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The last weeks in Cabarete have passed in a rush… No more time for Weblog comments but a lot of time spent with friends over in Caberete.
After spending a last summer in the Carribbeans we now headed back home to real life. On all our journey, we never lost a baggage or had bad flight delays…. But of course, instead of taking the last connection in Dusseldorf, we missed that one and spent one more night at Dusseldorf airport. We’ll update our missing travel reports soon and are looking forward to see you around Payerne!

Isa stand up padling 


After bringing Elena & Co.  to the airport on Friday, the wind really picked up again the next day. Isa invented the invented the Cabarete Gigathlon yesterday: It starts with a nice Yoga Session early in the morning, followed by a Pilates class... then up on the water, 2h session with baby 5.5 m kite and then... windy enough to continue with a nice windsurfing session on a 4.7 sail. Luckily she could end the day with a relaxing thai yoga massage to be able to continue her personal boot camp the next day!

Life in Cabarete goes on. For Jean Marc’s birthday he got his favorite mousse au chocolat. Lou was very pleased to help Isa in the kitchen, cleaning all the dishes of the chocolat mousse preparation. We had a nice party all together. More pictures : http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Cabarete2010#


The vacation camp at Cabarete’s Nannys Estate is fully booked. The whole Swiss bunch is over here and we have great kite sessions together. Yesterday, a little trip into the mountains to celebrate Sabrinas birthday at the Blue Moon restaurant with great Indian food.
Waves are expected to raise over 2 meters this weekend – so we just hope that there will be wind for it!  pictures from Blue Moon : http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Cabarete2010#

Cabarete feels like home again. That’s why we’re getting a bit lazy on our weblog comments. We had nice sessions on the water, Isa goes to her daily Pilates class and our friends kids are performing  their different stage shows from graduation to circus.
First friends from Switzerland Rolf and Christine already arrived, others are up to come soon. Pictures from the kids circus : http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Cabarete2010#

First pictures from Cabarete :   http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Cabarete2010#

1st of June is the official beginning of the hurricane season in the caribbean.
But here in Cabarete it was the first real summer day, wind for 7 and 9 meter kites
and still a nice swell from the north (like in winter).

After a month stopover in Switzerland we’re off to Cabarete again.
Cabarete will bet be the last destination of our trip – last but shure not least! We plan to stay here till mid of August, then we’re back to real life.

after 5 weeks in a cold, rainy swiss spring, we are packing one more time. Tomorrow we are in the air again, flying to Cabarete and staying in the caribbean until the middle of august.  We hope for all of you that the summer will be better than the this spring.  Have fun...........

Time goes by…. Incredible, but our 3 month are already over. After windy days in Maui and visiting friends in Los Angeles, we’re already back home.
On April 24th we  landed on schedule in Zürich Airport. Compared to other passengers we where very luck to have a volcano friendly planning.
Switzerland welcomed us with nice and warm spring weather. The garden is prepared and our “Backoffice” joined us for the first BBQ back home.  We’re back in Switzerland until Mai 28th and wait for your visit for more BBQ’s!


It is still windy in Maui, after a few days with 40 + kts we are still on the water every day.
At the moment there is not much swell, but it should be back for Tuesday. Kiting in Kanahaa is like a endless slalom around the hundreds of sea turtles, but until now we (or they)  could avoid crashes.   http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Hawaii#

After a short stopover with a little shopping trip in Honolulu we get back on the water! Already at our shaking landing in Maui we realized that great wind conditions where waiting for us. And this was definitely confirmed next morning when we met Pierre and Helene at famous Hookipa beach. Pierre got amazing wave conditions for windsurfing and in the evening, Isa and Helen could test the 4m kite in Kanaha. They where not underpowered at all!

Pierre in Hookipa...

