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Showing 1-25 of 49 results
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Kruger National Park, South Africa
Blog: Patrick and Katrina do the Globe - 26 December 2009
Lions and leopards and rhinos, oh my! Upon arrival in Africa we got right down to business and drove from our landing point in Johannesburg to Kruger National Park for safari fun. This expansive frontier in the northeast corner of South Africa is about the size of Massachusetts with the most notable and profound difference being there are wild animals roaming around.
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Shark bait - I was this close!
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 23 December 2009
Awaking to a nightmare at 4.45 a.m. was not the ideal start to a day that involved leaving the house before dawn, on my own, for a drive across country to dive into cold Atlantic water with man-eating sharks ....
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Traveling Off the Beaten Path/ Watching my bank account bleed dry
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 18 December 2009
I have to confess that I really haven’t really traveled off the beaten path before I began this yearlong adventure. When I was living in England I was able to travel a bit through Europe, but I never considered those trips the sort that required any real forethought—planning in advance consisted of finding my passport [...]
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The Drakensburg Mountains/ How not to fly fish
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 16 December 2009
Last weekend S and I drove down to the Drakensburg Mountains to enjoy three days of hiking, outdoor and leisure activities, and the sort of relaxation that can only be achieved when you’re surrounded by towering mountains and clean, fresh air. The Drakensburg Mountain range—a World Heritage site—is made up of some of the highest mountains [...]
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9 Weeks Through Africa/ The trip of a lifetime? Hope so.
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 15 December 2009
On January 17th, 2010, after spending 3 weeks in Uganda, I get picked up in Nairobi, Kenya, for a 6-week overland trip through Southern Africa—from Kenya, we drive down to Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and finish the journey in Cape Town, South Africa. Epic! I always fancied the idea of traveling extensively through Africa, [...]
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Crime in Johannesburg/ It finally happened
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 10 December 2009
I’ve been writing about living in Johannesburg for months without mentioning one critical aspect—that the city has a terrible reputation (both domestically and internationally) for crime. Indeed I believe it’s been the elephant in the blog; while trying to focus on the positive aspects about living here I was purposely neglecting the negative aspects, including [...]
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South Africa - Busman's Holiday?
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 8 December 2009
The summit of Kilimanjaro pokes through the thick blanket of cloud thousands of feet beneath us - an image I’ll never forget - as we fly south.The three hour journey to Johannesburg seemed to last an eternity: a week of burning the candle at both ends, a head cold, just 3½ hours sleep in Nairobi, and I’m unable to sleep bolt upright in a seat that refuses to recline.
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Summer in Jozi/ Perfect weather to ride a horse
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 4 December 2009
Ok so I know that I recently knocked the southern hemisphere for being sunny just as I wanted to curl up by a fireplace and sip a gingerbread latte while wearing big fluffy socks. But that’s just me and what I look forward to come December. There are many upsides, however, to spending winter south of the [...]
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Cederberg: mountain passes, safaris and San rock art
Blog: velvet escape's blog - 1 December 2009
Bordering the expansive plains of the Great Karoo, the Cederberg and Swartruggen mountains are one of the Western Cape’s wildest and most desolate regions. Located just a few short hours north/northeast of Cape Town, this region boasts some truly spectacular mountain passes, rock formations, unique safaris and fascinating San rock art. San or Bushman rock paintings [...]
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Safari in South Africa/ Pet the hippo, cheetah, and rhino; just not the honey badger!
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 30 November 2009
Although Johannesburg itself isn’t necessarily a tourist destination for international visitors, it is very close to the Kruger National Park and other game parks that offer some of the continent’s best wildlife viewing and safaris. I’ve been lucky to go twice and, like Franschhoek, would go back whenever possible! South African wildlife parks are definitely [...]
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DIWYY Guest Column: Destination Johannesburg!
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 27 November 2009
Now that I’ve been in Johannesburg for about 5 months I suppose I’ve earned enough cred to be able to advise others on what to do and see when visiting… well that’s what the lovely ladies of travel blog Do It While You’re Young thought anyway! Read about Destination: Johannesburg here, and be sure to check [...]
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(Don’t) Wanna Be… All By Ourselves
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 24 November 2009
10/28/09: Johannesburg, South Africa Today was our first full day of officially being on our own since we arrived in Africa. We have been so spoiled the last several weeks – someone tells us when to wake up, when to eat breakfast, what we’re doing that day, when to go to the bathroom… Since we didn’t [...]
