of our holiday was designated to a trip down South. We flew into Capetown at night and the city was only half lit – classic load shedding – which makes for a funny picture from the plane.

From the airport, we made our way to a cute little (very Dutch looking) town called Montague where we decided to conclude the climbing part of our trip. Yes, we could have gone to Rocklands instead, but little did I know that a lot of the best (looking?!) climbers gathered there at the time (and Jarrah conveniently stayed silent on this point). On the way JT once again got his picture taken by a speed camera, but we figured we could always use the excuse of having escaped imminent danger at the time. We actually never received a ticket, so speed away when in South Africa! :) Montague was surrounded by beautiful rock formations, with a huge rock arch marking the 'gateway' into the town. The entrance to our camp-ground got me worried that we would be washed away before reaching the other side, as it was accessed via a bridge with water flowing over it! Jarrah had to reassure me several times that we would make it and I guess my view was tainted by cycling in several Townsville floods. Thankfully JT was right as usual.

The climbing we did here was nothing to write home about, but to be fair we did not try a lot of it and I'm sure there is quality stuff.

Two days later we were on our way back into Capetown, again through some beautiful mountainous landscapes and with glorious Capetown sunset views from high above towards the end of the drive. As mentioned earlier, a crazy, free spirited couch-surfer named Alex hosted us in Capetown and we started our trip with a sensational hike up Table Mountain.

We then headed south to the Cape of Good Hope, swimming with cute little penguins at the beach on the way. We passed through a lot of little 'surfer-towns', which scored with their relaxed atmosphere and prime seaside location.

The Cape of Good Hope National Park was on the very end of the line (quite literally) and to fully explore the area would probably take more than a few hours. Luckily, our mission was 'small', i.e. sitting precariously high on some rock-cliffs at the point where two of the world's great oceans meet and take in the magic of this moment (yeah, yeah, I know that this is technically not the geographical splitting point but still good enough for us). Of course, we jumped over the fence to do so, braving the abyss below our feet and as you can see we lived to tell the tale (note that not everyone reading this is a rock-climber and quite as confident with unprotected heights).

Of course, Jarrah could not be stopped from doing some rock acrobatics as well, but rest assured that the drop there was not quite as dramatic as the first one. After taking it all in, that is the waves thrashing about being followed by thousands of birds on their path and watching the sea lions lazing about we took off to explore the remainder of the park on our way out. Our curiosity was rewarded, as it did not take very long to spot some ostriches (adult and a couple of youngsters), which we followed around on foot somehow oblivious to the danger they can represent (in my case anyway, as my personal wildlife expert JT of course only told me afterwards). Another unforgettable day in South Africa.

On our last day we explored the city and indulged in Capetown's vegan restaurants, a nice change from the many 'braais' over the last few weeks (Australian translation 'braai' = 'bbq', and yet there is another thing Australians and South Africans have in common). For a nice relaxed finish to the trip we then browsed the local markets, watched some more sea lions playing in the harbour and had dinner with our couch-surfing host Alex. Back in Johannesburg we enjoyed a VIP city tour with our friend Melissa and her son Josh, learning about all the ins and outs of 'Josie' as she so endearingly calls her crazy and scary yet beautiful home city. A perfect finish to a perfect trip!

[jurassicjarrah]

The Boven crew Koos, Melissa, Angelique, Mitchell, baby Jayden and super excited Joshua. Couchsurfers Trudie and Anton with their dogs in Kaapsche Hoop. Anton cutting loose on a boulder with his gun firmly on his hip! Mitchell and Angelique preparing a Thai BBQ one night. Philip (Waterval Boven campsite manager) and Marina. Alex from Capetown wearing his bright smile and bright yellow shirt.

[jurassicjarrah]

South Africa – Part 2 – The places and its beautiful people

After a couple of weeks in our new home, we figured out its patterns. While it was quiet and serene during the week, loads of people, mostly from Johannesburg, flooded in during the weekends. So if you prefer empty cliffs and lots of space, come here during the week and escape to somewhere else on the weekends.

For us though the people partying at night and setting up highlines during the day were a welcome change to our usual climbing routine.

