Out of Africa.

Once more my bags are packed, and it's time to move on again, this time back to Australia for a few weeks. I have had a great time in South Africa, and wish I could stay for a bit longer, and do some more flying, but both time and money are getting tight now, and I still have twenty goals left to achieve, and eighteen weeks left to get them done! It's time to make my way back home now I've leared how to fly!!

Here's a short video of a couple of clips from yesterday's solo flight. I think Gerhard might be horrified to find out I had time to take a couple of video clips!


On Gerhard's Madiba Bay School of Flight website, he says, "We put the FUN back into flight." He has certainly done that!

Learning to fly here in South Africa has been a big thrill and a huge challenge. But most of all, it has been incredible FUN. I can't thank Gerhard enough for his wonderfully patient instruction, and for trusting me at such an early stage with one of his planes! What an awesome experience! Thanks also to John and Claudius at Helicharter Backpackers for their wonderful hospitality.

Onto a couple of bigger planes later this evening, first for the short hop back to Johannesburg, and then the long overnight haul to Perth. I reckon if the pilots get poisoned by the fish dinner though, as always happens in airliner disater movies, I will be ready to take over and land at Perth! Hold on tight, it might be a bumpy landing!

Goal 80 - "...and there you will always long to return."

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

Leonardo da Vinci

This morning was beautiful, and the winds were light, but as I waited for my fourth flying lesson, the winds picked up a little, and were blowing across the main runway.

Gerhard had had me do a few circuits around the main airport, then happy that I seemed to be doing okay, we detoured onto a much wider circuit, and headed for the coast. Gerhard took the controls, and dived towards the sea, levelling out just above the surface, then handed control back to me.

We flew along at around fifty feet, just skimming along above the surface of the sea, and Gerhard let me pick my own route, following the coast line closely, passing over rocky shores and breaking waves. At the lighthouse at Africa's most south-easterly point, we banked round to the right, and continued along the coast. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and exactly what I had hoped flying would be like. I think I am hooked!

The cross wind was a bit strong to allow mw to fly solo, so we agreed to meet again in the early evening to see if conditions had improved. At around 6pm the winds were much lighter, and we went out and did three circuits, after which Gerhard had me land to a complete stop, and we taxied in off the runway. Gerhard climbed out, and with a last few words of advice, it was the moment of truth!

I called the tower and headed back out onto the taxiway, and lined up on the runway. The takeoff went without a hitch, and the plane climbed much faster with just one person aboard. I turned right and levelled out at 1,200 feet, and turned onto the downwind leg and made my radio call. One more turn onto base leg, some flaps and get the nose down to maintain 70 mile per hour. A last turn onto final approach, more flaps, another radio call, and then concentrate on throttle, speed, distance, and approach. All went very smoothly, just as I had been taught, and I rounded out nicely, touched down with a bit of a bump, and taxied back off the runway.

I hadn't really had much time to enjoy the view, but it had been a beautiful evening, with the sun setting to the west, and a full moon rising to the east. I was too busy furiously concentrating on what I needed to do to get around the circuit and back down safely!

What a truly fantastic feeling. What a huge thrill, and what a proud achievement. I had gone solo at around five hours of flying time, and I was extremely pleased with myself. Gerhard and his wife Yvette seemed almost as thrilled as I was, and Yvette had made a wonderful certificate for me.



This has certainly been one of the highlights of the 80 goals achieved so far, and I owe huge, HUGE thanks to Gerhard for making this happen in such a short time frame. I think we have both equally enjoyed the challenge though. Thanks to Yvette too, and also John and his staff a Helicharter Backpackers.

I don't think this one is over yet, I suspect I might be back here one day soon to finish what I have started! I am definitely hooked!

For anyone thinking of flying lessons, I can almost guarantee that it will be cheaper to come down to South Africa for a few weeks and learn at Madiba Bay School of Flight than it will be to do lessons wherever you live! It cost me under US $1,000 to go solo! Fantastic!!

The best pub in the world.... possibly!

Once again, if I needed proof that it is almost always best to say "Yes" to unexpected invites and offers, last night was a great example. After drinking far too much beer while in Rio for Carnival, I have since had a week off, and have had no beer at all while here in Port Elizabeth.

