South Africa 2009-10

PART 1 Arrival - pool - BigBay T&A - Kite beach - N & C Langebaan - Xmas  - Cape Ebba 1 yr - New Years  PART 2 Aquila game park - Township tour Tobbe & Calle goes big - Shark attack -Braii Kris & Mathilda arrives - Windsurf Dolphin beach Andreas & Katja- Pater noster PART 3   Pater noster -Witsands

Game park Since the Kruger park is a bit far from Cape Town there are a selection of so called game parks. Referring to old African hunting facilities and grounds rather than being large national parks. A 2h drive from Cape town is Aquila game reserve that has large areas of animals kept in as natural environment as possible. Even though many of these animals does not exist wild in the Cape area today most of them have before man arrived. As you can see in the pictures most of the popular "safari" animals are represented in small numbers but you are almost guaranteed to see them up close. The big 5 (Lion, Elephant, buffalo, rinho and leopard) could all be caught on camera even though the leopards were in a smaller area on the side. The most amazing moment for us was whn the elephants walked to a little pond just as we got there and when swimming only to reveal a little "snorkle" on the surface. Tobias and Annika had a tour for themselves durfing their exclusive hone moon section of the trip. They lived in the little cottage you can se in the images. From their bedroom and their luxury jaquzzi you could see animals walking in the park right in front of them. Of course we were not allowed ;-).

Township tour For the first time down here we went for a guided tour in the townships. We went to a couple of different townships of different sizes and living standards. The first areas we visited was some of the first townships created during apharteid and are still formed by governmental measures for improvements. Our image of the poor black society of South Africa got a lot more nuanced and we were fed with loads of interesting information historical and current. The whole "tour" thing was still a bit peculiar though. Walking into peoples living rooms as a tourist tour did feel somewhat intrusive and the idea of that we "rich" tourists come to watch how poor and miserable conditions they live in did have a bit of bitter aftertaste even though we were assured that everyone in the area enjoyed tourists visiting. Unfortunately this limited the amount photos we felt like taking on the way. The houses differed a lot from street to street. There were large two stories buildings where peopled shared a flat of 3 small rooms for 12 people. There were also flats in the same building were one family could live by themselves. For those who had to share it seemed that intimacy and private life was complicated. It was not easy for a family to be tucked in with a whole lot of other people and still function. There were also regular villas in the township with gardens and parking lots. These belonged to people with good jobs that still lived in the township. Here you could find lawyers, doctors and many other well educated people living. Beside this the government had built a new row of houses called Beverly hills. This was a failed attempt to shape up the township since they stood empty when no one could afford living in them. Ironically next to them was the real classic small shackles that most of us associate with townships. These are build out of wood or industrial waste. Some so small they made you wonder if they can walk into them. An interesting thing was that in one area people was living in fairly nice houses for free. These people were the ones that used to live in the really bad wooden shackles. They could apply for a house so that the government could reduce the amount of wooden shackles that could rot and burn easily. Our insight of the living conditions now got a lot more aspects to it. Remarkable is that all houses no matter standard had access to electricity and water and from what we have heard everyone in South Africa has the right for education. So even though the townships are poor areas with an extremely high unemployment rate the living standard is probably better than comparable areas in most other Africa countries.   One thing that strook us was that everyone's clothes looked as new. Our clothes was spotted with sand dirt and baby food while the people in the township looked like they just came out of the clothing store.  We ended the trip in Kailitche(I think it is spelled) an township of one million inhabitants. The guides family had a gospel church and people were confessing how their prayers had been answered. The music was loud and suddenly we were called up at the stage. We were supposed to say a few words and contribute with a song :-| . After considering "Hello Africa" with dr alban and Kombaja my lord with Cindy Peters we settled for "Bae Bae vita lamm" . Fortunately no one could understand what we were singing and the crowd of 250 religious Africans cheered loudly when we were finished.

Tobbe & Calle surfs big waves Tobias had some skills from home but limited wave experience. Calle could hardly turn when he arrived. Even so these guys managed to survive some of the largest waves ever seen during Christmas time down here. Their development was amazing. Summer in Southafrica is usually high wind and small waves but for some reason this year december and beginning of January the swell was hardly ever smaller than 3 meters . If you look at some of the pictures here you can see how big the waves got in comparison to the flat water in Habo Ljung that these guys thought was normal.

