hey everyone! whats shakin?

we are good. back in tana actually. the plan to head to nosy be fell through. on the 23rd i started getting ill and by that evening i was super ill and went to the doctors. turns out i had salmanella! so he gave me a schwack of meds and i think that made things worse. so after getting worse i stopped taking most of the stuff the doctor gave me and got better quickly. still i spent most of the 24th and 25th in bed and we didnt want to chance a 22hr boat ride on the 26th. i felt bad but sam and josh were super cool with things. so anyways were back in tana to get visas for india then tom or the next day well head to santa maria. this island on the east coast which is supposed to be really nice.

not alot else is new. xmas was pretty good. minus the sickness. hope you all had a great time.

ok so im going to try this again. i tried a couple days ago but it didnt work. the internet is like molasses here.

We are great. were in madagascar, in a city called mahajanga. its on the coast an hot hot hot. like 35-40 but super humid. feels like were breathing under water. but its ok, we have a room with AC so its goo sleeps. were going to stay in this city for xmas as the boat we want to take is not until the 26th so well be dining on pizza and mangos for the holiday, both of which are super tastey here. they put honey on pizza!! and its actually really freaking good.

were going to stay here till friday then catch a boat for 22 hours to nosy be, this little island, then catch another boat to nosy komba , a smaller island, an chill there. apperently theres a nice small town and good snorkeling. heres to hopeing.

so for madagascar has been a little difficult. money has been an issue. joshs and my bank cards dont work... anywhere. so were relying heavily on sam this month. thank god for cibc. and finding a boat as super hard. apparently everyone closes theyre shops at 1200 and dont open again till 1500 or 1600. so that sucks. but were managing.

its pretty sweet being here, because they speak french and we do a little... well sam is doing amazing (like i said, we are relying on sam heavily) and im learning. i actually had a few conversations this week! pretty stoked... josh on the other hand seems to panic and resort to his mother tongue, lispy spanish, but he seems to get his point across. except for the fish head he ordered yesterday and the 3 strawberry milkshakes he almost ordered hen e anted samosas. sam jumped in quickly and told him to shush. haha. but were getting better.

anyways. im not sure this will work. as its my second attempt. merry christmas and such. happy hannika (spelling) and we`ll think about all you guys and have a few drinks for you of xmas.

much love
Sam, Luke, an Josh.

just a quick one.

ok so i know ive been saying thats its hot here. but seriously. look at our flickr account and see the new pics up.

http://flickr.com/photos/31168733@N02/

we went out climbing today and came back to a candle that totally sank over to lie on the table! crazy. we left one out side but it totally disapeared. all that was left was a wet mark on the bbq. crazy crazy. today is 43 and yesterday was 42. ugh. were heading to cape town tom. should be cooelr we hope. anyways. hope your all well.

howzit?!?!?

hope everyone is doing well. we are all pretty scookum. life in the rocklands is thrilling and exciting... obviously. thought we'd keep everyone posted. we have been climbing lots and chilling just as much. drinking lots of wine from the vinyard we're staying at and sipping pitticow. pitticow is a local drink, its a brandy, but made of granadillas. pretty good. sweet and fruity and has seeds from the fruit in it. very excellent. the juice is great and the crunchy seeds are some good entertainment for after.

not alot new. were leaving here the 10th, and going to head to cape town for a day or two to get visas to madagascar. then we decided to drive up the coast and take 5 or so days to get to jo. we'll stop in jay bay and in durban. then haul ass north. hopefully wont take as long as coming south (a month).

quote of the week- "mister desirable will satisfy you" seriously thats what the guy at the embassy on the phone said to josh when was asking about visa requirements and he didnt know. as you could imagine, josh didnt know how to respond.

take it easy.

new pics are up

http://flickr.com/photos/31168733@N02/

and josh has actually put up a flickr account also, so heres his. im afraid that they're a little better than my pics. hes got the eye.

http://flickr.com/photos/32886276@N04/

hey everybody how are things? were great. hotter than believable actually.

today was another scortcher, i thknk around 40 in the shade, so after a failed attempt climbing in the morning, we decided to head to the coast. we headed to lamberts bay. we picked up a couple drunk canadians for the drive (dan and byron's car broke down again so they decided to start drinking at 1100) to made for the ocean. the drive was hotter than it was at home! sam described it as sitting infront of a hair dryer... while on fire! but just as we got over the last hill before town a gust of cold sea air hit us. it was shocking how cold it was. might have only been like 25 or 30, but it felt arctic. sam soon had a hoodie on. the town was as exciting as one couldn't prepare for. they had a fish meal grocery store, a beach where you had to watch your step due to broken glass and condoms strewn about. they had a couple restaurants and a fish meal plant and a french fry plant. we wanted a tour of the plants, but we were turned away because apparently they had secrets that they didnt want competition to get ahold of. so we went for cray fish and muscles. mm mm good.

