Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 12

http://www.heygo.com 8th March - A safari & Estuary walk - iSimangaliso Wetland Park - South Africa iSimangaliso Wetland Park (previously known as the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park) is situated on the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, It is South Africa's third-largest protected area with no fewer than 328 000 hectares of pristine natural ecosystems. A considerable part of the park centres on the huge estuary, Lake St Lucia – part of the largest estuarine system in Africa that runs parallel to the coast line with the world’s highest forested sand dunes sandwiched between the estuary and the sea. Today we took a walk with our virtual guide Ash, it was his first tour with Virtualtrips and I’m sure it won’t be the last he gave so much information on what we were seeing, This ... read more

“An infected mind is a far more dangerous pestilence than any plague- one only threatens your life, the other destroys your character.” – Marcus Aurelius (1800 years ago) 2021 is truly underway and no doubt the hopes of millions of people around the globe that this would be a better year, are vanishing fairly quickly. The Covid-19 “buzz” is now all about rampant second waves, a new Covid-19 variant born in South Africa “nogal” and stricter lockdowns for many, many countries. Fascinating how South Africa was fingered with gifting the World with this new variant. How on earth did the scientific boffins determine precisely which country this new strain came from? So, the picture is generally one of doom and gloom although there is a brightly shining star out there. Vaccinations are underway in many countries ... read more

Here we are, a little long overdue blog about our daily life at home in South Africa. Point to note, we do not live close to Cape Town, as this place is way too cold in the winter. Shelly Beach, our little village is 130km south of Durban...and yes, we live right on the beach! Even with our bedroom windows closed, we ear the waves 24/7! I have lived from 1996 to 2017 in Metropolis around the world, I name Saigon, Hong Hong, Shanghai, Bangkok and Buenos Aires. All of those were fun...full of life...with some great qualities...and way less nice points at some stage in our stay. Since early 2017....it's out of the crowds for us. So put 2020 in the Covid perspective...suddenly I'm happy to live away from the crowds! We all have our ... read more

The day has come. Originally we would pack our bags, give back the rent a car at Cape Town airport, fly to Joburg and connect to Zurich. Thank you Swiss Government for making a mess of things, and especially thanks to Nenad's parents who told us not to worry about them, but to enjoy Namibia. They are looking forward to our pictures and stories. Well, now we pack, give back the rent a car, fly to Joburg, go to Pretoria, make a Covid test, leave half of the luggage in the hotel, fly to Windhoeck and continue discovering Africa's driest sub Saharan country, Namibia. Oh almost forgotten, restart a Malaria prophylaxes. The northern part of Namibia (Etosha), where we shall start, is during the rainy season a malaria risk area. As predicted, with the wine bottles ... read more

Early morning over a coffee we stated to contemplate our options regarding the continuation of the trip. The Swiss Government is going a bit crazy because of this mutated virus from UK and South Africa. Even if we can fly back we will have to go into quarantine. They also are discussing a partial lockdown and all sorts of restriction we absolutely did not want to be part of. On the other hand there were Nenad's parents and Nenad did not want to leave them alone over the year end period. Finally Nui's visa was expiring 27th midnight. Unlike Nenad, who as a Swiss has 90 days, she only is allowed to stay 30 days in the country. Before thinking any further we wanted to see if we can fly at all. Further discussion and decision ... read more