Only the elegant old Paddlesteamer gives the game away … [thank you to Jenny Wolhuter for this photo!] So, while the rest of South Africa was watching the Springboks/Wales Rugby World Cup face-off, three of us went AWOL. The tension was simply too much. And then the Boks went and won the game!!! Well, then,…
Read More

My few days in Groot Brak were spent with two very artistic “tuned-in” women … oodles of talent, thought-provoking conversations, and an appreciation of the magic in nature. Laurinda Smit, besides her day job producing a monthly local news publication with two associates, is also a mandala artist. Using a pointillist painting technique among other…
Read More

A short, gentle sojourn in Groot Brakrivier (or Great Brak River to the English) opened my eyes recently to how we sometimes underestimate what very long stretches of silky-sand beaches (in a still-pristine state) we have in South Africa. We walked for kilometres on broad ribbons of powdery sand, sometimes flanked by high dune ridges,…
Read More

Kgalagadi is a hard nut to crack. Yes, yes, it’s the best wild precinct for Big Cats. Cheetah, leopard and those amber-eyed lion with beautiful dark manes. Put it down to the swathes of lustrous-gold grasslands to hurtle through and broad open riverbeds to stake out, filled with giant herds of springbok, gemsbok and wildebeest….
Read More

A garden that contains over 66 sculptures enfolded in its dips and rises just can’t be dealt with in a single Post … but just to keep your interest piqued the works here are viewed through a different lens. Light and shade. Sepia and greyscale. The monotones allow you to look past extraneous matter and…
Read More

Overwhelming. Awesome. Sensational. World class. These are all words that describe South African sculptor Dylan Lewis’s sculpture garden on Mulberry Farm in Paradyskloof (a very apt name, that!) in Stellenbosch. He started the garden himself way back in 2009, using an excavator to dig and pile up earth and mould it into dips and mounds…
Read More

When you’re in the wilds, often what’s more special than major tick-off sightings is simply to sit quietly and observe animal behaviour, their interactions with each other … and you … as the case may be. You are now in their territory, where it’s the wild animals that direct operations and call the shots. Clearly…
Read More

There is something very special about owls … an air of mystique, an ability to see beyond the surface of things, the perceived wisdom in those very big, very bright, very piercing eyes. When they lance you with a look, it’s as if they see right through you. Which is why they appear in fairytales,…
Read More

We’ve been to Mokala many times, and loved it, but what we weren’t prepared for was the absolute magic of Haak-en-Steek, a reasonably recent addition to the park’s accommodation options and one we’d never tried before. The word ‘camp’ is misleading, although there are three small very basic camp sites nearby. But we were expecting…
Read More

In Marakele Tlopi Tented Camp wins hands down. Consisting of wood, glass and canvas, and again, heavily monkey-proofed — vervets are notoriously mischievous and nifty here; many a foreign visitor has been caught unawares — its position right at the edge of the Tlopi Dam is magic, with views across to those giant sandstone molars….
Read More