We spent some very interesting evenings talking to exclusively white South Africans (I guess the black community can't afford such weekend luxury) at the camp fire.

And if you can manage to get over the occasional 'the good old days of Apartheid' comment, a lot of fun can be had with these genuinely nice South Africans. Also, it is rather entertaining to see, how you can completely freak them out just by telling them that you dared to walk through the centre of Johannesburg (as our American friend Bekki did).

The fear of other races seems to be omnipresent in these parts and unfortunately not totally unfounded. So it came as no big surprise to hear of a Swiss climber that was robbed at gunpoint whilst talking on his iphone in front of the hostel in Waterval Boven one night. Oh well, andere Laender andere Sitten (different countries different ways) as the German saying goes and as for South Africa we seemed to have landed in the Wild West as a weekend warrior coined it so eloquently one night by the fire.

Currently, the country does not produce enough electricity to run the place, which is amusing considering we've heard that it also sells power to its neighbouring countries. So as a solution to the power shortage South Africa just 'turns off the lights' on its people for several hours. This 'load shedding' as they call it occurs on a daily basis all over the country. Whether you're in big cities like Johannesburg during rush hour or in a busy restaurant strip during the weekend in Capetown (as we've once experienced). It actually looks quite funny from the plane coming into a city at night to see one suburb lit up while the adjoining one is pitch black. Well, at least learning about load shedding solved the mystery of why our camera batteries just would not charge!

What we found amazing was that despite of all this uncertainty, the people that we met were quite cheerful and happy. Is it the lawless living? Is it the fact that almost everyone had a maid to take care of household matters? Is it the good wine? What is it guys??? I, for my part, came to the conclusion that the moment everything bad is already happening (hijackings, armed robbery, dealing with an ever decreasing currency, feeling the need to live in round the clock secured houses, etc.) you don't have to worry about anything any more and can just live, well, like you would in the Wild West :)

We met some amazing people while camping at Waterval Boven and also couchsurfing in Nelspruit and Capetown. We stayed with a couple in their 50s in a little old Dutch looking hilltop village called Kaapsche Hoop and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Anton and Trudie, themselves avid couchsurfers, were great fun and we were happy to see that there are some people in our parent's generation couchsurfing throughout the world. They had a whole weekend planned out for us during which we basically had to do nothing but enjoy our 5-star holiday retreat. We hiked around the beautiful (and absolutely climbable) boulders surrounding the town to an amazing top of the hill lookout, dared to pat some unpredictable wild horses trotting around the village, enjoyed comfortably warm evenings in front of a crackling fireplace and were taken to a secret spot early one morning to witness a breathtaking sunrise. Yep, these two really looked after us. Oh and I must mention that Anton wore a gun at his hip 24/7 for personal protection! So not only were we looked after, but we also had our personal cowboy to protect us from the dangers of the wild, wild west.

After saying goodbye to Anton and Trudie, we stayed with Uys (we had a few attempts at pronouncing his name but ultimately failed as it's pronounced “Ace”) and Michelle, a couple our age, in Nelspruit. They run a fast food restaurant franchise in a big fancy mall, which resembles an American/Australian consumerist haven more than anything else (and it certainly does nothing to remind you of the wild west any more). Right away they shouted us some drinks at their business and had we been more of the conventional Aussie meat lover's type, we certainly could have stuffed our face on the house as well.

They then took us home to their beautiful house and we were offered the luxury suite to sleep in. After buying the essentials early in the evening we went to a lookout with an over sized soccer ball replica water tank (no doubt a relic from the World Cup) to enjoy another glorious African sunset. The words “kill the Boers” were prominently scrawled on the path, so we were not surprised that Michelle and Uys did not want to stick around much past sunset. We enjoyed a cheerful & chatty evening with the two of them, before going to Kruger National Park the next morning (more on that later). They were also our saviours after our Kruger trip when, clueless as usual, we had dropped the rental car off late in the evening without having planned our next accommodation fully. This was slightly un-nerving, because not even the rental car manager was keen to see us waiting in the dark outside and hence waited with us until we had an escape plan. This time, Uys and Michelle left us their entire house to ourselves as they were house sitting for a friend. Of course, we had to have the mandatory security system induction first. We are very grateful to them, not only for their hospitality, but also that they took us to Chimp Eden, one of Jane Goodall's chimpanzee rescue centres, on which we totally would have missed out without them. A sad reminder of humans brutal treatment of animals but the inspiration of Jane’s tireless and selfless work left us with a glimmer of hope.