Back to the heat! On our stopover in Fidji we enjoy the tropical warm weather again. Fidji is not really the budget place for a round the world travel but we managed to  get a good price on a very nice resort on Denarau island. The windier north of Fidji was destroyed by resent cyclone Thomas, so the kite trip up north is definitely not a good idea at the moment….
So we chill out for 3 days and try to get back a little suntan under the cloudy sky.
The mythos of Fidji are amazing beaches and beautiful colours. But after all our trip we visited so beautiful sceneries that the main island of Fidji just cannot compeed with it. For the “Postcard” Beaches around here, you definitely need to go on the very expensive private islands...

No wind in the north of NZ as well….  So, sightseeing program went on and we visited every hidden beach of the Northland. Finally we have to negate the mythos that there are sheep all over NZ, there are definitely more cows. So 100’000 cows, 50’000 sheep, 4000 possums (unlucky guys beside the roads….) and 4000 km later, we headed back to Auckland to fly off to windier locations again.

It’s getting chilly over here and the wind is gone… So time to step over to the sightseeing program and visit some of New Zealand’s beautiful landscape, passing by the touristic highways.  We nearly did them all:  after the “surf highway”, we hit “the forgotten world highway” and   the  “thermal explorer” that lead us to Rotorua. There we stopped for 2 days to explore some Maori culture and volcanic geothermal sites. Over Auckland we got on “the twin coast discovery highway” to the next kite spot, the famous ninety mile beach. Here Switzerland ends and memories from Brazil begin…. The beach is our road!   http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/NewZealand#

Driving trough New Zealand we feel like home. It feels like being back in Switzerland in autumn time. The landscape is very similar to our Alps except that from the nice valleys you get directly to the see. After a few days in Raglan we headed further south to New Plymouth and discovered the Surf Highway 45 around the Taranaki Volcano. There are dozens of world-class surf breaks on that coastline, but not all of them suitable for kiting. Andy had good kiting days on East End Beach, while Isa has still a good excuse not to get in the chilly water….                                               pictures from NZ         http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/NewZealand#

Starting in Perth 5.50 pm and landing 6 hrs later at 5.00 am in Auckland is hard, but such a warm welcome makes you feel better very fast!

our first Auckland sunrise

From Auckland we drove south to Raglan and it’s beautiful beaches, where we hope to find good wind and wave conditions for the next few days. The forecast for friday is 35 knts of wind and  4,5m waves !!!

We passed 2 great evenings with our friends and landlords but now it’s time to move on.
Today we leave Perth in direction New Zealand. In Auckland a big 4wd Jeep is waiting for us to explore the remoted Kiwi beaches.

After 5700 km with our Racing-Offroad Campervan we are back in Perth again. Time to do some sightseeing, wine tasting and so on. As we still did not see any Koalas on our trip, we decided to go to the Wildlifepark where finally Isa could admire the nice little bears. The week was busy with Perth attractions, kiting and leisure time with friends that it passed very quickly. Andy had some great sessions with his kite-mates while Isa is still the designated photographer…                        http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Australia2#5444276881653114706

After great time up north, we tried to find some nice conditions in Margret River again. This time we where more lucky with the weather and got great sunshine, the wind was there as well, but completely offshore. The waves on the main spot where amazing, but with the offshore wind not suitable for kiters. So we headed down to Augusta River where we could kite a nice beachbreak with about 40 knots. The second day, wind was a bit lower but still good once you got out of the river lagoon. Coming back after the second kite session unlucky Isa cut her foot on the one and only sharp stone in the river…. So, she’s out of the water for several days again. The good news: it’s the other foot!  Photos : http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Australia2#5442731338824672226

Best kite session ever! This is all what is to say about our day... Coronation Beach is not only a "Mythos". After checking the spot for 10 days without finding wind or waves, we got the perfect day with up to 3 m waves and nice 25-28 knots. No pictures to prove it though, the waves where to good to stop for photoshooting;-)

