Posts Tagged Travel

Whale Trail, De Hoop Nature Reserve

October 18, 2009 at 6:50 pm · Filed under South Africa ·Tagged , , , , , ,

The Whale Trail is one of the slackpacking trails in South Africa, running through a World Heritage Site, The Cape Floral Protected Region. It is one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done. Whales, Dolphins, precious fynbos, great bunch of hikers, fantastic accommodation and even 2 days of sunshine! What more to ask for?

I was so lucky because I was on the waitinglist for this hike. Sean had already made a booking about a year ago and 12 people signed up within a day. And I REALLY wanted to do this hike. 2 weeks before the start, Sean phoned me: I was in, if I still wanted. Of course! What a question! I was so excited and happy. Also nice distraction from whatever else was going on in my life. No cell phone for 5 days, I was looking forward to it.

Packed with enough food, wine and clothes for at least a month, we all arrived late afternoon at the first overnight accommodation at Potberg. Beautiful! The next 2 days we each hiked about 15 km and these were the toughest days of the trail. These days were fillend with sites of beautiful fynbos and flowers.

Beautiful flower of which I forgot the name...

Beautiful flower of which I forgot the name...

From day 3 you start walking along the coastline and then obviously you spot the wonderful whales and we also saw many schools of dolpins. See here my favourite spot.

Braai area at Noetsie beach

Braai area at Noetzie Beach

Lovely place to stay at Noetzie Beach

Lovely place to stay at Noetzie Beach

It’s really not a difficult trail as all your luggage is transported and you only need a day pack. We soon learned though that it was quite a good idea to keep some ‘essentials’ in your day pack because the boxes would often arrive much later than us. Especially the day when we were soaking wet from the rain and we all had to warm up by the fire, no clean clothes, no sleeping bag…Day 3 and 4 we had to suffer quite a bit from the rain and wind. Best was just to keep walking not to get cold. We didn’t even sit down for lunch.

See the whales...

See the whales...

During Whale Season (june – november) this trail is booked out about a year in advance. It’s about ZAR 1700 per person including transportation of your luggage. You can either make a booking for 6 or 12 but I would recommend to make a booking for 12 otherwise you’ll need to share rooms, kitchen etc. with another group which is not very convenient.

The last 2 days you’ll walk along beautiful rock pools. I brought my snorkling gear but unfortunately the weather was not so great that we could snorkle. We might come back in Feb and just come to relax and chill and enjoy the warm water.

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After Hong Kong, back home in Houtbay, Cape Town

August 18, 2008 at 9:25 am · Filed under Travel ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Big Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong

Big Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong

It’s only 9 days that I was writing my last blog. SO many things happened since the 9th of August.

 

 

First of all, the wealth dynamics experience was absolutely mind blowing. I didn’t expect anything less. For those of you who would like to learn more about Wealth Dynamics, you can do a test and find out a more productive way of living & working: www.wealthdynamics.org/?r=5ps7klex. During the Wealth Dynamics Weekend we learned about wealth creation, choosing your path and finding your flow. The most interesting people were there and all with a positive outlook on life and wanting to make a change. Here are a few inspiring ideas: turning deserts into forests & empowering 1.000.000 South Africans to donate 1 hour of their time to make a positive change in their community.

My purpose became also a bit clearer: being a catalyst for positive change and improving quality of life in the tourism industry. At the moment a few big tour operators dominate the market and they pretty much decide what’s on offer and that has to change.

The weekend finished with making a few commitments about ‘my fitness plan’, deciding on my main priority, one-month goals, one year goal and what I will do to celebrate. All great stuff! We also decided that we want to help each other by getting together every month and really looking at our cash flow position.

 

Monday afternoon the eXtraordinary Travel post-conference package kicked off. While the rain was pouring down we all got into a local bus and went to our hotel on Hong Kong Island. The Metropark Hotel was a good choice and I can recommend it to anyone. Especially their happy hour from 18h00 to 20h30 (US 14, drink as much as you like) was a keeper. While only 6 people had pre-registered for the tour, there were quite a few people that joined for 1 day, half a day or just a dinner. It was great fun! We shopped at Stanley Market, had dinner in a great Chinese restaurant, visited the Big Buddha and went up to the peak with the Peak tram, shopping for electronics and just enjoying the amazing city of Hong Kong. On Wednesday night, before heading for the airport, we joined the Green drinks party on the roof top deck of the Correspondence Club. A very nice way to finish this amazing week of travelling, learning, networking, experiencing, laughing and enjoying the good things in life.

Merrin & Louise Pearse, our Local eXtraordinary Travel Ambassadors, thank you very much in making this possible.

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Hong Kong – Wealth Dynamics

August 18, 2008 at 5:57 am · Filed under Asia, Travel ·Tagged , , ,

Hong Kong sky line

Hong Kong sky line

9 August 2008, Hong Kong, Harbour Plaza City Resort

WOW!! We’re in Hong Kong. It’s so unreal. I really have to keep pinching myself to believe that I’m in this amazing city. Everywhere you look you see high rise building, roads, trams, shopping malls and sometimes you see a mountain through the fog. We arrived yesterday at 9h30 after an extremely bumpy flight from Dubai. We were lucky to have missed the typhoon that was going around the days before. For a change this was not a full flight so I had 3 chairs to myself and could nicely stretch out. The flight attendants were extremely nice although I think they could have gone around more with water and juice. But that’s just me being demanding. I still have a terrible cold and the aircon didn’t do any good. I’m so excited to say that we’re in Hong Kong with 8 XL members from Cape Town and Johannesburg. The buzz has gone ‘round and XL is now really happening in South Africa.

This is the first event where eXtraordinary Travel will be hosting a post-conference package. 2 days local is lekker in Hong Kong. Jieha! But first the Wealth Dynamics Experience of which we had the introduction today. We just got back from a boat trip through the harbour of Hong Kong, compliments of Roger who is celebrating his 40th birth day. Fabulous! At 8pm all the buildings switch on their lights and you can enjoy a laser show. I must say I didn’t see much of that because I was to busy chatting, networking and getting to know a whole bunch of people from around the world. I chatted to Australia, New Zeeland, Malaysia, Japan, Colombia, UK and obviously South Africa. I just LOVE the international character of these events and to connect with the world. Tomorrow will be a long day so off to bed now. Not sure where my roomy, Julia from Jo’burg is, but she’s probably partying somewhere. Good luck! I’m still a bit tired from the flight and from having a cold.

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