Shark attack Cape town and South africa has one of the most intense Great White populations in the world. Almost once a year there is a lethal attack on swimmers, divers or surfers. If you look at the statistics only a few people are killed in the world each year from Great whiite attacks. The other high risk areas are Australia, California and Hawaii. The only difference between South africa and those places is that there are very few people in the waters of South africa. The exposed beaches we are talking about here only hold a couple of thousands of bathers on a good day. If you imagine the amount of people in the waters of California, Australia and Hawaii we are probably talking many millions of people in the water every day. Still South Africa has about the same statistics when it comest to shark attacks by Great whites. That gives you an idea of how concentrated this shark population really is. Still there are far more people killed by everyday elements like getting stung by a bee, falling off a chair or walking on the streets. In comparison to these risks we are taking on a daily basis getting attacked and killed by a Shark is as likely as winning the billion dollar world lottery. On the 12th of January 2010 it was time for a Zimbawian tourist to draw the unlikely lottery ticket on the beach Fish Hoek. Amazingly this beach had a lethal Shark attack the last time we were down as well, 5 years ago. This man was excersising by swimming with goggles a bit furhter out than everyone else. The prior shark attack had also been on a lady who was swimming rather than bathing. Though the lady had done so every day for many years before she was attacked. This man was unlycky to be attacked on his first time. Even if only one tenth of recorded White shark attacks are lethal this shark did not hesitate. Fish hoek beach is facing towards the famous Seal island were most of the sensational "jumping" sharks have been caught on camera. The island is packed with seals and there are constantly white sharks waiting in the water aroud the island to try to catch a seal. To survive the seals have developed a tecnique by jumping at a regular basis through the first high risk area just outside the island. This is why Sharks can often be seen jumping and maybe this is also a reason why some sharks in this area attacks rather than investiges an unnatural prey like a human. Of course this is nothing but an guess. Most info you hear about sharks seems to be just this, guesses and assumptions. Visit the site if Ischtyology and you can see some of the hard facts of records of observations and attacks. Read the article

Braii In Cape town you can count on that there is always a group or faces known from before. We've bumped in to many people during this trip that we have met in places like Cape Town, Sweden, Australia before. The windsurfing society is quite small even though spread all over the world. Cape Town is probably also the place that noone can let go of. People usually return because it is so good in all ways. One of these people was Jocke whom I (Bjorn) have spent almost a season in Australia with and actually the last time I saw him was here in Cape Town 8 years ago. Another group was Borje & Linda & co from Halmstad. This made for a braii (BBQ in the laguange afrikaans) with some of the Swedish surfers down at the moment. The balcony is made for braiis and the sunset and skyline of Cape Town is a pretty decent scenery :-).

Kris & Mathilda arrives It was time for a transition in the house. Calle & Helena and Tobias & Annikas time was going towards its end and Kristofer and Mathilda with their Hjördis was going to release them. Before that we had some great time all of us enjoying a full house of good friends. Kristofer had also brough a new camera for Bjorn which hopefully will show on the upcoming albums. The house now turned into a windsurfing house instead of a Kite place. Bjorn was eager to get the windsurf going. The first month there was only 10 days of windsurfing and lots of kite sessions. Ebba was delighted to have a new friend and it was fortunate because I think she would have gone through a depression if August just dissapeared without a replacement. Actually I think we would have too. The time with Helena & Calle had been so good, we were so synced with the kids and kiting and all and had lots of fun together. Getting Tobias & Annika down we had only hoped for so when they told us they were coming down for their honeymoon we were so happy and the month they had been down went so fast. Being able to share Cape town with some of youre best friends really makes the pleasure more than double. The same accounted for the windsurfing when Kristofer arrived. To quote a fairly arrogant  surf legend Laird Hamilton; -  I'd rather be out on a 3 foot day with a my friends than a 30ft day with a couple of jerks(according to Mr hamilton this would be everyone else ;-)).  Except for the Jerk bit I know what he is talking about. We used to be practicing waterstarts in Magnarp and now we are surfing some of the best breaks in the world together.

Windsurfing from the house In Cape town there are a couple of spots that everyone windsurfs at. But the beach is actually long and even though the waves are not as clean as in Sunset,  Dolphin beach that happens to be right down from our house has offered some really nice conditions. Of course it helps that we can rig in the garden and walk down but the waves are usually really big and nice and there is always a constant wind all the way from the inside. Sunset beach has been really gusty this year with big holes on the inside that rarely offers any jumping conditions. So many days we have sailed right down from the house.

Andreas & Katja This time we were fortunate to be down at the same time as Bjorns brother Andreas and his Katja. Even though they were busy catching up with Katjas family and sister who also was here in the family villa in Fish hook we still managed to spend some really great days together. During their 2 weeks we managed to squeeze in a trip to the aquarium, constantias jewel the wineyard "Better than expected" and of course they had to get their hands dirty with a surf in Big Bay.

Pater noster Andreas Olandersson had arrived and him and the rest of the boys where over for a braii in the house. Of course there are few Sweeds with the same local knowledge of Cape Town than Andy. This showed just days later when he convinced us to go to a spot we had not heard of the other times wed been down. Just north of Langebaan was a place with a name that had a religous ring to it. That was not the only thing that was religous. The waves that welcomed us we're like gifts from "Our Father". The wind was a bit gusty and little weak but the angle and superclean waves made it simple to get a good position and we got some of the best waves we've ever gotten in South Africa before. Both me and Kristofer got a bunch of unforgettable 3 meter waves with endless buttomturns. Unfortunately as soon as the camera came out the wind dropped and it was hard to get anything. But Andreas was of course ripping so rightfully he'll get the most focus in this album.

Upcoming in part 3 More Windsurfing kiting with Wales Dolphins hunting