In Conclusion

As you may have noticed over the past two blog postings, I am writing these blogs in late September, and we have been home since March 23rd. I can't explain why it took me so long to finish this blog. It might have been the shock of being home and getting back into daily routinue; it might have been that the extent of the trip was not that profound to me at the time, and I thought the blog would be much easier to finish. After being home for six months and getting past another summer business rush, "The Hundred Day War", I now have had the time to reflect on this adventure and really realize its' enormity. It is easy to say that you are going to go around the world; it actually was not that hard to go around the world; it has been much more difficult to put into perspective what we did and how fortunate we were to have had the chance to do such a unique thing.

I have reread the blog; I have read Sally's dairy; I have looked at all of our pictures, and I am shocked by how much we packed into four months. We literally never stopped moving, and it is maybe for that reason that when I got home, I just stopped with the trip immediately and never finished my thoughts. I have recounted to several people that being able to immediately step back into our previous lives made the trip seem more like a dream than a part of our lives. Most of the stories I have heard about around the world trips usually involved people quitting their jobs, selling their homes and a lot of their belongings; only to have to rebuild their lives upon return. We literally awoke the next morning and had our old lives back. That in and upon itself has been very special.

I am a numbers freak and loved keeping track of all the stats. So for anyone who loves numbers, here they are:

Days on the Road - 121
Distance traveled - Approxiamtely 40,000 miles
Planes taken - 18 (including one helicopter)
Boats taken - 5
Rent a Cars - 7 (including one Campervan)
Different Countries visited - 15
Different Languages - 13
Different Currencies - 8
Bodies of water crossed or on- 13
Cities visited - 55

Even though we visited a new city every 2.2 days, every one has distinctive memories and that makes for a very full memory bank. Even the little things that we do here everyday and don't think too much about are very much etched into my brain from this trip.

A lot of people have asked me what I learned by doing this trip, and it is hard to recount everything, but here are a few.

It is great to travel with my family. The U.S. has the worst airlines. Playboy Bunnies only get better with age. Mat did a great job driving a $200,000 Bentley. The Fijian people have an incredible memory with names. They can forget to go to work, but they won't forget your name. I want to go back to New Zealand and spend at least two months there. There is something for everyone in New Zealand, and it is as stunning as the pictures you see. Australians don't party like they used to. Spending New Year's Eve in Sydney Harbor can't be beat. Snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef was not as good as Fiji. South Africa was our favorite for many reasons, except for the sharks. Interacting with the Jackass Penguins of Boulder's Beach was my favorite experience with animals on the entire trip and maybe of all time. Nelson Mandela is the most inspiring man. There is no reason to go to Jeffrey's Bay except to surf. I will never go caving again with a group of Spanish schoolgirls. Safaris are not like I remembered from watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Giza is the dirtiest place on earth, and they don't care. I will never eat pigeon again. The Bedouin people have a very unique life. The Amalfi Coast is a romantic's dream. Man has built some incredible monuments in the name of God. Venice is now just for tourists, everyone else has moved out. Germans are nice, they just sound mean. Dachau is a haunting reminder of the atrocities of war. Traveling by train is the best. The Thursday overnight train to the French Riveria sucks. Barcelona is a great city with a beautiful waterfront. I love Paris, and Charlie looks good as a Frenchman. I could live off of Guiness Beer. Don't waste your time getting traveler's checks or carrying lots of cash. There are ATMs in every corner of the world, and they give you the best rates. The U.S. lags behind the world in cell phone service and mobile internet service. Anything can be found with Google and Google Earth. Even though we get the impression in the U.S. that the rest of the world hates us, they actually like us and follow our news as much as their own. If you want to see your children grow up in front of your eyes; take them on a trip to somewhere new. I am ready to travel again...

Now for the sappy part.

It is easy to tell people how beautiful different parts of the world are, how nice other people are, what fun things we did, but I now realize that these are just byproducts of the real meaning of this trip, which is - Family. For 121 days we were together as a family, completely engaged 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Don't get me wrong; we did get on each other's nerves, we did fight, .... but we did it as a family. We relied on each other, we supported each other, and it was us as a family that made this trip possible. We will probably never spend this much intense time together again, but it has created a foundation that will support us for years to come and will hopefully give Mat and Charlie a base from which they can build their own families.

For four months everyday was a completely brand new day; new sights, new sounds, new people. Now we see the same things and the same people everyday, and it is easy to forget how special these days are as well. There is an old saying "Don't forget to stop and smell the roses" and I like to think " Don't forget about enjoying today, while dreaming about tomorrow".

Thank you to everybody that followed this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading it, as much as I have enjoyed writing it and geeting your feedback. I want to thank Sally, Mat, and Charlie for believing in me and trusting me to make it fun, while keeping them safe. I especially want to thank my Mother and Father for giving me the curiosity to want to look over the horizon and the courage to go there.

Pura Vida!

The Luck of the Irish

After nearly four months on the road, we arrived in our final country - Ireland on March 19, 2010. This had been one of Charlie's country picks, and we had five full days of driving the southern half of the country from Shannon to Dublin. Our first night was spent in Limerick with a steady rain. We have been extremely fortunate with our weather over the last fourteen countries, and I was wandering if our luck had run out. The next morning came with picture perfect blue skies and nice temperatures. We drove up to the Cliffs of Moher and were able to beat all the tour buses. See " Where in the World are the Reeve boys". The views were incredible and driving through the Irish counrtyside was very enjoyable. Ireland reminded us a lot of New Zealand, both in its beauty and the niceness of its people. Our second night was spent in Cork, which has a small but vibrant downtown with lots of shops and music everywhere.

Our next day was spent going to the most tourist destination this country has - The Blarney Castle. The castle is famous for its Blarney Stone, which upon kissing it bequeaths the Gift of Eloquence on the person. We all took our turn hanging upside down and backwards, fifty feet in the air while the attendant holds us while we kiss this certain stone in the castle wall. I can't say that I feel more eloquent after kissing it, but both of the boys have definitely gotten more "mouthy". Why did I come here again???? Even though this is considered a "tourist trap" by many, we all enjoyed walking around the castle and its grounds imagining how life was hundreds of years ago for these people. Our next stop would be our last on this incredible jouney - Dublin.

Arriving in Dublin felt like a lot of the other towns, but once you are walking around the heart of its downtown, it seperates itself from all others. There is something about Dublin that makes it just a little better than most cities. I don't know if it is the history, the ever present music, the friendly people, or the several hundred pubs!! We were only here for two days but it quickly became one of our favorite cities. My favorite time was spent taking a three hour tour of the Guiness factory at St. James Gate. This is the original storehouse for the brewery and was the tallest building in Europe when it was built. They have just completed a multi million dollar renovation by installing the museum inside of the storehouse and in the shape of a five story pint glass. The tour ends in a roof top circular bar that has 360 views of Dublin and represents the foam on top of a perfectly poured pint. Along the way, you learn the rich history of this company and the incredible philanthopy that the founder, Arthur Guiness bestowed upon his employees. Not only was he a kind man, but also a shrewd businessman. After creating the brewery in 1759, he convinced his landlord to lease him the 4 acre property for 45 pounds/year. In 1759, this most have been a huge amount, but his lease is good for 9,000 years!!! Talk about believing in your Product. I learned a lot including how to pour a perfect pint of Guiness in their "training bar". I would have taken school a lot more serious if I could have drunken my homework. Thank God for Guiness.

Our days and nights were mainly spent roaming the downtown area and exploring the shops, restaurants and pubs, many of which date back over a hundred years. My favorite was The Temple Bar which started in 1840.

Tuesday, March 23rd arrived, and we could not believe it. We were going home. As we boarded the plane for New York, we were all excited to be returning to the States and getting back to our house, our dogs, and our family and friends. We missed our home life and felt like we have done enough traveling for awhile.

There had been many times on this trip where I felt angel eyes upon me, and as we stepped out of the plane in Norfolk, I silently thanked them for keeping us all safe and healthy on this incredible adventure.

Next and final blog - In Conclusion.

Hail to the Queen

Going from Paris to London was a trip in itself. We booked the high speed Chunnel train and was impressed with its high end accomondations, and its extreme speed. The only downside was the ordeal in checking in. All throughout Europe, getting on and off trains couldn't have been easier. Checking in for the Chunnel train was more like flying in the U.S. - long lines, serious security, and required a two hour prearrival. Once on the train we settled in and enjoyed the French countryside blowing by at over 150 mph. I had wandered what the entrance of the Chunnel would look like, would it be an impressive entrance or just a typical concrete hole? Somehow I was watching at the right time and caught a glimpse of the entrance - a concrete hole with a basic sign.