But helicopter pilot and backpacker hostel owner John invited me to join him and girlfriend Angela, and helicopter buddy Martin for a "bit of a singalong". I had no idea what this involved, but I was hoping it would be at a pub, as cold beer would be most welcome after a dry week.

But I was slightly disappointed as we parked up in what looked like a quiet residential area. It looked like we were going to a friend's house, and approaching the front door I wondered if we should have brought our own beer. But once through the door, I was very pleasantly surprised, as the once-upon-a-time residential home had been converted into a fully fitted-out pub.

The place was fantastic. "Toni's Place" reminded me very much of the first home I built in Australia, very similar in style, but everything was set up to host large crowds. The bar was in the living room, a food servery in the dining room, and the main room and back garden blended together into one large, open area. Out in the garden there was a large open fire pit, and through the night a big fire blazed away.

There was a stage set up, and tonight was an open mic night, where John would be one of the performers. If only I was a bit better with the harmonica, I could have joined in, but I still have some work to do before tackling that goal yet. They had mixing desks, computers, and video cameras, all-in-all a very professional set-up.

There were a couple of great performers, and John too was on early, and did very well indeed. As the evening progressed more people played and sang, and the pub filled up. It was just like being at a big house party.

At one point I said to Angela, "This is why I like hanging around with locals whenever I travel. I bet not many backpackers know about this place, or get to come here."

"There are quite a few locals that don't know about this place too!" she laughed.



Well done John, great performance. A wonderful, timely reminder that I must get on with the harmonica!

Tricky landings.

My second day of landings was pretty windy, but Gerhard suggested we should still go up and see how I managed. He wanted to take me out to the training area, away from the main airport, where there is a smaller grass strip, where we could practice more touch and go landings and take-offs.

The lesson was intense, but fantastic fun! After a buffety flight over to the training area we came in for our first landing on the grass strip, and Gerhard demonstrated the approach and landing. It all looked quite alarming, as there is a steep bank leading up to the touch-down point, and approach has to be quite accurate.

After touchdown we were off again, and into my first couple of circuits. These were fairly leisurely, as there was another plane doing the same thing, and we had to follow him around. But once he left we had the strip to ourselves, and Gerhard had me flying tight, fast circuits.

Almost as soon as we had left the runway, Gerhard would have me bank round to the left and straight onto downwind leg, level out, turn onto base leg, and then turn again for final approach. He let me do a couple of full circuits, hardly saying a word, and just giving a couple of pointers on landing - I am leaving my rounding out at the end a little too late, which I need to correct.

It was great fun, and I especially enjoyed taking off and banking round at low level. Time seemed to go very quickly, as I was concentrating so hard. and as we flew back over Port Elizabeth to the main airport my hands ached from gripping the steering controls too hard.



I can't wait to get back out there again tomorrow! This is one of the most challenging, most exciting and most fun things I have ever tried!

Taking to the skies.

I was woken early by my phone. Gerhard said that the weather looked much better, and would pick me up in about twenty minutes. After finishing the final details of my Student Pilot Licence application, and sending it off, we headed to the airport, and after a detailed initial briefing, we were off. Our plane for the day was "Delta Tango Uniform", a tiny two-seater Cessna 150.

After being allowed to taxi a very weaving course to the runway, Gerhard did all of the two-way radio stuff, and accelerated for the take off, but once airborne he pretty soon handed the controls over to me again, and I was flying!

There was alot to take in initially, and like learning any new skill, it seems a little overwhelming at first. We did a couple of circuits, coming back in to touch-down on the runway, before applying power, and taking off again. As time progressed Gerhard handed more and more control over to me, and simply talked me through the proceedures, and I managed a couple of good landings on my own. We managed to fit six circuits into the first lesson.

We took a break for lunch, and afterwards we flew for another hour, with the responsibility for the radio being handed over to me too. Driving the mining trucks in Australia served me well here, as much of the radio proceedure is somewhat similar, with verbal confirmation of everything said being required.

By the end of the second hour I was doing most of the flying, and confidence was growing. Landings were improving too, and Gerhard seemed pretty confident that I would get to go solo if the weather holds up for the next couple of days.



At the time it is a bit hard to remember to actually enjoy yourself, as there is so much to concentrate on, but it was an absolutely fantastic day, and I really feel I progressed well. It is fun to learn with Gerhard too, as he seems as keen on helping me to achieve my goal as I am to do so!

