We left the office at three on Friday and I had no idea where we were headed. All it takes is "Let's have a surprise weekend adventure" and I'm there. It's been exactly a year since the last visit to Dream Lodge and our second stay in one of the lodge's secluded, simple stone cottages was even better. Agama Cottage is a truly idyllic escape for two.
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I was nervous as hell and as excited as a baby baboon on my first dive. A lot can go wrong under water and it took a while to master the art of mask-clearing in the practice pool sessions. There was some apprehension about our venture into the deep blue. We piled into the boat and sped off to two mile reef. My stomach lurched a little but it wasn’t long before we put palms over our masks, dipped backwards and plunged into the sea. Here's why I'm going back for more.
Earlier this year, I made a to-do list of affordable ways to explore Joburg and this weekend I managed to scratch one off the list - see the sun rise from the tippy top of Melville Koppies. So, with an early morning Sunday alarm and a flask of coffee we set off in the dark and found our closest star greeting the Jozi skyline.
Sometimes city weekends get bogged down in to-do lists, expensive parties and pure laziness. Summer's still here, the rivers are flowing, the veld lush and the great outdoors beckons. Drive 40-minutes in the direction of Hartbeespoort and do one of the Hennops Hiking Trails.
I'm a sucker for old stuff. People, history, antiques, photographs, books, magazines, all of it. I found these vintage travel posters promoting South Africa and think they are too amazing not to share. These images not only all show how far the tourism and design industries have come, they're a symbol of an exceptionally thrilling era of travel. Ships, airplanes and railway lines had been developed and the world was becoming a 'smaller' place in the sense that it became increasingly easy to explore - at the very least far easier than the undertakings of Livingstone's era.
Tucked into the middle of the Great Karoo Loxton is probably the smallest town I’ve ever been to. It has enormously wide dirt roads (big enough for a truck to do a u-turn in, I'm sure) lined with century-old trees. It's become something of a South African star thanks to an Afrikaans movie Jakhalsdans, which was set in this remote location.
Crowning Botswana's north, Chobe National Park was the country's first national park and is rumoured to have one of the highest concentrations of game in Africa.
The best way to soak up this incredible river-side wildlife? Beautifully by boat.
This old tourism video gives us a great glimpse into typical South African holidays during the Apartheid era.
I showed this video to my parents who remembered how Durban was the place for a December summer holiday back in the day. Joburgers flooded the N3 stopping at Wimpy on the way to get to the seaside and cars were packed with umbrellas, padkos and beach gear. I love the bikinis, trampolines and British voiceover! |