… from another island: Helgoland.

Helgoland is a small island in the German Bight in the  North Sea. The shortest distance to the German mainland is 70 km. It’s also the island with the largest distance to the mainland.

To go to Helgoland you have take a ferry boat (or a small plane) and it lasts 2,5 hours for coping that distance. During winter the ships are able to sail into the harbor while you have to change to a small boat on the sea tobe brought to land  during the summer. During the summer many ships starting to Helgoland from different harbors while in winter only one ship sails every other day.

We were a small group of 9 people starting on Tuesday to Cuxhaven and sailing with the ship on Wednesday. We stayed until Sunday and had a wonderful time.

When we  arrived at Helgoland we had a nice sunny day and walked around the island in the afternoon. It’s an interesting island with in interesting geologic history. Nowadays the most impressing view is the red rock.

We were at Helgoland during winter to watch the gray seals and also the baby seals. They are born during winter.

Weather was fine. No rain, but some sunshine. Unfortunately also two foggy days.

The Breitach is here a young, small river and a Klam is a narrow and deep valley, the river goes through, a flume. This flume is very deep and the water has formed the stone in an interesting and impressive way.

We visited the Breitach Klam during our trip to the Alpes. It lasts haf a day. Even it was a nice and sunny day, it was cold in the Klamm because of the moisture in the air and on all stones. Water falls from above the Klamm and the river goes very fast.

Don’t wonder about the fancy colors at the walls. All the colors are real. I guess they come from reflecting the sky.

During our trip to the Alpes we also had a little hike mountian up. Even it was a bit exhausting, because we’re not trained to do such hikes, it was nice to enjoy the beautiful landscape from there.

The snow, that did fall a few days earlier, made the landscape look even more beautiful.

Have you ever seen paradise birds flying free in the sky? I have, and it was so wonderful to look at them. It seemed to me that they had so much fun in flying. It seemed to me that they were playing tag with each other and flying one loop after another just for fun.

This is the White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus ). I saw them several times and it was a pleasure to observe them. Their flights impressed me very much.

I also saw the black Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher, a very rare black paradise bird. I only saw one bird twice. When I it first I didn’t have a camera with me, because I came back from snorkeling. At the second time I saw one I was unable to place a good shot because the bird only flew short distances from one tree to another hiding itself in the leaves. According to Wikipedia  there are only about 200  black Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher couples living on La Digue. So I’m happy for have seen one.

There were also some other birds. But until now I’m unable to identify them all. I’ll post them later.

4 days ago I went with my wife to Oberjoch in the Allgäu, a part of the Germany Alpes, to get my daughter back home. She was there for a 6 weeks cure at a special health resort because of her neurodermatitis. We drove about 660 km each direction to get her home.
I certainly took my camera with me. Here you can see a few picture. I took them when we arrieved. The sunset let the mountains glow.

During the next days I’ll publish some other photos I’ve taken at the trips in Allgäu. When finished with that, I’ll publish some further pictures from the Seychelles.

Unfortunately I’m really back: out of the sun in to the cold.

Even my car didn’t want me to go to work this morning. Frozen windows and an empty battery greeted me when I came to my car.

I’m well, I’m healthy and I’ve hundreds of photographs to watch over, edit and publish. Much work and much to remember.

It was a nice trip with nice people to a beautiful island.

I got up at 5:30 a.m on Saturday (that’s 3:30 in Germany because the time is 2 hours ahead during daylight savings time in Germany). At 4 p.m. we drove to the harbor to get the shuttle boat back to Praslin island to get the last shuttle catamaran back to Mahé island where the airport is located. At Sunday morning 1:50 a.m. our plane stated to Dubai. It was completely booked out. We arrived at 6:20 a.m. in Dubai and started at 8:40 a.m. back to Duesseldorf where we arrived at 1:50 p.a.

… and I’m still in paradise. This island is so beautiful and has so many aspects to see, that you are busy to visit all the nice spots. I guess, you could stay for month until you have seen everything. Beautiful beaches, exotic birds, unknown voices, interesting insects and geckos beside the well known animals like cats, dogs, goats, hen or cows. Here I only consider the island itself and not considering the life under water.
One member of our group was out for some diving trips and he brought some very nice photos back.

In Asia it’s still monsoon time. So the waves are are hitting the rocks very hard and the water sprays very high.

This night we had some rain. Thus the sky was overcasted this morning and we used the opportunity to climb up to Belle Venue. Belle Venue is located at the top of the highest hill of La Digue. On 1.2 km distance you have to climb up more than 300 m height. That means, the uphill draft is very big. Surprisingly there were many houses beside the steeply street anyway. It was extremely hard to climb up. But the sight was impressingly.

At noon the sun was back at the sky and nearly all clouds were vanished.

I wonder that people are living at that steeply hill. They have to carry all goods, food, water, building material and other things up that hill to their houses without a car or so. I was told, that people used to live in that houses long before cars came to the island.

