In Africa, Adventure, Paddling, Southern Africa On  02/05/2017  No comments

Kayak Tour, Cape Town from Karla Brunet on Vimeo.

Before arriving in Cape Town I had already seen on the internet that there were kayak tours around the city. I scheduled the tour with Kaskazi Kayaks & Adventures for Saturday since these days I would be staying at Sea Point. Luckily, it was a beautiful sunshine day, 32 ° Celsius, perfect for paddling on the cold sea. I went there walking along the coast of Sea Point and enjoying the summer day.

Upon arrival, our guide – Dirk Kaiser – showed the basic movements of kayaking and soon we set off for the adventure at sea. My rowing buddy was a South African woman, Kim. She was accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law who live in England. Everyone had experience with kayaking before.

We paddled out, enjoying the skyline of Cape Town. It was lovely to see from the sea Signal Hill, Table Mountain and V&A Waterfront. A beautiful landscape and a sunny day. In the middle of our route we spotted dolphins...

In Africa, Food & Drinks, Southern Africa On  01/05/2017  No comments

As I am a wine enthusiast and love to visit wineries, I decided to do a wine tasting tour with Cape To Grape. The tour included cheese and wine tasting, biltong and wines pairing, lunch – with wine -, chocolate and wine… I was thrilled.

Our morning began at the D’Aria Wine Estate, we tasted 5 wines – 2 white, 2 red and 1 rose. The place was beautiful, we sat on a wooden porch at the edge of a stream.The green landscape, the dry leaves, the noise of the water, all matched the wine tasting.

Our second stop of the day was at the Fairview Wine Estate, where we sampled wines and cheeses. We start with the lightest cheeses, white wines and then we went into reds. A delight. The farm has a goat farm and had a huge space for tasting and buying cheeses and wines. As it was a holiday in South Africa, it was crowded with groups and families who came to know the place. The children were entertained with the goats while the parents were tasting wines and cheeses.

The third stop of the day was at t...

In Adventure, Bahia, Brazil, Cycling tour On  02/03/2017  No comments

• 1st day: Bom Despacho – Salinas da Margarida 61 km
• 2nd day: Salinas da Margarida – Barra do Paraguaçu 36.58 km gpx

Since I really enjoyed the experience of the Mangue Seco – Praia do Forte trip organized by Lúcia Saraiva from Amigos de Bike, I decided to take another cycle tour with them, this time it was Itaparica and Salinas da Margarida. We woke up very early to catch the first ferry to Itaparica. We arrived in Bom Despacho and had a break for a breakfast with orange juice and hot sandwich. Right after, we faced the road.

We went by the shoulder of the road BA01, I found it comfortable to pedal. Every time there was a little hill, I was left behind. Everyone passed me and they went ahead. Lucia selected a gentleman from the group to accompany me, not leave me alone behind. Unfortunately, it is dangerous for a woman to be alone on the bike in these areas… As soon as we cross the Funil Bridge back to the mainland, we stop to eat lambretas, a typical dish of the region...

In Adventure, Bahia, Brazil, Cycling tour On  20/10/2016  2 comments

• 1st day: Mangue Seco – Sítio do Conde 52.51 km
• 2nd day: Sítio do Conde – Baixio 32.69 km
• 3rd day: Baixio – Porto de Sauipe 40.93 km
• 4th day: Porto de Sauipe – Praia do Forte 25.18 km
  Download here the gpx of this trip

Cicloturismo: Mangue Seco – Praia do Forte from Karla Brunet on Vimeo.

I had already seen photos from this cycle trip organized by Lucia Saraiva (Amigos de Bike) and I was very interested. This year, luckily, I was able to go. I loved the idea that it would be 4 days of cycling on the sand at low tide. It reminded me of my teenager years when I would go with my “Brisa” from Capão da Canoa to Capão Novo, alone on the beach (about 25/30km in total). My boyfriend would meet me there for a snack and I go back down on the road.

In this edition of 2016, we were a small group of 4 cyclists (Lucia, Dora, Paulo and me), plus Zena who was our support car and the official photographer. The cycling was beautiful, miles and miles only of sand and sea. Every day, we had to cross...

In Adventure, Brazil, Sailing On  13/10/2016  No comments

We arrived in Noronha very late at night. Part of the crew disembarked in the middle of the night anyway, as they would sleep in inns on the days in Noronha. I stayed on the boat, wanted to taste the experience of living on board. It was only two days but it gave a little understanding of what life is like on a sailboat. In the morning we tried to get the anchor out, it was badly positioned. We had to change place of the boat, we were in an area of circulation. Then he organized and cleaned the boat. It was not until the end of the afternoon that we stepped ashore for dinner and go around the village. I adored small trips on the inflatable boat bypassing the sailing boats that came to Noronha in Refeno. The small bay was filled with beautiful sailboats.

