Juliane Schaub
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark TwainThe world is my oyster
I love airports - to me they are portals to exotic worlds full of mystery and adventure. Ever since I was a child travelling has been my passion. The German word "Reisefieber", travel fever, describes this inner yearning to pack your bags and explore the world very well. It is a feverish anticipation that grabs you and drives you constantly to be on the move, to experience new cultures and discover new shores; and it's an inherent part of who I am. For years I had to suppress my wanderlust since the need to "earn a living" kept me trapped in the confines of the 2- or if I was lucky 4-week-holiday - just enough to feed the addiction but never enough to satisfy the hunger.
The past couple of years have been fraught with painful events, culminating in the death of both my parents within 4 months of each other. But these events were only the catalyst for a decision that was conceived a very long time ago, and that has been taking shape slowly and steadily over years of conforming to a life of expectations and demands. And eventually the moment has come: I have sold my house, quit my job, packed my bags and am now sitting at Heathrow Airport, waiting for my flight to Kuala Lumpur.
The first few months I will spend volunteering - first at Sepilok Orang-Utan Sanctuary in Borneo and then as a dive master intern on a marine conservation project in the Seychelles. After that I'm looking forward to exploring Asia followed by Australia and New Zealand; Hawaii and Alaska are on the list and I'm sure I will add many more destinations as I go along. The world is a big and magical place, and for the time being at least I am happy to call it my oyster...
Travel Blog Posts
A tour of the Wine Country
Published: December 3rd 2011Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Franschhoek
November 10th 2011
I was lucky enough to be based in the Cape’s wine country and as a - possibly a tad too devoted - oenophile I simply had to go wine tasting. There are dozens of wine estates in a relatively small area and the most difficult part was to choose where to go. I started off at Stellenbosch, famous for its university, beautiful Cape architecture and oak-lined avenues. It is a pleasant town where you can easily spend a day ambling around the many pretty shops, have lunch at one of the lovely street cafes and then sit on the green and watch the world go by. From Stellenbosch I slowly made my way to Franschhoek through stunning mountain scenery and lush vineyards. I visited six wine estates and tasted some exceptional wines. But like the scent ... read more
October 12th 2011
Driving north through ever changing scenery: from dramatically rising mountainscape through lush rolling countryside with orchards and vineyards; and finally the desert – endless stretches of red earth streaked with luminous yellow grass, bordered by the ethereal purple bluish hue of distant mountains. I am racing against the clock because I know they are closing around three and this is the only day I have up here. At one o’clock still nothing. I stop at a little tourist information place in a one-horse-town; there they direct me off the main road. Another 50km or so. It’s a dirt track, dusty and slow. And then, just as I’m starting to wonder why I’m doing this, I see it, one of the great spectacles of nature: flowers, carpets of them, covering the desert floor, flooding it with an ... read more
October 6th 2011
The ocean around the Cape is famous for two creatures in particular – great white sharks and whales. Nearly every tour operator in this area offers “cage dives” with great whites and although I would love to see these amazing fish I decided that cage diving was not for me. Firstly I’m not entirely sure how environmentally sound this kind of tourist entertainment is and secondly because the advertising is reminiscent of “Jaws” and therefore a little too sensationalist for my liking - it appears to reduce these beautiful animals to the object of some adrenalin pumping leisure pursuit akin to a bungee jump. And with sea temperatures around 15C a “proper” dive was pretty much out of the question. So I decided I was going to have to live without seeing great whites and instead ... read more
Four little ambassadors
Published: October 4th 2011Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Stellenbosch
October 4th 2011