and thats about it. lamberts bay, excitment center for south africa. hope your all well. thought id just write a bit to keep everyone posted. not much new here. sam sent for first FA (first ascent for all non-climbers. means she found a new route, cleaned it, and climbed it. very cool.) and named it captain hook.


new pics are up on our flickr website. if you dont have it scroll down to the next post or two.
take care, much love

hey everybody. whats shakin? things are good. hot but good. the days have been between 35 and 40 (in the shade). but were coping. shade is better than the sun (obviously) and morning climbing seems decent and evening sessions are managable. the place were staying has a really nice pool so that helps. the only problem with the pool is that its freaking cold! its lke stepping into a glacial river. the first time we jumped in was epic. the first step was shin deep and it was shockingly cold. it was 40 degrees in the shade and the cool watertook our breath away. second step was thigh level that made us hoot and shake. and thats about as far as sam and i got. we werent going any further... until josh came running from behind and tackled us and we all went in. i think it shocked josh the most, thinking it was going to be nice and mold. well after 2 minutes in the water we were egtting goose bumps. i decided to look at the thermometer, we all took guesses at what it was going to read, guesses were 12, 16, 15. it was 26 degrees!! we couldnt believe it. it was the coldest freaking water weve ever been in! crazieness. anyways. thats just to show how much our bodies are used to the heat already. home's going to hurt.

anyways. we got our tickets! were going to madagascar in 3 weeks! stoked! very stoked. well anyways. thats about it for now. not a lot of crazy stories. climbing and all has taken over alot. we've reclined into a nice rhythm here. early morning start. coffee, breakfast. climb. come home and read/nap/ smoke sheesha (yes of course we bought one. and we got new flavors! my favorite in earl grey and cardimom. its like chai! sam likes orange and cherry. josh likes a new flaor every day, so its hard to tell) and then an evening session if its cool enough and we have enough finger skin, then we all take turns cooking and cleaning (sam made the best pizza ive ever eaten last night.) then chill and go to bed. hard to believe weve been here for like 3 weeks.

we met up with some more canadians... calgarians in fact. none other than byron marks and dan gainer. the dinamic duo. we mistakingly introduced them to Hunters cider. and i think byron has fallen in love.

ok thats all for now. take care.

oh and there are new pics up if you go to
http://flickr.com/photos/31168733@N02/

(please view photos of luke - he is getting a complex - even if you dno't look at them - just click on it ... )

ladies and gentlemen, Sam has come out of retirement and is going to do a blog! i know i know! you dont have to listen to me anymore! here she is ...

ah ha ha - i get so much flack for not signing on here - but Luke is great - I mean really - do you wanna hear the same stories twice???

Life is great - how could it not be?? residing in a winery at the base of one of the most renowned climbing areas - I'm a lucky girl, and I know it. especially with teachers like Luke and Josh ... Learning lots - pulling hard (sort of) and loving every moment. I am skeptical about the grades here though - it seems that I am climbing 5's - whatever that means but i'm noticing that when we look at the 'V' conversion there's probably no way - ha ha! I sure do miss the 'C' gradign system at home ...

The quote of the week is "BATS ... BATS ARE ATTRACTED TO LIGHT!!!" - I'll let you all imagine which of the three muskateers that came from - but lets just say that I know better than to shower in the dark outside at night and Luke isnt' afraid of anything ...

This trip has been amazing - I'm so lucky to be here experiencing the world with Luke - stories we'll tell grandkids one day ... stories I can't wait to tell people when we get home. I struggle for stuff to write here though, i have to admit - not because i don't want to but just because for one you all get great descriptions from Luke and so i could tell you about my feelings, but whenever I ask the boys to talk about feelings they aren't very receptive ... ha ha. j'k ... seriously though.

I find that I ... we ... are missing peoplefrom home like crazy - People here know Etienne from his recent trip and especially when we are climbing we think of friends and what they might have to say about a problem or a funny anecdote ... (see this is why i don't write - I reminisce far too much) - Anyways - I shouldn't stay on too long because we are expecting a new fridge for our cottage. the one we have now is painfully warm on the inside and poor luke has been eating cheese dangerously close to the expiration for far too long now.The food here is amazing - by that i mean the food that we have been cooking. Luke has manufactured this amazign salad that he puts together almost everynight that has us fighting to lick the bowl and Josh ventures out after dark with a headlamp, fightign off bats with a stick to bbq the boerwars (sausage) ...