The next day we went diving in the morning to see the wreck in the port bay and we also dove to clean the hull of the boat. In the afternoon – a pedal on the island – a little review of the place I had been in 1998 and 2002...

In Adventure, Brazil, Sailing On  12/10/2016  No comments

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In this post, I decided to create a map of my participation in Refeno, just click on the icons and navigate on my experience at sea. It was my first regatta and the second time I was on board in a sailboat, without any stops. The first had been on a trip from Victoria to Salvador but I quit halfway, stopped at Abrolhos, and took a ride to Caravelas with a dive boat.

This time I was determined to face the sea even though I get seasick. The experience was great. We were the last to arrive in Fernando de Noronha, our boat – Pangeia – was a Bruce Roberts 434, 44 foot, 14 meters long, draft of 1.60 and weight of 17 tons. As we were the only steel sailboat, we left with the first trophy. Not bad for my first regatta.

Refeno 2016 from Karla Brunet on Vimeo.

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In Adventure, Cycling tour, Euro bike 2016, Europe On  15/07/2016  No comments

Route of the 6th day: Uithoorn – region near Amsterdam airport – Amsterdam
Total km/day: 32.48 km – (gpx)
Accommodation: hotel near the airport

• It was our last day of the cycling trip. Well, my father’s last day, I would still have many days of cycling through the Netherlands and Germany until I arrived in Strasbourg, France.
• The road was calm. It was Sunday morning and the road not crowed with cyclists going to work or school. We passed by training cyclists, with race bikes.
• We stopped at the airport hotel to leave our bags, check in and headed for the city center. There, we returned my father’s rental bike and left mine in a public parking lot. It gave me a little pain in the belly to leave her there alone in the crowd of bicycles for a week…
• Our bike trip ended well, we had no accidents, nor did the bikes got damaged, no flat tire, everything went really well. Relief.

Do hotel onde estávamos em Uithoorn, podia-se ver (e ouvir) a passagens dos aviões chegando no aeroporto de A...

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Euro bike 2016, Europe On  14/07/2016  No comments

Route of the 5th day: Gouda – Uithoorn
Total km/day: 46.04 km – (gpx)
Accommodation: hotel by the Zijdelmeer lake

• We had a good part of the trip on the countryside, we just stopped to eat some nuts and drink water in a park.
• This time I peed on the road. Since it didn’t stop coming people from all directions, I made a “v” with the bikes and asked my father to stand closing the triangle.
• We got a bit lost again because they changed the number 90 of the routes… It was visible the change, they just pasted a new number on the sign. We went on and it was wrong. As I mistrusted the way and checked the GPS. So we were able to get back on track with no major laps.
• After that, part of the course was on the edge of the Kromme Mijdrecht river and Amstel river. Beautiful and peaceful. There were not as many people on the bike path as in previous days.
• The arrival was super relaxing, the hotel was on the edge of Lake Zijdelmeer. It was a beautiful late afternoon.

No dia seguinte, estávamos...

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Euro bike 2016, Europe On  13/07/2016  No comments

Route of 4th day: Delft – Zoetermeer – Gouda
Total km/day: 41.56 km – (gpx)
Accommodation: hotel

• We got lost at Zoetermeer’s exit, there was no or we didn’t see one of the signs at a road junction. I really wanted to go to the bathroom but there was no toilets around. I even knocked on a house and asked if there was a bathroom nearby, they told me to go to the train station. When he got there, there was nothing, no attendant, no bathroom. As it was all very populated and without an open filed, only beautiful houses with perfect patios, I had nowhere to pee … It was stressful, simple things of life can be stressful. The relief was when we arrived in a village that did have a bar with a bathroom. Before I had stopped at a bakery and said that the bathroom was only for employees …
• I got scared at one of the junctions on the road, I almost got hit by a car. I stopped on a traffic light and had no angle to see the green or red. My father, who was behind me, said to go and I went but a c...

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Euro bike 2016, Europe On  12/07/2016  No comments

Route of the 3rd day : Leiden – dunes – sea – Hague – Delft
Total km/day: 38.19 km – (gpx)
Accommodation: private room at Hélène’s (Vrienden op de Fiets) place
Link to trip map: http://u.osmfr.org/m/93840/

• Our third day of cycling began being driven by Ap (host in Leiden) to leave the city. He kindly guided us to the first point of the route.
• As I love the sea, I took the advice of our hosts and rode through the dunes to the North Sea and from there we went to The Hague.
• In Delft, we stayed right on the historic center. In market in the central square I ate my first herring of the trip. As always, I loved it. My father did not even tried.
• One of the peculiarities of Delft are the crooked buildings, falling to one side. The most impressive is one of the great central churches, it is visibly fallen to the side. We did a boat tour and the guide explained to us that the main church has already begun to fall in the construction phase. Many of these buildings have several supporting str...