I usually shy away from listicles but a) it’s my birthday!, b) this is a fun one and c) I really want to win Gran Tourismo’s Feburary competition…so here goes. 1. Trekking with gorillas—and nearly being trampled by a “teenager”—in Rwanda. 2. Smuggling political refugees over the Italian border under my bed bunk in a [...]
The Garden Route: Baboons Take to the Tee
February 21, 2011 By 10 Comments
After leaving our new monkey friend behind in Plettenberg Bay, we headed back down the road an hour to Knysna. Here, we finally took a bit of a breather following 10 days of activity and rushed travel without pause. After spending the night at Pezula Resort—a five-star coastal sanctuary where big names like Roger Federer [...]
The Garden Route: The Monkey Who Ate Our Lunch
February 16, 2011 By 21 Comments
This is the fourth stop on our trip along South Africa’s Garden Route. If you missed the eco-lodge in Gansbaii, the ostriches in Oudtshoorn and the elephants in Plettenberg Bay, go back and check them out first. ***** After we were through with the elephants, we started to head back to our lodge, Hog Hollow, [...]
The Garden Route: A Walk with Elephants
February 13, 2011 By 24 Comments
This is the third stop on my mom’s and my trip along the Garden Route last spring. If you missed the first installment in Gansbaii and the second in Oudtshoorn, go back and check them out first. ***** After we were sufficiently ostriched out, we continued our drive: heading back to the coast and up [...]
The Garden Route: Ostriches in Oudtshoorn
February 9, 2011 By 47 Comments
This is day two on my trip along South Africa’s Garden Route. If you missed the first stop, Gansbaii, head on back a few days and check it out. ***** Sometimes you just want to be a tourist, and that’s how I felt about venturing into Oudtshoorn. The town is a diversion off the main [...]
The Garden Route: Skimming South Africa’s Coast
February 7, 2011 By 28 Comments
A year ago when my mom and I were planning our South African tour, I knew we wanted to see more than just Cape Town and a game park. Neither of us had been there before—in fact, it was our first time in Africa, period—and we’d allotted nearly three weeks to explore. I’d heard of [...]
On Safari: Spots and Stripes
January 30, 2011 By 21 Comments
The hyenas may have been the highlight of our second morning on safari in Ngala, but they weren’t all we saw. The morning light had yet to spill over the bush as our Jeep sped along the bumpy, dirt path and a pair of long necks interrupted the terrain before us, creating a much-wanted road [...]
Parachuting at Heavenly
January 25, 2011 By 29 Comments
Hello everyone, SVV here, reporting from Heavenly Ski Resort. We’ve been having a lot of fun using our outdoor cameras and trouncing about the slopes these days. The mountains are buried in snow and the skies have been crisp and beautiful. A friend of mine recently loaned me a new invention of his—adapted from his [...]
Photo Friday: Locarno, Switzerland
January 14, 2011 By 24 Comments
The best part of my trip to Switzerland in the fall of 2009 is that while it wasn’t my first visit to the country, I did get to explore an entirely new region, completely foreign to me. After my time in German Switzerland, the group headed down south, almost to the border, to the Italian [...]
Snowcialites Take to the Mountain
January 12, 2011 By 27 Comments
Last year when I attended Snowcial for the first time, it was on a last minute invite with only two days’ notice. In fact, I had never even heard of the social media conference, which is now in its third year. But this time around, I had a full year to get excited for all [...]
