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Blogs from South Africa, Africa
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May 21st 2013
Dear Nellie, I was just wondering what you were up to? Are you still eating all the juicy veggies visitors to your sanctuary dish out to you and your 4 legged friends? Are you still relishing showing off your gentle strength leaning gently against us whilst we try to push you along? Do you, the gentlest of all giant creatures ever wonder how great life would be if there were no poachers and hunters? Our visit at Tsitsikamma Forest was the most peaceful couple of hours in South Africa. We had already seen countless elephants on Safari in Kruger but having the opportunity to feed, touch and simply walk along with the elephants was simply therapeutic. Good night Nellie.... read more
South Africa- Seal Island
Published: May 21st 2013Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Garden Route
May 20th 2013
We went to Seal Island with a boat from False Bay, Cape Town. It was very choppy and the waves were huge. In fact it was the first trip after a couple of days of cancellations. It was worth it. When we arrived we were greeted by thousands of Cape Fur Seals. The island is just 4 metres high with no beach or vegetation, just resting frolicking seals. We did not see any great whites (pleasure yet to come at Gansbaai) just a couple of dolphins that accompanied our boat for a short while. We were 'adopted' by a baby seal whilst waiting for our boat.He spent half an hour repeatedly frolicking and coming out of the water to see what we were doing. The visit is a must for all animal lovers.... read more
May 19th 2013
OK well now that we are finally on the road this should the start of many blogs to come. This will depend greatly on wifi and Internet availability as we go through various countries. But first things first...we started off in Auckland with an early rise on Saturday morning to head to the airport and had an uneventful flight through to Johannesburg. The flight from Sydney through was 14 hours which we spent snoozing and watching the latest movies compliments of Qantas. Arrival at Johannesburg at about 4pm on the same day and we have made our way to the Garden Court Hotel safe and sound. To catch up on jet lag it was an early night into bed and today we plan to have a relaxing day around the hotel to catch up with a ... read more
May 17th 2013
Well, Good Evening! I'm here in the sitting room of the Bonne Esperance where books crowd the shelves, there is a chess table and piano to my left, a furnace on the wall in front of me, and complimentary vino atop the piano. Need I say I feel classy and extremely relaxed at the moment? I think Josh is still enjoying his late afternoon nap in the room, so I know he is at least feeling relaxed :) What got us to these points? Now now, don't get antsy. Allow me to begin from yesterday morning as that's where I believe Josh ended your update thus far. After our breakfast yesterday, we set out the vineyard, Boekenhoutskloof. Josh had purchased a bottle of wine in the states previously from this vineyard so he thought it would ... read more
May 16th 2013
It's been a few days, so I'll try to catch you all up with all of our happenings. After a morning safari on Tuesday we sadly left Sanbona behind for the coast. It was another great game drive as we saw 3 lions play with a small herd of rhinos. They were just running around them having fun, since the rhinos could have easily fended off any real attack. The whole experience on the Safari was incredible, and definitely the highlight of the trip so far for me. I think Brady would say the same too. We left about 11 AM for a drive down to Agulhas, the southern most tip in Africa. This is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans officially meet and is slightly more south than the Cape of Good Hope. It was ... read more
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May 15th 2013
I'm creating a travel blog after seeing how easy it is. A friend is doing one for her European sojourn and I thought what a brilliant idea. Our FB friends will know where we are and what we're doing/seeing. Passports are valid, vaccinations are done, we're waiting for our visas and then in 66 sleeps we'll be up, up and away. I'm excited!!!!... read more
Safari (Don't Stop Believing)
Published: May 13th 2013Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Klein Karoo
May 13th 2013
Cheers loyal followers, We left Cape Town this morning for a road trip out to Sanbona Wildlife Reserve for our first ever African safari. I turned on the radio about 5 minutes into the trip and Journey was full into the first chorus of "Don't Stop Believing". Couldn't have been a better indication of how the rest of our day would go. It was about a 3 hour drive out to the welcome lodge at Sanbona, then another hour to our "tents" in the reserve. This place is incredible. We are pretty worn out from getting up at 6 this morning, but I think Brady will have some more to say. Off to the showers and bed for me we have a wakeup call at 630 tomorrow for another game drive. Oh yea, side note, I ... read more
May 12th 2013
Did you miss us last night?? Sorry to keep anybody hanging, but we wanted to throw a little suspense into your blog-reading adventure. Well, let me fill you in on today and yesterday…. YESTERDAY (Saturday) had 3 key points if I had to narrow it down. First of which was the trip out to Robben Island - the island that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. We took a 45 min boat ride out to the island, had a bus tour around the island, and then finished with a tour of the prison by a former prisoner…this freaked me out a bit at first but I quickly remembered that it was a former ‘political’ prisoner. The boat ride was pretty cool too because we got to spend a little time on the water (it was ... read more
May 10th 2013
It’s 8:30 PM here, we just got back from dinner, and Brady is already asleep on the couch. Maybe we should scale back the physical activity if we plan to run a half marathon on Sunday, but it’s been too much fun hiking and exploring the Cape to slow down now. This morning we set out on one of those ultra touristy, red double decker sight-seeing buses to get to Table Mountain. Since they run every twenty minutes and you can hop on and off, they are a super easy way to get around town. We rode the cable car up to the summit of the mountain, which was amazing on top. The views went on and on, and you could see down to the tip of the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-westerly point ... read more
Tomato Sauce, Cheers, and servilletes.
Published: May 9th 2013Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town
May 9th 2013
Day 1 in Africa was a big success for the Atkins brothers. We’re already using local terms like tomato sauce (ketchup), cheers, and servilletes (napkins) to blend in like locals. We’re going to interweave and combo this entry since Brady really wants to write about his encounter with the penguins at Boulder Beach (can you blame me? –brady). I (Josh) woke up at 430 AM amped and ready to go, but was a considerate older brother and let Brady sleep in til 7. The city is amazing, the weather perfect, and the scenery nothing like I’ve ever seen before. We started out going to a cool breakfast/coffee café(R cafe) a few blocks from the hotel (thanks tripadvisor), then walked over to the Company Gardens. It’s a great shaded park that butts right up to the House ... read more
