25 Dec 2010

 
 
 
 

Kerstdag wandeling op Linker Oever.
Was prachtig weer , soms wel beetje koude wind maar verder heel aangenaam.

 

 

Torsmork Landmanalaugar

 
 
 

Back Home :-(

Did you know that some of the pictures in this Blog are links to Picasa web Albums; you just have to double click them and when a series of pictures appear, you select SLIDESHOW in the top-left corner. Enjoy !!!
BFN

Iceland BRRRRRR

Hello Everyone,
Akureyri is the capital of Northeren Iceland , and don't you feel it !!All the guidebooks say that Lake Myvatn and the rest of northeren iceland are warmer and dryer than the south but I say they're all wrong, mad or malicious! It's fucking cold here and it rains a lot!
I'm staying at the backpacker wing of the Akureyri Hotel , which is a big appartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 or 4 beds in each one , a bathroom with washingmachine (which i am trying out at the moment) and a equiped kitchen. My tent is drying wonderfully and I'm hoping it'll rain 2 days-worth tonight so that tomorrow or the day after I'll be able to go camping again. I must say that for being over 20 years old , my macpack tent has done extermely well so far, I could do with a groundsheet and a new tentbag but the top part of the tent is in great condition !
The 4 day trek from Torsmork to Landmanalaugar was great, the first day I spent 2 hours trying to find the right spot to ford the first river I came to, only to find that the trail is set-up to get you to the river in the exact spot where it is best to cross it. Fortunately none of the rivers were more than knee-deep. All was quiet at the first hut untill the arrival of a German filmcrew that was making a documentary on the area, they came with tons of gear that was brought in by a four-wheel-drive truck. Anyway, I wisely moved from the hut they'd be staying in to another one. The second day was terrible weatherwise and fortunately also the most boring one in terms of landscape, nothing but black lavafields and walking along the road. Then the third day it was sunny and colourfull but climbing up and down those steep slopes was exhausting work. I tried my tent for the first time that night and was very hapy it only rained a little bit. Then the last day it was nice weather again and as far as I was concerned the walk wasn't long enough but really lovely.
In Landmanalaugir I camped again and tried Icelandic Flatbread (bit like burnt pancakes) and smoked fish that had been caught and smoked localy, it tasted great but getting the skin off took some getting used to.The cheese they sold wasn't bad either but a bit like Gauda.
The next day I spent exploring the surrounding valeys and getting into all sorts of trouble 'cause basically I didn't know where I was going, got back to the tent just before it started raining again.
The next day at 8:30 AM the bus tor Myvatn left and stopped at several places along the way but eventually broke down and so we had to wait for another bus to come and rescue us. I saw som huge waterfalls that day but the biggest one I still havn't seen.
Yesterday I walked to a very nice lavafield , across the rim of a volcano and finally to the hot springs/swimmingpool/sauna. Afterwards we found the geothermal crevace and the hot pool inside which was too hot to bathe in. Then on to the pub in town for some Fish&chips , chocolate cake with cream and a rather nice bear (Monu).. This morning was spent mainly in the kitchen-tent trying to keep dry and warm untill the bus would arrive.
Now I'm sitting here, writing while i wait for the washing mashine to finish, hope it'll do so soon because it's already 10 to midnight, no midnight sun here, it's dark outside and it seems the Icelanders also like to cruse around town just for the sake of crusing around.
Ahh, it seems the washing mashine is spindrying so I'll be able to go to bed soon.
Bye for now!

Prambanan & Borobodur

Wouw op Java na de vulkanen toch ook wat (vervlogen) cultuur meepikken. Sommige van die reliefs zijn toch wat verontrustend.

Rinca

Penga 5710

Ijen Plateau

Sabayor Kecil

Bromo

Wow, nu kan ik een link publiceren waardoor je mijn fotos op Picasa kunt zien vanuit mijn blog, de techniek ...
Het was daarboven, boven Mt Bromo, op het uitkijkpunt, niet echt koud omdat er gelukkig geen wind was. Wel veeeeel volk en allemaal dringen om DE zonsopkomst te fotograferen. Enfin heb me wat op afstand gehouden en fotos zijn er niet minder om denk ik.