Going under the English Channel only took about fifteen minutes and then suddenly there were English words again. It had been almost five weeks since we have seen English, and it was nice to feel like we were getting closer to home. Arriving in London, we jumped over to their Underground system and made our way to our hotel. I almost forgot to mention that today is St. Patrick's Day. I know that the best place to be is Ireland, but second best has to be London. We were immediately handed "free" Guinness draft flyers, good at any Pub, which are everywhere. After checking in, we headed for a classic Pub lunch - meat, potatoes, and a pint of Guinness.

Later that day, we headed to the Tower of London for their twilight tour featuring all the history of executions and murders commited over the centuries in this historic building. The tour was led by one of their guards - the Beefeaters and was very amusing to the boys. Sally wasn't so enthusiatic about the multiple beheadings, but enjoyed the unique history of this place. After the tour, we headed to Piccadilly Square to get the full effect of the St. Patrick festivities and find dinner. The streets were full of revelers and all the typical restaurants were packed. After five attempts to get in a restaurant, we became somewhat frustrated, but luck was on our side when we spotted a Thai restaurant - not the place you normally go on St. Patatrick's Day. The place was empty and the food was great. We ended the night with more street watching and then headed home. I finished the night with two more free pints of Guinness at the corner pub, bringing my daily intake to about 9 pints...can you say bloated.

Since London has so much to see, the next day we decided to do a classic double decker bus tour throughout the City. The weather was clear and cool and everyone enjoyed seeing the sights. We jumped off to have lunch at the original Hard Rock cafe and ended up staying over two hours. The day ended by heading to Oxford Circus to check out the shopping district. The boys' highlight was playing in Hamley's Toy Store. At 250 years old it is the oldest toy store in the world. I would have thought that after seeing the sights of the world, a toy store would be a little boring, but kids are kids and who doesn't like toys. The next day we are off to our last stop of this incredible journey, Ireland. Can our good luck hold out?

The City of Lights

There are a lot of adjectives you can use to describe Paris. The “City of Lights” is probably the most fitting to set it apart from all the other great cities of the world. Yes, there are other cities that are historical, beautiful, romantic, vibrant, and even confusing, and cold. But it is how Paris transforms itself at night that truly makes this a magical City. No where else have I ever seen people converge on any given night just to see a large metal structure be illuminated. I am speaking, of course, about the Eiffel Tower and the nightly ritual that attracts visitors and locals alike to welcome in each evening. There are couples sharing a bottle of wine, families walking around the plaza and gardens, hordes of tourists taking pictures from every angle, and regular Parisians that go just a bit out of their way on the commute home from work to catch a glimpse of this most iconic structure as it transforms from a dull rust color to a glowing golden beacon for this City. I wasn’t working here, so I only fit into the first three categories.

Arriving in Paris was just like the several other large Cities we had been previously visited. A large rail station packed with people from every walk of life and demographic background; there for any countless number of reasons; usually trying to get past you to go somewhere else. Paris begins to set itself apart as you exit the Metro and gaze over the Seine River with Notre Dame to your right and the Louvre Museum to your left. By waiting to book our accommodations, we had once again lucked out and were able to find a hotel right on the Seine in between these two and at greatly reduced prices. The first day was going to be the walking tour, and we definitely made the rounds. We went to Notre Dame and toured both the inside of the Cathedral and around the perimeter of this magnificent building. The power of the Church and Man’s dedication to his religion never ceases to impress me. We then headed down the river and towards the Louvre. After a lot of discussion, we had decided not to go in because the place can be so overwhelming, and it deserves to be appreciated at a slower pace. We instead walked through the main courtyard, past I.M. Pei’s glass entry pyramids, and out onto the formal gardens that stretch down the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triumph. After a well- deserved break for lunch, we walked across the river and directly under the Eiffel Tower. We had hoped to go to the top, but about two thousand other people had the same idea, and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to stand in such a long line. Instead we just meandered underneath it, and then walked down the formal gardens that stretch out towards the south that provide some of the best views.

That night we went to the Latin Quarter in search of a classic fondue dinner. The Latin Quarter is packed with tourist shops, bars, and restaurant offering every kind of cuisine. We found a nice little place on the main walk and feasted on both beef and cheese fondue. The boys had first hoped for fondue dessert but as we were looking for restaurants, we came across a vendor who was making fresh crepes filled with a variety of treats, and they quickly changed their minds. If you look on “Where are the Reeve boys”, you can see them in Crepe Heaven completely enjoying their Nutella and banana treats. They quickly slipped into a food coma and so we dropped them off back at the hotel while Sally and I went out for a nightcap. Strolling hand in hand through the quaint neighborhoods filled with countless cafes will make anyone a romantic and having time to just talk between ourselves is always a treat.

The next day was going to be a bit more of culture but on more of a grand scale. We took the train system out to Versailles to tour the grand palace and massive grounds of King Louis XIV. Even though we got here within an hour of it opening, the place was already packed, and we found ourselves wanting to quickly move through the palace and get out to the grounds for some breathing room. We enjoyed the Palace and its dozens of ornately decorated rooms, but after awhile it all starts to looks the same. Heading out to the grounds, we came across a new offering – Golf Cart Rentals. Check out the pic on “Planes, Trains,…” Yes, you now can rent golf carts and roam around the grounds of Versailles. It comes complete with audio guide and classical music, which turned up all the way up completely embarrassed Mat.

“Dad, everybody is looking at us..”, he said with all the anguish a fifteen year old can express.

I replied in my most regal voice, “Yes son, those are the little people, and we shouldn’t acknowledge them or they begin to feel bad that they have to actually walk around the grounds...”

It was actually very fun, and I did my best not to bring attention to us. Yeah, fat chance.. I found a vendor who sold wine by the bottle, and we were off for an hour of classical history class like I have never had before. I managed to get the golf cart back on time and without damage, and we all enjoyed seeing a lot more of this palatial estate then we would have ever seen just walking. That evening we ventured back down to the Eiffel Tower to watch the sunset and the nightly illumination of this icon. Check out pic on “Sunset of the Day. Mat and Charlie opted out of a formal dinner so we fetched them their new favorite – chicken gyros and let them enjoy a meal in the hotel. Sally and I slipped out to the neighborhood and found a quiet little place to enjoy our last meal in this wonderful city. Paris still has a bit of a “snobby” perception, but the times Sally and I have been here, we have thoroughly enjoyed the City and everyone we have met. The next day we were off early to catch the high speed train through the Chunnel and into London. Looking forward to being in English speaking countries again. Hail to the Queen!

There is Nothing Like Family

To get to Barcelona would require twenty-six hours of travel and seven different trains, but it was so worth it. I booked an overnight train from Switzerland to Barcelona, but had to settle for a single four person cabin instead of 2 - two person cabins. Luckily, we had experienced tight family spaces before in the “Jerky Cabin” mobile home in New Zealand, but it didn’t compare to the “Cabon de Jercquie” we had to endure through France. As you can see in the pictures, it was extremely tight, but we made the best of it and managed to laugh a lot about this “less than stellar” accommodation. Sally kept telling the boys “It’s only one night in the entire trip.” We arrived in Barcelona the next morning and were met by David who took us back to his neighborhood where we would be staying. Blanca had given us a rental agency that manages apartments in their area, and we were able to book a nice apartment in the high rise across the street from theirs. When we went to check, they realized David and Blanca lived here and offered to upgrade us to an apartment in the building directly next to them, and it was the Penthouse!! I’m not just talking top floor of a sixteen story high rise. But the Penthouse unit which was two floors, 4 bedrooms and three baths.. It had sweeping views of the entire city of Barcelona and a two story glass façade over looking the Mediterranean. Hey Now!! Sally and I could only laugh as we walked through this gorgeous unit and realized the day before we had spent over twenty four hours in a space smaller then one of the bathrooms of this puppy. After unpacking and running around the place for awhile, we headed over to the Vedura’s for a family dinner.

This would be only the third time we have had the chance to spend time with family in the four months away and it meant a lot. Being on the road so long and in some many different places/countries makes you really appreciate a having a strong family. We haven’t seen David and his family for a few years, so all of the boys have changed a lot since the last meeting. Even though they really don’t remember each other, the boys took to each other immediately, and it was fun to watch them play and just be kids. Our boys have certainly had fun over the last four months, but it has been so busy with so many new places that they haven’t really had a chance to just play. Needless to say, they all got extremely wound up and played themselves to sleep.