Further south, we stayed with another couchsurfer named Alex in Capetown and although we did not get to spend that much time with him due to our full timetable down there, he was just as good of a host as all the other couchsurfers have been. He was very chatty and cheerful like the others and had I decided to stay he would have organised a job in a German call-centre for me immediately. He was so nice, that one time he let a couch-surfer stay for months despite the fact that they had been working full time and pretty much settled in Capetown at that stage. He had plenty of other anecdotes about his previous couchsurfers and it would be interesting to know what he will tell future couchsurfers about us. Only the good stuff, we hope :)

Capetown blessed us with its finest weather during the few days we spent there, which made our 4 hour hike up Table Mountain an absolute bliss. On the way, we came across a black South African who was encouraging all the tourists to keep walking with his slightly off beat wooden Glockenspiel play. Jarrah could not help but join in with some drum support and soon we had African women dancing in a way that only they are gifted to do – it may sound racist, but what if I like the race?! : )

But now for our absolute favourite companions on this trip – the lovely crew from Waterval Boven. It all started with Mitchell, a guy that had just moved to a farm there with his beautiful wife Angelique and their newborn Jayden. One rest day he came to our camp and started to chat with us in his usual friendly and open manner. A climber himself, he immediately invited us over for dinner one night and to have a climb together at the cliffs close to his property. After he left, we almost forgot about it until he actually came by a few days later to pick us up for the promised vegan dinner. The evening, the food, the location and the company were all divine and it was clear from the start that it would not be the last we'd see of them. So a few days later, we packed baby, dogs (they have 4 thereof), food and all to go climbing together. Baby Jayden was nestled into a hammock by the cliff and you cannot help but admire how uncomplicated some people can be with their babies. Once we left for our short trip to Kruger, Mitchell himself picked us up afterwards from Nelspruit, so we would not have to take the expensive bus. They then took us into their home for our remaining time in Boven, despite the fact that it was already packed with visiting family and friends. This is how we then met Melissa, her son Josh, and her boyfriend Koos. We spend a weekend of wine and fine dining, coupled with the usual climbing madness. It was a very sad moment when we had to say goodbye to all of them, but it just proves once again, climbing is not just about the fun of the activity, but especially about the people you meet on the way.

[jurassicjarrah]

Cape of Good Hope, Sunrise and Sunset, Lighthouse ledge, on Table Mountain jumping for joy and yoga by the sea

[jurassicjarrah]

South Africa part 1

I admit it, the writing-lethargy has befallen us for a little while there, but South Africa just seemed like such a complex place to write about and depict accurately. So I finally gave up and resigned to the fact that whatever I'll end up writing won't give you a clear, unbiased, politically & historically accurate picture of South Africa. So maybe I'll just cut writing about the 'serious side' of South Africa short. There is no doubt that this country is a complicated place with unique problems and although Apartheid might be over the struggle for equality and peaceful living alongside each other - black or white or somewhere in between - definitely is not. The sad thing is that their issues reminded me very much of Australian 'issues' with their Indigenous population, only that Australians seem to have the advantage that Aboriginals are of a more peaceful nature which makes it easy to walk all over them. No, I am not suggesting that disadvantaged Indigenous communities should fight back with weapons, hijackings, and high-end robbery as seems to be the case in South Africa frequently (or so we heard), but what I am suggesting is this naive notion of mine : CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

I realise this introduction is a tad serious and might not fit the 'travel, adventuring, and having fun' tone of this blog. However, I do believe it's important to remember that not everyone is as lucky as we are and that we have to be very grateful for every day that we can live this glorious life style. Not everyone seems to be afforded with this luxury and I am very reluctant to say that it is always their fault, as some might suggest.