After 1 week in Geralton, Isa’s baby 4m2 kite is still in the original packaging… Wind up north was pretty different from last year. Most of the time we where out on our 9 or 11 m2  kites.
But in time for the Kitestock event, the wind picked up again. We passed 3 great days in Dongara with all our friends from Perth. Had nice downwinders and good wave sessions and not to forget great parties in the evenings! Okay…. The 4m2 is still brand new… but at least the 5.5 was used!

an other of Isa's favorite monuments, Dongara:"the capital of the rock lobster"


Wednesday we made a warm up session for the Kitestock (The biggest WA Kite Event, where Isa broke her foot a year ago…) in Dongara, not much wind an waves, but no injuries this time;-). In the evening we made our way to Geralton, where we got some wind but only small waves the next day. Wind forecast looks good for the hole week and the swell should be raising too.

Isa in the Geralton beach break


Margret River is known as nice little town with lots of wineries, artists, food tastings and so on. Everything in that region is at least organic and spoiled with nice waves.  Most of this is true, but the ocean was flat like a swimming pool. No wind, no waves but cold and rainy! Monday we moved on north , back to Perth and finally had a good session there. Tuesday we left Perth direction north to find the strong winds in the Geralton area.   http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Australia2#

We passed a few nice days kiting in Esperance.  On the second day the wind came in more westerly so we could ride the over head high waves front side . Andy and Nina are already on their way back to Germany. Andy (the German one) was as unlucky as Isa last year and ended up on the beach with a broken middle foot bone on his first day out in Australia. The weather was pretty bad and cold in Esperance and we decided to move on in direction Margret River.

On Saturday we packed up and got on the road with our big Maui van direction Esperance.
Esperance has the most beautiful and empty beaches we’ve ever seen, and this time we really got big big waves. Wind was not to strong but we had a few good sessions in the crystal clear water. In Esperance bumped into Nina & Andy from Germany, a couple we got to know in Brazil…. The world is small enough! First pictures from Australia PartII  http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Australia2#

It’s always a surprise in what location we stay on our trip… after two days at Desi & Coert’s  place we had to move as their parents arrived to visit little Eugene. So what a surprise, instead of just a guestroom we got a house to stay just the 2 of us! Our landlords Steve and Lee offered us to live in their villa that they where about to renovate. We enjoyed the space for a week before moving in the campervan.

Surf around the world part III

After our Xmas stopover in good cold Switzerland, we are back on the road again.
We left Zurich last Wednesday and landed in Perth, 24 hours later. Our little new friend Eugene came to pick us up with his Mum Desi at the airport. Our Australian friends welcomed us with a nice barbecue and we are looking forward to enjoy wind and waves and crystal clear water for the next 3 month again. We’ll stay in Perth for the first week getting ready for our campervan trip down south and up north.  

We are read; this evening we will check in with less than 100 kg  !!!!
Not bad for 2 persons plus 5 kites and 3 boards.
Tomorrow we will fly via Singapur ( 12 hrs) to Perth (6 hrs) , so the weblog will
be updated more again.

The new boards are ready , the flights are booked, we are leaving on january 20th direction  West Australia .

new toys ready for some action......

Surprise, surprise! After travelling for 6.5 month we are back for a Christmas stopover in Switzerland. It feels pretty cold over here,  but great to stay in our own home for a little time. Especially we are looking forward to see our family and friends. We made it back just in time for the St. Nicolas Party in Fribourg and surprised a lot of our friends there ;-)
We’ll update the weblog again once we’re back on the road mid January. No, we’re not done yet…. Next destination: Australia!