I’m really in paradise. It’s warm – OK, it’s hot, but I like it. 2 to 3 times a day I’m having a shower. Sweat, salt water and sand are covering my skin. Using sun lotion at the beach gives me a natural peeling, so I don’t need to go to a beauty salon – luckily I never need to go to a beauty salon, ‚cause I’m male.
Every day we visit another beach at this island. We’re using rented bikes for getting to the beaches. The distances are short – maybe 3 or 4 km. But, nevertheless, my back hurts much. It’s not only because of I’m a bit out of shape and not fit – I don’t use a bike regular, so I’m quickly exhausted. The other reason for my hurts is, the bike, I got, was too small for me. On the second day the renter put another seat on my bike, so the seat was higher. With the higher seat it was easier for me to get up the hills. The highest hill is about 333m over the sea. If you think about the size of the island (3 km long and 2 km wide) you can imagine of the gradient of the streets. Also the bad condition of the streets with many road holes is a reason for my hurts and on many positions the roads are not affixed, but only trails or beat tracks – biking is not easy under such conditions, even if you got a tracking bike.
Another important fact is, here they don’t have street lights and also the bikes don’t have lights. The natives don’t care about this, they drive very quick and  risky. So be extremely careful when riding your bike after sunset.
If you love spiders, come on here: you can find spiders easily that are of the same size as your palm.
You can also find many geckos. Funny sounds are in the air. I don’t know if that are birds or other animals. Even it sounds like monkeys, I guess they are from birds or the flying dogs, a kind of bats. The flying dogs or flying foxes are flying even during the day. They are eating fruits. Unfortunately my shots are not the very best.

Two days ago I flew to the Seychelles with Emirates from Duesseldorf via Dubai. I started on Monday afternoon with a very big plane, a Boing 777-300 to Dubai, where we arrived at midnight. Round about 1 ½ hours later the plane started to Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles, where we arrived in the early morning. Surprisingly this was also a big plane, an Airbus A330-200.
We were 9 people in our group, 7 started in Duesseldorf and 2 in Cattowice in south Poland, even they are from Czech. But the airport in Poland is much nearer then the airport in Prague. From Dubai we took all the same plane. For that flight we were upgraded to business class. It was a nice gift. Very comfortable, although the first flight from Duesseldorf to Dubai was comfortable, too, even it was economy class. I had plenty of room in my seat. We got a tasty diner and many drinks.
The first flight lasted about 8 ½ hours and the connection flight another 4 ½.
In Dubai it was very hot with high humidity, very uncomfortable but the airport itself was cooled down to a comfortable temperature. It was noticeable clean. Because of the Dubai international airport is so big, it lasted some time to go to the departure check in desk for our connection and we needn’t to wait so long.
As I said before, we were upgraded to business class for the connection flight and so we had plenty of room. Unfortunately I got a middle seat instead of the window seat that was written on my ticket when checking in in Duessldorf. On the left seat group of me there was a couple and I asked them if the woman on the window would change seat with me so that I’d get some photographs from the Seychelles islands in the morning sun – and she did.
During that time I talked a bit with the man and he told me, that he’s a Seychelliano and is living on Mahé. He asked me about my plans on the Seychelles and when I said that our destination is La Digue, he stated that he was born on the island but is now living on Mahé for some years because of his job. He also told me a bit about living on La Digue and the economy of that island.
Afteferryiving at the airport we had to wait for the shuttle to the harbor.
The ferry brouth us the Praslin, another island. On Praslin we took another ferry to La Digue.
Other people told us, that Praslin is more exclusive but on La Digue the people are more friendly.
The passage from Mahé to Praslin lasted about an hour and the passage from Praslin to La Digue about 12 minutes. In La Digue harbor we were catched up by a big taxi tot bring us to Calou Guesthouse.
There are only 20 cars on the island, most of them are small lorries but everyone rides a bike. Some of the lorries are modified to transport people on 2 benches on the back but most are for transporting goods. La Digue also has only a few roads made from beton. Bikes and roads are in bad condition. Most distances are short. Calou Guesthouse is i.e. only about 700 meters from the harbor and the distance to the nice big beach Grant Anse is about 1.5 kilometers.
On the Seychelles they are driving on the wrong side, the left side, of the street, from the German point of view.
To avoid too much traffic on the island, there are not more cars allowed. If you want to bring a new car to the island, an old one has to be removed from the island.
The Seychelles are south of the equator at 4°16′ S 55°46′ E. so they are outside the cyclone area. There are also no dangerous animals living on the island. There is even no malaria threat on the Seychelles.
The islands have a tropical climate. It’s hot and the humidity is quite high. Because of the short distance to the equator, there is no twilight. When the sun goes down, it becomes dark nearly at once. The sun rises at around 6 a.m. and goes down at around 6 p.m.
The time is 2 hours ahead regarding to the CEST in Germany.
Because of the temperature I recommend to get up early and move around while it’s not too hot. We always had some wind. When outside watch for your skin, the sun is very hot and you’re in danger to get sunburned easily if you’re not careful.