We stayed at beautiful, tranquil Tillietudlem in the Natal Midlands, went for lots of long walks and saw OTTERS. Related Images:
Archive for August, 2010
29 August 2010
Tillietudlem
Today there was a frost in the morning (as usual we were out for a walk by 6:30), yet by lunchtime the temperature was 30C. Anyway, Tillietudlem looked beautiful and more like a little slice of Scotland than ever. We’ve stayed an extra two days, going for a two hour dawn walk and a two » » »
29 August 2010
One month in
Written by Maureen on 26 August 2010 It has been exactly one month now since we left our cosy home in England to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world. And it still feels like a holiday! I’m going to be honest (and risk the ire of serious travellers everywhere) and admit that I » » »
28 August 2010
Moving west to east
This gallery covers our travels from Cape Town along the Garden Route and then up through the Great Karoo, before heading east across the Transkei to the Natal Midlands. Related Images:
Tags: wildlife
28 August 2010
Cape Town and around
Very belated (we left Cape Town two weeks ago), here are photos from our week around Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula. Related Images:
24 August 2010
Hello Robbie and Carmen!
Today we drove and drove across the old Transkei region – one of the former black homelands – and stopped in the town of Matatiele. More vast, dry geography peppered with the odd ramshackle town. And truly excellent roads; you can’t cover 300+ miles in 6 hours on bad roads. There’s not much to do » » »
20 August 2010
Clever Kindle
One item of electronics not even on our original list is an Amazon Kindle. This was a leaving present to Maureen from her work colleagues, and it has turned out to be extremely useful. Only not in the way you might think. So far we haven’t really used it as a reading book – we’ve » » »
Tags: electronics
20 August 2010
Fynbos, the Cape Floral Kingdom
The southern coast of South Africa is known as the Cape Floral Kingdom, due to the unique flora of the area – known as the fynbos. We read that up to 30% of the plant species here are endemic, which is to say that they occur nowhere else on earth. The best fynbos we saw » » »
19 August 2010
Rain, cold and whales
Last night it absolutely tipped down with rain, and this morning it is cold. Our B&B room is large and well furnished, but shares with all other South African accommodation a complete disdain for anything as wussy as heating. “It’s only cold for five or six weeks of the year” as our host pointed out. » » »
12 August 2010
Hiking and wine tasting
Today we hiked up Table Mountain, via the Platterklip Gorge route which goes straight up the Cape Town face of it. I guess it underscores our “outdoorsy” nature that we much preferred the knackering hike up to the cablecar trip down with 40 other people. Cape Town is described as a beautiful city, but these » » »
8 August 2010
Flowers
I must be a softy, because wading through meadows carpeted in myriad flowers is one of my favourite things so far. It’s hard to do justice to the display in photos, but we took hundreds (but only ten made the gallery!). Namaqua is an arid region, baked to bare sand in the summer but exploding » » »
5 August 2010
Baboons behaving badly
(written by Maureen) Thanks to everyone who has commented on our blog! Since we may not have internet access very much, we have changed the settings so that now comments won’t need to be approved by us and so should appear immediately. We have decided to name every day of our trip. Day one was » » »
5 August 2010
Cheetahs and honey badgers
The Kgalagadi Park is centred on two dry riverbeds (they flow once every hundred years or so) that have enough vegetation and watering holes to keep wildlife concentrated there. The rolling red sand dune landscape is best seen from Killiekrankie camp – an unfenced wilderness camp looked after by the scarily aloof but efficient Willem. » » »
Tags: wildlife
5 August 2010
Kgalagadi in the Kalahari
It’s pronounced “Kalahadi” and the ‘h’ is very guttural. Right now we’re sitting outside our hut in Mata Mata camp, overrun with ground squirrels ‘cos everyone feeds them. Apparently the spotted hyena who hangs around outside the fence is fed regularly too, which is why he hangs around. Tut. South Africans have a great way » » »
Tags: desert, self-catering