We finally made it to the southern tip of Africa! Pretty much just a photo op here, but it was interesting meeting a couple of guys that were just beginning a trans-african journey on motorbikes (a-la Ewan McGreggor and his buddy in the Long Way Down). [View Full Entry]

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We heard reports of poor weather for the coast, so we decided to head inland away from the Garden Route and take the alternative Route 62 from Oudtshoorn to Robertson. Oudtshoorn is the Ostrich capital of the world and is also the gateway to the Cango Caves. The caves were cool and the Ostrich was delicious. In Robertson we treated ourselves to a wine-tasting tour where we visited four wineries and it was probably a good thing that we didn't have to drive. The best part about Route 62 is the beautiful landscape of the Klein Karoo. [View Full Entry]

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Since leaving the Wild Coast we've been working our way down the sunshine coast. Our stops have included East London, Port Elizabeth, Jeffrey's Bay, and Plettenberg Bay. East London and Port Elizabeth, although very nice cities, were just a couple stops to break up the driving and do some shopping and laundry. We stopped at Jeffrey's Bay on the morning of the 10th to check out the first day of competition for the Billabong Pro surfing competition that was going on at Supertubes beach. Much bigger waves and better tricks than we saw in Durban, it was good entertainment but the [View Full Entry]

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The Wild Coast is described as the "real" africa that most travellers to South Africa miss. It's a lot more remote and un-developed compared to the rest of the country and the coastline is beautiful. We had initially planned on about 5 days to explore the wild coast but found that after a couple of days it was time to move on. It was very beautiful and quiet; we probably would have stayed longer except that when we arrived in Coffee Bay, the place was booked up due to a music festival. So now we're taking a day in East London [View Full Entry]

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Now for something completely different. We've probably overloaded on the animal photos for a while, so the next part of our trip will not likely have much in the way of game parks. We will, however, be looking to photograph some of the ocean wildlife at some point. Durban was a nice place to relax and get used to the idea of having our own transportation. Okay, maybe it wasn't so relaxing at first. We arrived at the Durban airport at night and after finally tracking down the rental car desk we set off in search of our hotel. For some [View Full Entry]

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This is the safari experience that we've been looking forward to for a long time. It's the complete opposite to our past couple of game parks where we were in an overland vechle full of 18 people. We had planned on staying at a nice tented camp at the Edeni Private Lodge, but we were surprised by a nice upgrade to one of the 5 star luxury cabins (big thanks to our travel agent!). In total we had 6 game drives on the private reserve plus a full day excursion into the Kruger National Park. We took so many pictures, but [View Full Entry]

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Another month on an overland truck comes to an end. Livingstone reminded us just how expensive Zambia is compared to the other African countries. From here, we fly to Jo'burg and begin a month of independant travel in South Africa. We're looking forward to the time on our own and the freedom to go where we want when we want. It will also be nice having a month off from sleeping in tents! Our rough itinerary has us flying to a private game reserve near Kruger National Park for a 5 day luxury stay. Then we will be flying to Durban [View Full Entry]

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It doesn't get much better than this. Sort of a welcome back to "true" Africa. It took us 5 hours to get onto the ferry to cross the river into Zambia. Too bad we couldn't drive through Zimbabwe and use the bridge instead. Some of the transport trucks have been waiting up to 10 days before they can cross. Total carnage. [View Full Entry]

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Our second visit to Chobe National Park in Botswana was much like the first, but with less water in the river and more people on the boats. We probably saw more wildlife on our first visit, but we did see Sable antelope for the first time (although not the best light for photos). [View Full Entry]

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The next few days of the trip overlap with places that we've already seen on our trip from Nairobi to Cape Town. So when it came time for the Okavango Delta, we decided to opt out and spend some quiet time at Ngepi Campsite. A unique place to stay with even more unique toilets and showers. We went on a sunset cruise down the river (just the 2 of us) and saw lots of hippos and small crocs as well as many birds. Our nightly ritual of enjoying a nice bottle of South African wine at sunset was the perfect way [View Full Entry]

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