The next day we spent exploring the old town of Barcelona and having a traditional Spanish family lunch with lasts for about two hours. It is one of those meals that you plan for and not eat too much for breakfast, so you make the most of the afternoon feast. David reserved us a table at a well known restaurant near the waterfront and helped us through the menu. The specialty of the house was a Paella or rice dish that is cooked in the ink of squid and mixed with other seafood. The rice is black and very salty but the dish is delicious. After lunch we strolled the streets, checking out the unique shops, local sights, and mandatory Gelato stops. Our plan was to go out for an adult dinner and let Mat oversee the “Rat Pack”, but just relaxing in their home with tapas, and reliving past family reunions was all we needed for a memorable night. The kids passed out together and we didn’t leave until after 2:00 AM. The next day Charlie went to a school function for Matei at a local farm, and Mat, Sally, and I just walked along the nice waterfront and had a leisurely lunch. We got back together with everyone that afternoon and then left for another overnight train to Paris. One more “Cabon de Jercquie” to endure before we reach the City of Lights.

We would really like to thank David, Blanca, David, and Matei for being such great hosts and sharing such a wonderful family time with us. We really enjoyed our time with you in Barcelona and hope to see you this summer in Va. Beach for the next Weatherford family reunion.

Garmisch - Winter Wonderland

Even though our trip has been billed as the “Endless Summer Adventure”, I couldn’t help but want to get on the snow while in Germany. The boys have never had the chance to snowboard, and it would be a shame to be here and not give it a go. Arriving in Innsbruck, Austria started our mountain time off right. As soon as we got off the train, it started snowing. The hotel was supposedly only 400 yards from the station, so I decided we could walk instead of getting a cab. Well, the four hundred yards turned into a half mile, and my travel companions were not really happy with my decision. None of us were happy about the walk, but we all were elated over the snow, of which we were totally covered by the time we reached the hotel. After checking in and warming up, we redressed for the weather and headed out to see old Innsbruck. Innsbruck is the ideal version of a “Bavarian” town and you feel like you are in an old movie walking by all the shops with their wooden toys and Leaderhausen. Since our destination was Garmisch, Germany, we only stayed one night but enjoyed our time here.

We caught the 9:30 AM train to Garmisch, and the trip over the mountain pass/border was incredible. The upper mountains had gotten about 1 ½ feet of snow, and it looked like the perfect “Winter Wonderland” complete with alpine chalets and stunning mountain peaks. The sun was shining when we pulled into Garmisch, but it was only about 15 degrees. This time, I didn’t even think of mentioning walking to the hotel; I just hailed the first cab I saw. I try not to make the same mistake twice!!! We had gotten here so early that our apartment wasn’t ready yet, so we decided to head out and see if we could line up some snowboard gear and lessons. We were stoked to find out that we had free bus passes while staying here and thought that getting to the mountain would be simple as “apple strudel”. Have I mentioned that I don’t speak/understand German?? After ten years in Costa Rica, I can usually figure out what I want to say and what someone’s reply is. I can also fake Italian and French pretty good, but no so much with German. The words don’t look at all familiar and when they talk, I couldn’t tell you if they’re welcoming me to their country or telling me to get off the grass. Needless to say I didn’t fully understand what the receptionist what telling me about which bus to take, but we ended up taking ALL the buses because they kept going everywhere except where we needed to go. We actually crisscrossed town twice trying to find the right area to go to, only to find out that it was right in front of the hotel and within walking distance. Oh well, at least I can say that we saw ALL of Garmisch. By this time, the boys and Sally were starting to question my “Tour Guru” status, but I told them not to fear; we would find what we needed and be on the snow TODAY. They put their fears to rest and agreed on one more try. I finally hit paydirt, but it cost me.

We finally found the right spot and walked in, ready to go. We had not packed sufficient winter gear, so we had to buy such basics as long underwear and gloves, but I was hoping we could rent snowboard clothes, as well as, snowboards, boots, and helmets. The clerks must have seen me coming, because as I was frantically looking for the right size, a lovely old lady came up and asked if she could help. Next thing I know (and $600 later), we were strolling out of the shop on our way to a private snowboard lesson, looking “sweet” in our new gear and BMW snowboards. I couldn’t help but think of Jim Carrey and the scene from “Dumb and Dumber” when they pile out of their new car in Aspen with all the best ski clothes on. “Aspen… where the women flock like the salmon to Capestrano!!” We have watched that movie so much on this trip, that not a day goes by that one of us doesn’t recite a line from it. Anyhoo, back to the story.

The snowboard instructor was a nice young German guy who spoke English and was very good with the boys. They had never tried this before, but picked it up really fast due to their time surfing and skateboarding. I hadn’t snowboarded in about fifteen years, when I almost destroyed my ankle in Utah and was not sure if I still had it in me. Luckily, it’s just like riding a bike, and we were all enjoying ourselves by the end of the day. Sally had opted out of trying to learn to snowboard on “Such Short Notice” and graciously offered to head back to the hotel and check us in and unpack everyone. We stayed on the mountain until it closed and then enjoyed a true ‘apres ski’ with hot chocolate and German drafts at the base station bar. We snowboarded the next two days and really had fun. Snowboarding is one of those sports that once you get the basics, you quickly get to a point where you enjoy yourself. Not to say that we didn’t have our falls. After two days, we were all pretty sore but very happy. At night, we would walk around the Town Square, window shop, and try out the local cuisine.

Our next stop would be Munich, Germany for a day and then on to Barcelona, Spain where we planned to visit Sally’s cousins for a few days. To get there would require twenty six hours on seven different trains!!

Our time in Munich was way to short but we tried to see a few different things. Our first day I decided to make our way out to the Dachau Concentration Camp and give the boys a real world history lesson. I had first seen this memorial/museum twenty years ago, and it still haunts me. Dachau was not the worst concentration camp, by far, but it still was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. We were able to see the twenty minute movie they have on the history of the camp, and it is a very harsh image of the cruelty of man, yet the humanity and hope that persevered during such horrendous times. After about an hour of touring the grounds and seeing the exhibits, we were all very moved and depressed. A parent never wants to depress their children, but life and the history of mankind has not always been pretty, and we should be open and honest about it so that we never diminish the value of humanity.

To shake off our blues, we headed to the center of Munich and in search of the funnest spot in town – The Hofbrauhaus. Beer may have been around before the Germans, but they perfected it. In fact, it was in this area that the first purity laws were written to establish the proper protocol for the brewing of beer. The Hofbrauhaus was one of the first licensed breweries, and it dates back to 1489. Not a bad run for a beer joint. It is pretty touristy but who doesn’t love a good Ompah band and a plate full of sausages!! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and went to bed fat, dumb, and happy. We left early the next morning for Barcelona in a severe snow storm. Even though it was going to be a long day of trains, it’s great to not have to worry about driving or traffic conditions. We were all very excited about getting to Barcelona and seeing Sally’s cousin David Verdura, Blanca, his wife, and two sons, David and Matei.

The Old Country

We began our tour of Europe with a few days in Athens, Greece. It wasn’t the best time of year to explore the islands, so we decided to stay right in the heart of old Athens (Plaka) within walking distance of the major sites. We really enjoyed exploring the Acropolis and its newly opened museum, as well as, Zeus’ temple, Adrian’s Arch, and the fun shopping/restaurant district in Plaka. We also met up with my good friend Tommy Mathas’ cousin (Dimitri) one night for drinks. It was great talking with someone new and getting the world perspective from someone living and working in Europe. We are not alone in the financial crisis, and Amercia may be better off then a lot of the European countries from what I hear and see on the news over here.

