Saturday, February 22, 2014

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The fallout from our trip is now becoming apparent. I took somewhere north of 4,000 images which means I now have somewhere north of 2,000 photos to edit. I have managed to piece together my panoramas and pick out the best videos. So I'm here to share.

The videos are mostly from our safari in Kenya, but there are also videos from Changu Island in Tanzania and from Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa. These videos give a little more perspective to how the animals move in nature.

Videos
Lions crossing a lago


Lions eating a dead giraffe they had caught a few days before


Perspective on how many animals are on the plains


How hippos spend most of their days


Close up of an elephant trunk/body


Lions playing in the morning


Elephants eating in a group


Close up of elephants eating


Masai women sing


Tortoise sex (beware! it'll haunt your dreams)


Perspective on the amount of elephants in Addo


Two elephants battling for supremacy




Panoramas
And the panoramas. I had somewhere about 70 panos from the trip but I've worked hard to pick out the best of the crop. Here they are.

Sunset on the Kenyan plains

The Louvre in Paris

The pier to Changu Island in Tanzania
 
Waterfall Trail in Tsitsikamma NP in South Africa

Franschhoek Valley in South Africa
 
View of Cape Town South Africa from Lion's Head

View of Nice, France

Monday, February 17, 2014

Paris, Île-de-France, France

The day we wished would never arrive has unfortunately arrived. We have 0 more sleeps of vacation. That means we need to find our way back to the continent we live and pretend like we are ready to work again.

Our time in Paris has been brief but we did get to accomplish most everything we had hoped. We visited a favorite restaurant, we saw the catacombes, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and put a lock on Pond des Arts.

Sometime later this morning we will trudge over to the train station and catch a ride to Charles de Gaulle for the big flight back.

In the interim, here's a few more photos from Paris.

1. In front of the Eiffel Tower
2. The Eiffel Tower
3. On the Eiffel Tower
4. Bones in the catacombes
5. Watching Olympic men's hockey in the Canadian bar.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Juan-les-Pins, Provence Alps-Côte-d'Azur, France (2)

We've been very busy the last few days visiting the various cities along the coast of the French Riveria. We've been here for three days now and have been touring in three countries (France, Monaco and Italy). We visited the shopping street, water front and old town in Nice. We saw the changing of the guard, the marina and the Grand Casino in Monaco. And we visited a weekly market, new town and the old town on a hill today in Ventimiglia in Italy.

Here's some photos that I got on my phone.

1. Shopping/ pedestrian street in Nice
2. Panoramic view of Nice
3. Panoramic view of the harbor in Monaco
4. Square in Vieux Ville Nice
5. Small street in Ventimiglia

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Juan-les-Pins, Côte d'Azur, France

Here's our last two days:
- fly Cape Town to Jo-burg (1:40)
- wait in Jo-burg (3:00)
- fly Jo-burg to Paris (9:30)
- transit from airport to train station in Paris (0:45)
-wait in Paris (3:00)
- train Paris to Cannes (6:00)
- transit Cannes to Juan-les-Pins (0:15)
- arrive/eat/rest

Started at 12:00 Monday and finished at 17:00 on Tuesday.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa (2)

One of our last items on our to-do list was to hike Lion's Head peak. Today we did it. It was a lot steeper and treacherous than we anticipated but after an hour of hiking and climbing we made it. Photos do better than words at describing the views and severity. Enjoy.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

24 hours.

The first 24 hours we spent in Cape Town was jammed packed with adventures that have caused both of us to reevaluate our favorite cities in the world. The city is a blended mosaic of culture, filled with friendly people and home to some of the most gorgeous landscapes I've ever seen.

We started our time here yesterday by merely driving into the centre to reach our guesthouse. Here that drive includes a view of Table Mountain, Lion's Head, Signal Hill, the harbor, the CBD and the endless beaches along the Atlantic Ocean. We were in awe before we even really started.

From them we set off in the car to see Chapman's Peak Drive. This is a road along the oceanside cliffs. Stunning on its own right, we also made our way through several seaside towns before we even got to it. Each as picturesque as you could imagine.

The purpose for this whole drive was to get to Simonstown. It features a beach covered with giant rounded boulders and native penguins that live in a protected area. We got there right before the eastern side of the Cape went into the dark but with more than enough time to see hundreds of the critters.

We then starting heading back for the guesthouse when we had the idea of driving up Signal Hill to see if we could catch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. Thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad and we made it with enough time to stroll to the city side of the hill before seeing the sun set to the west.

