The Passionate Traveler

Communication trenches from the Battle of the Somme. The front line trenches can be seen. The Battle of the Somme took place around the Somme river from July 1 to November 1 1916. This was undoubtedly the greatest blunder ever made by the British top brass. The slaughter of so many men was the "brain child" (or lets rather call it Brain Fart) of Sir General Haig. The casualties on the first morning of the battle was a staggering 57000, with a total Allied loss of more that 1.5 million men during the campaign, making this one of the bloodiest battle in history. The French were engaged in the deadly Battle of Verdun and the Somme offencive was planned to draw German infantry away from their offencive around Verdun to give the French some relief. The plan was quite simple. Blast the Germans out of existence with a massive artillery bombardment and then just walk over no-mans land and take the German front lines. Sounds simple, right? The Allied troops also built mines un...

Acid Lake at Mt Ijen Indonesia is a massive country and is made up of some 17000 islands. There is a tremendous diversity in culture, food and landscapes. One thing that Indonesia has a lot of, is volcanoes. The Most deadly volcanic eruption was Mt Krakatoa which erupted violently in 1888, killing some 36000 people. The son of Krakatoa is forming in the crater (underwater) left by the 1888 eruption. The last known eruption of the Son of Kratatoa was 19 February 2017. This volcano is busy building up to become another major volcano. The Son of Krakatoa is in the sea between the Islands of Java and Sumatra in the north of Indonesia. The most violent volcanic eruption in recorded history was in 1815 when Mt Tambora erupted. Indonesia has at least 127 active volcanoes. The most active of these volcanoes are Mt Kelud, which has erupted 30 in recorded history, and Mt Merapi with 80 recorded eruptions in recorded history.We are not talking about the occasional little puff, but significant...

My Altered reality photo. "Delvelle Wood - Then and Now" with the artwork of the South African soldiers coming out of the Wood The South African memorial at Delville Wood is a "Must see" place for anyone interested in South African military history. The battle of Delville Wood was one of the many battles which took place during the ill fated Battle of the Somme. The 1st South African Infantry Brigade, which formed part of the 9th Scottish Division, received orders to clear the wood of Germans. This they did, and also managed to hold onto the wood from 15 July to 19 July 1916 until they were relieved. Of the 3153 men who went into Delville Wood, only 123 men marched out, and later, a total of 780 survived the battle and rejoined the Brigade at the assembly point. At the height of the battle, it was estimated that 400 artillery shells per minute landed on the wood. It has also been estimated that every square inch of the wood was shelled at least three times....

Ghosts from the past. Delvelle Wood war cemetery. Altered Reality photo. All my photos except the origional war photos. I did the altered reality work.  I have a bit of an obsession about the First World War and I am very interested in this time in history. I am also pretty interested in the Second World War, but WWI interests me more. This might be due to the fact that my Grandfather, on my Father's side, took part in WWI with the South African Infantry. What I can remember from my father was that my grandfather took part in the battle of Arras, where he was gassed by the Germans. He did survive the war, but died when my father was still at school. When my Grandfather was discharged from the army after he returned to South Africa, he took the pay which he received and bought shares in Samancor, which was later bought out by BHP Billiton. This was in 1917. Some of these shears are still in the family. Trenches at the Newfoundland memorial My father took part in WWII and w...

A salad - one of the nices dishes I have eaten. Eating Sumatran style. Indonesia is a massive country spanning some 17000 island. Yes, 17000! Not all are inhabited. I have only been to 3 of the islands, so still a few to do. When people hear of Indonesia, most people think of the island of Bali. This is a tourist hot spot, but it is by no means representative of Indonesia. Bali is one of my favourite places to visit and I will probably do a few posts on Bali at a later stage, but in this post I am focusing on the Food of Indonesia. I just love the Indonesia food. On my recent trip to Northern Sumatra I discovered a very interesting style of eating. The restaurant brings out any number of small plates with different dishes on. You eat what you want and leave the rest. At the end of the meal, the waiter or waitress removes the dishes you have not eaten an you just pay for what you have eaten. Obviously, if you like a particular dish very much, you can just get more of it. This is...

Rubber sales After the great day I had in the jungle of Northern Sumatra looking for Orangutans and other monkeys and apes, I decided to spend my next day in the region exploring the local markets and the area. Originally I had planned to spend two days in the jungle looking for Orangutans, but as I had seen many Orangutans and other monkeys, and the fact that I nearly died from the heat and the effort on the previous day, I decided not to go back into the jungle. Instead, I arranged with Robert from Trek Sumatra (www.treksumatra.com) to spend the day exploring the local area a bit. So, my guide arrived with his little motorbike and off we went. Sumatran style of eating - put everything on the table This was the day for the sale of rubber collected from the many rubber trees in the area. The previous day, we had passed quite a few rubber plantations on the way to the reserve where people were collecting rubber. At the selling point, people would arrive from all over the ar...

Everything happens on the street in India In the last few years, I have being travelling to India at least 2 or even three times a year. I must stay, I really enjoy visiting India, but I guess that it is not a country for everyone. You will either love India or hate it. I love India. If you want to travel to somewhere different, then India is definitely your country. I will probably end up doing quite a few posts on India as there is so much to talk about.  From the traffic, which is a total experience on its own, to the food, the culture, the people, the contrast between poverty and luxury, and the contrast between the old and the new. It is a very big country with some truly amazing places to visit. South Africans need to get a visa to travel to India. In the past, it was always quite a mission to get an Indian visa. The embassy always had additional questions, or they did not like the ID photo or some other issue. Now there is the e-visa! Great service. You can now get d...