‘You see, lady, I don’t have much money, and sometimes I don’t even know, how to pay my bills. But I get up every morning and I decide I am going to be happy. Because, lady, I believe that happiness doesn’t just happen - we choose to be happy.’ These wise words concluded the conversation I had with the taxi driver who took me from Cape Town Airport to Stellenbosch. It had been interesting to listen to him. He is coloured (which is an expression that refers to South Africans of mixed race and does not have the connotations it has in the UK) and as a member of this “in-between” ethnic group not much has changed for him. Being neither black nor white, the coloureds are and always have been at the bottom of South ... read more
August 28th 2011
The time has come to leave Seychelles - at least for a while - and as much as I am looking forward to the next few weeks I will miss this place that has become something of a home to me. And I will miss my frequent visits to the underwater world... ... read more
June 23rd 2011
“Welcome to Paradise FM!” a chirpy radio-voice announced while I was preparing breakfast. When turning on the tap produced yet again nothing but a faint and distant hissing noise I felt a tinge of frustration in my heart. My hopes for a clean kitchen followed by a refreshing shower were once more dashed. The problem is: there is no water in paradise. It’s the dry season and for weeks there has been no rain. And Seychelles cannot cope. The exclusive tourist resorts are eager to preserve the cocoon of paradisiacal perfection in which they keep their wealthy clients by supplying them with round-the-clock water including their private infinity pools. For the rest of us it means water only for a few hours in the evening (if we are lucky) and with that dirty clothes, piles of ... read more
February 24th 2011
I remember my first dive as if it was yesterday – the sense of awe and wonder that filled me as I was entering this other world of unexpectedly intense colours, unusual shapes and serene stillness. At the time I did of course see the different fishes around me but only in the way one might perceive flowers in a field or birds in the sky – beautiful and exotic but essentially anonymous. And it has remained that way ever since – until now. Over the past few weeks I’ve learned to identify and name around 120 species of fish. It is a little like being introduced to 120 strangers who you consequently recognise and acknowledge and I cannot dive without thinking out the names of the now familiar fishes –a pair of coral rabbit fish ... read more
January 6th 2011
“Mesdames et Messieurs, 10 seconds to 2011...5,4,3,2,1 – Bonne Annee!!!”. A romantic restaurant by the beach, champagne, good company, great conversation... New Year’s eves don’t come much better than this. And not for the first time since my arrival on the Seychelles did I feel I had landed in paradise. A few years ago I saw a picture of Praslin in a travel magazine – huge boulders strewn on a white sandy beach, turquoise water, gently leaning palm trees... Ever since then I had dreamt of coming here. But who would have thought that one day I would actually be living and working in this picture postcard? I am going to be a volunteer for a marine conservation project based on Mahe, and we were told that with all the diving and studying there wouldn’t be ... read more
December 1st 2010
The day I’ve been dreading for weeks has finally arrived – it’s time to leave Sepilok. But although the last couple of months have passed far too quickly, the memories will stay with me forever: waking to the cawing of the hornbills hammering on our roof. Walking through the forest during a rainstorm, giant raindrops crushing onto the canopy, muddy streams forming around our ankles; carrying baskets filled to the brim with fruit on our backs deep into the jungle for the orang-utans; and then, later, sitting in a clearing, shadowy figures emerging from the twilight, some more hesitantly than others, but eventually all crouching around us, eating contentedly, lips smacking – gorgeous Miskam next to tiny, pixy-like Rosa, cheeky Toby, gentle Ganang. And ever so often a hand reaching out to us, touching our fingers ... read more
November 21st 2010
Occasionally I go to Sandakan, more out of necessity than out of choice. And when I was sitting in a street cafe there the other day, looking at the scruffy surroundings, the rubbish in the street, the run-down apartment blocks, I was thinking how amazing nature is in comparison to man-made structures - nothing in nature is wasted, nothing is ill-conceived, everything is perfect just as it is. And I remembered a quote by John Burroughs, "I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” So it’s not surprising that I prefer to spend my days off exactly there – in nature. I may go for walks on my own in the forest around Sepilok, where I encountered red-leafed monkeys recently and spent ages following them, trying to ... read more
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.004s; cc: 14; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0538s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