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Getting to Know Johannesburg/ A taste of South African music
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 24 November 2009
Last Friday I went to a friend’s birthday party, but this wasn’t just any typical birthday celebration with balloons and face cake. For starters, mystery surrounded the event: the only details we received were where to go and that our “transport” would arrive at 6:30 p.m. No hint as to the activity, no clue as [...]
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Out in the Actual Real World on Our Own
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 23 November 2009
10/27/09: Johannesburg, South Africa We departed the Acacia truck after our final drive and with one final look over our shoulders (and a tear in each of our eyes) and we said goodbye to our temporary home. Two minutes later we returned to grab our bags. I hate prolonged goodbyes. I’ve been looking forward to today for some [...]
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Watch Out for the Animals, Freddy!
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 22 November 2009
10/26/09: Kruger National Park, South Africa Here’s why I don’t like Kruger National Park: It’s too darn big. Depending on who we listened to, it’s either 2 million or 70 million hectares, whatever a hectare is. In words we were able to understand though, it’s bigger than England. When you combine this size with all the below [...]
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Prizes for my "indigenous mix"
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 21 November 2009
From the gutter to the Kabira Club, what a true star my mutt Baldrick is and a fantastic advert for the work of the Uganda Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Found as a pup drowning in a ditch, Baldrick Superdog came First in the Dog with the Waggiest Tail competition and ended up coming third overall on the day! Hilarious.
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Tree < Rhino
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 21 November 2009
10/25/09: Thorny Bush Park, South Africa This morning we stopped at a mall on our way to Thorny Bush. Let’s just have that sentence one more time, shall we? This morning we stopped at a mall on our way to Thorny Bush. A mall! With escalators! air conditioning! McDonald’s! overpriced milkshakes! a Woolworths (I didn’t even [...]
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Weekend in Franschhoek/ It is possible to spend a day drinking nothing but wine
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 11 November 2009
When people ask for my recommendations of things to do in Cape Town, I always say that they must go out to one of the major wine towns, including Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Paarl. Aside from the obvious draw of some of the world’s most incredible wines, these regions are breathtakingly beautiful and unbelievably peaceful. High [...]
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The Constitutional Court/ Bridging the gap between past and the future
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 10 November 2009
Today I had the privilege of going to the Constitutional Court to hear oral arguments for a case the Cape Town branch of my NGO has been working on (I have not been involved, but went along merely as an observer). The case related, broadly, to the President’s powers to pardon criminals and more specifically, [...]
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Almost Like Home
Blog: Passed Ports: images and anecdotes from our travels - 8 November 2009
Ahhhh, home. Well, sort of. We arrived in Capetown a few days ago, the end of our African adventure. Insofar as it is an international city, this is as close to home as we’re going to get. And we have been eating it up, literally. Sushi, Thai food, good (read: NOT instant) coffee. It’s all [...]
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A Visit to the People who Click
Blog: Travelicious - 7 November 2009
It was raining and the sky was hanging low and grey over our heads, we were on our way to Bulungula; a community run place by the ocean on the wild coast. It is deep in the Xhosa homeland, and the roads are somewhere in between horrible and non-existent – the first part of the way down to the coast is gravel roads, which you do in your own car, be warned, it’s not easy driving, especially after rain. You park your car about an hour away from this place and they come and pick you up in a sturdy 4x4, something we discovered was very much needed.
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Lady in Town
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
I thought that five days would be more than enough to see Cape Town. I was wrong. There was so much to do and see in the city and along the cape that my boyfriend and I easily filled five days and could have spent another five.
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Strange Sites Cycling Africa
Blog: Canada's Adventure Couple - 6 November 2009
We saw some crazy things when we were in Africa. What do you expect when you are cycling through some of the most remote regions on the planet. Here is a list of what we found to be some of the most surreal, strange and odd sites in Africa.
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The Rabid Squirrel/ My next set of inoculations
Blog: Nilikuta Shani - 4 November 2009
Me with an 8-week old white lion on my first visit to the park A friend from college, K, a nurse practitioner in New York City, and a friend of hers came to visit South Africa. Attempting to be a good hostess, I took a day off work to show the two of them around Johannesburg. [...]
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Notes from South Africa
Blog: Passed Ports: images and anecdotes from our travels - 30 October 2009
Oct 11 We drove into Kruger National Park in our teeny tiny rented Volkswagan Chico – manual transmission, no power steering, no power anything, no air-con, nothing. (We did have a radio, which seemed to play the same eight songs over and over again, including, among others, Hot’n'Cold, Rosanna, Electric Avenue, and that Lady GaGa [...]
