Nina Cziczek / firmm

On Sunday, April 20th, the German Television MDR´s (mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) did some filming in our office. The leading character of this broadcasting is ‘Ilse’, a man dressed as an elderly woman. Together with Robert, her companion, she travels through Andalusia and also encounters firmm in Tarifa.
After a long period of strong wind with few trips, it was a nice diversion for all of us! Instead of the usual 2 to 3 person filming team, there was a crew of 12 that invaded our office that quiet Sunday morning and caused some commotion.
After the cameras were placed, Katharina gave detailed information to “Ilse” and her team about the foundation, about herself as president as well as our daily boat trips.

Afterwards the shooting team and all our volunteers went to our meeting room where Katharina gave us (the volunteers who acted as the ‘tourists’) an introduction about the Strait of Gibraltar and the animals which are living there.
This took time to get everything set up and us on our places.

The boat trip was planned for the following Tuesday afternoon with Katharina as guide, the volunteers and the whole shooting team. Unfortunately, the sea was quite rough at the beginning, so that some of us became quite wet. Anyway, this added to the good mood on board. After a short time we saw some Pilot Whales and a school of Bottlenose Dolphins which have been joining our boat for quite a long time.
As if the animals knew that there was a shooting team on board they made a grandiose show in front of the boat with a lot of terrific jumps, tailslapping and spyhopping. Roughly speaking: the dolphins did a very good job and certainly contributed to the film in a special way.

If you are interested in watching the TV documentation: It will be broadcasted on the May 10th on MDR, at 20:15. The title is ‘Das kommt mir spanisch vor’.

Sunday, 20th of April:
Though it was raining heavily, a 12 person film team of the MDR (mitteldeutsches Fernsehen), travelling through Andalusia, visited us on Sunday. The TV crew was filming the travels of an elderly actress Ilse Bähnert who, as the climax of her trip, stopped in Tarifa to go on whale and dolphin watching expeditions with firmm .

Arrival of Daniele Grieco, producer of the documentary ‘The whales in the Strait of Gibraltar’, Stellamaris Film with Kathleen Herbst, his camera-woman.

Monday, 21st of April:
Katharina accompanies the film team to Morocco to the two new bays, which presented themselves untouched in the twinkling sun.

Arrival of Rösli’s Carreisen. Rösli Dönni was the first bus tour operator from Switzerland that attended our whale and dolphin observation courses with its guests.

Tuesday, the 22nd of April:
The MDR team and the elderly lady “Ilse” met at the harbor for a spectacular trip.

Since it was high tide when we left, we sailed directly into the high waves of the “Vasiante” (especially high waves created from the change from high to low tide). We had to go through these waves in order to reach quieter waters. Ilse flipped out totally when she saw a dozen large dolphins putting on a show, all of their free will and pure joy of life!

Tuesday, the 22nd and Wednesday, the 23rd of April:
The participants in our courses and also the group of Rösli had two wonderful sunny days with four trips with the boat and a great number of sightings of dolphins and whales.

Arrival of Felix Karrer, camera-man of Swiss TV, who we immediately took to sea with us.

Thursday, 24th and 25th of April:
Because of the Levante, the cheerful group heard lectures from Jörn and Katharina and they took part in the excursions in the sand dunes of Bolonia and at low tide also to the rocky coast of Tarifa.

Felix Karrer with the camera and Ruth Zweifel (Journalist and Photograph) accompanied the group.

Felix Karrer filmed for Swiss Television´s Spezial “Fernweh” which is going to be broadcasted in July and August.
It’s about the Mediterranean Sea and the programme starts with the Strait of Gibraltar. Katharina and the Team were interviewed.
We´ll be curious to watch it!

Foto: Rolf Zürcher

(’Fernweh’ is most probably going to be broadcasted on the July 8th, 20:50h)

Saturday, the 26th of April:
Farewell to Felix Karrer and Rösli’s group

Rösli will come back to Tarifa again in the first week of May 2009 with her 5-star bus from Horgen (Switzerland).
Information: Tel. 0041 79 820 50 50
www.doenni-roesli-carreisen.ch
We are already looking forward to another cheerful group!