In the evening Gerhard had suggested I should go along to the local cinema, as it was half-price-night, and he thought "Amelia!", the story of intrepid pilot Amelia Earhart, might still be playing. Unfortunately it was no longer showing, and I had to make do with "The Wolfman".

If you want to learn to fly, you could do a lot worse than check out Matiba Bay School of Flight.

Expecting to fly.

I have always been interested in flying, and it has long been a dream of mine to have my own plane, and be able to fly when and where I want. The first step towards this is to actually learn how to fly, and for my 100 weeks flying goal, my aim is to fly a plane on my first solo flight.

While in Port Elizabeth about a month ago, through helicopter pilot John, I met flight instructor Gerhard, and when we chatted about my goals and travels, he became quite enthusiastic, and offered to help out with this goal.

He reckons he can get me flying solo without too many formalities, and with only a few hours of lessons. I have done a bit of flying of gliders before, and did manage to fly a couple of solo circuits, and this gave Gerhard some confidence in my potential.

So from Rio I booked a flight which took me to Sao Paulo in Brazil, and from there to Johannesburg in South Africa, and a final short hop down to Port Elizabeth on the coast. I settled back into the same hostel I was in last time I was here, and gave Gerhard a call.

Unfortunately the next day the weather was cloudy and windy, and Gerhard suggested that we put off our first flight for a day or so. so after an easy day, I met up with couchsurfing contact Karl in the afternoon. Unfortunately Karl is unable to host me at the moment, but was happy to take me for a quick tour of Port Elizabeth, including the new football stadium, in the final stages of preparation for the forthcoming soccer World Cup.

The next day I had to get a couple of passport photos for my Student Pilot Licence, and Gerhard had booked me in for a medical exam. A trip to the hospital for a chest x-ray thinned my wallet down, and after a very thorough medical, I had to make another trip to the cashpoint machine to pay the hefty bill!



At least I got a full, clean bill of health, apart from my eyesight, for which I need a new prescription, again! Not long now, I think, until I have to wear lenses and carry reading glasses too. Oh dear!

Afterwards I spoke again to Gerhard, and once again weather was causing problems for a first flight, so once again I am on hold, hoping to fly tomorrow.

Last days in South America.

My friend Bek from Australia lived and worked in South America for a couple of years, and she emailed me with several suggestions of things I should see or do here. Her top recommendation, an absolute must, she insisted, was to go on a favela tour with the guys from www.bealocal.com

So once again it was an early start, and I made my way across the city to a hostel in Copacabana, and was picked up with the rest of the tour group. We were taken by minibus to the bottom of a huge hill which led up into the heart of Rocinha Favela, a shanty town housing up to an estimated 150,000 people packed into Rio's biggest favela.

From the bottom of the hill we were taken high up into the favela, each on the back of a motorcycle taxi. It was a hair-raising ride, as it had started raining over night, and the greasy roads didn't seem to slow the traffic one bit! At the top our tour regrouped and walked down into the tiny chaotic streets and alleyways.

There is no form of planning, permission, or real organisation, and the favela just grows as people build homes wherever they can. The spaghetti of electric cables and water pipes is incredible, and the streets are a confusing, litter-strewn maze.

Drug dealing is prolific, as is gun ownership, but among this chaos, around 98% of the community are poorer families simply trying to live their lives.



Our guide Daniel gave us a fascinating overview of life in this packed, dirty, poverty-stricken area. It certainly is a world apart from anything else I have seen on my travels. A fantastic tour, and highly recommended for anyone coming to Brazil.

We stopped at a local art gallery, where favela residents' paintings reflect their life in this amazing city. We stopped at a bakery for breakfast, and at a childcare centre run by volunteers. There they take in children through the day, so their parents can go to work, perhaps selling drinks on the packed beaches, or collecting used aluminium drinks cans. 65 cans weigh about a kilo, and are worth abound 1.5 Reais, or 75 cents.

It's a tough life in the favela, but once again, as I have been in many poorer places I have travelled through, many people seem to have a smile on their face, and a cheerful greeting to offer.

More info on Rocinha Favela here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocinha



In stark contrast, just a few short minutes away is the rich beachfront suburb of Copacabana, where I went looking for Pris, who I met in Australia a couple of years ago, as she visited her Aussie boyfriend there.