On our arrival day in Taiba we where spoiled by a great 3m shorebreak, but the next days wind and waves where lower. Time to find some other attractions like keeping company to the german  group “Männerselbsthilfegruppe betreutes Kiten” (to simplify this in English: “supervised kiting”. We actually tried to find out during the first day who really was their supervisor – finally we understood that that one of them had to stay at home at last notice. It must have been the supervisor… without him they felt a little bit lost and had to  drink the one or the other caipirinha to get sorted. We where kiting with that crazy bunch for 2 days and found some great waves in Pecem and at the so called Secret Spot. So, 2 days  and a few car rescues later: no damage of humans and kite gear so far, but one of their Pic up’s did not make it for their ongoing trip to Jericoacoara….

push harder...  (or maybe just lock the hubs) 

After a nice week in Lagohina, with perfect empty waves, nice but very gusty wind on the shore, we went to Guajiru. The Rede Beach resort with it’s great staff, one of the best breakfast buffets ever and good waves just in front of our bedroom was called “home” for another 6 days. We checked the beach with a Buggy all the way up to Mundau but could not find much better waves than in Guajiru. A few days later a bunch of Swiss, Scotish, English and Greek  folks from London guided us to Embuaca .There we rode a very nice wave  that breaks just perfect by mid tide.
Now we move south again back to Taiba. There we will stay for another week in Villa Marola.    http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Brasil#

From Guajiru we moved 12 km south to Lagoinha. A small fisher village still far away from tourism, except the weekenders from Fortaleza that take over the main beach on Sunday.
We stayed at Villa Lagoinha, a small Pousada owned by a Swiss couple. Just a five minute walk away we enjoyed our private wave spot with a long breaking wave from the right side.
The only spectators there where some fishermen and a lot of donkeys. Lagoinha has the slowest internet connection ever seen and the most expensive transfer prices on our trip (about 80 USD Real for 12 km…) but is definitely worth a visit. We sometimes felt like back in Switzerland, especially when we where chatting with our Appenzeller friends on long aperitif sessions in the evening.

"private" waves in Lagohina...

From Guajiru we moved south to Lagohina  where found the best waves and slowest internet ever. For the next 8 - 10 days there will not be to much news on the weblog and even answering mails will be hard. So that means no news is good news !

In Guajiru we are back to tourism. The first time on our journey we stay in a real “resort”. The place is very nice and the service offers everything from a gym and spa treatments up to romantic packages… But as we are not really into resort style accommodations (and prices) we are keen on continuing to other spots. So, today we where actually up to discover the surroundings. But our great rental buggy already broke down after 500m… so, the trip was postponed until tomorrow. Advice for Brazil: Never rent a beach buggy with a broken carburator.               http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Brasil#

Four days in a row of very strong winds (Isa on 4, Andy overpowered on 7m2) and nice waves. Today everything looks like it will be the day. 7.45 am the wind already blows, still a swell from the north, high tide at 16.30 pm, full moon what more can we ask for on our last day in Préa……. Monday we will travel south to a place called Guajiru close to the Fleixeiras.            http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Brasil#

With the very strong wind (30 knots +) we got some nice waves in Préa. If the forecast is right, the best waves should hit the Brazilian east coast on Friday. After the warm up photo session yesterday we will be ready for some video on Friday.  More pics http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Brasil#

Isa in action .....



And again… our accommodation search on the internet was very successful. Our home in Préa, Kite Brazil Hotel is just the perfect place. Dani and Hacki built up a great and very charming Pousada. With their combination of Italian decoration style and Austrian jokes all day long, we felt very welcome there. On top of it, the wind blows 24h a day.
The first week we spent kiting in different places, visited Jericoacoara and did a 12 km down winder from Préa to Jeri. Okay, Isa finished the down winder in a self rescue manner just before sunset (pulley broken), so it was rather sunset swimming than sunset kiting ;-)
After a week we had to move… (So far to the friendly hosts ;-). It seems the crisis did not really touch them; it’s the first place on our journey that’s fully booked!! So we moved 100 m to the right in a little Pousada, but we keep on riding with the Kite Brazil crew for another week.


