theandb.com

Starting 2011 with Jean-Louis and Sylviane in New Zealand

2011-02-27T00:18:36Z

It's been ages since we gave some news. It must mean that we are having a plentiful time :-)

Let us share with you a little snapshot of a vacation Agnes & Cille spent with Sylviane & Jean-Louis in New Zealand.
Jean-Louis and Sylviane came to visit us in January this year. It was wonderful to have them with us and to feel like a big family for a little while.

With the soaring of Pantha Corp, Bjorn had to stay behind to take care of the many projects underway, while his girls & our guests flew away to pay a visit to our neighbors the Kiwis.

We had a great time there driving from Auckland to Christchurch with our Orange Wesfalia camper van (referenced as Little Miss sunshine), amongst the nature marvels of NZ, passing by herds of sheep and cows, tasting the manuka honey and walking some of the South Island mountainous trail (queen's charlotte trail, Abel Tasman Nationa Park), photo shooting the yawning seals and feasting at the best host table in Lyttelton (Christchurch).
We met family in Lyttelton, one of the suburbs of beautiful Christchurch, Sylviane's "long time no see" cousin Jean-Pierre Ribotton and his elder son. Family memories were shared at the table where magnificent diners were served. Jean-Pierre is an amazing host and made our time in Christchurch one of the dearest memories, beating the gloomy weather with delicious gratin and wine :-)

The terrible Earthquake that occurred this week, ruined a lot of the place we visited in Christchurch, the port of Lyttelton where Jean-Pierre lives with his family. We know now that they are safe and their house is still standing, although Jean-Pierre's shop was destroyed.

Have a browse through the snaps we took during our travel to New Zealand (and some from Sydney and surrounding).

troubling times that call for a renewed efforts to re-invent the net

2010-12-10T03:43:43Z

If governments can seize peoples domain names and take offline information without any just legal process, we need to rethink how the Internet functions at its core in order to ensure that information will be freely available to all. US Government Censors 70 Websites through ICANN The Freenet project goes a long way in getting us into that new reality.

Happy new year 2010 !

2010-01-04T01:45:25Z

We had a rainy holiday season this year in Sydney. Buckets of water and gray skies made us stay at "home" .
Of course home is beautiful and very much enjoyable, with beaches all around. We braved the elements and went surfing almost everyday, or biking along.
Also, in spite of the gloomy forecast, Cille and Agnes decided to be brave nonetheless and went on a one-night camping trip at The Basin (across Palm Beach) .
We had a beautiful afternoon there before the storm hit us. Loads of rain and a drizzling gray morning just proved that Agnes' good old tent is still waterproof.
It was a great adventure, "the girls" enjoyed it very much !

Here are some photos , mostly taken by Cille with her new camera, as a testimony of our Xmas holiday

Watermelonivorus !

2009-12-07T00:48:55Z

Next evolution of mankind into a new species : the watermelonivorus !!

Watermelons be on your guards... they are coming !!!!

Petra's visit

2009-07-27T12:52:37Z

Have a look to the wonderful photos from Petra's visit in July.

Petra stayed with us from July 3 2009 until ... tomorrow ! We hiked in Ku-Ring-Gai NP, had an incredible whales watching trip from Palm Beach.

Then we took off for a 4 days trip to the Great Barrier Reef, Heron Island. Where you don't even need to snorkle or dive (though we did that as well :-) ) to see marine life. Eagle rays and sharks are swimming at your feet , not more than 2 meters from the beach shore at high tide! We snorkled and dived and enjoyed a lazy life at the resort. We also had 2 extraordinary first-times helicopter flights to Heron Island and back to the main land... Awesome!

We completed the journey with some quite sportive hikes in the Blue Mountains over the week-end where we stayed at the Fairmont Resort, enjoying its nice spa& pool facilities. On the first hike we climbed down and up more than 2000 steps all together ! (Petra counted !!!).

T'was a great winter break , thank you Petra!

A & B & C

Michael

2009-06-28T08:14:22Z

He was an inspiration to many.

"Completed in 10 hours after receiving word that the King of Pop passed away."