15 juni 2010

Hello Everyone,
In the last few days there was'nt much chance to communicate with the outside world, I've been in Mulu and from there on a walking/climbing trip to THE PINNACLES. The trip started easy enough with a boatride with 2 stops along the way, one at Wind Cave (not as windy as I'd hoped) and one at Clearwater Cave which has an underground river flowing through it. Then we walked 9 KM to camp five an spent the night there.By this time my clothes were soaking wet with my sweat and hanging them out to dry during the night didn't do much good, so around 2 am I decided to dry them over one of the cooking fires. This resulted in dry but rather burned underwear, my T-shirt survived almost intact. Camp five has cooking facilities and a big supply of drinking water, there are also cookies and chocolate bars and canned drinks for sale which was great because otherwise I wouldn't have had enough food with me.
The next morning I had my CUP O NOODLES for breakfast and around 6:30 AM we started our climb up the mountain. Around one hour later Anna gave up which was a shame. Anyway, we got to the point of no return far ahead of time. The last 300 meters altitude you gain are steeper, but actually easier because of all the ladders and ropes that have been installed. When we got to the pass it started raining slightly and so we quickly took some pictures of the impressive Pinnacles and had lunch after which we started the long climb back down. This was much slower going than climbing up and every step of the way I was scared of slipping and falling on one of those extremely sharp Limestone rocks. The rain stopped for a little while but when it started again it started for real and didn't stop 'till we got back to camp. I was carying my umbrella in one hand and holding onto whatever support I could find. After droping off the small backpack I went for a cool shower (after coming out of the pouring rain) but that didn't take away the sweaty smell, nothing did and having to put thesame wet clothes ack on dod't help much either. This morning I reeked so badly I thought I'd never get rid of the smell but now, two showers later and a bar of soap gone I think I'm alright again.
Tomorrow I'll go and visit the Deer cave and hopefully see the swarms of Bats as they leave. I saw that already in Guatemala but I'ts one of the main attractions around. I must say, I saw more wildlife in the sesspool behind the Scubajunkie Backpackers in Semporna than in the 3 national parks in Sarawak combined. I saw butterflies here and some swarms of bats from a great distance and then there's the house lizard of the cafe who isn't that scared of guests, but that's it, along the river you occasionaly see one of those small birds that look like swallows but make batlike noises but the otherbirds, I'm sure thei're there, you never see.

8/6 part 3

We couldn't go diving together though 'cause the first 3 days he again had pupils for the open water course and towards the end of that course he got an inner-ear infection :-( Guess It'll be for another time.
I did go diving though and snorkling and saw loads of fish and turtles, I also made it out to Sipadang where there's an abundance of sharks.

8/6 part 2

I got to the junction and started walking in the direction of Semporna and immediately got picked up by a man in a pick-up so I spent the rest of the ride comfortably in the open air :-)
Stayed in Scuba junkie's hostel where I met a dive-master who's been hanging around looking for a job for the last 3,5 weeks.
On the 2nd of june I got the boat to Mabul and finaly met up with Ryan again.

8/6/2010

From Sandakan I took a very fancy bus to Semporna (6 hours) , that broke down after 3 hours... Should have known when I boarded a bus with "SIDA Express" on the back. We all waited around for about an hour and then another bus picked some of us up, I was amongst these lucky ones.

31/5/2010 3

Turns out it's anothe 2 km to the feeding places so I walk on again and get a ride in the back of a pick-up truck.
The feeding time was a bit like yesterday, crowded and noisy, but the Proboscis Monkeys were rather close and out in the open. There was also a bird with black&white beak and another sort of monkey that seemed rather tame and friendly.

31/5/10 2

From there it's 16 km , I put out my hand to lift and a motorbike stops but after a few hundred meters he gets a puncture, a second moped lift takes me at (to me) excessive speed to another turnoff, then the first 3 cars don't stop but the 4th is a little bus and I get a ride all the way to the entrance-boot.

31/05/2010

This morning I started out for Sandakan full of hope and was happy to get a lift into town almost straight away. I was very disapointed though to find the Malaysian Airways office closed on a bank holliday, i wonder why !!!
Hopefully tomorrow things will be different, if not getting flights to Miri and Mulu will be even more difficult than expected.
Getting to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary was easy if varied. Starting out from Sandakan I got onto a local bus that took forever but eventually got me to the turnoff point for the center.

Borneo, 30/5/2010

I did get 3 month visa on arrival in Penang :-) since then I went to 2 islands just of the coast of Kota Kinabalu (KK) and then went and climbed Mount Kinabalu, 4195 meters high it is, but the bus drops you at about 1500 meters altitude. anyway, the first day one climbs to 3400 meters and then has diner + go to bed at 9 PM to get up again at 2 AM and climb to the summit. There you put on as much warm clothing as you brought and wait for sunrise, i got lucky and actually saw it, days before it had been cloudy.

Then the hardest part starts: the descent back down to 1500 meters. Now , 2 days later my legs are starting to feel sore.

Today i spent with the Orangutans of Sepilok rehabilitation centre which was great.

That's all for now.

22/05/10 Hongkong

HeHe, It's been a while because in China one can not acces blogs, facebook, picassa or anything, Gmail still worked thank goodness!

Since I entered China from Kathmandu and passed through Tibet on the way, my visa was made out on a seperate piece of paper. It was a group visa for one person and nobody in china has the authority to extend those. So I had to cut my visit to China short and fly off to Hongkong. On monday I'm flying first to Penang and 6 hours later on to Borneo (Sabah), let's hope I get a 3 month visa on arrival.