We then fly to a place that is near and dear to my heart, Naples, Italy and the Amalfi Coast. I was lucky enough to have a chance to live and work here twenty years ago, and I was really eager to show Sally and the boys how fun and crazy Italy can be. We rented a car in Naples and drove the fifty miles down to the Amalfi Coast and then took the slow but amazing drive down the coastline to the historic town of Amalfi. It is so incredible that a road could be built into the mountainside like it is, as well as, all the houses that are literally clinging to the side of cliffs. And then there is the food. Southern Italy is known worldwide for incredible food. The pizza was invented here and the best cheese in the world comes from Naples. It is called Mozzarella de Buffala. It is mozzarella cheese made from the milk of the water buffalo. Now I know that doesn’t sound too appetizing when you look at a water buffalo, but they make some sweet cheese. Mix it with some fresh Roma tomatoes, procuitto ham, basil, some Italian bread, and a little olive oil and you can’t go wrong. Needless to say that I ate my fair share of the cuisine and drank a bit more than my share of the cheapest red wine I could find. People love to order expensive wine thinking its better, but the best red wine I have ever had has never been over ten dollars a bottle.
We spent two nights on the Amalfi, just wandering around and enjoying a culture that dates back to the first millennium. On the way back to Naples we stopped by Pompeii and explored the incredible ruins that have been uncovered and restored. The boys were really impressed with the archaeology and the story about Mt. Vesuvius erupting in 79 AD and totally entombing an entire town; people literally frozen in place by the volcanic ash and gases that rained down on them. We had hoped to climb Mt. Vesuvius but the weather was too cloudy for any good views, and we were eager to get to Rome so we went back to Naples and started our Eurail portion of our journey.

Americans are so car focused that we never installed a rail system similar to Europe’s, and we are really missing out on a great way to travel. When I was working in Italy in 1989, I finished my time with a month long Eurail Pass and fell in love with train travel. It was so convenient to just jump on a train and go somewhere. You can get to any town and quickly figure out their metro/bus system and get anywhere you want to go. Our itinerary was to head north to Rome, then on to Venice, over the Alps to Munich, through Switzerland, over to Barcelona, up to Paris, and through the Chunnel to London. We would then end our time with a few days in Ireland before flying home. Our first stop would be Rome, a city so steeped in history that around every corner is a building, monument, or church that is worthy of study. Hail Caesar!!


Rome Sure Wasn't Built in a Day

We weren’t on the train for more than thirty minutes before the boys were in love with train travel. I had booked first class tickets for our Eurail Passes, so not only did we get nice big reclining leather seats, but they brought the goodie cart to us, and it was free. Trains are so much better than planes because there is substantially more room in them, you can basically pick your own seat, you can get up and move around anytime you want, there are very few delays in trains departing/arriving, and if the engines fail, you just coast to a nice stop. The express train got us from Naples to Rome in under two hours, and the boys were bummed the trip was over. We were able to find a nice hotel right near the Trevi Fountain, which made it very convenient to walk to all the best sites. The first afternoon we walked to the Trevi Fountain, and the Coliseum but the interior was already closed for the day. That evening we went to the Spanish Steps and did some shopping, as well as, some gelato tasting!! The best part of southern Italy is just people watching. A lot of the areas are pedestrian malls and they are teeming with people going about their daily lives, as well as, talking and smoking a lot.

The next day we started early trying to see the best sites before the crowds got too bad. The biggest challenge was getting in the Sistine Chapel before the lines became unbearable. We got there just after it opened and were able to walk directly through the Museum right to the chapel. We kind of felt guilty not spending more time in the museum, but there are just so many artifacts you can see before your eyes glaze over. I have always been a fan of Michelangelo’s, and I got to see the Sistine Chapel and his famous paintings when I was here twenty years ago. At that time they were doing restoration work on it and the entire room was filled with scaffolding so you really couldn’t get a feel for the entire frescos. The restoration is completely done now and the space is so amazing. Sitting on the benches that ring the room and gazing up on such a masterpiece just leaves you speechless, just to imagine how he laid on his back, high atop scaffolding, and painted for four straight years, working by himself…all in the name of God and Church. I bought a short book on his life from the Vatican bookstore and read it on the way to Venice. It was surprising to read that he was quite conflicted in his own spirituality and you can follow his inner turmoil through his work and the different methods or impressions that different works portray. The biggest example is in the Sistine Chapel. Years after he finished the ceiling fresco, he was commissioned to paint the Final Judgement on one of the walls. The entire work is in sharp contrast to the ceiling which portrays people in a very ethereal manner. All the characters in the Final Judgement are very harsh in their portrayal, and it was meant to cast a less than perfect light on people. This work corresponds with a time that he was going through great inner turmoil, questioning his own belief and the role of the Church.

From the Sistine Chapel, we walked to the St. Peter’s and toured the Basilica. This is one of the most impressive spaces I have ever been in. I am not very religious, but this holy ground makes you believe in a bigger purpose and man’s dedication to his faith. What really impresses me is the Engineering and Construction techniques there were mastered so long ago. To look at this building and realize that it was built not just without big machinery, but even without electricity is amazing. It is one thing to stack three million large blocks into a pyramid, but to build something like the Basilica is truly amazing. To get up close and personal with the building, we climbed the three hundred and some steps up to the top of the Basilica’s cupola (dome). There is a staircase built within the roof itself and it spirals all the way to the top, with amazing views of St. Peter’s Square, The Vatican property, and all of Rome. Later that day, we went back to the Coliseum and did a two hour self guided tour of the interior, complete with audio guide. The thought of ancient battles in this space complete with wild animals and large movable sets with sixty thousand in attendance really impressed the boys. After another fun night on the town in Rome, we headed north for Venice.

We only spent two nights in Venice, but walked plenty. The great thing about Venice is its fun to get lost while trying to get somewhere because you eventually find your way and see some neat things along the way. We checked out the major landmarks like the Rialato Bridge and St. Mark’s Square and even found a small jazz club which was playing Brazilian Jazz. Originally our next stop was going to be Munich, Germany and then train to Garmisch for a few days of snowboarding, but I found a way to go directly to Garmisch if we went through Innsbruck, Austria. So we packed our bags and jumped a train to Austria for the night, simple as that. Train travel is so fun. Next blog will be Garmisch – Winter Wonderland.

Rockin' The Casbah!!

We had an overnight flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt and arrived at 5:40 AM. We were met by our guide, Hend Harb, and our driver. Due to the tense situation Americans still have in this part of the world, I felt that having a fully organized tour would be more enjoyable and less concerning. I was introduced to Hend through our Airtreks ticket agent, and she turned out to be a jewel. Not only did she provide great personal service, but she did a wonderful job in arraigning all the different activities, and staying in constant communication, even when she wasn’t with us. Instead of staying in a typical tourist hotel in Cairo, I had booked an apartment in the heart of Giza overlooking the Great Pyramids. We were the only non-Egyptians I saw in the neighborhood, and walking around really gave us a real cultural experience (or shock depending on the situation). We headed to the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx the first morning and spent about two hours walking around and learning about the history of the different dynasties. The highlight of the morning was our camel ride in the desert with the pyramids in the background. That evening we went back for the sound and light show at the Pyramids and then enjoyed an authentic Egyptian dinner, including stuffed pigeon!!!

Camping with Charlie-eb

The next morning we headed off for an overnight camping safari into the White Desert in the Bedouin Territory. I thought this was only going to be a short trip out of Cairo. Little did I know that it would end up being an eleven hour drive until we finally reached our camp, at which point we were in the middle of Egypt, halfway to Libya. We knew we were in a different land when we pulled up to the only “Rest Stop” which was located halfway into the desert. It was the only building in site, and it was quite the sight to be seen. It looked like everything else around it had been blown up and all the debris left on its property. Sally declared it the most “disgusting” place she has ever had to “rest” and vowed never to use Public Facilities again. The remote location was only the beginning of the adventure… After several hours, we reached the Bedouin Oasis where our taxi was to drop us off with our tour company. We were booked with a local Bedouin company who run these trips and don’t speak much English. My Arabic is pretty rusty (to say the least), but I did manage to figure out that I should have brought our passports with us. Being a naive American, I had left them safely in our apartment in Giza, not realizing we were going to be in another region and that Americans are considered very “important” here. We are supposed to have our locations tracked by the Tourism Police, in case we accidentally went missing!! Since we couldn’t give them our Passports to record, we had to take along a Tourism Police Officer, who would be our security escort for the next twenty-four hours. It was pretty funny to watch this guy casually walk out of the Tourism Office with a small backpack and a machine gun around his neck and pile into the vintage Land Cruiser with us and our Bedouin guides. The boys were pretty impressed that we had our own bodyguard and that he was packing a MP5K!! They kept trying to sneak a picture of his “heat” when he wasn’t looking. He didn’t speak English, so I couldn’t ask if he would pose with the boys and his gun.

