fish 'n chips out the etosha pan

If there are no trees, no forest, and no-one to see them fall, then what? Etosha panning.

Namibia: vast, barren and beautiful.
No-ones land.
So it came as no surprise that as soon as we crossed the border, we found ourselves in wide, open spaces with no one around. Just us on a dirt road driving to nowhere. We had arrived...

drama damara to sea

stars eyes for start skies

Our journey carried on over Grootberg pass on the C40 to Twyfelfontein. We eventually found the petrified forest, after passing several fakes that promised to be equally petrifying. Despite being millions of years old, it is hard to believe or even see that these ancient trees are made of rock. We stayed at Aba Huab camp, right on the river bed. Unfortunately, we didn't see any desert elephant, but met another scorpion which came to sniff out our pasta dinner. Another nights sleep under starry skies!

namib desert & the south

sossus, we're ready

Our next destination was Sesriem, to see the famous dunes early the next morning. We left Homeb after a quick stroll, but got distracted at zebra pan on our way back to the C19. The pan was full of big herds of gemsbok, zebra (with just day old calves), springbok and wild horses, all out in the open with no fences. Naturally we had to watch so by the time we arrived at the Kuiseb canyon it was already lunchtime.

Tree of Life - Full Movie

In 2012, we decided to mix things up a bit...
We threw in the towel with living in Switzerland and decided to move to South Africa. While in transit, we jumped at the opportunity of not being tied down in any way, deciding to visit BC for a 6 week roadtrip. Somewhat of a pilgrimage to visit the best bike parks and trails.
This is our journey through whistler, pemberton, silver star, sun peaks, kamloops, fernie, nelson, mount washington and of course the north shore.

Our adventures at each of these amazing places can also be found at:

http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-shore.html
 http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-tree-of-life.html
http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/08/island-style.html
http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/07/placenta-descenta.html http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/07/rumplestumpskin-vs-tnt-curse-of-chinese.html http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/07/nomad-inclinations.html http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/07/lost-in-pemberton.html http://elementmotion.blogspot.com/2012/07/wicked-at-whistler.html

helter skelter

Kirstenbosch Gardens

On a quick day trip to Cape Town, Barbs and I went hiking up Table Mountain. We started in the lovely Kirstenbosch Gardens and up Skeleton Gorge to one of the Reservoirs up there.
Steep, steep, steep through the beautiful forest and up the ladders to finally see the view over False Bay.

wild at kirstenbosch

It was a stunning day in August, and after dropping off Pete at the airport I stopped at Kirstenbosch Gardens on the way to Hout Bay. The light was amazing and the views of the fresh snow on the peaks were incredible.

a roadtrip: episode 2

behind us the high speed gully which Elite riders race through with 70km/h

So we arrived in Pietermaritzburg for the Masters World Championships downhill race. Being held in South Africa made it a once in a lifetime opportunity. After watching a few Downhill World Cup races on TV over the years, we never thought that we would actually be at a race. And definitely not to participate! But thanks to Paul and his constant nagging , we eventually did sign up and here we were feeling a bit out of our depths.