After Pieter completed the grueling 8-day Cape Epic Mountain Bike race successfully with his stellar Czech partner Milan (the team landed on the podium 3 times), it was time to get serious about organizing our trip to Malawi.

We had gotten our car, a Defender, and spontaneously named it “Tin-Tin” (see pics to see why). Build for the yuppies of Cape Town, it still needed seriously pimping for our expedition. 

We added a roof rack with a top tent, a water tank, a heavy-duty shovel, gas bottle, jerry cans, a retractable awning, and an extra fuel tank as well as a fridge and an onboard power transformer with multiple plugs to charge our computers, camera batteries, GPS and phones. Apart from that, with the car came a ton of paperwork including the necessity for a South African driver’s license, international insurance, police clearance, and a subscription to a satellite tracking system. Because we are not residents of South Africa previous B&B landlords kindly let us use their address. This is Africa… so no problem there. We also got several copies of our paperwork for the likely cases of roadblocks and harassment during boarder-crossings and had them certified by the Stellenbosch police. This was a particularly interesting task since the police officer decorated all papers with two stamps each as well as his signature but never bothered to see any of the originals. We were good to go and rushed almost straight from the podium celebration of the Cape Epic to the N1, the long road north from Cape Town to Johannesburg in order to pick-up our film equipment that was safely stored with our dear friends Colleen and Hans-Peter.
 
By the 5th of April we had made it to the boarder of Zimbabwe, though before crossing our awning needed fixing, which had broken completely in the heavy rains of the night. We had seen a lot of intense downpour by now and started to wonder if our wet sleeping bags and clothing would ever dry again. We crossed the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe and headed straight to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins that embody Africa’s contribution to civilization. The remains of the old sophisticated structure are well guarded by the Zimbabwean army and also gave the country its name.  Zimbabweans are very friendly, quite educated people, and the roads and towns are surprisingly clean. Despite all warnings in the media that fuel is scarce we got at first attempt diesel in Harare, and we were amazed by how business flourishes again in Western franchise shops, albeit everything being very expensive. The economy is now entirely based on the US Dollar and we even got change of a rare 2$ note when paying for one of the many well-maintained toll roads. After the last hard two years with over 1,000% inflation people have become plausibly very opportunistic and after we had crawled up the steep ladder into our rooftop tent at night people immediately came out of the woods to use the coals of our fire to cook their own supper.
 
Flies, dirt, beggars, grumpy civil servants, and their demands for bribes marked the boarder crossing to Mozambique. The back and forth between different tents and makeshift shacks that houses the uniformed masters of “stamp crack-down” is not only confusing because different locals offer their expertise in navigating this bureaucratic jungle for a small fee, but its also extremely time consuming. After filling out endless forms, each carbon copy requires its own stamp before all forms are passed from one officer to another for further inspection. Then comes the ultimate question that opens the gate: “what do you have for me?” We found out that anything goes from a tin of beans to a can of beer or even a few hard-boiled eggs which were the bribes of the travelers before us and which were devoured before us by the officials who occupied the road tax payment tent. Mozambique’s countryside is without a doubt very beautiful but poverty is omnipresent in all corners of its rural areas. A seemingly rather unproductive population re-sells fuel in small amounts on the side of the road, and lottery tickets speared on branches of Mopane trees advertise a chance for a better life.  By now we are also used to the routine of camping, the dish washing in a little bucket and the cooking on a single gas flame. Setting up and breaking down the camp has become easier and faster but we are now also looking forward to staying put for a little while.
 
Upon entering Malawi the skies were blue and the people became friendlier with each kilometer that we ventured deeper into the country. It took us 3 days to get to the lake because we enjoyed photographing lots of wild life on the way, including elephant, wildebeest, impala, kudu, warthog, and different types of monkey. We didn’t sot any hippos but their snorting sound was heard throughout the night. Now that we are in Chembe we want to focus on filming. The village on the south-shore of the lake has grown a lot since we have last been here and we are pleased about the fact that we can hike to one of the lodges to connect to the internet. It feels incredibly good to be back here and the bright blue-tailed geckos are still as fantastic as the lake itself. ……..

We are way behind in keeping you posted but please stay tuned for updates when internet becomes once more available. Greetings to all! Rita & Pieter

One of the activities I like to do is paragliding.  I started paragliding in 2004 at Torrey Pines Glider Port (TPGP).  The flying at TPGP is slope soaring since there is a prevailing west wind coming in from the ocean.  When the conditions are right it is a wonderful place to fly and it is a particularly good spot to learn paragliding.  When the conditions are not right (cross wind or high wind gusts) flying is best left alone – I have witnessed some pretty bad accidents under these conditions at TPGP.  I have flown a number of other places in the world such as South Africa, Mexico, Germany, France, Austria and Salt Lake City, Utah as well.  The best flying that I have done is in the Alps – easy access to the mountain via cable cars and the scenery is spectacular. 

