We have a Winner!

When I started this blog I put up one interactive part where readers could vote for their favourite next post-topic. No less than FOUR people voted, out of which 50 percent chose the topic that this post will be about. Therefore: By popular demand.... (drum-roll):

Sailing the Mediterranean Sea

"like a pro"

Working abroad is a great way to prolong your stay and make the money last. Most of my travels have been sponsored by my tour company Djoser, for who I guided tours in about 18 different countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco - South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania - Cuba - Thailand - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to be exact) but apart from that I have worked some other jobs as well. Actually my travelling career started, when I was 18 yo, with working in a dish washing kitchen in a Summer Camp in Texas. In Egypt I ran my own bar for a couple of months, but most of the time I spent working abroad was in Italy, teaching sailing off the beach of the island of Sardegna.

"checking the weather"

I had learned about the opportunity through a friend of mine who is a colleague sail instructor in Holland. Together with my girlfriend of the time we decided that working here for a full 10 weeks would be a perfect start to our year of travelling, so after applying in Utrecht in the Spring of 2001 we set out hitch-hiking towards Rome. From there we would take the 8 hour boat-ride to Olbia and hitch our way to the camp-site where the sailing school had its base. When we arrived in Rome we bumped in to somewhat of a problem. We received an e-mail from Amfibie-Treks (that's the name of the sailing school) that we were not needed any more because they had more then enough personnel at that moment.
We could go back home. But this would be a very unwanted end to our travelling so we just ignored the e-mail and took the boat anyway. Taking the boat from Civitaveccia, Rome, to Olbia, is great! The boat is quite luxurious and even has a swimming pool that stays open until the sway becomes to much and the water might poor out. The weather was great and we enjoyed the ride thoroughly. Upon arrival we easily found a ride and passed by the camp-site late in the evening for a night under the stars on a beach some kilometres further to the South. Then the time came to confront the head of the school with the fact that we had come anyway... hopefully not too unwanted. This awkward moment turned out perfectly fine and after a slow start - where we had to help out on the camp, beside teaching some lessons - we became more and more important. By the end of the season we were about the only instructors still working and to be honest, these were the best times I ever spent at this place. (I came back three more times to this paradisical place which was great but had its downsides as well.)

"who's that white girl?"

Amfibie Treks offers a very interesting package holiday that combines camping in a family size tent (with a bed...), full board (eating home cooked Italian food, together on long tables) lazing and playing on the beach and learning how to sail. They have about 10 little Varuna sail boats that seat four students and an instructor, for learning the basics and they have Hobie Cat 16 catamarans for the more advanced sailors and thrill seekers. Admitted, the material is not the newest or the best, but considering its intensive use it is still good enough to have a lot of fun. The beach is broad and sandy, the people there are cool and friendly and the Mediterranean is light-blue and lukewarm (in Summer). Teaching sailing here gave me the best suntan ever! After about a week there is no need for the use of sunscreen lotion. Being on the water at least 6 hours per day gave one of my colleagues such an intense tan that you could seriously not see any difference between the colour of his skin an chocolate paste...

"let the drinking begin"

Six hours on the water... yeah, that is at some point one of the downsides of this place, as an instructor. Breakfast at 8.30 going to the beach at nine, preparing the boats. First clients arriving at 9.45 and at 10 you are on the water. On a catamaran there is no real sitting up or back support so I was hanging on the trampoline all day. Wet all day. After one or 1.5 hours the first shift was over so time to pick up the next clients from the beach. Maybe running into the dunes to find a toilet in between. Apart from the real Summertime, I needed to wear a "shorty" wet-suit so peeing in the water was not an option, really. After the next session there would be a break from 1pm till 2 pm, having lunch in the dunes. Then three more hours of sailing and dismantling the boats and packing up the sails. Back to the camp, shower, getting ready for the happy hour of free drinking and starting to party at the "zuipschuit". An old sail-boat turned into a bar. Dinner from 7 till 8 pm. Then some kind of evening program that often resulted into dancing and partying late, usually not allowing you to get enough sleep or stay sober enough to feel fit in the morning, for breakfast at 8.30 going to the beach at 9... and so on. Seven days a week. One free day per two weeks. 42 hours per week on the water. Ten weeks on a row. Madness.

It was a tough job, but somebody has to do it, I suppose.

I would not mind going back though. Teaching for two weeks during my Summer holidays. Who knows. I might meet you there?

Varuna sail-boat

After this first period on Sardegna we hitch-hiked our way down to Cagliari, from where we took the boat that brought us, via Trappani, Sicily, to Tunis! We made had made our way from Amsterdam to Africa, just by hitch-hiking and boating! You can imagine how I felt when upon our arrival I could actually hear the muezzin calling for evening prayer, at dusk, over Tunesia...

This trip we made it all the way to Egypt (unfortunately using the plane, for tress-passing Lybia is not so simple...) where we ran the Nesima bar in Dahab, and on to Madras, South-India, from where we travelled overland to the Himalayas in Nepal.

And then home. About that trip, I never wrote before. Will do soon. That's what this blog is all about.