artisan visit

The other day I went to Gabane a small village outside of Gabs with a friend to visit some local artists. The main attraction is a pottery, where they produce beautiful traditional ceramics and some other crafts. In the shop, some women were quietly working on new pieces while outside, goats were running around. I really liked the design of the pieces and hope to be back sometime for more!

Pelegano Village Industries Gabane
phone: +267 3542133

a week-long drive

Last week we did a little 3600 km roadtrip through Botswana and Namibia and spent days in the car, watching the changing landscape along the road.

Apart from driving we also ate fresh apple pie in Solitaire, watched the sun rise over the Namib desert, climbed Big Mama (a big red sand dune at Sossusvlei), camped out in the Naukluft mountains and hiked up over the slopes & down a massive canyon for hours without meeting any other people, had some rain in the middle of the desert, played with a baby-seal, watched dolphins, pelicans, flamingos & a whale near Swakopmund and enjoyed champagne (& fresh oysters) during the cruise!

It was the perfect escape and I loved every minute of it!
(except maybe for the time when I just could not get the car to go up that very steep & scary mountain gravel road...)

bushwalking

On Sunday we went for a walk in the bush near Oodi. It is finally getting warmer and so it was a very pleasant stroll along a dry riverbed through some thornbushes. We were accompanied by some very excited dogs and also came across some cattle, goats and donkeys.









Outside the capital life seems to be even more relaxed and down to earth....and I must say I kinda like the country life after all :)

Thanks to Camola for taking us and to the K3H for organising it!

on the streets of Gaborone

Mostly, Gabs is a car-city. Because everything is spread out people take the car to go from one place to another. But there is some life on the streets: Parking lots are being used to sell veggies & fruits and other stuff and in the few pedestrian zones, you can buy everything from jeans to shoes to phone cards from the stalls.

It's good to know that there is a shopping life outside the supermarkets & malls! :)

Most Liveable City

Monocle has voted Munich the most liveable city in 2010!

As a native to this beautiful city, of course I've always known this ;)

And it’s good to see that also other people share this opinion…

pics: Rathaus at Marienplatz, Maibaum at Viktualienmarkt, Hofgarten of the Residenz

the lion sleeps tonight

We just got back from an amazing trip to Madikwe, just across the border in South Africa, where we stayed in the beautiful Thakadu Lodge for a night in a luxurious safari tent.

And on the game drive last night, I finally got to see a lion. All you could see at first was a bit of black and yellow mane of a very sleepy lion in the high grass.

When he woke up, he yawned a couple of times, licked himself and stretched extensively before he started walking along the road like the majesty himself.


Lion love.

FYI: Apart from the lion, there was lots of other wildlife, including some supercute baby hyenas, jumping rhinos and a very horny elephant :)