On a sunny day the beach at Copacabana is packed, but on this rainy day there weren't so many people around.



Later in the evening I headed out with my couchsurfer hosts Fabio and Samuel to a couchsurfer meeting at a local pub. There we met up with many other local couchsurfer hosts, and many of their guests too. It was fun chatting to other travellers from all over the world.

My final day in Rio the next day was pretty quiet. Samuel and I did some shopping, and we had a quiet BBQ on the rooftop that evening. Thanks again to my wonderful hosts Fabio and Samuel for making my stay here in Rio so much fun.



And so it's onward with the travels again today. I am the only one up and about, and am trying to pack my bags as quietly as possible. I fly back to South Africa in a few hours, and feel quite sad to be leaving South America. I have had a fantastic month here, so much of that due to the people I have been with, and have met here. Thanks to you all.

Birdman of Rio.

On his last day in Rio Val was very keen on taking a dual hang glider flight, and so after another late night we got up early and headed off to the far end of the Metro system, and took a taxi to Sao Conrado, where we met hang glider pilot Konrad.

The wind wasn't right in the morning, so we took a hike up another nearby mountain, offering more awesome views of Rio.




When we spotted hang gliders taking off from the launch site below us, we headed back down, and Val geared up and received his instruction, and before long they were running down the steep ramp, and launching into the air. It looked fantastic, and I would have really loved to have a go too. However, the price was way above my meagre budget, particularly as I have spent so much more here in South America than I planned to, with the extra $800 that LAN Airlines charged us! (Still haven't had a response to my customer service email - very poor customer service!!)

I glabbed a lift down to the beach where Val would be landing, and he was ecstatic. It certainly looked pretty thrilling. More info on flights at the Rio Hang Gliding website.



Eventually we headed home, and Val had to pack his bags to head to the airport. It was sad to see him go, as Fabio and I waved him off in a taxi. We have had a fantastic couple of weeks, and he is a wonderful travel buddy. Hopefully we will get to catch up again soon as my trip comes to an end in New York.

I am now pretty-much at the end of my time in South America, but as yet I have nothing organised to actually leave here - no flight booked, and my next destination not yet quite decided upon. Still, there could be worse places to get stuck than the most beautiful city in the world!!

Goal 79 - Redemption... finally.

I met fellow Aussies Paul and Kristi in the backpacker hostel that I stayed in while in Santiago, and as we were all going to be in Rio for Carnival, we had made tentative arrangements to meet up. However, Carnival, as you can imagine, is pretty wild, and plans tend to change at short notice, and travelling across the huge city can often take longer than expected, with street closures and manic traffic!

So it was a wonderful surprise to see them at the appointed time and place, picked out on a Google map, and suggested to all who expressed interest in a hike up Corcovado Mountain to see the incredible statue Christ The Redeemer, which gazes down from on high over the whole of Rio.

As I did with Table Mountain in Cape Town, I wanted to walk up to the top of the mountain, instead of taking the tourist-trap train up, and Val was keen too. Along with Samuel from our couchsurfer home, we had taken a bus to the Metro, the Metro to Botafogo station, and finally a taxi to beautiful Parque Lage, where the trail up the mountain begins.

Paul and Kristi hadn't quite realised how steep the climb might be, and hadn't come too well prepared, wearing flip-flops and light open sandals respectively, but did fantastically well. It took about an hour and a half in hot sweaty conditions up a steep jungle trail to reach the top, where we joined the crowds who had arrived on the train, and in an endless stream of packed minibuses.



It was here that our troubles began, when we found turnstiles, where everyone getting off the buses would present their tickets. The guards manning the entry point would not let us in, and as far as we could gather, we couldn't buy tickets there either. A few other people had been doing the hike too, and we found someone who could translate for us, as Samuel had chatted to the guards, but we couldn't quite understand as he tried to explain the situation to us.

It turned out that the turnstiles were a new addition, just for Carnival, to fleece the gringo tourists, and the group of local trekkers all refused to have anything to do with paying for entry. The ridiculous part of the situation was that we couldn't buy tickets at the summit, they were only sold down at the start of the minibus route way below us! "That's Brazil!" said one local in resigned voice!