Flying in the mountains is more challenging than flying at TPGP due to thermals, tubulance and unpredictable weather conditions.  In 2005 I attend an SIV course at Lake Isabella, CA (SIV – French for “Simulation d’Incident en Vol”) to improve my wing control and to have a controlled environment to experience wing collapses etc.  In essence, to make you use to what you might encounter when flying in turbulence.  It normally takes place over a lake where you get towed in the air by a boat, do some crazy “maneuvers” such as asymmetric tucks, full frontal tucks, B line stalls, spirals, full stalls, spins, wing overs etc.  and then, hopefully land again safely on the shore.  The idea of doing it over a lake is that, in case something happens and you cannot get out of a spin or something, you can throw your reserve parachute and land in the water, which is soft compared to landing on uneven ground or rocks.  We were promised that the probability of this happening is remote and that we should follow the instructors’ instructions (relayed via a two way radio to you while flying) to the letter.  In our group there was a very avid videographer and he filmed our maneuvers.  In the video below are some of my maneuvers that he captured.  In particular, I was in for a lot more than I bargained for – at take off, a twig got caught in my lines and while I was doing an asymmetric tuck, the one side of my wing got stuck and I went into an uncontrollable spin.  I was pretty freaked out and had to throw my reserve parachute.  I was pretty rattled and certainly will never forget the experience!  I guess to a certain extent it was a good experience since I now have the knowledge to through my parachute if needed when I am flying in the mountains.  Nevertheless, certainly one of those life moments not to be forgotten – and I have it all on film!

Preceeding the Crocodile Trophy, Pieter and I had three weeks leading up to the race during which we drove almost 3,000km from Brisbane to Cairns, sidestepping frequently from Bruce Highway in order to cycle in National Parks and to visit beautiful coastal towns and islands.

It was a fantastic tour exploring the highlights of Queensland, which included scuba diving and snorkeling on the outer Great Barrier Reef from a platoon located 100km offshore from Airlie Beach and the Whitsun Islands, and a microlight flight over the rainforests of the wet tropics. From the air we spotted schools of sting-rays, huge water turtles, and Pieter even got to see sharks. We also visited Frasier Island; the largest sand island in the world and cycled though National Parks like Girringum were the nightlife was particularly exotic (snakes, kangaroo, wallaby, poisonous frogs, spiders, etc.). On our bikes, Magpie birds regularly attacked us from behind until locals told us about their territorial behavior during breeding season, and the simple defense solution of cable ties sticking out from the helmet. I have video that proof the vicious attacks!

Active as we were, we stilled our immense appetite by savoring through pastie shops, restaurants and the tiny kitchen of our camper. Our favorite discovery was exotic fruits from the friendly farm stalls along the road. Custard apple and sapote, aka the chocolate fruit (no kidding), turned even Pieter into a fruit lover.

We gathered with the other Crocodile Trophy riders and supporters on October 19th in Cairns to begin what would be a true adventure throughout Queensland. The riders were greeted by pouring rain, which came after a long spell of drought in this region of Australia. The actual race start at the esplanade in downtown Cairns was low-key with a strangely quiet atmosphere. The odd silence at the start made me think that the 80 riders must feel worried about what they had signed up for: facing stiff competition, changing weather and a very long way ahead. Then I realized that the organization had simply forgotten to arrange for any accommodating, heart pumping music such as “Highway to Hell”.  Meeting superstar Milan and other competitors in the Master class, Pieter invariably knew that he was in for 10 hard days.

Each day started at 5 am with a vociferous and bizarre wake-up call of exotic birds including parrots, brush turkeys and all sorts of kookaburra. Never to be seen on this trip, however, was the elusive cassowary that worried us all after many cautionary tails. As Pieter’s personal supporter I drove our bush-camper over rugged terrain, through sandy creeks of the outback, and rivers of the rainforest and certainly brushed up on my 4×4 skills! It is impossible to imagine how difficult and hard it must have been to ride the race distance of 1,250 kilometers on a mountain bike in temperatures over 40° Celsius. Since I simply don’t have the means to describe Pieter’s exerting yet rewarding experience of coming in 5th in the Masters, and cannot tell the experience of any of his competitors, I hope they will post here as well and share some of their thoughts.  From my perspective, it was a fantastic experience and I will never forget the amazing wilderness of the outback including an up-close and personal meeting with wallabies and their pouched babies in Granite Gorge. Most fondly I remember, however, having met some really great people from all over the globe, like Milan, Chris, Sam, Terry, Anne, Mo, Brigitte, Alison, Abby, Scott, Eugen, Duri, and many others. My fondness of the continent down under has grown even further and I tip my hat to all Aussies who let us enjoy their exceptional comradeship and warm hospitality.