A day on the beach with Heidi's family

There was no end on the amount of food that was prepared otherwise sandboarding the dunes into the lagoon and volleyball was some of the activities exercised.

Addo Elephant Park

We had a quite successful safari with Bubbi and Linda where we had close encounters with massive elephants. Was a bit scary when the big male in the upper left corner walked just a meter from my little Saab. Despite missing out on the carnivores I believe it was a nice experience for especially Linda who was on her first safari ever.

Christmas Celebrations in PE

A Swedish/South African Christmas dinner at Heidi's sister Sharyl's place in Port Elizabeth. Curries blended with meatballs, herring (sill) and gammon (julskinka).

On top of Table Mountain

The first visit to the top of the mountain since it got elected one of the seven new wonders of the world.

Craig&Shirna visiting us in the Cape

Heidi's sister who just got married is now visiting us together with her husband Craig. So far we have had a "forbidden" braai on the balcony, visited the penguin spot in Simons Town, visited Cape Point and had a dinner at The Raj in Camps Bay.

Lira - Kirstenbosch gardens

  Together with few others me and Heidi went for a fantastic concert given by Lira this hot Sunday afternoon in Kirstenbosch gardens by the foot of table mountain.

Favorite lunch stop

On my drive back to Cape Town from PE stopped for lunch with a view.

Shirna & Craig's wedding, PE

Concert in the rain

Went for Locnville and Jax Panik concert in Kirstenbosch gardens yesterday. Despite some initial rain it was a nice experience.

In EuroAfrica ICT conference, CT

Has been quite a few interesting talks especially nice to see some positive reports from well functioning Living Labs.

A day with Erkki&Thato in the Cape

A nice but cold day with Thato and Erkki in between Strand, Cape Town and Stellenbosch. The evening was spent with a bunch of Meraka people over a Braai just outside of Stellenbosch.

Supervisors * 2

 Visited my supervisor together with my visiting supervisor.

And basically this is what I need to do to get my PhD.

Vredenheim Lion Park

Visited Vredenheim wine farm with Erkki for a lunch and went to say 'Hi' to the lions as well.

Visiting Thato in Pretoria

Spent a couple of days with Thato, Precious, Mosedi and Naledi in pretoria. Was nice to catch up a bit with Thato and meet old friends at Meraka.

Celebrating Heidi's birtday at Wild coast

Rob&Taryn, Mooi River, KwaZulu-Natal

"Another one bites the dust", this time it was Rob and Taryn's turn and the wedding took place at the lovely Hartford House in Mooi river.

A productive day on the beach, Maputo

I walk up early and took of for a working day by the beach in Catembe which is within easy reach from Maputo city center. For once I remembered to bring my camera so took some pictures along the way.

In the afternoon Erkki and the two Finnish couples staying in the house joined. Me and Erkki had some productive work on one of my papers in a very inspiring Milieu which suited the paper dealing with design milieux in Africa.

Short walk in Maputo

Went for a short walk with my supervisor Erkki that turned into a 10 km walk including a ferry trip over to Catembe where we had a drink and some snacks at Catembe Gallery Hotel before heading back to Town and watching some crazy street parties outside the stadium as Mozambique was playing basketball finals in the all Africa games against Nigeria. Unfortunately Mozambique lost.

Hermanus, South Africa

Whale watching from the shore in Hermanus where we met the swedish/danish couple Hans and Anne. Last I met Hans was during SciFest 2007 where he took me for a swim in Kenton on Sea and that's where I almost drowned but luckily I lived to tell the story :)

Sand art, Durban

Creative minds earning a couple of rands by decorating the beaches to the delight of tourists.

Room with a view, Durban

Food Market in Maputo

Escaped the cage for a visit at a food market with Andrés and Paula.

Wilderness, South Africa

Breakfast with a view.

Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

Had a lovely lunch in Plettenberg Bay.

What was on your menu last night?

On my menu was worms, chicken legs, turkey hearts, crocodile, kangaroo and a lot of other more familiar dishes. Can't really recommend the worms but had to at least try it.

Grahamstown, South Africa

Back in the Grahamstown which is a cozy small university town. Heidi is giving a course here at Rhodes University and I am meeting with some people in the computer science department as well as some SciFest people. Grahamstown is known to be a town of festivals where the exciting SciFest is what first brought me here and that is also where I first met Heidi. Yesterday we drove to Port Elizabeth and met some of Heidi's family members.

Orbaden, Sweden

Having nice summer weather and enjoying Hälsinglands riviera with sibblings Jonas and Maria as well as Heidi.

Toni's house getting a paint job

48h with Toni&Alex

Afternoon at Debbie's cottage

One can never see my parents enjoy and and relax as much as by the river at Debbie's cottage.

My Kayak, Bollnäs

Soon ready to be tested in water again after a major fix necessary after some sliding snow from roof during winter.

Riga, Latvia

A couple of days in Riga with my cousins Tobbe and Bubbi was fun!

Riga

A bit windy but found some nice beach bar with hang mats where me, Tobias and Bubbi now are enjoying life.