So there we were, well I was, at the airport in Munich after a long drive home from Zagreb to embark on our next adventure – South Africa! Of course, it wouldn't be fun without Jarrah giving me a mini-heart attack by not showing up at our meeting point at the airport. After 3 very long hours, filled with anxiety and phone calls anticipating that he had been detained on the other side of  the Schengen border (he only had one day left in the Schengen on his Tourist Visa), we finally found each other and were ready to roll! The 10 hour flight passed in an instant and the airport of Johannesburg pretty much looked like any other airport (at this point we had not yet discovered the very prominently displayed firearms check-in points everywhere!).

Thanks to the beta of our climbing friends, getting to our destination Waterval Boven was very easy, even without any prior planning. A short 4 hours bus ride and we were there. Our drive took us through some very dry and flat looking landscapes with far too many poor settlements on the side of the highway for my taste. Also very interesting were the 'hijacking hotspot' street signs on the way, which I guess mark the least ideal rest spots. Feeling a bit uneasy about being dropped outside of town on the side of the highway after that, we were happy to find that our camp manager was willing and able to pick us up at the bus stop. Upon arrival, he took us in his Ute onto a dirt track outside of Boven, past an illegal dump with various animals and humans that seemed to live there, to our little paradise, the beautiful climbing area and camp ground of Wateval Boven.  

The climbing area is nothing short of divine. So many beautiful vertical and overhanging cliffs as far as the eye can see in the most vibrant red colours. Just looking at it, immediately makes the climber's heart beat faster.  The climbing, naturally, did not disappoint either and so we happily spent many, many days climbing in a manical fashion and with the same fascination. We were pretty much the only people at the camp-ground during the week and I honestly believe we could have lived there for at least a year and not get bored. Our only human companions were a few Koreans and the workers on the farm, of whom we quickly picked a favourite -  a guy named Phillip from Mozambique who fulfilled our every wish without us actually having to ask. Other than that we had some friends on four paws that accompanied us to the cliffs and in some cases to any other place we (I) went (more about that later). Of course, we also encountered a venomous puff adder on our very first day walking to the crag, which made me vow to finally accept that Australia is not the only place where there are deadly snakes kicking about at the crag. The remoteness of the place and the thrills of 'living' there might not be for everyone, but for us the place truly was a wonderland, which coincidentally is the name of one the crags closest to camp.

[jurassicjarrah]

Big cats of Africa.  Lazy Leopard just before stalking an Antelope late in the afternoon, male Lion digesting a full belly of Giraffe, female Lion resting before being scared away by elephants, Cheetah in the early morning about to chase down a Warthog and another Leopard at dawn.

[jurassicjarrah]

Animals of Africa

We went through Kruger National Park in South Africa’s north east for a few days and witnessed some incredible animal interactions. Some happy and exhilarating moments for us and not so happy times for some of the animals. We could definitely have stayed a lot longer in the park. Enjoy the photos...

[jurassicjarrah]

Lappet-faced Vulture (death personified in a bird), Grey Lourie atop an Acacia, Marabou Stork (not the most attractive fella), Ground Hornbill (makes girls jealous with their eyelashes), Female Greater Double-collared Sunbird (the poor females are quite dull), Ostrich near the Cape of Good Hope and a Yellow-billed Hornbill sifting through rhino shit.

[jurassicjarrah]

Tracing family roots and an epic drive home

It took us a long time to conclude our Eastern Europe trip blog entries, but we finally feel the urgency considering we've already been to South Africa, England and back to Germany in the meantime - oops... Time flies when you're having fun!

So there we were, crossing the Danube one last time on our journey this time via the Iron Gate forming the boundary between Romania and Serbia. Back in Serbia we drove along this picturesque river that ran like a golden thread through our entire trip. We had planned to go to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade on the way, but (surprise, surprise) we were late. Oh well, I guess we'll have to play with lightning and thunder another time. So we drove through Belgrade and Novi Sad in a hurry, but nevertheless soaked up some of the historical city flair on the way. I, for my part, have decided to take a closer look at all these beautiful cities once I'm old and hopefully more appreciative of culture and old age. We set up camp for the night next to a bee hive at the edge of a Serbian forest overlooking the hustle and bustle of people working their fields nearby. Luckily, without being caught out and having to relocate as this day definitely marked the sickest day of my trip - food poisoning? heat stoke? who knows...