The Biltong (jerky of sorts for my family who dont' know what it is) seems to be a staple in our grocery shops - i hate it - ostrich, springbok, beef ... CHICKEN - WTF!!! it looks like freeze dried salmonella!! - so freakin' gross - but the boys ... they will eat anything - Apparently the biltong is dried down 80% of its original size so in total I'd have to say that since Josh's arrival they've consumed one cow, two springbok (deer) and at least a gaggle of ostrich ... so uncool - ha ha!!

Ok - well I'm off - will write soon - (promise)

Much love to all - and thanks for taking the time to read about our adventures - Misses and Kisses ...

Sam

ok! sorry about the huge delay but you know how it is. busy busy busy. its hard to find quick internet connections out here. so were now in clanwilliam. its a little town north of cape town (as if a town could be anything but north of cape town) its pretty nice. lots of guest houses and a big lake, as i hear it pretty good for jet skiers and motor boaters. our climbing is 20 minutes down a dirt road in to the mountains. lots and lots of rock out here.

since the last post, as you can guess we've been up to quite a bit. we spent a couple days in cape town, until we got sick of the city nd boogeyed out to clan william. its great. hotter than hell during the day so were doign morning sessions and evening sessions. up at 6 and on the rock, sam loves that as you can imagine. and then back to the house by 10 or 11 when its way too hot and then chilling and napping till 5 to climb again. pretty hard life i tell ya. when we firts arrived sam and i camped. that was great with the exception of bugs and frigid ass nights. a friend in cape was nice enough to lend us his tent, sleeping pads and stove so it was pretty comfortable, and the best of all we 're back of nescafe!!! :(

So after a week of climbing we went back to cape town and picked josh up from the airport, and sent a couple days there which were nice. chilling at coffee shops and the beach all day and partying at night in the local clubs and bars. we made some friends, who turned out to be well off drug dealers, AND who happened to have partied with the BACK STREET BOYS last week and this week they were with us! i guess that puts us on the BSB'S level! dont know if thats good or bad. either way we got away from them quickly.

so now were back at clan william and its pretty decent. at first we stayed at this place called the travelers rest, it was amazing. it cost us 6 dollars each a night (for the 3 of us) and we got a huge mansion, we all had our own bathroom, there were 2 enormous fire places like the size our bathroom at home, a full kitchen, giant living room with a table set for 14, a stone deck, and a swimming pool! it was wicked. but we all met out match out there. its turned out we werent the only residents out there. geckos and flys galore, of course. this crazy ant looking thing, but like the size a kitten (i shit you not!) as big as my hand, so big it wasnt even scary! spiders spiders spiders!!!! all shapes and sizes! little ones that hung from joshs nose without him knowing it, i guess many species could take up residence under there, spiders all the way up to the size of sams palm, these were josh's breaking point. great big things that sam made me try to kill with her little freaking sanuk shoe and they were as quick as lightning. our last day was the worst for bugs and stuff. at our lunch break we found 4 ticks on the kitchen counter and one on my leg, and we discovered our bread had gotten into my mice, and when we came back in the evening we found a bird got in the house, only after it tried dive bombing me when i wen into the bed room. So, needless to say, were at a new guest house that were hoping will be a lot quieter (we heard some animal running around in the ceiling regularly) were now at Alpha Excelsior, its very close to the climbing (where as travelors rest was about 20 minutes drive away) and is a winery and has very clean nice houses.

anyways im going on and on. my skin hurts from months of now climbing and my hands are starting to swell. take care all and i promise ill get back on to the blog more often and try for pics soon. and if were lucky, sam will write. bye for now.

one whole month already!

holy moly a whole month! and were in cape town! hope you all well and all that. cant do a big one but one of us will in the next day or two. cape town is pretty skookem. having funand drinking good coffee finally. so sick of freaking nescafe. its not even nescafe. its riccoffee. made of chicory, a coffee substitute! ugh. but alls well now. there are new pics up again. look for the link 2 or 3 post ago. talk soon.

hello, everybody.

how are you all? assuming well enough as we haven't heard differently. so were in jeffreys bay, or jay bay, as the cool guys call it. its pretty sweet. like an African, Caribean, Florida rolled into one giant Oahu... sams words... i dont ask anymore. lots of fancy shops and its clean, with fish for sale all over. our guest room over looks the ocean from a cliff and it only costs 25$ sweet! except theres a good chance of bugs and ants crawling on us, hopefully sam wont read this tonight before we've already slept and moved on.