Finally we made it back to our guesthouse thinking we just needed a quick dinner as we had an early morning. We wandered out into the surrounding neighbourhood only to find our first restaurant choice was full. Thankfully we found a very suitable alternative. This place was very unique with years of candle wax built up on each table. After getting some delicious food and drinks a few local artists started performing for the venue. We had to eventually drag ourselves away to go to bed.

The next morning came extremely quick. We were scheduled to be in Kleinbaai at 7am which meant we left the city at 5am. We drove safely to catch our boat and we headed off to see great white sharks. We got all our safety instructions and before we knew it, we were in wetsuits, the cage was in the water and sharks were circling the boat. The speed at which all this happened probably made people a little tentative but it worked out great for us. Christina and I were the first people in the cage and the water (16 degrees on the Indian Ocean). We waited about 15 minutes before we got the hurried directions from the crew. DOWN!!! This meant we needed to drop ourselves underwater as there were sharks immediately in the area of the cage. Down we went and sure enough, 3m long great whites wear swimming around. Just amazing to see. We had a few more run-ins before the next group's turn came. This actually was a bit of a blessing as the visibility under water was pretty short but the view from the top of the boat was outstanding. We waited for a while longer while everyone got a chance to see sharks underwater before we all went on more time. Through all of this I was shooting as many photos as possible. There are some stunners.

Anyways, after all this we returned back to the city and all the stunning views you see along the way. That concluded just our first 24 hours in the city.

Here's a rundown of the photos I've got to share.
1. Panorama of Hout Bay
2. Chapman's Peak Drive
3. Long Beach
4. Simonstown
5. Penguins on Boulders Beach
6. View of Green Point from Signal Hill
7. Sunset with Lion's Head 8. Jackal and Hide club with performers
9. Shark fin
10. Shark teeth

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Franschhoek, Western Cape, South Africa

A little short on time today as we are rushing to do some shopping and last minute things before we head go to Cape Town this afternoon. So instead of a full intricate post, I'm writing a quick photo tour of the wine country we find ourselves in. After 3 weeks I've finally realized that I need to take extra photos on my phone (my blogging device) to share with everyone as I can't access any photos from my camera till we get home. In the interim, here's my best photos from around town.

1. The view from Franschhoek Pass on the way into town.
2. More twisty, fun roads on the way in.
3. While on a wine tour I saw this thing about to crawl into Christina's hair.
4. This is what the Dion Donne Vineyard looked like. And most of all the other vineyards.
5. For half our wine tour we rode this tram out into the countryside.
6. Our last wine stop at Grand Provence. It was nice there.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, South Africa

More adventures today. We went to visit the Cango Caves which are a little ways north of the town we are staying near. The caves themselves were perfectly fine other than they have been stolen and worn down that they are a shell of what they used to be, albeit still impressive.

Afterwards we weren't sure what to do but we saw a poster for a town further north that seemed nice. So we headed off to Prince Albert to find some lunch. As we started heading north the road approached a large mountain pass. And shortly thereafter the road switched from tar to untarred (never a good sign). We decided to go forward and the road kept getting windier, narrower and steeper. We kept climbing and climbing and eventually hit the top of the pass hoping for an easier descent only to find 4 consecutive switch-backs on the way down. The road also became extra bumpy and we descended into a canyon on the side of a cliff. All on a single lane (with two way traffic) with occasional barricades to keep you from falling off the cliffs. After about an hour to cover 25km we made it safely through to Prince Albert for lunch. We discussed at lunch that this was the most treacherous mountain pass either of us had been on.

On the way home, we took the long way around and it was also an interesting road through a canyon (and thankfully tarred).

There are three photos to share.
1. Cango Caves
2. Road on the way up
3. Road on the way down

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa

One of the challenges when traveling for more than a few weeks is that you need to find ways to wash your clothes. In our case, we have backpacks and are carrying a little over a weeks worth of clothes for a 37 day trip. So far we've been hand washing shirts and underwear and hoping no one notices the odour in the rest of our clothing.

Well, finally we were both reaching the end of our tolerance and after our long sweaty hike in the park we needed to freshen up. Thankfully, after much searching, we located a laundromat yesterday. Dropped off our clothes and heads out for the day. Picked them up later for $7.50 ad have gone about our non-smelly lives. It's been great.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Tsitsikamma National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa

A short post this time, but with a few amazing photos. We are staying in a town called Knysna but we went for a drive out to a park to see Stormsriver Mouth. Before we got there we did a vigorous hike to a waterfall were I had a swim. We then made the hike back, had lunch then checked out the suspension bridge.

The photos are of:
1. The trailhead
2. Swimming spot
3. Christina on the bridge