Thank you Michael.

A&B&C

new albums in our photo gallery

2009-05-24T10:37:18Z

Finally I took the time to create some new albums in our photo gallery:

The few pics we have from our travel in Western Australia:

Sylviane and Jean-Louis's photos from their visit in January 09:

Credits to Jean-Louis for all the pics in this album

Eagle ray found in our local rock pool at Newport

2009-05-04T03:32:34Z

An eagle ray was found in our local rock pool at Newport. Always fascinating to see how abundant the wildlife is here and how close we are to it. We are regular swimmers in the pool now that we moved to Bungan Head road in Newport. The water in certain places can be quite shallow in fact, so touching the ray would have been a real possibility.

Read the article in full.

Last day in Perth , it's ANZAC day! Apr 25, 2009

2009-04-28T02:45:40Z

Saturday 25 April:
Perth - Sydney
Nice morning, copious brekkie at the hotel's restaurant, sitting at the terrace right on the street. Sun shines and lights up our bulb we understand just at that moment that it's ANZAC day. Quite obvious as someone hands over a Aussie flag to Cille :-)
We'll walk around and stare at the parade before discovering King's park with its amazing view on the city and the Swan river.
Cille enjoys the a fantastic playground at one end of the park.
We'll depart in the afternoon and arrive back home late evening... in cold Sydney!

All our videos for this WA trip to be found on our Youtube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/theandb

We'll shortly upload the few pics we took in our gallery!

13th and 14th days - Broome - 22, 23 Apr 2009

2009-04-28T02:30:54Z

Thursday 22 April :
We are driving the last few KM to Broome in the morning and settled at Palm Grove Holiday Park right in front of Cable Beach

Fantastic tropical temperature, warm ocean, a few little waves that Agnes will happily surf. A swimming pool at the camp. We visit Broome "center"... so tiny. Lots of tourist shops in Chinatown still very nice. Pearls shop and great lunch under the palm trees.

Lots of swimming pool enjoyment and a beach run for B at the end of the day. Cille and Agnes met him at Ganthaum point, 7km further from the lifesaver house where the beach starts. Rocky end point with a light house, red rocks shining at sunset. There are supposedly dinosaurs footprints that we could see at low tide, but we don't find them. Fabulous sunset though!

Friday 24 April:
Our last day with the Britz and in Broome. We are taking off late afternoon so still have a full day in front of us.
Agnes goes running on the beach for an hour while B and C splashes in the swimming pool. B then goes surfing even though the waves are laughable but hey whatever!. Cille and Agnes trek through the dunes to join the B at the beach. We'll then pack up , clean up the van and Agnes will return it to the Britz depot downtown.
Now we are stuck with a pile of luggage at the resort, so more swimming pool and a quick visit for A& C at the Crocodile park. The guy nicely let us visit for free as it's closing and show us the ferocious crocs around. Aggressive beasts fished out of waters just around the corner in the Kinberley's treacherous waters.
We'll take off late and arrive in a fresh Perth enjoying our last light a 4stars hotel in the CBD (Ridges Hotels, really nice)

11th & 12th days: long driving, Exmouth to Karratha, Port Hedland and Broome!

2009-04-28T02:13:43Z

Tuesday 21 April
Cape Rang NP - Karratha
Lots of driving from Exmouth to Karratha. Long train, beautiful Pilbarra landscape: red dirt, rocky hills, and yellow savannah.
At Karratha we first try a caravan park but don't feel like spending the night right next to the road and exit to try out the other caravan park. Much better, under eucalyptus trees, swimming pool. A shower finally!!! and much needed water refill
The long train:

One of our favorite game:

Wednesday 22 April:
The longest stretch of driving we ever did in this trip: 850KM from Karratha to near-Broome (a shrotfall of 25KM).
With a lunch break at Port Hedland (ugly, industrious, mining town) where we discovered a lonely mining museum:

Then more road , up into the night. Missing our desired stop at Eco beach (never found the road leading to it, damn!). And counting the KM down up to a trucker's road right next to Broome (Roebuck roadhouse):

