14 March... Ah, the last trip was uneventful, and I arrived home only a day late. This delay was only due to the vessel being so far from the shore that it took two hours by chopper to get to land, and then it was too late for my favorite flight down to South Africa. The break was fairly uneventful, too. I got my Landy in 4x4 mode for a week, and we did a bit of driving around. Unfortunately, the conversion to the car was destroying a gear, and we had to take it all out again. Eckie and me both have offroad vehicles that are not fully capable of their intended function. We have been having a year-long race to get these vehicles back to a driving state. Eckie has a Galendarwagen, and I have a Discovery. So far I have had more off-road action, as I had a week with it working properly. His car is due to be fixed soon, too, and then he will be clocking up the kilometers while I have to wait for mine to come out of the shop. The next break should be interesting. It largely coincides with a school holidays in Namibia, and hopefully we will be able to go see some real lions this upcoming break. So, the long running Land-Rover saga is not over yet. Still, for the time we did have it, it was great to be able to go anywhere we want again. The shock absorbers were upgraded, and the ride is amazingly better than it used to be. The engine still keeps purring along, and it's great all around, apart from the conversion not working quite right.

What a year...

Well, here we are at the start of yet another year. 2011 sure was a dusey of a year, and quite expensive. Not that I am complaining, of course, it was all money well spent. The move to the new house went pretty well, and we were all settled in by Christmas. It was a lovely time with a lot of family around, and all round relaxation. There was plenty of footage taken, and once I have a bit of spare time I will be working on the videos for it. Unfortunately my Land-Rover is still 2x4 only. While the conversion spares were all finished, there were some small flaws, and so we will be trying again next year. I posted some photos of Aiden on facebook, but this holiday was so much more than just that. Thank you, to all my friends and family, for an especially lovely 2011.

Ah, time for another blog entry. It's all quiet, and we are counting the days before going home. Just a few days to go! The trip has been busy but uneventful. At home there are a few developments. Our current neighborhood is a bit dodgey, and noisy day and night. We love our house, and have spent a long time making it pretty and Isolde did amazing work with the garden. Unfortunately, no amount of work will improve the neighborhood, and so we decided to move to a better neighborhood in the same town. We'll certainly miss our old house, and I will take a few photos just as we move out. The new house id a gem, though. I was leasing it out, and it will take a month before the current tenants vacate the place. Then it probably will take another week of serious fixing and painting before we can move in. The we will have to do a bit of painting on the old house and then we can start looking for tenants for that house. One of the unexpected benefits of the new house is that Ethen's current best friend will practically become a neighbor. Here is an image from google earth.

We will have to start all over again with gardening, but at least we have the sea to one side, and the desert on our doorstep. Hmm, maybe I will need a better picture of just the sort of neighborhoods involved...

Yep, I am actually looking forward to moving!

Proud daddy...

Ah, it was just the other day that Aiden was born, and at only 7 months of age he has already destroyed his first computer. Definitely his daddy's genes there.

It's been a lovely break this time around, with a camp in the Hauchab fontain farm, and some really adventurous sand driving with a bunch of people from the coast.

More about that later, when I get around to shrinking down the videos to youtube standard.

There are now exactly three weeks between me and being home with the family again. I am really looking forward to it. Amazing how much one gets to miss being home.

1UZ-FE

This is the code of the engine that have finally made it into my Land-Rover Discovery.

Here it's a bit noisy, as it does not have any exhaust fitted. When it's idling, however, its surprisingly quiet.

Vasbyt!

Ah, the roar of the big machines.

Every year they all come and try their skills, course makers and competitors alike.

Here is the highlights from the 1 July 2011 event:

My last holiday in short....

While I was at work, Aiden was growing and growing. And not giving his mum a lot of sleep. Anyways, I was quite surprised at how much he had grown by the time I got back. Luckily Isolde was taking pictures in my absence. Here Aiden is posing a little on a sunny afternoon.



So, being back at home, and Aiden coming along so nicely, we decided to go for a little drive. First we went down to Paaltjies, the beach south of Walvis Bay for those who don't know, but it was far too cold and windy, being the middle of winter for us. Then we went looking at the Kuiseb river that was still coming down. It was only a few centimeters deep, and so we went to visit one of our favorite camping spots:

Notice all the greenery. Usually this place is quite dusty, and can be seen on some of my earlier videos.




So, we decided to camp a little the next week. We packed the trailer, and I got a chance to try out the Kaudom... it's the big tent in this picture. We have had it for a year, and never been used, as Aiden's arrival was imminent. It takes about an hour to pitch. It was a lovely camp, nice and quiet and far away from people.
We had a full eclipse of the moon during my break as well. Amazingly, it was a clear night and I had a tripod handy. Finally I have a good picture of the Moon colored red by sunlight shining through the Earth's atmosphere. The previous couple of times I saw an eclipse it was always at work where a tripod does not do much good.


Aiden got to be four months old during this break, and he is looking to become quite a handsome fellow. Must be his mom's genes, I guess....