Glimpse of Africa

Bergie's training trip to South Africa

2004-02-14: Swazi Sauna

Bergie in Ezulweni Valley, Swaziland -- On thursday morning I started calling different motorcycle rental places to find a bike. Most of the rentals were out of bikes but finally I was able to find a reasonably priced BMW F650GS from Sama Tours in Hatfield, Pretoria (Darryl Berman, Tel +27825516132, Web www.samatours.co.za). Unfortunately... »

2004-02-11: Leave Matebeng Pass for Goats

Bergie in Pretoria, South Africa -- As my mobile phone had been offline during the hike, I had received a quite constant stream of text messages during the night. Again, the internationality of the whole trip amazed me. Our group included two Finns, one American, one South African and one Argentinian, and we were chatting in mixed Ger... »

2004-02-08: Land of the Basuthu

Bergie in Sani Top, Lesotho -- The evening around the fire was amazing. The fire circle is located on a good vantage point on the hill, with view opening across the small nature preservation area to the west and Pretorian suburb to the south. Full moon was shining, there was distant thunder illuminating clouds over the hills, an... »

2004-02-05: Struck by the drum

Bergie in Pretoria, South Africa -- While waiting for the roast to be ready we visited Hogan's Irish bar quite near Wapandrand. The bar had Guinness on tap, but apparently it was African made and tasted quite different from the normal stout. We tried to fish out the beer's origins from the waitress but she didn't know it. Rumor has it... »

2004-02-03: First view of Africa

Bergie in Pretoria, South Africa -- I left Helsinki in middle of a blizzard. It had snowed almost 30 cm during the morning and whole traffic was in chaos. Taxi call center had crashed, and it took almost half an hour to get a taxi to appear. After this it was quite pleasant to get to the lot warmer Paris. The six hour wait at Charles... »