since we last updated, we went to Lesotho, which is a little country inside of south africa. its pretty sweet. in fact i think we agreed it was our favorite part so far. the people were super nice. kids stopped and waved at us in the car everywhere we went, and when we walked down the streets we were jaw droppers. i think me a little more than sam though. at one point a black midget in kids clothes stopped and stared at me like I was a spectacle! seriously. it was alot of fun in the country,. right and left we were shocked at peoples kindness and generosity. and the scenery was crazy. huge mountains with steep cliffs and on top of the mountains there were some of the most amazing rock formations ive ever seen! really beautiful. oh and sam got her hair braided. looks great. almost african looking now. people yell at her in Xosa and zulu all the time now. weird at first but funny now. took 4 and a half hours. enough time for me to meet a friend and get my drink on before noon.

when we left we made for coffee bay. coffee bay is a little town on the ocast thats pretty much a surfers hang out. very beautiful place. steep hills and all the grass is kept short from grazers so it looks like they mow all the fields. the place we stayed at had great food, costume parties and a nice view from our room for morning coffee.

so last night we went to this town, hogsback. apparently its where J. R.R. Tolkien grew up and got his inspiration for writing the hobbit and lord of the rings. its a really cool place with mountains, water falls and thick forests. we might go back at some point. but all the hostels have taken the lord of the rings up as a theme and we got stuck in the hobbit house. with low doors, a tiny bath tub and all. it had a fire place inside our room so that was nice. but 3 weeks ago i happened to start reading the lord of the rings and all of a sudden we heard of this place. so, of course, sam has not let up on teasing me about how excited i got when we rolled in. but seriously its freaking cool. anyone would love it there.

anyways. almost a whole month has gone by! its gone by quickly. were having fun and really looking forward to climbing soon. ok thats all for now. sam will write soon. i just have to twist her arm. one love.

and back again

ok im sorry to all that are following and were not keeping up. sam's fault, i swear. we've been doing great. really great. since we last updated, we've finally made it to the coast! its great. beautiful beaches and almost no tourists... which makes great, greater. our first day at the coast we went for a run to the beach and it was amazing. miles and miles of beach. and hotter than hell,a nd that evening we has some freaking sweet fried fish, from a place called 'fishy petes'! i know how could we not eat there? the bar tender was a great guy that had a high freaking voice that we couldnt understand but found as long as we laughed when he laughed, we got along great. the second day we walked to the beach again and went to find for hipos. and find them we did. apparently they're pretty aggressive, or so i found out. sam was all "be careful! they're mean!" and i was all like " hon, they're fat and in the water". famous last word. i walked closer, and closer getting pictures, and one (a particularly big one, around the size of sams truck) got up real slow. stretched, yawned (well actually we was bearing teeth at me), slowly got out of the water, and faced me "sweet i thought" then he took a step forward, and i one back. then we started charging at me. lets just say i was the photo op for the tourists on the hill behind, skinny white boy funning down the beach away from a monster. sam informed me later that was the alpha male protecting the pond. needless to say we needed to end the evening with beers at fishy petes.

well before i get ahead of my self we went to swaziland before the beach and had a great time there. we met up with a lady we met in in jo that runs a hostel shop and we wne there to hang out and and mingle with some volunteers. it was a great time. tonnes of food and drinks and went for an amazing hike the next day. had a really great time there. the place is called lidwala in the esaweeny valley just west of manini. if your ever in the area.

ok so after st lucia (the first stop of the coast) we slowly made our way down to durban, where we are now. durban is the third biggest city in south africa. its huge. tonnes and tonnes of poverty. you drive through miles of shanty villages to get to the center. when i say shanty i mean a house made of scraps, like corragated metal and old doors about the size of a car and houses whole families.

