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 [...]
On Safari: Laughing Hyenas
November 24, 2010 By 18 Comments
I’ve never been much of a morning person. I consider 6:30am an ungodly hour to be awake, so when the designated lodge alarm clock—a burly guide who went door to door knocking in the dead of the night—came calling at 3:45am, there was nothing I wanted more than to burrow under the covers and never [...]
On Safari: Getting Our Metaphorical Feet Wet
November 23, 2010 By 18 Comments
Welcome to all of you who found your way over from my interview on Gala Darling’s website…as I halted my South Africa coverage in the spring with wedding planning and tales of our honeymoon in Borneo, I thought our safari in Kruger National Park would be a good place to pick up from here… When [...]
On Safari: Fancy Digs
June 14, 2010 By 14 Comments
After making our way from Hoedspruit, we pulled up to Ngala Private Game Reserve. I had been prepared to “rough it” in a sense. You hear things like “safari” and “game park” and “creepy crawlies” and expect as much…right? What I had not been prepared for was this: As it turns out, all the other [...]
On Safari: Arriving in Ngala
June 7, 2010 By 13 Comments
Our vacation to South Africa was a long time coming actually. Sure the actual destination was chosen a bit on a whim, but how it came about was decades in the making. You see, my mom promised my sister and I when we were wee tots that if we each made it to our 22nd [...]
Photo Friday: Stellenbosch, South Africa
May 14, 2010 By 14 Comments
Whenever anyone heard I was going to South Africa, the immediate response was: “You have to go to Stellenbosch.” But I couldn’t have been less interested. After all, Stellenbosch is South Africa’s big wine country, but—you may have heard—we have a Wine Country that’s second to none just an hour outside of San Francisco. I [...]
