One of the strangest things in South Africa is that the houses don´t have heating. Although the maximum temperature is usually between 20 and 25 degrees celcius in winter, the nights are much colder and this cold creeps into the house through badly insulated windows and doors. As a consequence, the house is usually much colder inside than the outside temperature during the day!

Practically, this means we tend to open the windows wide during the day to get the warm air in. We also often eat breakfast and lunch outside, as it is warmer to sit on the patio than to sit in the dining room!

You have to be careful with the opening of windows and doors, though. Today, we had a monkey visit us in our kitchen. He came in through the open door and stole all (four) our bananas and a bunch of bread. When we found him on the kitchen counter, our noise scared him into knocking some dishes of the counter! When we went outside, we found the finished banana peels:

As well as a glance of the culprit who had entered the house:

We just come back from Grahamstown where we spent 5 days at the National Arts Festival. Normally, Grahamstown is a relatively quiet town which is mainly known for its university. However, once a year, an arts festival takes place which brings thousands of visitors into the town to watch hundreds of shows in the “main” (official) and “Fringe” program (unofficial).

We choose to watch up to 6 shows a day on the festival.

Tickets for Grahamstown festival

We watched drama, comedy, dance, music, film and lectures. And that was just a fraction of what there is to see at the festival!

During the festival, any possible location in the town is converted into a venue. From the “cultural center” the monument …

The Monument in Grahamstown

… over the botanic garden …

Botanical Gardens Grahamstown

… to churches

Church plastered with posters

The festival is one of the highlights of our stay in South Africa. Karl likes to describe it as “the most fun we have had in South Africa”. We cann´t wait to go back next year. And, who knows, maybe next year we will have some time to visit the Jazz festival, the exhibits, the village green and the other stuff we did not find time for this year!

Mpekweni Beach Resort Album

Full moon … warm weather … low season …. and a desire to do something for the weekend. A perfect formula for a fabulous weekend at the nearby Mpekweni beach resort. The resort is about an hours drive from East London on the way to Port Alfred/Port Elizabeth on an area that is referred to as the “sunshine coast”.

We had a great time. The hotel is very nice with lovely rooms, good food and a sandy beach. When we were there, the beach was pretty much deserted making for some great walks and beautiful pictures. Click here or on the image to see pictures of ghosts in the moonlight, stairs that go up at night and down during the day and other interesting sights at the resort.

Chameleon Album

What an experience! On a recent trip to Mpekweni beach resort (pictures to be posted separately). We had a Chameleon visit us on the patio of our hotel room. It is the first time we ever saw a chameleon around here, so we had to investigate closer. We discovered the chameleon was very slow, so we managed to take some fabulous pictures and have it climb onto our hands. Click on the image or here to have a look at those wonderful pictures in the gallery.

We had a couple of birds visiting us which we had not seen around our place before. Karl took a beautiful picture of one of them. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Bird visiting

We regularly have fisheagles that come by and circle above the estuary by our place, looking for fish. Usually, they are too far to make a good picture of, but this one basically flew above our house, giving us a good chance to take some pictures. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast, so the colours did not come out too well. Click on the images to get a larger version:

We are wondering why we find a bird that is so similar to an American eagle here in South Africa. They look so similar that it would seem there ought to be a relationship between the South African and American counterparts.

A couple of days ago, the night sky was beautifully clear and the moon was mostly full so I decided to make a picture of the moon from South Africa. It was actually quite a bit of work since the picture kept coming out too bright, but I finally managed. Here is the result:

Nahoom Beach Album

We went to Nahoon beach in East London over the weekend and had our cameras with us. This album contains the resulting pictures with people and animals on the beach, including some great pictures of kite flying.

The best news of all is that I managed to get around the beach with my ankle, which means it must be getting much better. I don´t wear my cast anymore, nor do I use crutches. I still go to the Physio, though!

As always, click on the image, or here to go to the album.

Knysna Album

As mentioned in my whale post from December 19th, we made a wonderful trip to Knysna and visited nearby Tsitsikama national park and Robberg Peninsula in December 2005 (middle of winter!). This album contains a series of pictures from that trip. All three of these locations were very nice and definitely worth visiting!

Click on the image or here to see the album.