On our last day in Ecuador we visited the equator line and finally got an amazing view on the volcanoes surrounding Quito. Isa spoiled herself with some spa treatments in the afternoon and then we where ready to leave for our 24h travel to Brazil. After several take off’s and landings (Quito – Lima – Sao Paolo – Fortaleza) we where happy to arrive in Taiba on the north coast of Brazil. We got some great waves the first day and already got to know the locals – one off them crashed his kite into Andy’s and left him swimming back to the shore with 2 cut kite lines….
After 2 days of warm up in Taiba we headed up north in direction Prea. Prea is the last fisher village before the national park of Jericoacoara where we will spend about 2 weeks.               http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Brasil#

 As the waves where “sold out” in Ecuador, we decided to move on. We left Manta yesterday to spend a view days in Quito, especially as we met the perfect tourist guides for this city. Steffen and Veronica lead us through a very local Quito experience. Already the first day we got a guided tour through the historical (colonial) part of Quito, followed by a sushi festival in their restaurant. Today we drove inland to see  the volcanos and Indian markets. The volcanos really tried to hide behind the clouds but with a lot of imagination we got a great impression of them.                   http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Ecuador#   

       

It’s funny after all those beaches to stay in a city again. Isa enjoyed her trip through the supermarket and Andy is already looking for a D.I.Y-shop. Manta is the capital of Tuna, a kg in the fish market costs about 5 USD.
We stay at Davo’s Kitehouse, a nice guesthouse in a calm neighbourhood.  Isa is having her pilates session together with the dog’s and a parrot in the garden. 
After a week in Manta, Andy safed the live to a little turtle which had a ricebag wrapped around her neck. He brought her back to the shore to cut off the bag. She luckily swam back into the water again.
Kiting conditions where nice, but we’re still waiting for some bigger waves! For pictures http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Ecuador#

No problem to get from Mancora to Guayaquil with our 100 kg of luggage so far. We passed from the deserted landscape of Peru to the very green surrounding of Ecuador. After kilometres of banana, cacao and rice fields we arrived in Guayaquil. Our “royal class” bus with no air condition did not drop us of at the bus station, but about a 1 km walk away from there…. So by the time we got to the bus station, our connection already left and the next bus to Manta had no space for our little luggage. Instead of sleeping in Guayaquil we took the option to get there by cab. After dealing with around ten taxi-drivers Andy gave them a little instruction how to get our bags on top of a small cab we finally hit the road. 3.5 frightening hours dirt road drive with little Mr. Schumacher and we where really happy to get out of that car at our destination. 

Isa with all the luggage at the Mancora busstop


Tomorrow we leave Mancora. We will do a 6 hrs bus adventure to Guayaquil, passing the Peru/Ecuador boarder and from there another 3 hrs to Manta. Today is cleaning and packing day and Isa has to do some repairs on her bag.

the brave little tailor

After getting familiar with Peruvian conditions we are ready to go for the big waves in Lobitos. After a 1.5 hour drive we arrived on the famous wave spot, desperately looking for the waves….. Bad timing: no waves and very gusty wind. Anyway, we went for a little session and then used the time to drive up the coast past the spots of Cabo Blanco and Organos. So, we hope for better wave conditions to hit the road down south again before we leave for Ecuador.                                more pictures :  http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Peru#

checking the surf at Cabo Blanco


This week could not start better… This morning we got company of a school of dolphins passing by close to the beach. We had breakfast together: They chased their fish as we enjoyed our fresh fruit and coffee!

hunting dolphins...


The world is a small village !! Thursday evening, on our way for dinner, we run into a familiar face ! Anthony and Scott the Aussies who run the  www.vietnamkitesurfingtours.com/ in Mui Ne are on holidays in Lobitos and had to pick up a friend in Mancora. Friday there was no wind so Andy used the day to edit a video of Isa kiting the small Mancora beach break: http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Video#5380594912077395026