9th & 10th days: Ningaloo Marine reserve - Apr 19, 20 2009

2009-04-28T02:06:36Z

Sunday 19 April
Warroora - Ningaloo Hstd
Enjoying our camp in the wilderness:

Meeting with goats:

Lots of fun and crazy 4WD along the coast:

At Coral Bay we buy snorkelling gear. Camp in the wild next to Ningaloo Homestead. Track to Cape Range is closed. Second camp in the wild
Bjoern running at sunset, while the girls collect shells:

Monday 20 April
Ningaloo Hstd - Cape Range NP
Coral Bay, snorkeling boat trip. Fantastic corals and loads of fishes and turtles.
3rd camp in the wild in Cape Range NP
We are in dear need of a real shower... Salt encrusted and rasta hairs!

8th day: from Shark Bay to Ningaloo wilderness - 18 Apr 2009

2009-04-28T01:58:05Z

Saturday 18 April
Denham - Warroora (Ningaloo NP)
A stop at stinking hot but amazing Hamelin pool, where we discover the Stomatolites (living stones)

Lots of driving up to the start of Ningaloo NP.
Fantastic 4WDrining up to an isolated beach (called Burlalli) in the Warroora area. Beautiful wild beach with white sand, sharp waves breaking at the shore and warm blue waters.

We thought we were alone but coming out of nowhere an Aborigene lady ask us if we could help her as her car is stuck in deep sand. We tried but without success there was another car with ladies and kids and they drove back to the entrance where they could get help, leaving their car behind. they'll come back later and will managed after a while and lots of digging to get their car out.
Bjoern also met up with wild dingoes

7th day: Monkey Mia, Denham, Francois Perron NP - 17th Apr 2009

2009-04-28T01:52:23Z

Friday 17 April
Monkey Mia - Denham (Shark Bay)
After feeding the dolphins in the morning, Agnes takes a run on the beach and makes an unexpected encounter with a dolphin further away from the touristic interaction area.
Cille snorkels a bit but gets stung and renounce. We will end up in the swimming pool a last time before heading out. We are thinking of going into the wild Francois Perron NP but before make a stop at Denham.
Bjoern needs to get organized for his call (work) scheduled later in the afternoon. We finally managed to get some connectivity in Denham. We drove into the NP with our 4WD , finally making use of it. Quite crazy:

We stopped at the big lagoon where there is a basic bush camp. The colour of the lagoon water is amazing however lots of wind, lots of seagrass, lots of stinging flies. We managed to bathe but or not feeling like staying:

Heading further into the park is also not an option considering the time and the fact that we need to get back to civilisation for Bjoern's cll. We decided to drive back to Denham and find a caravan park there. We stayed at a nice park with fantastic facilities great view on the ocean. While joern gets his call Cille and Agnes go shopping and then to the beach for the sunset.

6th day : Dolphins 1st encounter, Monkey Mia - Apr 16, 2009

2009-04-26T12:13:05Z

Thursday 16 April:
Nanta Bay - Monkey Mia (Shark bay)
A's toe is better, nothing's broken. We quickly drove of to Monkey Mia hoping to see the famous dolphins. When we arrived we are quite surprise by the crowd. But we managed to sneak in on time for the 3rd feeding at the interaction area and lucky bastards as we are, Agnes and Cille got picked up by the volunteer to feed a fish to a wild dolphin. Amazing experience! Knowing that these are wild dolphins, that are coming everyday on their own accord. They've done so since the 60's. Only females are daring and diplomatic enough to make the contact. Also the feeding only provide a tiny portion of what they require which means that they are not relying on humans and retain their wild instinct.

We are having a brekkie at the restaurant there and check up on the resort facilities. We are able to find a spot at the un-powered camp site for the night. While Bjoern takes a run, Cille and Agnes go snorkeling. Cille learns quite fast and loves it:

She will also make a friend that day, Jorja, with whom she plays as long as possible. There is a swimming pool that we enjoy and at the end of the afternoon we rent a canoe and go for a 2h rowing on the bay. The only downer are all the stingers in the water.