About an hour outside of the Bedouin Oasis, we turned off the paved road and into the barren desert. We quickly felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and that we could easily come across folks that were not very happy to see Americans. Did I mention that we were halfway to Libya?? Luckily, everyone we met was very nice and enjoyed talking to us with whatever English they knew. We drove into the desert for about two hours and realized that our driver was the Bedouin version of Dale Earnhart, Jr. He only knew how to drive fast, no matter the situation. Whether it was overtaking other vehicles on the road going around blind curves at 90 MPH or racing down a sand dune that was over a hundred feet tall …, he went fast. The other guide and the bodyguard didn’t look worried, so I assumed he knew what he was doing. By the time we reached our camp site, it was almost dark and a ferocious sand storm had come up. It was as bad as any snow storm I have been in with visibility less than ten feet. As this point, I thought that sleeping out in the desert wasn’t going to be as fun as I first thought and was wandering how we were going to get dinner made, since we had no shelter. The Bedouins are a very resourceful bunch as it turns out. They arranged their vehicle with another one to form a wind break and then unrolled and secured their Bedouin rugs to form walls. This created a very nice shelter to eat and sleep in. Thankfully, the wind died off just before dinner and the night became beautiful with countless stars and no one else around. As you can see from these pictures, Charlie got into full Bedouin mode and spent all night hanging out with the guides (and bodyguard) around the fire, even trying their local tea. It turned out to be a very pleasant night of camping, and Sally was quite the trooper, since she was the only girl. The next morning we broke camp and did a slow drive out through all of the interesting formations that are in the White Desert. This area used to be under the ocean millions of years ago and the deposits that were left over from when the sea receded have formed very interesting pillars and outcroppings. From there it was a hair raising drive back to the Bedouin Oasis to drop off our body guard and switch to a regular van taxi and then another four hours back to Giza. That night we all enjoyed nice long showers, trying to remove the sand that had found its way into every imaginable crevice.

The next day we toured the historic churches, mosques, and synagogues. It is interesting to note that all three of these religions are still practiced in Egypt and that Christianity and Judaism predate Islam here. As the rest of the world still struggles to find a way for these three religions to get along, it is somewhat optimistic to see that they coexist here. OK, that’s my two cents worth on world politics and religion, now back to the story.

Later that day we toured the Egyptian National Museum and the largest collection of artifacts and mummies in the world. The most impressive section was King Tutankhamun’s jewlry display found in his burial chamber. It was staggering to see the amount of gold and precious stones that were assembled and crafted in the seventy days they had to plan his funeral. The entire room glowed because there was so much gold in there. P Diddy and the rest of the nouveau riche have nothing on the Egyptians when it comes to Bling!! The afternoon ended with a boat ride on the Nile river in a classic Egyptian Dow. For our last evening, we booked a Nile River Dinner Cruise. These are pretty touristy but the two hours were very fun, and we even made a new “Friend Along the Way”, Yeah Baby!! It was the first time we had seen classic Egyptian dancing and the whirling dervishes were almost as good as the belly-dancer.

We were all due to fly out the next morning, but only my brother made it out. Due to the world financial crisis, Greece is in deep debt and the government is being forced to make huge budget cuts in order to appease the rest of the Euronations. This means cuts to all public employees, so they decided to strike the day we were scheduled to fly into Athens. This shut down the airport, stranding anybody trying to come in or out of Greece. Luckily I found out about it the night before and was able to arrange another night in our apartment. It actually turned out for the best because we all needed one day to do nothing and go nowhere, because our next leg is going to be a month of training through Europe, stopping in nine countries. As much as I am looking forward to seeing Europe again, Africa has been the most incredible country and one that I can’t wait to get back to. I would like to thank my brother Chris for making the long journey to meet us here and we really enjoyed spending time with him. After spending three weeks with us, I am sure he is enjoying the quietness of being away from us!!!!! Next stop, the Old Country, Ciao Bella!!

The Big Five

As much as we have enjoyed all the new animals we have encountered along this trip, Kruger’s National Park was where we were hoping to be amazed by the incredible animal life. Kruger has been a protected animal sanctuary for over one hundred years, so all the animals are very comfortable around the constant traffic that parades by them. We, like everyone else, were hoping to see the Big 5, but there were other animals that were just as exciting. The Big 5 are the Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Cape Buffalo. These were classified as the Big 5 because they are the most dangerous to hunt. That is, if you don’t kill them quickly…they will kill you!

Safaris are now called “Game Drives”. I guess it is due to the fact that you drive everywhere, because getting out of the vehicle and walking around is not allowed. The animals are comfortable around a vehicle, and as long as you don’t get out, they don’t realize people are inside of it. You never know when a Lion or Leopard will be hiding in the grass next to the road. In fact, that is actually where we saw our Leopard, and it was amazing how well it can camouflage itself within two feet of the roadway. I had booked our Game Drive with Outlook Safaris and was able to have a true safari vehicle. They are open Land Rovers with elevated seats and canvas tops. They can hold nine passengers and our group were paired up with a nice family from Germany. Kruger, being a National Park, is very regulated on where and when people travel. If you stay in the Park, as we did, you book into one of about a dozen facilities scattered about their 4 million acres. Our compound had about fifty bungalows and about as many campsites. The entire compound is surrounded by electric fence in order to keep out the locals. As we were heading to dinner our first night, we saw a hyena patrolling the fence line looking in on all the easy prey!!

Days start early here, around 5:00 AM. The gates to the Park and the compounds open at 5:30 AM, and the best viewing is usually in the morning before the temperature gets too hot. We would normally go out for about four hours and then head back for breakfast. During the middle of the day we would usually rest, walk around the compound, or shop at their main store. The afternoon drive started about 3:00 PM and lasted until 6:30, when the Gates to the Park and the Compounds were locked down. Anyone found still in the Park would be severely fined or left to be dealt with by the locals!! Dinner usually started around 8:00, and our group had a private dining area which our guides set up and where they made all of the meals. Dinner was a fun time to recount the day, share animal stories, and talk about the next day’s itinerary. We were usually in bed by 10:00 PM, trying to get enough sleep to be ready to go the next morning.
It didn’t take long before we saw four out of the Big 5 and a few other great animals. The Lion was the hold out and it took five drives before we saw a pair lounging in the grass getting ready for the night’s hunt. The best animal scenes we had were the hippos in their pond and two male elephants fighting each other. There was a covered/protected walkway down to a pond that had about twenty hippos in it. We stayed there about thirty minutes and really enjoyed watching them in their natural environment. The two elephants that were fighting were about one hundred yards away from the road in a large opening and were seeing who could push the other one around. During our four days, we saw lots of elephants, zebras, giraffes, several types of antelope, Cape buffalo, wilder beast, warthogs, monkeys, baboons, and rhinos. It was great to see all of these animals, some of which are extremely endangered, in such a natural and safe environment. South Africa takes great pride in its Game Parks and it shows. Our next stop Cairo, Egypt.

Surfing South African Style

Sorry for the delay in posting this blog. It has been constant motion since we left Jeffreys Bay, and I am just now getting to the computer.

Cape St. Francis and Jeffreys Bay are synonymous with epic waves. The design of the coastline and the angle of the bays allow swells to wrap in and peel down the points. We were in the area for just over a week, and I got lucky to catch fun surf at Cape St. Francis and a really good summer swell at Jeffreys Bay. On the best day, it was double over head, and the biggest waves would break for about five hundred yards. The best part of the swell only lasted two days, but the waves I caught were worth the wait, and the trip to see why this place is such a surfer's dream.

We spent our first two days in a nice B & B in Cape St. Francis. This time of year, the area is really quiet. The school holiday crowd is gone and there are just not that many people who head to the coast when the weather is nice (about 80 degrees and sunny with afternoon wind). It was so quiet that a lot of the stores and restaurants were closed or on reduced hours. We had a fun time exploring the area and chasing the best waves between the point breaks and the bay. Both Mat and Charlie were able to get in the water here and really had fun surfing in Africa. Supposedly it is not very sharky here, but one point is called "Shark Point", and the surf reports say to get out of the water quickly if you cut yourself. So who knows? I didn't see any sharks while we were surfing, but when we went out on a fishing boat, the other guy on our boat caught a nice three-footer.

In Jeffrey's Bay, we had a house that was directly across from the Supertubes break, one of the best breaks in world. On the day we arrived, there were no waves but the forecast said a new swell was due by the end of the week. My brother Chris flew out from Colorado and met us here. We spent the first few days checking out the town and going to some of the local attractions. We went Sand boarding on the nearby dunes, the Zip Lines Tour at Tsitskikama Falls, the Monkeyland Sanctuary, and the Birds of Eden Sanctuary. During this downtime, it was fun to spend time with my brother, who I usually only get to see twice a year. Sally enjoyed catching up on some reading, helping the boys with their projects, and cooking some wonderful meals. We made great progress on the schoolwork front, and the boys are putting their experiences to good use. Mat completed a nice research paper on Nelson Mandela, and Charlie enjoyed reading the abridged version of Nelson Mandela's autobiography, "The Long Walk to Freedom".