Strong wind and some waves here in Mancora today, Isa was on the water with her 4 m2 baby. Andy was still on his new 8 m2 Starkite toy. Slowly we get used to surf with wind from the left and in a few days we will be ready to go for some bigger and faster waves in Lobitos. Something very special in this area are the thousands of big birds in the sky. Andy got already hit 2 times in the kitelines  by stupid  Blue-Footed Boobies !!!!http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Peru#5378871330076150898

For Isa Peru is like heaven and hell, heaven for the freshest seafood, hell because of the cold water and air temperatures. Slowly we get used to wear sweatshirts and pants.
The wind is quite good but cold …. we are still waiting for waves higher then knee  high.                 http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Peru#


Welcome to Peru. On the drive from Piura Airport to Mancora you cannot really get lost. You just have to follow the famous Panamerica Norte. We felt very familiar on that road: As much trash besides the road as in Vietnam and as much sugar cane as in Mauritius, the Papayas are just a little bigger than in Cabarete. The countryside looks like in an old Karl May Movie, including the vultures circling over the desert. 
After 2.5 hours we arrived at Samana Chakra in Mancora, our hotel is a Yoga retreat in the middle of hippie town (we can already feel our “karma”;-)  
First day on the water was a freezing experience – we’re not used to 25° Air/22° Water temperature anymore! But we’ll get into it – just waiting for the famous swell to come.                                   For more pictures fro Peru go to  http://picasaweb.google.ch/isandy43/Peru#

surfer car in hippie town



So, our Caribbean holidays are over. On Tuesday September 1st we leave Cabarete via Panama to Lima. The next day we fly up north to Piura and then after a 2.5 hour drive we’ll arrive at our next destination Mancora in northern Peru.
The bags are packed all that’s left to do is say goodbye to all the friends and bring back the   “racing Pasola” that served us very good for the 3.5 month. Thanks for that Jean-Marc!!!

the fastest Pasola (motobike) in town


15. August 2009

Time goes by  and after another 3 weeks of great waves and wind we’re soon ready to move on. Besides other regular Cabarete guests and “short time vacationers” keeping us company, we met Corina & Andri, our neighbours for the last weeks. Another couple on a RTW tour, surprisingly they are ex UBS Bankers ;-) 
The US-Embargo on overweight baggage for the summertime only allows us to fly after august 25. So we will leave Cabarete by the end of August.

All the Swiss friends left a week ago, and others arrived. Since a week we got really nice waves and had great sessions on the reef. Isa dropped her granny wave style and is fit on the water again! While she is transforming into iron women by her ongoing fitness program,  Andy is transforming into BIG Z (For outsiders, see the film “Surf’s up”). His little fan’s already built up the BIG Z cottage on the beach and started her business in selling cakes to get some money to invest into new surf gear.

The Big Z Casita and the first customer....



Already the first “shortime” vacationers left the island again and the next are to leave. Sascha was flying home on the 27 th. It’s funny, under normal circumstances our holiday would be over as well, as normally we had a vacation of 4-5 weeks here. We’re the lucky guy’s who can continue to enjoy the wind! We got a nice storm the other night, our apartment transferred in a little aquarium – now we understand why we want to miss the hurricane season!


After reporting great statistic, the wind dropped down the last days. A good timing as we could help out our friends doing some work. Isa was busy helping Vero to unpack her stock for the next year. She was dreaming of kikoy’s and sandals for 2 days… During that time “Handy Andy” was on demand as well, building furniture for the shop with Jean-Marc.
In between Isa enjoyed Aurélies high school graduation and on Friday the whole bunch of our Swiss friends arrived. So Elena, Pierre, Marco, Nadine & Sascha a are back in Cabarete as well. Now we’re just waiting for the wind to come back!


The older you get, the longer it takes your bones to recover…. But it’s worth waiting!
4 month after her accident, Isa’s back on the water again. Riding strapless for the moment in order to not stress her feet too much in the beginning, she’s passing the riff very carefully… the invention of the granny wave style!
Since 3 weeks, Cabarete is back to his old reputation as a really windy destination. We got 20-28 knots every day, Isa will be able to pump up the 4m2 kite soon!

the granny wave style .....