Midsummer in Bollnäs

Storsveden, Sweden

Only the cottage owner missing to complete the picture. Taken on one of the few decent summer days so far while in Sweden when having a bbq out at Debbie's summer paradise.

Landscapes of Ireland

Castles of Ireland

Wedding on Ireland

Worcester, South Africa

During the weekend me and Heidi went exploring a bit in the neighborhood. There was some beautiful drives to and from Worcester where we stayed over nigh at The Golden Valley and watched the Champions League final. It was a great match between the two best teams in Europe at the moment and Barcelona was worthy champions. As my birthday is soon coming up Heidi decided to bake me a lovely cake, there is apparently still hidden talents to discover about that 'young' lady :-)

Kids' Club Iringa

During my short visit in Iringa I tried to encourage a team at Tumaini University to start a kids' club at Ukombozi primary school. The team members seemed excited as well as the headmaster of the primary school, so hoping to hear news about implementation of the club soon :)

Neema and Pankaj engagement party

Was invited for Neema and Pankaj engagement party. Pankaj is a student from University of Eastern Finland that came to Tumaini on an exchange program last year and fell in love with the Tumaini student Neema. The young love couple are now planning a life in togetherness and they are brave enough to go against the will of their families. Some cultural clashes are to be expected but they decided to follow their hearts and give love a chance. I have raised some warning flags but respect and support their decision and dedication. The engagement came however with a condition - That Pankaj organizes five cows within a week!

What next to cross the road?

The last two weeks we had elephants, warthogs, meerkats, donkeys, horses, cows, goats, snakes, cameleons.... crossing the road and passing Mikumi yesterday I had the luck to see 2 lions crossing the road. They quickly disappeared in the high grass next to the road, I tried to wait them out as I could see the grass moving but after half an hour I gave up and continued my drive to Iringa where I am now.

Tanzania – reaching the goal

The Zambian border crossing was again a bit of a pain but it was nice once we finally managed to enter Tanzania and it felt a bit like coming home. We stopped for a late lunch at Stockholm hotel in Mbeya before continuing to Iringa. Halfways to Iringa the sun already started to set and it was getting dark. We had managed to avoid driving during night throughout the trip and had hoped to keep it that way but at least I am familiar to the road so I thought we could proceed. An hour before Iringa a lorry had turned over and completely blocked the road and there were kilometers of trucks queuing. We managed to bypass the trucks and get in front to see the scene of the accident. We prepared ourselves for a night in the car as this would obviously take time. Two hours later they had however managed to move the truck enough so that we could proceed to Iringa where we spent the night at Sai Villa hotel. Before continuing to Dar we had the jerricans and the extra spare wheel on the roof offloaded, I also took the car to the garage as there were some minor things to sort out. We stopped for a lunch in Mikumi and reached Dar just before sun set. We had decided to continue to a beach south of Dar. Due to the heavy rains in Dar one of the roads had been washed away and we ended up spending more than 3 hours in terrible queues just to pass the 500m of damaged road. Eventually however we made it to the beach and could celebrate a successful trip through Africa. We had a nice morning on the beach before it was time to take Heidi to the airport. Except for some minor challenges such as an exploding tire, painful border crossings, fuel shortages and potholes (Zambia) it has been an amazing and extremely memorable trip. Thanks Matti for giving us the chance to drive your car back to Tanzania and thanks Heidi for joining me on this adventure and for being the best possible travel companion!

Kapishya hot springs, Zambia

We had to rush through Zambia in order for Heidi to be able to catch a flight back from Dar es Salaam in time for signing in at work on 9^th. The long drive from Lusaka to the border got even longer as road was full of potholes. As northern Zambia is scarcely populated we were worried about finding a decent place to stay. In our guide book we managed to find only one place that seemed somehow interesting and decided to check it out despite the fact that it was 30 km of the main road. To our surprise Kapishya hot springs lodge turned out to be an amazing oasis out in the middle of nowhere. After a long and exhausting drive we could refresh our batteries by having a swim in the crystal clear waters in the hot spring next to the lodge. We joined in for a nice three course dinner with the “family” running the place. After dinner we had a long and nice talk over a drink with Mark the owner of the place. He gave us a lot of insight into the challenges of running business in rural parts of Zambia.

Victoria Falls, Zambia

Wonderful to be back to this paradise on earth.

53m free falling before the swing comes in to picture. Crazy? YES!

Chobe, Botswana

Okavango Delta, Botswana

Staying two nights at a lodge close by the world's largest inland delta. At arrival we rented a canoe and explored the river next to lodge at sunset. Today we took a speed boat from our lodge to the delta where we continued to explore the delta by a local mokoro(dugout canoe). We went up to one of the islands where we went for a 8 km walking safari, the hot climate and tough terrain made it quite exhausting but finally at least we saw some antelopes, warthogs, wildebeests and zebras. Heidi says it is her first and last walking safari!

Trans Kalahari Highway, Botswana

Stayed at a nice place (Tautona lodge) just outside Ghanzi where they also had a breeding program for lions, wild dogs and cheetahs.