The next morning we took a very questionable dirt road to a little town called 'Novo Selo'. A bike path no doubt, but why question the GPS and its scenic route wisdom. Novo Selo had been the home town of both my Haintz grandparents, since the 'Donau Schwaben' had been recruited to settle there in the 17th-18th centuries after the area had been largely depopulated as a result of warfare between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. Like many other people of German heritage, my grandmother was abducted from her home close to the end of the 2nd world war and put into a detention camp somewhere in the Ukraine to do mining work (and for the perpetrators to exact vengeance on the German civil population). Since her first husband had fallen in the war and her mother died of old age soon after, her children were left to their own devices and probably starved to death, a fact she never knew for sure for the remainder of her life. Once again, this brilliantly exemplifies how war scars mostly those who didn't want to fight them in the first place. Most likely one of them also, my grandfather, was stationed at Auschwitz at the time and I would have loved to hear his first hand account of events. Back then, most people did not have the luxury to choose to be part of the military and its operations, but simply had to go once selected. Why people today still sign up for this dirty business voluntarily is beyond me... oh that's right, for the money and the personal benefits of course (or so I've heard many times, while doing tax returns for Australian soldiers)... well, good luck to them.

Turning back to a more positive outlook, I can understand why throughout their lives my grandparents always missed their home town. While Novo Selo (Neudorf) and its surroundings might be a nightmare for climbers due its lack of mountains and rock, it would have been a paradise to past generations and their agricultural way of life. The climate is pleasant, the soil is soft and fertile, and there is always plenty of nourishment and water coming from the Danube river. When we pulled up by the beach at 5am we could already see the first fishing boat going out on the water. There was a rickety, old, wooden jetty which we immediately tested for its stability. Given its state, I would not be surprised if this was the same construction that my grandparents had walked on several decades earlier. During our riverside breakfast, I also discovered that today would have marked my grandfathers 107th birthday and I feel honoured that I was able to spend it in his home town. A bit later, we visited the local cemetery to look for the old German graves and to my surprise they hadn't been destroyed. I actually found several Haintz graves and only realised how creepy I must have looked walking through the cemetery taking pictures of tombstones for several hours, a local guy even approached me and asked what the f... I was doing (or so I think, as I'm still not well-versed in Serbian).

We then started our search for the houses of my grandparents or at least the places where they once stood. Unorganised as usual I had failed to gather exact details back home from my parents, so our attempt appeared to be pretty fruitless at first. However, being lucky as always Jarrah drove past a car with a German numberplate from my hometown. We knocked on the door and indeed found a Serbian guy from Steinheim answering the door. As was the common Eastern European custom on our trip so far, he too immediately invited us for drinks and snacks and offered us to stay for the night. He also took it upon him to phone around to find out where my grandparents once lived and actually found it. So thanks to him, I got to see the house of my grandmother and surprise, surprise the family living there now asked us to come in and offer more, you guessed it, food and drinks.

This day almost concluded our trip East, besides another luxurious couchsurfing stay in Ossiek, Croatia and in JT's case 3 more days with another Couchsurfing host (a half-blind German teacher) in Zagreb. I left JT behind to drive the car back to Germany - spending 7 weeks in a tent and car with him was already enough and driving him back home as well..? NAH, I don't think so! :)

So there I was all by myself trying to get out of Zagreb for 2 or 3 hours, before playing a fun game with the GPS called "where do we get her lost next". After cursing the mountains of Slovenia and driving around this tiny country for 4-8 hours, I made it to Austria. There, I was welcomed with heavy rain and dense fog, which was excellent because who doesn't want to drive home in those conditions in the wee hours when they are super tired and hungover from a previous day and night of drinking fun? Oh joy... Luckily, 12-14 hours of driving fun and a short nap next to the Chiemsee got me home safe in the end and to make it all worthwhile I was surprised with a glorious German breakfast the minute I entered my parents house - oh it is good to be "home"!

[jurassicjarrah]

Camping and exploring family roots