29. May – 01. June

 

It’s time for a weekend trip…. As Cäry had her flight back over Miami, the girls took the occasion to pass the weekend there. Shop till you drop, spa, great food, drinks and just a little bit of clubbing is what girls need.
Miami is worth it’s image as a party town of the young & beautiful. It’s not the place where you feel younger and relaxed coming back… (except if you pass a plastic surgery in between or you just go to bed earlier….;-) . We really enjoyed Southbeach life – already looking forward to plan our next girls trip together!
By the way – Isa had a little problem with the dresscodes: “high heels” is not really the shoes she should wear at the moment. But yes, you can go out in flipflops even in Miami!

cuising in Miami .......

After 12 days in Cabarete we really feel back home again. Wind was great so Andy was on his 9m2 Kite for 2-4 hours every day. Last Friday we went to pick up Cäry in Santiago. She was happy to arrive here after a 26 hours travel including a nice delay of 3 hours in Miami. So the girls are busy with pilates, beachwalks, swimming –  Isa’s still not back on the water but Cäry is a new talent on the windsurf sky – after 3 lessons she already jibes in front of Villa Taina.

Cäry, the future windsurf star

little donky kick in the shore break

Friday we enjoyed a nice flight from Zürich via Düsseldorf to Puerto Plata (by the way,  LTU business class is quite nice). After a 9 hrs flight,  Vero, Loulou and Jean-Marc picked us up at the airport in Puerto Plata. A short drive to Cabarete and a quick shower later, we went to Alain’s opening party of the new built club CNS.  After a few drinks and saying hello to all the people we haven’t seen for a year, Isa was ready for a 12 hour sleep.

Saturday, we started with a classic breakfast at Villa Taina, picked up the Pasola (domenican style scooter) from Jean-Marc, shopping , kiting. Andy went out with the 9m kite and catched some nice waves.

bedroom view .......

On May 15th we will leave Switzerland in direction Carribean. We'll stay in Cabarete till the hurrican season starts in August. During this 3 months we meet all our friends there and visit other some islands like Cuba etc. At the end of August we plan to fly over to South America and visit Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico for another 3 months.

Thanks to our travel insurance we had a great flight back to Switzerland.
Now after some more mri’s and doctor visits, the next steps  are clear:
Isa has to wear a vacuum shoe for the next 6 weeks and then strengthen
up her foot by physiotherapy for 2 weeks. So our round the world trip will be interrupted
until the beginning of may. This gives Andy the time to build some new board’s and for Isa
more time to search and book the flights for the future trips to South America.

Isa's Robocop cast

Andy had a last nice day in the waves of Scarborough today! Monday we passed some hours in the hospital of Albany to get Isa’s foot checked again. And now a few x-rays and ct’s later we know that that there is more broken than just a little bone.
So Thursday we will fly back to Switzerland  and it looks like we have to interrupt our travel for about 10 weeks. As soon as we know more we will let you know here on our site or personally during a dinner in Payerne.


Monday we drove about 300 km south to Perth and spent the night in Desi and Coert’s house. Tuesday morning we left early, went shopping and hit the road for a 725 km stint to Esperance. Andy drove the whole distance just with one food and 2 petrol station stops so we arrived at 18.00 at the caravan park. Wednesday great wind came up together with some waves at the Fourth Beach just a few km west of Esperance. Andy was on the water for over 3 hours, while Isa took photos and videos. Thursday we went sightseeing to the Cape le Grand National Park. There are amazing places around Esperance, we really must admit that we’ve never seen so wonderful beaches before.  

