The next stop on my adventure through Africa was the 2 day canoe trip on the lower Zambezi river. Before I left I was a little worried about this portion of the trip - for those of you who have been canoeing with me, you know that I prefer to be canoed - I get bored of paddling very quickly. Well no need to worry - the canoe trip was a dream! Before we left on our canoe trip we were given a briefing about safety - turns out it's not the crocs that were the biggest risk to our safety, [View Full Entry]

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So my day started out very ordinarily - or as ordinary as you can get in Africa. Woke up at the crack of dawn, booked a helicopter flight over the falls, went on the helicopter ride - oooh, aaahhh - came back to camp site relaxed for a bit, had a fantastic hamburger (Matt, you would've loved it) then met up with the rest of the group to walk around Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is a pretty amazing site, it's as if the ground cracked open in the middle of a river. It's very impressive. We were there during the dry [View Full Entry]

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It took two days and over 14 hours of driving in a small cramped 4X4 - that we nicknamed Minnie Mouse - but we finally arrived at the first interesting stop of our trip - Chobe. Chobe is known for it's huge herds of elephants and it did not dissapoint. We all jumped in to the open Safari and headed into the park all with cameras at the ready. "Oh look... there's a mongoose and impala... is that an elephant in the distance??" We then turned the corner and before us was a huge lake with elephant herds alll over the [View Full Entry]

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Well it's been a couple of days since my last post. The internet in the last couple of places has either been very slow or too expensive. Since my last post I've traveled through the Garden Route into the Transkei(or Eastern Cape) and finally to Kwazulu-Natal. The weather has been on and off - I seem to get one day of rain and one day of sun everywhere I go. I stayed in Cinsta on the Garden Route at a hostel that was more resort than hostel. The place is perched on a hill with fantastic views of the bay below. [View Full Entry]

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Not much has happened in the past couple of days. I've jumped on the Baz Bus to Knysna. I was supposed to stay here two nights, but the weather is not co-operating so I'm leaving for warmer climates this evening. I did manage to have a productive day in Knysna though... I went on a tour of the town. Knysna is know for the "Knysna Heads" - two land heads that form a lagoon. Very beautiful area that is supposed to be stunning and overflowing with tourists in the summer. On the tour we visited an oyster cultivator, a craft market [View Full Entry]

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I've had a good two days - not as fantastic as the shark dive but good. On Tuesday I went on a tour of the wine lands - Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschoek. We visited 4 vineyards and tasted about 26 wines, brandies and dessert wines. I have to say that I was not blown away by any of South Africa's wines. They were good... but none that wowed me. Well... maybe the Sweet Red, but that was a dessert wine so does it count? We also got to try some cheese which was really nice - yummy fetas, havartis and this [View Full Entry]

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Instructions on how to have the best day ever: 1. Begin with a leisurely rise at 8AM 2. Hop on a bus an enjoy the amazing views down the coast of South Africa 3. Arrive at your destination and sign your life away - I have medical insurance and I will not sue for anyinjury done to me... 4. Get on a boat and make your way out into the indian sea 5. Stop to see whales breaching... bonus!! 6. Stop near the seal colony and watch as blended fish guts are thrown into the water along with a cutout of [View Full Entry]

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I went on the Cape Point Peninsula tour today. What an amazing day, the weather ended up being beautiful and met some really nice people on the tour. The tour consisted of a drive down the peninsula from Cape Town to Cape Point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. Very scenic, convaluted drive. We stopped in Hout Bay where we got on a boat to Duiker Island - a seal colony. I'm not sure what impressed me more - the seals or the 7 meter swells our boat ended up surfing!! The next stop was to Simon's Town to watch [View Full Entry]

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It took 3 planes and a whole lot of delays, but I finally arrived in Cape Town, SA. Have had a busy but exhausting day. Arrived in Cape Town at 5AM this morning, managed to get to my hostel only to find out that the room would not be available until 1PM. Iwas really counting on that to catchup on my sleep... 5 hours of plane sleep in 2 days is just not cutting it for me!! But regardless of my sleep deprived state I still managed to go on a walking tour of Cape Town. Very interesting landscape. Cape Town [View Full Entry]

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Well I'm off! In 32 hours I will be in Africa, living out a lifelong dream. I know... 32 hours of travel... groan... this is going to break my record for transit time. The plan is to Fly into Cape Town via Frankfurt, spend a couple of days in CT and then spend 2 weeks traveling through South Africa - still deciding where to go and what to see. At the end of Aug I leave on my Safari from Johannesburg. The Safari takes me to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and then back into South Africa to see Kruger park. [View Full Entry]

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