The swell arrived as they said, and the next few days revolved totally around surfing. Unfortunately, the afternoon wind usually messed up the late session, but the morning sessions were epic with only about ten to fifteen guys out at each break. Most everyone was local, so I did my best not to be a pest and gave plenty of waves away. I caught my fair share and really wished I had someone here to surf with. The swell was too big and the break too strong for the boys, so I surfed alone. The worst part about these waves are the rocks. The entire coastline is sharp rock covered with barnacles and urchins, so getting in and out of the water was very tricky. Big kudos again to my brother in law Bill Gassett for setting me up with the Vibram Foot Gloves. These things really paid off on this trip, especially in Jeffrey's Bay. This was our last time on the coast, so I hooked up with the Billabong surf shops and got a pretty good deal to sell them all my stuff. Thanks again to Mike Dolsey for hooking me up the surfboards, and I look forward to buying similar ones when I get back to the States. Next stop Kruger National Park and our four day safari.

The Garden Route

The section between Cape Town and Jeffrey’s Bay is called the Garden Route due to the amount of cattle farms, vineyards, and breathtaking scenery along the coast. Our first stop was the Skeiding Farm which is over 2,000 acres and raise ostriches, sheep, and cows. It is owned and operated by a very nice family who warmly shared their home with us and even let us help out with the daily chores. Not only did we get to feed them, but Mat and Charlie were invited to watch as they performed ultrasound on over 600 female sheep to determine if they were pregnant and how many babies they were carrying. After being unceremoniously flipped upside down on a metal trough and probed with the internal monitor, they were spray painted to denote their condition. Watching the first few was a bit shocking (Sally, being the only female, felt for the sheep and kept saying “poor girls”), but the process was also very funny watching the sheep dogs work the sheep into the pen and us helping unclog the sheep jam when they wouldn’t move down the corral. We were also treated to an authentic South African braai (BBQ to us), complete with fresh ostrich steaks. They were delicious and went perfectly with the local wine and the amazing view as the full moon rose over the African countryside. We only stayed here two days and then we headed back towards the coast, looking for surf.

Our next stop was Vic Bay, a beach community built inside a little bay that is a wave magnet – so I was told. Usually when you here this, the reality doesn’t usually match the hype. As we reached the gate, I could see the swell pumping into the bay. Vic Bay is actually a private community, and you have to be staying there in order to park inside the bay. Everyone else parks outside in the public lot and walks in. Leaving Sally and the boys in the car, I walked down the access lane that is built right on the rock edge to look for a place to stay. As a perfect overhead five wave set rolled in, I came upon the Waves B&B. I didn’t need to look any farther. Their family apartment was available, and it had a perfect front row view of the bay and the nice swell rolling in. We stayed three days and caught some really fun surf. Since the midday wind always came up and blew out the surf, we looked for other activities. Just inland from us were the Cango Caves, the largest show cave system in South Africa. Mat, Charlie and I signed up for the “adventure tour” which took you well past the normal walking route and into sections that you had to crawl and squeeze through. Mat and I opted out of the last two sections which were even smaller because the group we were with were quite annoying and made us begin to feel a bit claustrophobic. Charlie wasn’t fazed and forged on, first in line, and needing no encouragement. After two hours and going almost one mile into this cave system, we reached the light of day and very fresh air.

Our main stop on the Garden Route was the coastal town of Knysna. It is built around a large lagoon system and on the surrounding hillsides. The lagoon opens up to the ocean and there is a very active marina complex with lots of shops and restaurants. They are famous for their oysters, which are very good, but still no match for our Eastern Shore “Salty Sea Sides”. We got the chance to see the movie “Invictus” here. It was very compelling to see this movie in South Africa and having just gone to a lot of the places shown in the movie. This country is still struggling with its problems, but it has come a long way since the abolishment of apartheid twenty years ago. The most interesting tour we did was to the local Rastafarian Community. We had heard about other drive through tours of the “townships”, but they seemed too much like “Pompous tourism” to me. I saw an add in a brochure about this personal tour given by “Brother Paul”. I called him up and he was very excited to show us his community. The tour lasted about two hours and he drove with us into the main township to where the Rastas live. To understand how lucky you are, all you have to do is drive for five minutes into one of these shanty towns and see how others live. It was refreshing to see the optimism that Brother Paul and his fellow Rastas have. They have very little, but they are happy. Brother Paul showed us their day care center, their church, their music hall, and some of their homegrown ganja plants. Did I mention that they are “happy” people??

Our most memorable time in Knysna was when we went to the Knysna Elephant Sanctuary. At one time, Knysna had their own unique herds of elephants, but they were basically hunted out for sport and their ivory. The last survey only found three wild elephants. The Sanctuary was started fifteen years ago to take in orphans or elephants that other areas couldn’t keep. In order to get the best experience, I booked the elephant ride which allowed us to ride them for about thirty minutes and then interact with the entire herd for about two hours. Needless to say, we all loved the experience, and it made us even more excited about the upcoming safari in Kruger National Park.
After our four days in Knysna, we headed further up the coast to the place that characterized the original “Endless Summer” – Cape St. Francis and Jeffrey’s Bay. Possibly some of the best waves in the world.

Great White Central

May God Bless Lloyd Skinner and his family.

As you may have noticed, I have not included any stories about surfing in the Cape Town area. There is good reason for this – the highest concentration of Great White Sharks in the world. This reality hit me in the face when I read the first mornings headlines. Lloyd Skinner, a 38 year old Engineer from Zimbabwe was swimming in about six feet of water within one hundred yards from shore, when a Great White approximately 16 – 18 feet long attacked him and completely devoured him. This happened about 3:30 PM on a sunny day in front of many beach guests and local homeowners, who witnessed it from their porches. One person described the shark as “like a dinosaur, it was so large”. The attack happened one week before we arrived and within sight of our house. The local community was still in shock, and each day other stories came out about other local sightings and the concern for summer swimming. The sharks usually stay out farther in False Bay, around where the seals live. But when the seals leave in the summer, there has been a noticeable increase in shark sightings along the beaches. Most everyone supports protecting sharks, because they are being slaughtered by the millions just for their fins, but some were asking why more was not being done to track down the culprit. There had been two other similar fatal attacks in this area and some felt that a single shark was responsible. You are still more likely to get killed by a faulty toaster then you are by a shark, but there is no more primal fear then being eaten alive. So I say “Bring on the toasters”!!

I have a healthy dose of respect for sharks, and I didn’t want this to be our only shark story, so I booked us on a Great White Shark cage dive. Sally decided to stay on the boat, but she was equally impressed by these incredible animals. Within five minutes of putting out chum, the first Great White showed up, coming straight up out of the water, trying to get the large fish head they use as bait. Over the next two hours, six Great Whites would be around the boat and sometimes two were visible at once. The visibility was only about six feet, so it was quite impressive when a ten to twelve footer would appear out of nowhere and come directly at the cage. Mat, Charlie, and I loved the experience and the ability to watch a true apex predator from a close but safe distance. As frightening as it must be to see one when you are swimming or surfing, it was truly enjoyable to experience them in this manner. I have included several other pictures in “Dr. Doolittle”. Safely onshore, we packed up and headed inland to our next stop – a working ostrich farm. Yee Hah!!

The Amazing Cape

I have always heard that Cape Town was an amazing city - full of life, important history, and very culturally diverse. The six days we spent here were great, and we tried to do the full spectrum of activities. One day we went all the way down to the point and explored the Cape of Good Hope and the lighthouse on Cape Point. A truly amazing peninsula jutting south towards Antarctica and dividing the cold Atlantic Ocean and the warm Indian Ocean. The entire point is a national park and is home to several baboon colonies, ostriches, and an antelope-like animal called a springbok (which are quite tasty). They also have their own cobra, called the Cape Cobra. We saw the warning signs, but unfortunately never saw one. Sally was bummed!! Being this close to the South Pole and between two different oceans, the weather patterns change very quickly. It can go from sunny and no wind, to gale force winds and spitting rain, to sunny again in less than an hour.