We managed to organise a free return trip in a minibus for one of our group, and Kristi volunteered to head down and back, returning in half an hour or so with five tickets, and we finally went through the turnstiles to see Christ The Redeemer, or Cristo Redentor as he is known here.

I don't know what I was most impressed by, the awesome huge statue, or the breath-taking view over the city which is often referred to as the most beautiful city in the world. It was very crowded on the top, but that didn't detract one bit from the incredible view and location. Rio certainly is a lovely-looking city.



Thanks to Val yet agian for joining me for this trip, that's now a total of six goals he has joined me for. Thanks also to Samuel, Paul and Kristi for coming along on such a hot sweaty climb, what a great experience.



We took the minibus back down, as this was included in out ticket price, and all headed off in different dirctions, Samuel to the beach, Paul and Kristi to prepare for the spectacle of Sambodromo that evening, and Val and I to Sugar Loaf Mountain, which is pictured in the centre of the panoramic view above.

We planned to climb that too, rather than take the cable car up, and tried a couple of different trails. The first was the wrong one, and took us to the foot of a huge steep cliff wall. The second trail, around the back of the steep cliff was more managable, but we reached a steep section that would have been much safer with ropes, as there was one section with a large drop below. We decided to return to the track, and somewhat disappointed, but pleased to have made a wise decision, we had to finally admit defeat and catch the cable car to the summit just as the sun was setting.

The summit offers further incredible views of this stunning city, and we sat sipping beers as the sky darkened and the city lit up below us.



What a fantastic day in the mst beautiful city in the world!!

More info on Cristo Redentor here, and on Sugar Loaf Mountain here.

Goal 78 - Carnival in Rio.

We flew into Rio from Iguassu, and after a bit of negotiation with a group of taxi drivers, managed to find someone who would take us to Fabio's home for what seemed like a reasonable fee.

Fabio is another couchsurfing contact that Val arranged for us, and he has a great little appartment in the outer suburb of Grajau. He is on the top floor, and has a rooftop space with an awesome view. In fact, we ended up sleeping up here under the stars later that night.

After a quick bite to eat, Fabio and his mate Samuel wanted to take us to the beach, and before long we were sat under sunshade umbrellas at Ipanema Beach, beers in hand, with a large group of Rio locals. The backdrop was beautiful, and just how I imagined Rio would be.

The beach was packed, a sea of yellow umbrellas stretching as far as the eye could see, with the locals parading up and down in tiny tight trunks and skimpy bikinis! Quite a sight!

Towards the end of the afternoon we climbed a rocky promontory at the end of Ipanema Beach and watched the beautiful Rio sunset, which was applauded by the crowd of on-lookers.



After a shower back at home we headed out to a local street party, but were a little surprised that it was all over by the time we got there. A bar, and some beer for the rooftop back at home ended the evening, and a fantastic first day intro to Rio.

After a late BBQ lunch the next afternoon Val and I took the Metro to the station nearest to the Sambodromo, hoping to find some reasonably priced tickets. On the internet, tickets appeared to cost anywhere between US$75 to $1,000, but we had heard that it was possible to buy cheaper tickets locally.

Just outside the Metro we found several touts, and after some slightly confusing negotiations in Portuguese, we had two tickets for seats in Sector 6, at a bargain price of $25 each - marvellous.

Minutes later we had a couple of beers in hand too, and felt like locals, ready for Carnival.

The view we had wasn't the best, as our section of seats was set back from the huge concrete runway that the parade would come along, but we could still see pretty well.

When the first parade began it took quite a while to reach our area, as each group has about 80 minutes to travel the whole length of the Sambodromo. But the atmosphere was amazing, everyone up on their feet, singing, dancing, and waving flags.

When the first float arrived it was HUGE, followed by what must have been thousands of dancers in amazing costumes - the flow of performers was almost endess - and this was just the first of six parades on display tonight!



We watched the second and third parades, both equally impressive, especially the magician-like section at the front of the third parade, which under the cover of large magicians' sheets, performed some lighting fast costume changes.



We ended our evening somewhat early, heading out at around 1am, having an early start planned for the next morning. I don't think either of us could have managed another four hours on the rock-hard concrete seats either.

We caught the Metro back home, among many brightly-costumed performers heading home too.

What an experience! Once again, thanks to Val for his wonderful company, and to Fabio and Samuel for their fantastic hosting, and advice and directions.