Christmas Day wandeling door East Perth

Lekker weer bij 30 graden om en wandeling van 2 uurtjes te maken van ons huis langs de Swan River naar Maylands en teroeg via Mount Lawley.
Fantastische Wetter heute, perfekt fuer 'ne kleine Wanderung von 2 Stunden langs dem Swan River in East Perth.

Alle Jahre wieder......am Strand

24. December - Parry Street, deserted and blue sky with Cirrus Clouds.....and just 30 degrees this year and a breeze! Lovely!

As in previous years, we have decorated our home extensively. The Christmas Tree is 60cm tall and does not loose its needles, amazing. 

 Andrew and Sam hiding in the bushes during the party in Leederville.

 The two dogs of our friends where had the Christmas party on sunday 22nd December, lovely little creatures. Both had surgery due to Skin Cancer, so even dogs are vulnerable to the intense Perth Sun.

50 days leading up to Xmas 2013

Since our last entry on our blog, much has happened. Summer had a very slow start after a long winter with lost of rain. But the long winter had a good outcome: the wild flowers are abundant. Beginning of November we made a daytrip to Perth Hills in the shire of Kalamunda to see the flowers (and the local bush inhabitants). Down side to all this lush green bush which grew thick, is the danger of fires. We already experienced bush fires just north of Perth.

Op zaterdag 16 november was de Beaufort Street Festival. Een steeds groter wordende brarderie, die dit jaar meer dan 120.000 bezoekers trok. Overal waren eettentjes en drankgelegenheden opgezet. Veel muziek en natuurlijk veel zon en 33 graden.

En toen kwamen die 2 uit Amsterdam: Robbie en Ronald. Het was fantastisch! 3 weken heel veel pret gehad. En ontzettend leuke plaatsen bezocht. Ningaloo Reef was schiterend. Robbie was altijd als eerste in het water, een echte waterdier. We hebben bewijs: kijk maar naar onze diavoorstelling.

Beach workshop in Mozambique and Surprise Party

The last two weeks I spent in Mozambique. That was my first visit ever. The airport at Inhambane was one of the smallest ones I ever landed, same size as those in Madagascar that I visited in the years before.

We started off with workshop in Tofo, a small fishing village with excellent scuba dive sites. Tofo is known as the place where you can see Humpback whales, Whalesharks and Manta Rays, almost all year round. And many Dolphins to swim with. I was lucky and swam with about 20 dolphins during a snorkeling trip.........Tofo ist bekannt als Tauchparadies fuer Rochen, Walhaie, Delphine und Buckelwale. Video:
http://youtu.be/WjZTHdwEHPM

We were a group of 8 researchers from all over the world. We rented a nice house overlooking the Indian Ocean. As it turned out, an excellent spot for watching the Humpback whales jumping and flipping the fins. Amazing sites every day from our large balcony. We were quite distracted many times. Even Eagle rays were jumping backwards, never seen that before.

Buckelwale und Rochen waren am springen und haben ihre Flossen auf Wasser geschlagen. Jeden Tag kamen ca. 15-20 Wale vorbei.
Video: http://youtu.be/OYh05aoxssg

Tofo has a few tourists around, mainly for diving and surfing. The village is small and many little bars and restaurants with Mozambique food. Was a real treat, mainly excellent seafood.

We had a simple breakfast with a mix of western and African food, scrambled eggs, potatos roasted, ham, bread, and a huge fruit salad every morning.....







Young local artists sell their paintings at the beach. He and his brother made those.

After Tofo, I went to the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association conference in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Maputo was actually interesting, looked a bit like my old country East Germany in places. A mix of socialist architecture and Portuguese. Everybody speaks english there, that was surprising.

While I was in Mozambique, I had organized a birthday party for Andrew's special birthday. Luckily it was a real surprise, Andrew had no idea. Sam and Kevin invited Andrew for dinner to their house, yet instead he found himself at his birthday party. 25 people turned up, friends and people we regularly meet at the weekly dinner in China Town called 'Duck Night".

Ueberraschungsparty fuer Andrew zum 50. Geburtstag. Da ich nicht da war, habe ich mit Freunden eine Party organisiert. Unsere Freunde haben ihr Haus zur Verfuegung gestellt, ich habe drinks und die Torte beigesteuert. Sam und Kevin habe alle heimlich eingeladen und niemand hat es verraten.

City to Surf - zum Dritten

48,000 runner hit the road for the City to Surf run Marathon, Half-Marathon, 12k, 4k and Walking.

Das Wetter war super zum laufen, 19 Grad, bisschen Regen am Anfang...bestes Wetter fuer schnelles laufen. Naja, ich bin nicht mehr so schnell, eher Fun Run fuer mich und vor allem wollte ich ohne Verletzung ins Ziel kommen wie im vorigen Jahr.
This year my only goal was to finish my third City to Surf without injury, just take it easy and run about 1 hour. And for sure to shrink my belly. I could still start in Wave 1A, just behind the few top runners who do it under 45 minutes.

Nach 56:57min war ich im Ziel, das war besser als erwartet und sicher unter 1 Stunde. Ich war dann auch recht zufrieden, Andrew auch, er hat mich abgepasst am Ziel. Alles super organisiert, Busse brachten alle Zuschauer nach City Beach am Strand zum Indischen Ozean.
56:57min was not too bad, its almost as fast as 2 years ago and now injury this time. Well done. For the $2000 winners prize, though,  I should have run 20min faster. So, next year again.

Some images:
Middle: the Marathon winner Chelimo from Kenya, 2:13h, really good on that difficult track
Upper right: the fastest Marathon woman 2:41h.

Winter...Wunderland...PERTH

Am 21. Juni ist unseres Winter begonnen, aber bis jetzt haben wir kaum Regen gehat (und auch kein Hagel).

Heute sitzen wir wieder draußen -es ist fast Mittags- ins Garten und die Sonne scheint hell ohne Wolken!

Das ist das was viele Leute so abhängig macht um in Perth zu bleiben: Das schönes Wetter.

Um 11.45 am, essen wir unsere Mittagsessen und arbeiten wir ein bisschen am Computer.

Später haben wir ein Spaziergang geplant in Kingspark. Nacht's kann man auf die Perth Skyline schauen, super:

Leo und Arjen waren zu Besuch; wir waren gespant wie es ihnen in unserer Heimat gefaellt! Even kijken hoe Perth de jongens uit Amsterdam bevalt. 

Leider ist das Wetter nicht mehr so schon wie die letzten Wochen, aber spass kann man noch immer haben:

Wine Tasting in onze eigen Swan Valley, 30 min van Perth. We hebben genoten! 

En natuurlijk een tour naar de Pinnacles zodat de jongens nog en beetje natuur zien. We hadden geluk, veel zon en wolken, dus een goede dag om rond te lopen en naar Kangoeroes te zoeken. Jammer genoeg alleen poep en sporen gevonden, verder niks. Later hadden we wel geluk, maar dan moest eerst nog iets gebeuren........

Op weg naar huis hadden we autopanne, maar de twee jongens waren zo snel met de band wisselen, dat ik bijna niets hoefde te doen, alleen aan het eind heb ik even kunnen helpen. Geweldige kerels, hoor! Dus, ze hebben de koalas en kangoeroes toch nog kunnen zien in Yanchep park. En...Xmas in July hebben we ook gevierd in het restaurant. Het is de enige maand die een beetje koud is om de sfeer van Kerst te creëren....