The four of us, Linda, Anne-Marie, Victor and I made sure we made use of all the facilities available to the guests. We did some wakeboarding, sailing ( yes I did tip the boat but theres no photo of that ), tennis, table tennis, boules, relaxing at the pool and as many of the wonderfull restaurants as we possibly could.

Lucky for us the week there included a visit to Emelia and Andrew’s awesome place. We got to play terrible golf at a beautifull golf course. We went dolphin watching on a huge cat and played volleyball on Ile’de Surf.

I offered a “How to drink Whiskey” class and had a few eager students

Sam took it easy the next day, infact I think he probably won’t drink Whiskey again :-)
Thanks to Charlene we got a nice anniversary cake to celebrate our 4 year anniversary

Did a bit of underwater walking

We spent a nice afternoon traveling up one of the rivers, swam from pool to pool and jumped a few rocks.

What is a holiday without a bit of adrenaline and adventure – Pic the biggest waterfall in the area and jump off it into a unknown pool of water.

I have hundreds of photos on this trip and wish I could put them all on – but it would take hours. I hope this will give you a idea of what a wonderfull place it is and the time we had.

Emelia and Andrew – Thanks again, you have been awesome hosts. I only hope I can return the favour here in Oz

The trip there was as exciting as the the fishing itself. We, My Dad, Andre, Victor and I, flew to Lusaka in Zambia with South African airways as the first part of the journey. We were received there by a travel agent that helped us through customs and into a 4×4 in minutes. The service was something I have never experienced before. From there we got moved to a domestic airport where we were greated with some beers in hand. Enough time for a smoke and then into another little plane for the next leg of the journey that took about 45 min. to a airstrip right next to the Zambezi river about 10 min drive from our camp Kasaka.

Our days started at day break with a friendly knock-knock at the tent opening ( Since there is no door to knock on our guide just said knock-knock until he got some response from someone inside the tent ).

The tents are permanetly fixed with solid bathroom walls and beautifully furnished with dark wooden furniture.

We did 2 fishing trips a day, one in the morning that finished around 11 and another in the afternoon until just before dark.

The Yellow Shirt competition was won by everyone on the trip at some point in time ( Goes to the one that has caught the biggest fish to date ). Victor won with a 13 Pound Tiger.

We had a few visitors on the camp from time to time – Even got chased out of the pool once.

The last day of fishing we ended with a quick trip back to camp through the game park and ran into a nice pride of lions.

Dad, Vic, Andre – Thanks guys it was awesome !

Dad went to a Scottish formal on Saturday ( Here is a photo ) – Hope you have an awesome day dad ! Can’t wait to see you guys – less than a month and we are there.

I have to mention a few :

Bobby G – Never knew you had them moves bro…! Digger dude, you looked 10 years younger with hair :-) Dough, awesome Elvis moves !
What can we say about the Ackermann’s – Werner and Elise – you deserved the Champagne ! Elizabeth – Thanks for the awesome cake and you looked great on those roller skates :-) All the guys from Zurich ( Rob, Dave, Ian, James and Helen – Thank you very much for joining us )

Thank you everyone for all the presents and for all the effort you have made in attending – I had a ball !!
Click on the picture above for more photos – I will add more photos as I get them in.

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- Anne-Marie and I fly ( all flight plans as listed below ) from SYD to JHB via Mauritius.
- I go and fish with the boys between the 22nd and the 26th in Zambia.
- Lots of cool stuff in and around South Africa like visiting Andre at Botelierskop.
- We fly to Mauritius on the 7th of Oct. and then stay there until we have to go back home on the 15th.

Flight City Date City Arrival Date
MK 943 Syd Sep 18th – 7am JHB Sep 19th – 11:35 am
MK 852 JHB Oct 7th – 12:40 pm MAU Oct 7th – 6:40 pm
MK 942 MAU Oct 15th – 1:45 pm SYD Oct 16th – 6:10 am

The sides of the highway was scattered with the cars and people that gave up and decided to wait out the traffic. Some un-packed bongo drums and bbq’s other sat around playing guitar.

We arrived at the Beachcomber in Byron, happy with our little studio apartment, popped a bottle of bubbly ( Anne’s Favourite ) and drank the whole bottle on the balcony – unpacked the basics and head straight for town ( about 5 min walk from the hotel ). We did some basic shopping ( some Breezers, a few beers … ).

Friday was the start of our Festival tickets. We head to the festival by bus ( $3 pp ) about 10 min. out of town. On Day 1 we saw Gomez, Joss Stone – Dad you would have loved Joss’s show. We head back to town for a brilliant seafood feast and then back to the festival to see Lee Perry and then Ziggy Marley – My, now, fav CD Ziggy Marley – Love is my religion.

Day 2 – I realised that a 4 day music festival, while in your 30′s is something that can only be done in comfort. It rained everyday during the festival and I looked at all the 20 something year old festive goers camping in the rain and I knew the money we spent on the hotel was worth every cent. We started every morning with a sleep in ( There was no waves :-( ) and a nice brekkie in town. Our festival on day 2 started with ( Dad you have to buy this CD ) Amos Lee, Bella Fleck, Fat Freddie’s drop and Fishbone – Amos Lee the clear winner.

Day 3 – Our last was excellent – We knew we had a long night ahead so we greased-up with a hearty breakfast and then I had about 10 beers :-). We saw Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers, Xavier Rudd and the John Butler Trio – Brilliant ! As you can see below I got a new hat. As Anne calls it, my “Fanie” hat which is a Anne-a-lism for something of bad taste, typically clothes – But there are times in your life you just have to be who you are no matter what people think of you .. :-)

Regardless of all the rain Byron was beautiful and fun. We had enough rest to make us feel as if we had a holiday and as much fun as you want out of a Blues festival. 

Some bands we missed on Monday or during the festival : Bo Diddley, pitty I am sure it would have been awesome but we had to choose and Nibs van der Spuy, a South African was only playing on Monday – but I baught the CD in support – Sounds like Cat Stevens. We also missed the famous Rodriguez – but he is playing in Sydney soon and hopefully well catch him there.

For all the Google Earth Fans here are the GPS coordinates to our Hotel in Byron :

S 28 38.426 E 153 36.635