A mighty fall

Skydiving gives you a kick, but it is quite safe. Only 1 jumps in 100,000 end in a fatality. And those are most likely the risk takers or idiots messing something up.

So it was quite remarkable when in Belgium a very experienced skydiver crashed to her death after both her main and her safety parachute failed. It became more intrigueing when a love triangle was discovered between the victim and two other sky divers taking part in the same jump.

As you could expect with such a case, much ink has flown, and many speculations made. There were bizar twists in the trial such as an anonymous letter to the judge stating that the cheating man, and not the mistress would be responsible.

The trio had been due to perform tricks together in the sky, but the murder accused Clottemans jumped a fraction too late and did not join the manouevres. Clottemans became a prime suspect when she attempted suicide hours before she was due to make a second statement to police, a month after the incident.

In the end Clottemans (left) was found guilty of the murder on Van Doren (right), but on the basis of circumstantial links since all hard evidence is missing.

Cote d'Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire is a west African country, and it's french name remains unchanged in English. Litterly meaning "Ivory Coast" you can guess what the country used to be famous for. Now it has mainly coffee and cocoa as agricultural export products. It is claimed that any chocolatier worth his salt should have Ivorian cocoa in his mix. If you walk in the container yard in Abidjan,the capital, you will watermouth as you can smell cocoa everywhere. Cote d'Ivoire was one of the first African countries to achieve independance from their colonisers - the French. Their inspirational leader Felix Houphouet-Boigny was a great thinker and lead his country to certain prosperity. To such an extend that it was called the Ivorian miracle. It is currently stil one of the upcoming African countries. Currently the country holds 19 million inhabitants, with Didier Drogba probably the best known of all of them - being a top scoring soccer player

A big garden

The Garden Route is probably the most famous destination of South Africa. Not so much a Garden as a Route, it refers to the stretch of coast between Plettenberg and Port Elisabeth. Along the roughly 200 kms, you will see mountains, valleys and lakes, rivers and forests, a paradise for nature lovers.
It is one of South Africa's richest botanical treasures, with giant Yellowwood or Milkwood trees in one of the indigenous forests. And between July and December each year, you can witness a multitude of blooms, such as the Proteas, Ericas, Vygies, Bluebells, Pin-Cushions, Aloes, Tubers and various other species of Fynbos, as it is a matter of record that the floral kingdom of this area is the most varied in the world.
If you stick to the N2, the highway along the garden route, you might not be so impressed. The trick lies in exploring the areas along the highway.

Unexplored beauty

The Western Coast is still an almost undiscovered treasure trove of unspoiled beaches, incredible mountain ranges, rich geographical diversity, and the most astounding carpet of wild flowers in spring. Come
August and September the lush green fields turn into a veritable explosion of colourful flowers.
The Cape West Coast stretches north from Cape Town for hundreds of kilometers. Within its parameters are the indescribably beautiful Cederberg Mountains, which I had visited before.
The villages along the coast are simple and quaint, as fisherman's towns usually are. Snoek, mussels and crayfish are a way of life and ‘bokkoms’ (salted mullet strung up in bunches and left to dry)
is the local delicacy. If you are lucky, or very patient, or both, you can se Southern Right Whales breaching the water. Whilst we were there, there was a sighting of a whale. But we only saw seals and seabirds.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the size of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria combined. It's population is only 60 million though
which is the same as France's population. The Congo is probably the African country most written about. That is because its history is exemplary of a lot of African countries.
Although first contacts with Portugese explorers in the 15th century were peaceful and based on mutual respect and exchange of courtesies, soon after, domination of Whites over Blacks began.
Slaves were traded form the Congo basin to the rest of Africa and the World by Whites, and in the East Arab slavers enslaved entire villages at a time.
Famous explorers like Livingstone and most notably Stanley mapped the Dark Heart of Africa, triggering interest of the Belgian King Leopold II and others.
But it was the Belgian King that managed to claim this vast country as his personal property. After fighting the Arabs, the Belgians installed a reign of terror to force Congolese to harvest rubber and
dig out copper. They used a "divide and rule" tactic amongst the many Congolese tribes and used cannibalistic tribes as allies, promising them the meat of their victims.
Although certainly some good intentions were involved, and parts of the country were developed, everything evolved around exploiting natural richness.
When the Congolese fought for their independance, acquiered now exactly 50 years ago, Belgians kept trying to secure their access to natural resources. They assasinated Patrice
Lumumba and installed Mobutu Sese Seko as president of the Congo. Mobutu turned out to be one of the worst African rulers.
Unfortunately the atrocities, misgovernment, corruption, civil wars, poverty and other horrors found in Congo's recent history are found in other African countries. Many claim
that the ideas behind these terrible things occured first in the Congo, and were then taken over by other countries

Super XIV rugby

Southern Hemisphere Rugby

The Super 14 Rugby tournament is a competition between the top provincial teams in the Southern Hemisphere. This tournament is arguably the best in the world and has 5 South African teams, 5 teams from New Zealand and 4 from Australia. Most of the players of the national teams of these countries play in one of the teams of the Super 14. So that definitely adds to the excitement and level of the games played. The Stormers are the team for Western Province, and play their games in the capital of this province: Cape Town (what a nice coincidence). They have been performing

average in the past years, but this year was their best year ever. For the first time they made it to the finals, but were beaten by the Blue Bulls.

Of course, the fact that it was an all South African final was a huge achievement in itself that was proudly emphasized by commentators here.

Townships

A "township" is a term from the Apartheid era, and refers to an urban area where none-whites live. I guess the term itself can be used as a synonym for ghetto, favella, borough, shantytown maybe even slum... because they are all very alike.But if you look closely at the description, you'll notice that a township has nothing to do with the type of houses. Indeed townships can have the whole range from normal brik houses down to little shacksout of plates of corrugated iron. A squatter camp is different in the sense that it is illegal: people moved there and started living there although it was not approved by the goyvernment.Most cities have townships, and they vary from well organized - having tarred roads and electricity, running water, sewage, garbage collection - to not organized at all.Gugulethu is one of the biggest townships of Cape Town, housing mainly Xhosa speaking South Africans. The name is a contraction of "igugu lethu", which is Xhosa for "our pride".