Travel

My Indian SIM card article is still the best performing on the site. So I’m going to go ahead and impart a bit of my hard earned knowledge about SIM cards in Oz, in hopes of a) saving you some time, and b) bumping my pathetically stagnant stats :) Here’s the deal. Telstra has a virtual monopoly here in Australia. If you want tier 1 service, it’s Telstra. They resell capacity to other providers, but they have poor rural coverage and can be oversubscribed (slow data). If you are only going to be in the big smoke, you’ve got some choices, otherwise… you’ve got it, Telstra. ...

It’s been a while since we have posted an update. Mostly we have been busy with school and jobs and planning for a great new adventure in the summer. But more on that later. For now, here’s a glimpse of an average morning… walking to work in a blizzard.

We got up early early again this morning so we could get to Kolmanskop before the tour busses. It was a really good thing we did too. A surprising number of people showed up today to see this abandoned diamond mining boom town.

Our friends on s/y Eva took us on a little road trip to Hout Bay today. We picked up some more green coffee beans, and some hard to find grocery items (black beans!) and then went off to see some natural beauty. The wind was raging (probably 30-40 knots) and kids and adults all enjoyed it’s strength without having to worry about the consequences (save for one lost hat). We finished the day with a fantastic Indian food picnic with a view of the bay and surrounding mountains. ...

The kids eat breakfast, tell us that their schoolwork is done and dash off to see their friends. There are two kid boats here right now (Eva and Yemaya) and five extra kids mean that there is never a dull moment for them. Vick and I take advantage of this new freedom to explore the town’s coffee shops and cafes. In the evening, we go to one of the neighbor’s boats for sundowners, tattoos, or an impromptu party. Life is sure enough good! ...

Here’s a short but fantastic video done by the same guy that did New Year’s Ink Audio Credit: Ehrling Video Credit: Wayne Willis

One of the things that I have been surprised with over and over on our trip around the world is how many times virtual strangers have offered to level up our experience by showing us their favorite places. On New Year’s Eve we met Wayne, Robyn, Steve, and Mandy and invited them over to Convivia for a little celebration. They showed up with the 3am Delos tattoo party, and before they left had invited to take all seven of us up the Sani Pass to Lesotho. This pass is listed on Dangerous Roads dot com (let that name sink in for a sec) where they make special note of the carcass of 4x4s that didn’t make it, littering the ravine below. Vick was just elated by the proposal (sarcasm). ...

Yesterday I unlocked a life achievement. While snorkeling at Tany Kely, I noticed a sea turtle. He was having a leisurely lunch on the reef far below. It was deeper than I normally free dive, but I wanted to chill with him so badly that I just took a breath and went for it.

We have seen lemurs already (in Russian Bay) but all of us were excited to have a better introduction to them at the (locally) famed Nosy Komba lemur park. The island is a weird mix of eco-tourism and authentic Malagash culture. It’s like a cleaned up Nosy Be. The pathways were all kept immaculate and the arts and crafts stalls boasted some of the best finished work we have seen in Madagascar. ...

Five years ago, a teenage girl died in the small Malagasy village of Antanambe. She was buried, as is her family custom, with all of her relatives, in a small plot cleared from the rain-forest in Verezanantsoro National Park. Here she awaits the decay of her corporeal form, so that she may finally join the spirit world. In the meantime though, she becomes lonely. The song and dance, the strong tradition of love and support that her village offered in life, is absent in death. ...

There are places that you hear about from other cruisers, special places. Perhaps the first time will be over sundowners in someone’s cockpit, and then again online, or through the coconut telegraph. After a while, a few of these places rise to the top, they become legendary. We have had the incredible good fortune of having visited many of them, but this one, we almost missed. We had originally planned to take the North Indian Ocean route, which would have shown us Sri Lanka, Maldives, Chagos (another storied cruiser destination) and possibly Seychelles. The wind died early for that route, this year, and we missed our chance. Then we decided to go from Padang, Sumatra, directly to Madagascar, but the winds weren’t really blowing that way and we didn’t have the fuel to motor to the wind. So we lucked out. ...

Today we joined No Regrets, for a trip into town for fuel, groceries and a visit to a traditional, mountain top village. When we arrived a local kid came up and offered to do a high jump demonstration. In this village, young men must jump over this stone structure in order to win the right to marry (I guess they were breeding for height). The jump was over so quickly that I am really glad I recorded it. You can enjoy it below the photos. ...