Cape Town’s historical importance is most noteworthy due to Robben Island, the infamous political prison, and the effect that apartheid had on this country. The most notable of all its detainees was Nelson Mandela, who spent over twenty years jailed here in a cell so small that he couldn’t fully stretch out as he slept on the concrete floor. The most amazing thing is that when he was finally released, as the current South African government was abolishing apartheid, he did not come out screaming for justice or hatred for his captors, but rather of reconciliation, tolerance, and a desire to unite a torn country. As we all know, he went on to become the first democratically elected President in South Africa, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his endeavors.

We took a day trip over to the island, so we all could better appreciate what others have endured for the sake of freedom. We went over on the actual ferry that was used to transport the prisoners and had a guided tour throughout the entire complex by one of the former detainees. Even though this man spent over fifteen years imprisoned solely on political beliefs, he has decided to remain on the island and give back by sharing his suffering with others. It was a very moving experience for all of us, and I think we all better appreciate the freedom we have as Americans, and that others in the world have not always had this basic right.
The rest of our time was spent exploring other Cape Town icons, like Table Mountain and driving on Chapman’s Peak – one of the most amazing sections of road I have ever seen. We also spent time shopping in the nearby towns and local craft bazaars. Charlie was no good at bartering. If he saw something he wanted, he was happy to pay asking price, no questions asked….He has a lot to learn. The majority of our down time was spent right in front of our house, enjoying our little neighbors and this beautiful corner of the world.

Charlie Finds Penguin Heaven

Arriving in Cape Town after twenty-six hours of travel was a huge relief. Unfortunately it was night time, and we couldn’t get a feel for our surroundings. We didn’t get to our house until about 10:30 PM and there was quite a gale blowing, so I was unsure how this house choice was going to turn out, since it was right on the ocean. As some of you know, Charlie’s favorite animal is the penguin, and he has always wanted to see them in the wild. Since the South Pole was not in our planned route, I didn’t think there would be much chance of seeing them besides some Zoos we might visit. One day when I was using Google Earth to research some of South Africa, Charlie clicked on a picture icon and up popped a penguin on the beach. This turned into a mad frenzy to learn more about this area, and what the heck were penguins doing here, thousands of miles from Antarctica. We soon found out that this place is called Boulders Beach and is just south of Cape Town and just north of the tip of Cape of Good Hope. It is a quant little town facing into False Bay, home of the Flying Great White Sharks (this is another story), as well as the largest colony of African Penguins in the world, and the only species that does not live in Antarctica. As it turns out, these penguins have not always lived here, but showed up on this residential beach about fifteen years ago and have been living side by side with people ever since. Charlie was psyched when I told him that we would definitely drive down here and try to see them. What Charlie wouldn’t know was that I spent over a month researching this place and was able to find a house directly on Boulders Beach within sight and sound of the colony. This was a surprise I wanted to give him, and I hoped the months of planning and secrecy would pay off and not be ruined by what looked like the beginning of very bad weather. We all went to bed, secret still unveiled.

I awoke the next morning about 5:30 AM. I don’t know whether it was from the travel lag or the anxiety over my house choice. The morning was absolutely beautiful, clear blue skies and not too much wind. As I walked to my bedroom window to survey the view, I kinda felt like a kid again, when we would look out and see if Santa had come. I thought my eyes were not adjusted yet when I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of black dots on the beach and surrounding boulders. I actually got my binoculars out to see if they were what I hoped. Not more than two hundred yards from our house; the whole colony was just waking up and waddling along the beach. Waking the boys up has never been so fun.

When I told Charlie where we were, I don’t think it sank in at first. But when we walked onto the beach at the end of our road and came upon over a dozen penguins lounging about, I think he almost came out of his skin. The great thing is the penguins are totally adjusted to people, and you can literally walk among them. It was one of the most amazing sights of wild animals I have ever seen. They were everywhere; on the beach, on the rocks, in the water, under the bushes, on the road, in the parking lot, and even in our yard. We spent the next six days exploring Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope, but the highlight of every day was when we would spend time just sitting with them and watching them go about their daily lives. There is so much I can say and show about them, we have hundreds of pictures, but I will save that for when we return. We actually found a short movie that was made about them called “City Slickers”, and it is one of the best animal films I have seen. I have included a few other pictures in “Dr. Doolittle, Where are the Reeve Boys, and Friends Along the Way”. The great sights of Cape Town and Cape of Good Hope will be the next blog entry, and then the Great White Shark encounters.

The Teletubbies take on the Great Barrier Reef

I hope everyone is laughing as much as we did after putting on these lovely snorkel outfits. As stylish as they are, they were really needed to protect us from the Irukandji Jellyfish while snorkeling. These little jellyfish, which are almost invisible, pack quite a punch and have been known to kill people. As it turns out, this time of year is the season for these guys to invade northern Australian waters, and we were warned not to swim alone or on isolated beaches. Unfortunately, this was not mentioned on the websites when I was doing the research or booking, but was the first thing our valet mentioned as he was driving us to our condo. “Welcome to the Great Barrier Reef, Mate. Please don’t swim!!” Actually it wasn’t that bad, but the warnings were serious.

Having be that said, our time on Hamilton Island was most enjoyable, and we had a great time on the reef. In order to reach the best part of the reef, we boated about 50 miles farther out to sea and tied up with FantaSea’s floating island which is permanently anchored over a shallow section. Check out "Planes, Trains..." for pics. The reef is teeming with different varieties of fish and large Pacific clams. There are also several large resident Groupers and Wrasse. Check out “Dr. Doolittle” for pics. It was a full day on the water, and the weather/ocean conditions were perfect.

Hamilton Island is a fun vacation spot; there are no cars, only golf carts, and most units have one included. It is very focused around its yachting facilities, and there were several restaurants/bars to check out, as well as some nice shops. The highlights of our time, besides the reef, were Mat trying out the firing range and the day we rented our own yacht (actually a 14’ motorized dinghy, but who’s measuring..) and explored around the inner bays and some deserted islands. Check out “Where are the Reeve Boys”. After our four days of relaxing here, we prepared ourselves for the twenty-six hour travel day that would take us to Cape Town, South Africa.

Seal Rocks

After our time in Burleigh, we had a week house rental in a small beach town called Seal Rocks. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of this town, I hadn’t either until I started talking to some Australian surfers who all said it was a great place to stop, small and isolated, and usually had waves. The reason it gets a lot of surf is that it is a small peninsula that sticks way out into the Pacific (in fact it is the second most easterly part of all Australia). It also has both north and south facing beaches, which will catch most swells, and you can find one side with offshore wind. The second nice thing about Seal Rocks is that it is very isolated and separated from everything else by a large National Park (Myall Lakes). They were not kidding when they said “isolated and small”. To get there you leave the main highway and drive 45 minutes on a secondary road, and then you drive another twenty minutes down a country road, a good portion still being gravel. You emerge from the national forest onto a beautiful bay with incredible headlands. On the north side there are two bays, each one about half mile long. On the south side, there is one long bay about 2 miles long, and the historic lighthouse sits on the point between the two bays. The town consists of a Holiday Park (i.e. campsite), maybe thirty homes, and one small store that didn’t even sell beer! Our house was at the end of the road just before the entrance road to the lighthouse (very top center of this picture). Nothing fancy about the house; typical old style beach house with no A/C… Luckily we had some fans and the house sat up on the ridge, so we got nice sea breezes. Unfortunately, there were no waves when we got to the north facing beach, so we decided to explore the other side of the point and see if the south side was better. To access this beach, you walked through the grounds of the lighthouse, then down a short trail to the beach.