24/4/2010

Weer vroeg opgestaan in een poging naar het fort te geraken zonder inkom te betalen, maar de tweede poort was met een groot hangslot afgesloten. DAMN ! Volgens mij zijn de meest indrukwekkende beelden van het fort toch van benedenaf te vinden, dus was het niet erg.

Het ontbijt was deze keer veel interessanter - op de hoogste verdieping van het hotel, de zon reeds in het gezicht en ... marmelade en jakkaas - yeeeehaa !

Om 9 u. vertrokken voor drie bergpassen - 5400, 5017 en 4700 m. hoog, om dan eindelijk in Lhasa te arriveren. Eerst was er het stuwmeer dat er schitterend uitzag, dan een gletsjer, een heilig meer waarboven het zandstormde en een ontmoeting met een jak en een Tibetaanse mastif. Moest natuurlijk met die hond op de foto en heb ook een pup in mijn armen gehad. Heel de dag dus met de camera in de aanslag gezeten.

23/4/2010

Vroeg opgestaan en met Monica, het Spaanse meisje, nou ja "vrouw", de Kora (rondomwandeling die bedevaarders doen) van het klooster gaan doen. Dat bracht ons op heel toffe plekjes die perspectieven boden die we gisteren gemist hadden. We waren ook zowat de enige toeristen wat ook leuk was.

Om 10 u. na ons mager ontbijt, vertrokken we naar Giantze en halverwege zijn we gestopt bij een gerstmolen op waterkracht. Moest aan Kitty haar watermolen denken. De gerst wordt er vermalen tot Tsampa-bloem. Iets na de middag kwamen we in Giantze aan en gezien het uur gingen we direct aan tafel. 2 uur later was mijn vegetarische burger er nog niet, waarna ik het maar voor bekeken hield en terug buiten gegaan ben. Door "this total waste of time" begon het reeds te betrekken toen wij bij de grootste Stupa in Tibet aankwamen. Toch nog goed geamuseerd en weer met Monica verder geklommen naar het hoger gelegen klooster. Nu niet direct fenomenaal maar wel knap uitzicht en we kwamen ongeveer op gelijke hoogte met het fort dat we al vanaf de hoofdweg hadden gezien. Veel monniken waren er daar niet, maar wel verschillende katten die blijkbaar graag gestreeld werden.

's Avonds na een uitgebreid diner toch nog snoep gaan kopen, gedroogd fruit en Jellybeans.

22/4/2010

Shigatze - Hebben heel de morgen in de stralende zon door het kloostercomplex gewandeld, de verschillende tempels bezocht en onze "Tashidelek" geoefend. Schitterende foto's kunnen maken, twee zelfs binnen in een tempel toen er niemand was. De monniken zijn heel vriendelijk en toen we even bij hen gingen zitten tijdens de middag begonnen ze eerst te bidden "ohmmanipadmehung" etc. etc. Dan kregen ze boterthee geserveerd in grote kommen uit reuzachtige theepotten en daar werd dan tsampa doorgemangd. Ze hebben ons ieder een Boullet Tsampa gegeven die we met veel moeite verwerkt kregen. Nadien zijn Ulla en ik steeds verder naar boven geklommen tot bij de huisjes van de monniken en de grote witte muur, vanwaar tijdens het jaarlijks festival de grote Thanka wordt ontrold (cnfr Bhutan). Heb daarboven ook een schaap en ram gezien, dus mijn dag was ook weeral goed !. Rond 3 uur zijn we de stad ingegaan, maar dat was niet spectaculair.

05/04/2010
Heb de eerste trektocht in Buthan achter de rug, begon al op 2500 meter en daarna steeds hoger. Was vooral 'snachts zeer ko0ud maar draagbaar en mijn matje deed het uitstekend :-)
De laatste nacht hebben we vanwege de sterke wind gevraagd of we in het klooster mochten slapen en de "oppermonnik" vond het OK Dus wij een nacht droog , uit de wind en redelijk warm geslapen yeehoooo !
Gisteren mezelf verwend met een full body massage, ook ni slecht !!!
zal nu nog eens poging doen om phototje bij te zetten.
Bye !
Fototjes zijn maar een blidelingse selectie, het klooster noemt Tiger Nest

Bhutan First Few Days

Hello,
The first days in Buthan have been great, the group I'm with is nice, 2 brits and a German couple, and the festival was great fun!
We also visited a weaving factory, the national museum and then this morning the festival again to see the huge thangka. After that we went to the Tiger Nest Monastery which was very beautyful.
For the pictures you will have to wait because Bhutan internet is dead slow.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot to mention, Rebbe has made babies twice already this year, good on him !!!!!!!

I saw some wild flowers (first of the season) on the "Wolvenberg" today, must say that my camera takes great pictures! Am quite happy !

Just 2 more days at work and then I'm FREE untill the first of November 2010 !!!!

Sounds great to me !!!!!

:-)