durban had been really good. relaxing in coffee shops and such, walking through market after market. we came upon an india exhibit, the first day and went in (were really psyched for india), and came across a table of some of the nicest people we've met in south africa. they're a charity group thats run out of an ashram south of the city, apperantly they fed alot of people. so we decided to head on down the next day to see what it was all about. holy cow, what a group of people. this is a place with no government funding all small donations, and has been around for ten years, and feeds on average about 3000 mouths a day, ninty percent children. they cook around 150 kg of rice A DAY, and use 150 loaves of bread a day. they makes sandwiches and deliver them to schools and then make buckets and buckets of briani and serves people there at the ashram and also drives around town to feed people all over durban. it was very humbling seeeing what these volunteers do everyday. the ashram is run by a hindu monk simply called guru by all the kids. hes big guy but seems to giggle at everything and always has a huge smile on his face. he lives at the ashram and eats what the people he serves eats. he lives with quite a few people there, including adopted kids (one of which doesnt seem to take 5 steps with out a cart wheel in between) and one of the sweetest people ive met martha-gi, who can make a fantastic cup of chai and seems to control the crazy house hold with little effort. i hope to see them all again some time as they made us all welcome and fed us till we were about to burst. we came back for the dewaly festival and all i can say to that whole day is wow. thousands of people came through and we served them breakfast and lunch with a prayer session in between, with dancing and singing. i was a one in a million day.

anywim running out of time but try to see our pics on flickr.com try this.

http://flickr.com/photos/31168733@N02/

hope your all well

hey guys how is everyone? were doing great. in swaziland. its pretty good to be here. had a bit of an epic to find the border buts all is good. picture the two of us driving along this little mountain road that, due to sever flooding, is more like a goat trail. heavy fog. periods of rain. trying to make room for other cars to pass, AND with a gas tank so low its gone from gas light being on, to flashing. but its ok. we arrived up scathed. oh and some how we were talked into picking up some hitch hiking locals (apparently they had been working on the road all day but we saw no sign of any work been done.) but its good to be here, its beautiful, and cool. a nice break from the searing heat from the last couple days.

so over the last few days we've done quite a bit. we bouldered of some sweet granite in the crazy man made forest. it was crazy, they have the largest man made forest in the world up there. it almost felt japanese, it was so ordered perfectly with absolutly no under growth. super cool. then we drove and looked at Gods Window (absolutly worth a google image search) and some huge water falls. the next day we boogeyed to the kruger national reserve and saw some wicked animals. elephants, herds of grraffes 7 feet away, a rhino, a crocodile, boars, and some many freaking gazeles that we began gunning for them of the road. in the end we were driving for 13 hours straight. very killer. but sam learned to drive stick (right side at that) and did great.

anyways i gotta go im hogging the internet. hope you guys are great. well try to get some pics up when the internet gets a little quicker.

howzit from jo

well hellooo again everybody. luke... again. sam'll write soon she's just a little busy with her hair at the moment, like anything else is new.

we are in jo burg, south africa, obviously. all's well so far. had a nice couple days here in the burg. were staying at a hostel called brown sugar. its situated in jo burgs equilivant to tuscany. in the safest community around, on a hill, only here they have a 20 foot wall and barbed wire all around it, whereas sams parents house does not. but its good, as apparently there have a been a few muggings lately. so were nice and safely tucked away waiting for monday so we can visit the indian embassy for a visa. there isnt really alot to do here, as tourists usually get the hell out of dodge ASAP. so were walking during the day and avoiding being out at night. getting excited to get away to the coast and away from the city. were thiking that tuesday we'll leave (hopefully) and boogey east. then we want to beach hop till we get to cape town and we can find a crash pad to head to the rocklands. were both getting pretty ansy in the pancey to start climbing.

GOOD NEWS! the coffee situation has improved!! they make great coffee here. only to our great suprise when you say drip coffee with cream, they take that as whipping cream on top of your coffee. image our suprise! wasnt sweetened cream though so it was actually really really good! solid.

heres sam ... oh my goodness I almost stepped on a dead cat in my flipflops!!! I thought it was fox (but I didn't want to tell Luke ... such a city girl) - - my hair is too frizzy for my travel straightener and I can't find the right plug in for my hair dryer - - show me the way to the Marriott ... much love ... Sam

das frankenweitzen!!

well this is luke signing on. we got in to frank last night after a good length flight. sam made an good effort to sleep and i watched indiana jones. while waiting for the flight in calgarz, we were called to the front and were bumped up to first class, solid! frank´s good. found the greatest pub in the world. we both agreed. got free shots and over tipped. the coffee is shit and we miss beano. i guess theres a reason germany isnt known for they´re coffee. sam got word that her beano chalk bag is done so that will be brought to us via josh air. solid times 2!

ok i dont have alot to say yet. went buildering last night on a big suspension bridge. didnt die so no worries, although sam scratched her tummy on the stone foundation. and im done for now. we have a 19 hour trip ahead of us, broken up by a 2 hr lay over in doa, where ever that is. thinking the middle east. hope everyone is well. one love.

heres a test or the new blog.