Upon finalizing my flights to South Africa from Bangkok, I told a good friend who has traveled extensively in Africa that I would kiss the African soil for him. He replied, "Kiss Africa's ground for me, but remember: Africa always wins. No matter how much you try to make sense of all the nonsense, it'll never make sense. Thus Africa wins." Winning or not, the unpredictability of adventure travel in Sub Saharan Africa has always appealed to me … [Read more...]
Chobe National Park
Today we visited the interior of Chobe National Park with our intrepid guide Shime - a Botswanan who hails from a small village 7 hours away near the city of Maun. We are staying at the luxurious isolated Ngoma Safari Lodge located on the edge of Chobe on the Namibian border. The Chobe game drives are the main activity offered by Ngoma - and along with their lodge, these drives are first class. Their guides are super knowledgeable, have eyes … [Read more...]
Livingstone Zambia
Greetings from the Jollyboy Backpackers Guesthouse. Long gone are the old days of backpacking - where amenities were basic and services on the light side. Here you have excellent Internet access (by sub Saharan Africa standards), a pool, full kitchen and a variety of falls and safari related activities to choose from. The backpackers lodge in Victoria Falls we stayed at even had several onsite masseuses! The "no man's zone" - the area between … [Read more...]
Kruger National Park
If your looking for a Big Game Drive, look no further than the huge Kruger National Park in South Africa. Day visits are the cheapest way to see the park but there are a number of lodges within the park boundaries (more expensive then some of the nearby outside of the park accommodations). We took advantage of our early morning arrival time and drove on dirt roads all day on our own "big game drive". We came across three of the "Big Five" - Cape … [Read more...]
Hlwane National Park Swaziland
We rode into the National Park today in our little Honda Jazz. Many of the roads are more suited for soft 4wd and the park has erected large dirt burms every 20 meters or so on these roads to stop passenger vehicles from driving. That didn't stop us however! We popped over each burm and drove through mud puddles from recent rains - trying to avoid bottoming out the vehicle and or getting stuck. Getting stuck is a bad thing out here - you are in … [Read more...]
Nisela Safari Lodge Swaziland!
We arrived at the Nisela Safari Lodge after crossing one of the smaller southern border post crossings. We immediately found ourselves on dirt roads before reaching the main tarred highway leading north. Swaziland is very small and driving distances are not what we had become accustomed to in the much larger country of South Africa. The Nisela Safari Lodge was the perfect stop for us - reaching it at dusk. At first it appeared somewhat … [Read more...]
Near drowning in Lesotho
We headed out of the lodge today on a long meander to a river. Along the way we picked up 8 children who were delighted to see us and show us around their village. They accompanied us down a steep cliff to a huge valley below. Along the way we met a sheep and goat herder dressed in native attire. Eventually we reached the bottom of the valley and the river. It was wasn't the cleanest water in the world - but it was running and most of the kids … [Read more...]
Ancient Bushman cave paintings
Just returned from a fantastic outing on the horses to see ancient Bushman cave paintings. We rode through expansive fields of mostly corn until we reached a viewpoint overlooking an impressive gorge. From here it was on foot down a very steep rocky trail to the first of the caves - called "echo cave". It was obvious why this cave took its name after we shouted ourselves hoarse, practicing our new found Lesotho words including "dumella" - a … [Read more...]
Malealea Lodge, Lesotho
Greetings from Malelea Lodge in the remote hinterlands of the "mountain Kingdom" - the landlocked county of Lesotho (not pronounced how its spelled, rather phonetically you say "Lesootoo"). The country has the highest mountains in Southern Africa and receives significant snowfall at the higher elevations in the winter. There is even a small ski resort in the eastern part of the country! We drove in from South Africa crossing the border at … [Read more...]
Maui is “Best Island in the World” for the 17th Time
"The Magic Isle" Captures Highest Score of Any Destination in the World MAUI, Hawaii - For an unprecedented 17th time, "Maui, the Magic Isle" captured "Best Island in the World" honors in the 24th annual CONDE NAST TRAVELER Readers' Choice Awards. With a score of 92.1, Maui was also voted "Best U.S. Island" (formerly "Best Pacific Island") for the 21st consecutive year. In the same category, sister island Kauai placed 2nd (90.0) while third … [Read more...]
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