This weekend we passed in Dongara at the Kite Stock event.
It was great meeting the whole Perth crew again and we had lot’s of fun.
First day we kitet at Dongara beach. Isa was getting higher and higher with her baby kite having and Andy was going on the 4 m2 as well.
The second day, Desi & Coert took us to a hidden spot 20 km up north to a hidden spot. To get there you definitely need a 4x4 wheel drive. A small dirt road leads through bushland and Coert proved great offroad driving skills. We had great fun at this hidden beach, really nice waves and if Isa would not have had the idea of getting another jumping session after the wave session it would have been a perfect day.
But… she was getting to excited – this time no broken boat but a kracked bone……
So… Isa’s out of game for 2 weeks and will get through the rest of Australia as the photographer & weblog-writer…

The last 3 days we spent kiting in Geralton. We had very strong wind every day, yesterday even Andy had to go out on Isa’s 4 m2 kite as he was completely overpowered on the 7 m2 in 40 knt of wind. We also had some great waves, specially today they got up to 4 m high.
Geralton is really a cool place, even with 35° it’s not hot here as there is always a strong seabreeze cooling down.
For the weekend we’ll drive down south to Dongara for the biggest kite event in Australia called “Kitestock” and we will met the Perth gang down there again. 

Isa in stormy 35 knt at Point Moore 

Wind forecast was not to good for the next days, so we decided to go further north on Sunday morning. After a long drive of about 400 km through endless landscape we arrived in Shark Bay. The Natural Resource is a Unesco world heritage area and just amazing. Just to point out two of the sites we passed: There is Shell Beach, a 10 km long beach covered by billions of little shells up to a depth of 10m - and famous Monkey Mia where we spent the night. As Australia is a surfers paradise, you are even allowed to kite in the protected area of Shark Bay – but as the wind was very low and offshore, we decided not to become a shark’s dinner ;-). Every day, dolphins turn up naturally in a ritual to get there fish since the 1960 at Monkey Mia. So next morning, while all tourists waited for the daily dolphin feeding at the beach, Isa was very smart. She went for her morning swim in direction of the feeding area and crossed the dolphins on there way to the feeding! Swimming with dolphins, what a wonderful start to the day! ( okay, photographer missed this while still waking up ;-).  On the way back south, the day even got better: After chief driver Andy managed to avoid an stupid Emu that jumped in front off our Camper, we finally saw our first Kangaroo!

after a hundred dead ones  beside the road, the first kangaroo alive!

Tuesday morning a little bit of shopping , fill up the fridge and all the other storage in our campervan and then we hit the road in direction north. In the late afternoon we had a nice wave session in Lancelin where we also spent our first night in the van.
Next day, waves were even higher than the day before, so we went kiting the Lancelin reef again. The next morning we left Lancelin, still direction north and found some nice flat water with very strong wind in Cervantes. The same evening we arrived in Geralton where we checked in a nice luxury camp ground to spend the a few days. Today we kitet at Point Moore in Geralton in very strong winds. Isa tried her 4 m2 kite for the first time and Andy was slightly over powered on the 7 m2 . There are some new pictures in the gallery.
You will also find Isa’s PacMan pics in the Vietnam gallery.

Isa with her new toy at Point Moore, Geralton

Our first week in Australia did past very fast. After 3 days in the B&B we moved to Coert and Desi’s house in Scarborough, just a 2 min walk from the kitebeach. We had a really god time there and met some very nice people. They took us for downwinders along the coast, organized a BBQ for Andy’s birthday and spoiled us like kings. Thank’s for all that !!!
Tomorrow we will leave Perth direction north with our campervan and encounter the west coast surfing spots.

some of Isa's favorite signs at  Scarborough beach ...........



Finally we arrived in AUSTRALIA. We left Saigon Saturday evening in direction Kuala Lumpur
where we spend a short night, as we had to leave for the airport at 5.30 am.
The LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) is already very busy in these early hours, but we managed everything quite fast. At 03.00 pm we landed in Perth and what a wonder, no questions , no problems with immigration there, so we picked up out rental car , and off we went.
A quick look at Scarborough kite beach and then north to our B&B in Sorrento, where we will stay for the next 3 days.