Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 532

hallo und alles gute im 2008 ! der titel dieses blogeintrages taeuscht, muss das land nicht verlassen aber mein 3 monatsvisum laeufft am 15.1. ab und daher gehe ich mit ner kanadierin und nem irlaender - die vor 3 tagen einen alten vw polo gekauft haben - richtung kapstadt und dann nach namiba. von dort muss ich dann wieder nach johannesburg fliegen da ich am 15.1. den field guide level 1 kurs beginne (wenns jemanden interessiert: http://www.ecotraining.co.za/) oder vielleicht kann ich in kapstadt die verlaengerung des visums beantragen. muss noch schauen wie lange das alles dauert und ob wir mit dem auto wirklich die 1400km in 2 tagen zuruecklegen koennen. wuensche allen einen schoenen tag diejenigen die heute den ersten arbeitstag im 2008 haben: take it easy, tief durchatmen, morgen is auch noch nen tag ;-) ... read more

Hello, friends! I am SO excited to be back in South Africa! It's now been five days and one entire night of sleep since I got to South Africa. I met up with the rest of the U of C students on Friday, after a couple of lovely days at a hotel on my own. We've been in class and taking a couple of tours, and I've been bombarded by thoughts. And new experiences. I'll try to outline a few of these, despite the fact that they're barely yet formed in my own head. After meeting up with the rest of the students (we're 23 in total), we went straight to the lovely home of one of the faculty, Prof. David Bunn. Professor Bunn studies the history of conservation and the role of land and landscape ... read more

We had tried turtle watching on a previous holiday in Sri Lanka, and been unsuccessful - we managed to pick the first night of the turtle watching season when there were no turtles. It was a nice beach, and the stars were pretty, but that wasn't really the point. So we thought we'd give it another go in South Africa, with a company that said they could almost guarantee a sighting. And we came up trumps. Which was just as well, because it was a heck of a slog to get there. First, there was a four hour drive from St Lucia to a place near the Mozambican border, in the region of the Tsonga people, the last hour and a half of which involved bumping along a sandy track in a 4x4. Then, a six ... read more

Those who have been reading my blog are probably aware of my love of meaningless lists, and my trip wouldn't be complete without just a few more. So, here, in no particular order, are all of my Top Fives (and some Bottom Fives), to give you an idea of what I loved - and hated - about Africa. First, I'll do a ranking of the 18 countries I visited (I did pop into Lesotho as well, but didn't see enough to pass judgment on the place). Trust me, I did a lot of thinking about this, and took into account such factors as cuisine, cost, security, friendliness, travel, accommodation, and even the beer on offer. So here it is - the Big List: Tom's African Country Ranking - Best to Worst 1. Egypt 2. Tanzania 3. ... read more

Welcome to our travel blog! Some of you have asked us to keep you updated with our adventures in South Africa this year so here it goes! If you are on our email list and would like to be removed, just let us know. If you know of someone that should be added, let us know that too. We will try to add messages regularly, most likely they will be from me (Shauna) more than Scott as his two finger typing slows him down. Hopefully you will be lucky and get a few from Scott because, as most of you know, his stories are far more entertaining! We have been busy the past month celebrating the holidays with family and friends, and finishing up our jobs. Last weekend we went cross-country skiiing in Kananaskis with our ... read more