Being the beach was only ten minutes away, we thought the walk would be pretty uneventful…fat chance. Five minutes into it, as we were walking down the access road totally by ourselves, a Coastal Taipan comes straight out of the bush, crosses the road no more then ten feet from us, and coils up on the other side. Normally I would have not known what kind of snake this was, it did not look like any snake I had seen before and did not look like other poisonous snakes I have encountered. The odd coincidence was, we had just stopped by a Koala Center on the way down to Seal Rocks and besides having koalas, kangaroos, and other cuddly animals, they had a nice awry of some of the most poisonous snakes in Australia – one of them being the Coastal Taipan. In fact the Coastal Taipan is the FOURTH most poisonous land snake in the World. One bite from this snake has enough venom to kill about 50 People!! Nice way to start our time in Seal Rocks. After spending two weeks in pretty developed areas, I had forgotten that Australia’s wildlife is no joke and there is a lot of stuff that can kill you here. Now we were on high alert, not knowing if this place was full of snakes or we just really lucky to see one (Sally was not feeling lucky about seeing it.). We got to the beach safely, and it was amazing. Huge crescent shape with hardly anyone on it. There was a family in a truck close by, and I noticed they had what I thought was a dog running around them. But it wasn’t a dog, it was the resident wild Dingo, and they were trying to get it to leave them alone. After the Dingo ran off, I asked the guy what was going on, and he said that it comes down looking for easy food and to keep an eye on the small kids and your stuff. Turns out, he is a loner and comes to the beach everyday looking for an easy meal, and will steal your stuff if you don’t pay attention to him. I actually watched him scope out a few small kids that were walking by themselves and another time grab and chew on some guy’s hat that went swimming. We saw him everyday and found out that his name is “Socksie” and he has been around for about four years. Check out Socksie on “Dr. Doolittle”. As you can see, Socksie doesn’t get to eat a lot, and we really felt for him. We would watch him work the whole beach, going from one area to the next, as people would leave, usually coming away with nothing. Even though we wanted to give him some food; we knew this would be the worse thing for him. Feeding animals like this only brings on problems down the road when they get to close to humans and end up biting someone, probably a kid. Then they call the Game Warden to shoot the pest. We kept our food to ourselves, even when he sat down in front of us during our beach sunset dinner and put on his best “Pitiful Puppy” face. The next few days were spent enjoying the beach, even though the waves never showed up. Some other interesting animals we encountered were the “Blue Bottle” jellyfish, very toxic, and a lot of large parrots. Our next stop would be back in Sydney, in order to catch a flight up to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

Surfer's Paradise

After spending New Year’s in Sydney, we got on the road headed north. I had originally hoped to spend the next three weeks slowly bouncing along the east coast, checking out different towns that I had heard of, hopefully catching some surf, and eventually ending up at the Great Barrier Reef. I quickly realized that this is the biggest travel month for Aussie’s and everywhere I checked had week long minimum stays (even the camper van sites). After a lot of rethinking, I decided to drive as far north as Burleigh Heads, stay there a week, drive south again for a week and then fly up to the Great Barrier Reef for a week. The drive to Burleigh was about twelve hours, and I ended up doing eleven hours the first day! I still don’t know why I drove that much in one day; it just seemed to go by and nobody asked me to stop.

Burleigh Heads is in the Queensland District and is know as the Gold Coast because of its beautiful coastline and also probably from the development money that has been made here. I have seen pictures of the right point break at Burleigh Heads and wanted to see if it was as beautiful as the pictures (See “Pray For Surf”). I found a nice fully equipped apartment that was half a block from the beach and a ten minute beach walk to the point. Very beautiful area, but high rise developments have turned this into more of “Condo Paradise”. We were lucky to be staying in the older section which has not changed over to high rises and still had a somewhat of a small beach town feel to it. The crazy thing about this area is how early people get on the beach. I am not kidding when I say that people are on the beach, in the water, and jogging on the trails at 4:30 AM. I know this because the second night I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep, and so I decided to get up and try and get a sunrise picture. As I reached the beach, people were already jogging down the trails and there were already thirty people surfing. I got my sunrise picture (pictured here) and ran back to get my surfboard. I got in the water by 5:00 AM and had a blast. As it turns out, the waves are best in the morning because the wind comes up by 10:00 AM and blows everything out. There were waves every day but nothing great. I had a few sessions that were about head high, and the larger set waves would break for about 200 yards. The water is crystal clear, and it was wild to see your reflection off the bottom as you surf by. The flip side of this is that you can see all the rocks at the point and any sharks that might be close by. I didn’t see any, but on my second morning out, I talked to a guy that had just been farther out on the point and saw one that had a dorsal fin about 16” tall (probably 8 -12 ‘ long). Needless to say, I stayed on the inside and around other people. Not that there is strength in numbers, but statistically, you have less chance of being the one he picks to taste. Sometimes my old Engineering Classes do come in handy!!

The rest of our time in Burleigh was spent lounging on the beach, walking around town, and basically enjoying a true beach vacation. I love our summers at home, but I find it impossible to sit on the beach for more than an hour, when my “100 Day War” is raging on. Mat purchase a body board and they enjoyed the surf as well as being in close proximity to ice-cream stands. Since we couldn’t afford to fly April out to Sydney, Sally was excited to find the perfect, gay, Australian man to trim and highlight the locks. She had a fun salon experience and someone girlie to talk to if you know what I mean. Our next stop is Seal Rocks, a very remote beach town, about three hours north of Sydney.

Down Under for 2010

As long as I can remember, Sydney, Australia is where I wanted to spend a New Year’s Eve. It is an extremely distant place, but it always seemed to be warm and inviting. In fact, this entire trip has revolved around being in the Sydney Harbor on New Year’s Eve. Some things would happen before and some things would happen after, but my butt was going to be down at the Harbor on December 31st, come hell or high water. I just hoped it would be worth the investment.

We got really lucky to find a small suburb of Sydney (Coogee) that is right on the beach and had a furnished apartment available for the New Year’s week. The area had a nice vibe, a great family friendly beach, and an incredible beachfront trail system that went from one area to the next. The bus system was cheap and easy to use, which allowed us not to rent a car for the time we were there. We spent the first few days checking out the downtown harbor area, going to the Sydney zoo, and meeting up with the Aussie couple (Ben & Galli) who we had met earlier in Fiji. The weather was great and the area really started to fill up for the New Year’s celebration. We decided to go to the Sydney Zoo the day before New Years. Can you say “Zoooo”. It was OK but it took over an hour just to get in and then there were people everywhere. I really felt bad for the animals having to stare at all these crazy people all day. That afternoon we took the ferry over to Ben & Galli’s area and met up with them for a proper Aussie barbie. They live in a nice older section and directly adjacent to a neighborhood park, which allowed Ben to give Mat, Charlie, and I some cricket lessons. While we played cricket, Sally finally got some well-deserved “girl talk” in with Galli and her girlfriend, Lisa. Dinner even included some kangaroo meat. Crikey, it was good!

New Year’s Eve day started like a military operation. I had done some earlier recon while walking around the harbor, trying to find a good vantage point to see everything, but somewhere that we could get out from quickly and not be too crazy. There was a large Garden/Park right past the Opera House that had hilly areas with good views and plenty of access points. All the bus routes were reviewed, contingency plans were discussed in case we got separated, and we even had our walkie talkie’s in case the kangaroo meat hit the fan. I had also filled my backpack with vodka, red bull, champagne, and coke. Something for everybody. Well, you know how well laid plans don’t go as planned. We got there early, only to find out that the Gardens were closed to the General Public (that would be us) and everyone else had gotten there early too. Now it was a mad dash, along with tens of thousands of others, towards the harbor to find any area where we could see. Every section we got to was already filled to the max, and it started to look like the only fireworks we would see would be in the reflections off of the surrounding skyscrapers. Luckily, the very last section was open, so we hustled in hoping for a decent spot. As it turned out, this area was not very crowded at all, and we got some great real estate with a perfect view of the Opera House. We laid out our towels and settled in for the five hour wait. Luckily the weather was ideal, warm and breezy, and the crowd was pretty mellow with lots of families. The time went by pretty quickly by people watching and having a cocktail or four. They put on two fireworks shows; one at 9:00 for families and the big one at midnight for the crazies. The first one was good but rather short and then the place really started to get packed. I guess all the barflies use the first show as their alarm clock to leave the bars and head down to the waterfront. At about eleven the party really kicked in, the restaurants that are on the Harbor turn into club mode and music starts pumping from all directions. The mood stayed festive, and we never saw anybody getting out of control. There is no ball that drops at midnight, just a huge explosion of fireworks from the bridge and at the Opera House. At this point everyone is screaming and jumping around. The fireworks lasted for about twenty minutes and were definitely the biggest I have ever seen. As quickly as they started, they ended. Now the dash for the exits began.

Getting down close to the action is great, but after it is over, you realize you are the farthest away from where you want to be and there are a lot of people in between you and home. Luckily the Red Bull and the cokes kicked in for all of us, and we high tailed it to the bus pick up spots. We arrived just as our bus was loading, and we got the last four spots. As the bus pulled away, I turned and saw the masses bearing down on us. We had just beaten a very long wait, and in thirty minutes we were home. I hate to think how long it could’ve taken. The next day it was reported that an estimated 1.5 million people were down at the Harbor. We spent our last day in Sydney relaxing on the beach, recounting the prior night’s festivities, and getting ready for our next destination, Burleigh Heads. Even though the New Year’s celebration only lasted a few hours, the memories of this great night will stay with us forever.