Category Archives: Travel

Kei Shy

This woman was waiting for a taxi on the other side of the Kei River on the Wild Coast, having travelled across on the Pont for a R2 fee. She is Sangoma in training, apparently second level according to my friend Ncami from work at SustainEd. Ncami says the first level requires red soil to be painted on the face, and when you progress to second level you must paint it white. She was very patient with me snapping away, and nodded with stern approval at the pictures on my camera screen after they were taken. I always feel very shy to ask people if I can take pictures of them, and actually it was a friendly dude who asked her for me. We met through my complete cowardice, as he packed up laughing when he noticed me trying to sneak up on some enormous Nguni cows lying on the muddy river plain nearby. The laughing part came from me galloping away as soon as they moved a muscle…their horns were massive! He yelled at me to be brave and charge them if they ran at me…

Girls are weird

I sit here and scratch the last bit of scab off my elbow; it’s irritating me as it rubs on my Great Auntie Joan’s antique writing desk. It was quite a substantial roastie actually; a nice deep burgundy rose colour and I acquired it when clobbering my elbow climbing ‘Xena’ (19) during the night climbing session at the Roc Rally in Waterval Boven a couple weeks back. Crikey it was eina, but I tried not to moan about it lest I sounded like a…girl? Continue reading

Hunter S. would’ve downed a handful of change with bourbon

Hey yo, please click on the highlighted link if you’d like to read a three page story.  Raging Bulls of Change. It sure as shit ain’t poetry and it’s too long for a regular blog post, but maybe it’s relevant for some. Plus I have nowhere else to put it.

Green balls of curiosity in Waterval Boven

Green balls of curiosity in Waterval Boven

Joey Kinder and Colette McInerney

So, as most of the climbing community in South Africa know, we had Team America travelling round our wintery country the last couple of weeks. Team America, as they were fondly dubbed, comprise Joey Kinder and Colette McInerney.

Joey Kinder @ Umgeni, smiling for a change

Joey Kinder @ Umgeni, smiling for a change

Continue reading

Mumford & Sons are worth a listen this Monday

You have to love Mumford and Sons. Well actually you don’t, but if this song doesn’t make Monday kiff I don’t know what will. I think I fell a little bit in love with Marcus Mumford right now. Tristan, my brother, says it’s perfectly fine to have a man-crush on Marcus Mumford so I guess that’s okay then? Continue reading

The Jikeleza Jog 2011 all wrapped up

It’s now been four days since I arrived back home from the Jikeleza Jog 2011, and I’ve had a bit of time to process the event. Actually I find it weird to refer to it as an ‘event’, because running down the Wild Coast for three days is not like an ordinary race. It’s not rigidly structured, it’s not branded to hell and back – it’s an organic natural experience, a way to get from A to B without more than a bottle of water and a good pair of trainers. The path varies, it swerves, it dips, it goes through water, over rocks and sometimes it disappears altogether. And that is how trail runners like it. Continue reading

Active Escapes Jikeleza Jog 2011

Some of you may know that I work part-time for a company called Active Escapes. My ‘boss’ is a zingy little firecracker of a woman called Sarah who has a knack for organizing things that are A. a success, B. fun and C. always in the most awesome places you can think of.  Continue reading

The Cold Ninja

I went on a berg hike with my Active Escapes buddies Sarah, Matt and mountain guide Carlos Gonzalez. We met up with a bunch of other people, but this particularly extreme ‘fun’ activity took place before we found the others at Zulu cave later in the day. Continue reading

Raspberry fizzy drink lifestyle

This little girl was at the PMB gymnastics club while her Mom was coaching. She didn’t stop playing the entire time that my friend and I were climbing on the High Altitude wall. Continue reading

JC is coming…

This email was started up by my mate James Harvey who has an irrepressible lust for fun in dodgy places… Continue reading