My Travels

Graaff-Reinet, The Karoo – February 2010

Nieu Bethesda, my bugbear and potential nemesis, is growing on me slowly. Perhaps it looks better after rain. André’s Brewery still offers the only acceptable lunch, even if there is only one choice on the menu (which, as I keep trying to tell him, means there isn’t a choice).

An Invitation to Grahamstown

I have been invited to speak at the Grahamstown Festival as part of the Think!Fest 2010 initiative. My talk will be at 2pm on 2 July at The Monument restaurant and there will be a ‘Conversations with Authors’ evening later in the afternoon. I hope there’s an audience ...

Nairobi, Mombasa and Lamu – January 2010

In January, I took a ten day trip to Kenya on Air Miles, sparing the pick-up/bakkie for a change. With so many lengthier African journeys under my belt, it was potentially confusing to be away for such a short time. It felt like taking a quick dunk instead of a proper swim.

I got around this by reading Sihle Khumalo’s 'Heart of Africa' on the plane. By the time I reached Mombasa I felt as if I had been in and out of as many minibus taxis as he had and was well into travelling mode. I was interested to see that Sihle was born in Nqutu, in KwaZulu-Natal and just down the road from Fugitives’ Drift Lodge, my alma mater. I must now read his first book to complete the picture.

This short stay in Kenya included a couple of days in sultry Mombasa, 4 nights on Lamu and the spectacular train from Mombasa to Nairobi. The best experience of all was a visit to an orphanage outside Nairobi and the infectious enthusiasm of its occupants. I think I was hard on Kenya in my book and I look forward to exploring it in more detail soon.

Along the Coast from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth – December 2009

A quick spin to Cape Town (for a meeting to discuss converting a forward control Land Rover into a safari vehicle) led to some auspicious discoveries and the launch of my EAT RIGHT EN ROUTE campaign for fresh fruit and healthy food in petrol station shops:

1) The Vineyard Hotel in Newlands offers some of the best vegetarian food I have ever eaten (no, I am not a vegetarian).

2) Whale-watching is not as boring as it sounds and The Marine Hotel, on a Hermanus cliff-top, is proof, if it were needed, that a South African 5* hotel is up there with the finest in the world.

3) Mossel Bay’s scruffy under-reconstruction ‘waterfront’ hides one of the best seafood options in the land – Gypsey Cove. Plump oysters and lekker chokka.

4) Knysna’s traffic problem is no closer to being solved, even now that the causeway over the lagoon is finished.

5) Port Elizabeth’s Courtyard Hotel is further evidence that this chain has it spot-on. The only complaint in the visitor’s book (predictably from a government employee) was that the TV wasn’t plasma screen. Strange priorities, indeed.

Final Conclusion: The Garden Route will (probably) be wonderful when it is finished.

Namibia - October and November 2009

Recently my travels took me, with some friends, to two of South Africa's dry National Parks, Augrabies NP and the Kgalagadi TP on the way to and from Namibia. A South African traveller’s life is a journey incomplete without visiting and absorbing these two Kalahari national parks, while Namibia offers the ultimate unique camping destination.

We stayed in The Fish River Canyon, The Richtersveld National Park, Lüderitz, Helmeringhausen, Sossusvlei, The Namib Naukluft National Park, Swakopmund and Windhoek. With bicycles and climbing boots aboard the Jeep, our journey was an endless feast of exploration and discovery. You can see photographs of the expedition on the website of Anton du Toit, my photographer colleague. See www.antondutoit.com

Over the next few months I shall post itineraries on this page and discuss plans for future trips