Blogs from Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, Africa

Dear All This South Africa blog entry comes from Bloemfontein! I'm deep in the heart of Afrikaaner South Africa now - the signs are all in Afrikaans, and I hear Afrikaans being spoken much more commonly now than English. It feels like I'm in a really authentic part of South Africa. While other places I'd been to thus far hadn't been completely buzzing with tourists, I was definitely off-the-beaten track now and was loving it. As I believe I have mentioned in my blogs before, I always like to experience travels off the tourist trail. This South African state called Free State, formerly the independent Afrikaaner country of the Orange Free State which along with the Transvaal to the north-east around Johannesburg formed the two independent Boer Republics of the 19th century, felt very much that. ... read more

As we finished early at KwaZulu Natal, we decided to fly to Bloemfontein to exlpore the city of Roses. This city is beautiful and the people are friendly, as we all know that this place is well known for its beautiful history and the Its also called the judiicial caoital of South Africa since 1910. Theres a lot of things to enjoy at this hostitable city, things like anglican cathedral, bonoyical gardens, fountain, antional museum, national womans memorial, sand du plessis theatre and the state president swart park,kings park and zoological gardens. like I said the Bloemfontein is full of history and a lot of old buildings with the history of our country. there is also an appeal court, which is the largest court in the country. People come and enjoy the bloemfontein in its free ... read more

My final destination on my big adventure was South Africa, where I had arranged to volunteer at a big cat sanctuary called Cheetah Experience :(http://www.cheetahexperience.com/) in Bloemfontein for 3 weeks. I have to admit it was quite a culture shock going from living the aussie life down under to living in Africa, more so than I could have ever imagined. After a few days though I settled in and within no time at all Bloem became my home and the other volunteers were my family. Each country I visited over the 3 months was so insanely different, it was a struggle to adapt sometimes, but it made life a lot more interesting! So, we were living in a volunteer house just down the road from the sanctuary, and wow it was such luxury after backpacking for ... read more

Friday (25/6/10) After a well needed sleep in, we packed up our gear, said goodbye to our hosts and fellow backpackers on route to Bloemfontain. By the time we packed everything away we knew we’d never make it in day light hours so booked a room a Kloomsted happy to have a night out of the tent. Nearly six hours later we arrived to Arcadia Guesthouse on the outskirts of Kloosmted a gorgeous Greek themed B &B set in beautiful gardens. After a stroll around the garden we made the most of our luxurious surrounds sampling a bottle of the Nederburg Pinotage and a hot bath …. Bliss. We took some time out from the soccer tuning into Lleyton’s third round win at Wimbledon. Game over we had dinner at the Arcadia restaurant dining on some ... read more

Is nog tans in Bfn, en is erg opgewonde oor ons trippie wat voorle. Kan nie wag nie. Hier is 'n foto van toe ons in die Fillippyne was, en ons hoop dit gaan weer soortgelyk wees. SON, STRAND, SEE, SNORKEL, STORIEBOEK-LEES, SPEKVET WORD, EN LAASTENS ONTSPAN... read more