Travel
The Destination Wedding Vacation
Elation! I must confess I am always a little in awe when I hear of someone jetting off to some exotic destination, and especially so for a wedding. The charmed life. Glamorous. Romantic. The first time it was mentioned in my company was when a recent graduate, earning a pittance, announced...
I Can't Keep It In
There’s no other way but to spit it out. They say “a secret’s only a secret once you’ve told someone”, so I’m going to tell you all about a big secret. It’s not your usual, let’s gossip about the neighbour secret, it’s all about a holiday destination. One everyone should explore. For now I...
Cuisine, Sunscreen, Tambourine I've Seen '17
Highlighting a year brings back sweet memories. It’s through hard times that we take note, but it’s in the cool afterglow that we can sit back and let our hearts and minds recall good times. This has been an amazing roller coaster year. My 60th! My mind has been churning with thoughts, words...
Every Picture Tells A Story
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No matter how many beautiful photographs I’ve seen of Cinque Terre nothing beats being there oneself. Like any great beauty there is more to her than meets the eye. This place has soul, history and charm. Being a World Heritage Site does not happen at the...
A Leaning Tower And A Pisa Pizza
Since the Arno has silted itself up and cut the city off from the sea Pisa has become slightly off-kilter and a little seedy, but, that’s only my opinion of course. The decline of this once powerful naval city is noticeable, and I wonder how popular it would be if it did not boast such...
Three Letters From Santiago
Insomnia. Lying here in my single bed, in our Spartan Nun’s cell in the former Convent on the square. I move my feet to feel the cold part of the starched white linen sheets. The thick ancient walls can’t keep the heat out, the muggy air does not stir. Our pilgrimage has come to an end. Lise and...
Solidago Santiago
We’d heard on the grapevine that there would be thousands of Pilgrims flooding into Santiago de Compostello from all four corners of Europe. We had to make haste unless we were prepared to queue for hours waiting for our certification. Early it would be. I set our alarm for 4am at 5am we’d set...
Butch Bites The Bullet
Like much in life, unless one is 100% committed to a task it is sure to be a failure or at worst a disappointment. I know that if asked 5 years ago whether he’d attempt to walk halfway across Spain Butch would’ve said “NO!” Unequivocally. The only reason he did it was because Anna (his...
Overweight Honey Badger Must Streamline
The Honey Badger is on a crash diet. No more heavy metals. On the spur of the moment it was decided to weigh the truck and huge was the collective surprise when she came in weighing a few hundred kilogrammes over her recommended weight allowance. “How on earth can that happen?” you may well...
Big Butch Battles Bravely
Like two pom-pom girls we stood ready to welcome our Butch at Vigo airport. We caught a glimpse of him way down the passage coming through customs long before he spotted us. He looked exhausted, thin and quite pasty (and not at all like a Cornish pasty, rather, grey and pale) around the...
Vigo Splish Splash And Get Sun-Kissed
It’s raining. If one’s lucky to be there when the first drops fall you will get the smell of rain on dusty tar and it’s just amazing. In Redondela we took deep breaths of rainy air, it was heaven, but, not quite like our African rain, here we smell dust, dry grass, and the blue of water...
Kick-Ass Heroes For A Day
Although we were quite content with each other’s company and had no need of hooking up with other Peregrinoes we did meet and chat to a father and son walking alongside us. The attraction was our feet of course. Flip flops! When I mentioned that St James would've approved we got a "touché"! One...
A Flip-Flopping Peregrino On Camino
My friend sent a photograph of her amazing knitted patchwork blanket, a gift to her grandson, the other day. I am in awe. You see, I started one too. Years ago. On all our wanderings I’d sit in the car and knit, miles of strips and squares I’ve done. Haphazard they are, not all exactly square,...
There's No Snoozin' With Susan
Camping with my sister-in-law Sue is a treat. She’s organised and runs a tight ship. She has to, with her family of 3 plus 2, plus all the friends and extended family members who make themselves at home there. This whole mish-mash of friends, family and vreemdelinge (strangers) often accompany...
A Sucker For Punishment
Is exactly what I must be, when I agreed to repeat my 2016 performance of hiking the Fish River Canyon. Needless to say I couldn’t go back on my word so I saddled up the old back pack, loaded it with the bare essentials and set off on a nine day adventure to Namibia. We would hike for five...
Lise, My Camino Compañero
We have made it to Barcelos in one piece, a little bruised and battle weary. We could lament the state of our toes until the cows come home, but we’re braver than that. We'll dust overselves off and soldier on. I watch her sleep, always the sleep of the innocent, so quiet, not a snore, not...
Picture Perfect Oporto
Four nights in Porto is all I could squeeze into my itinerary. My love for Portugal is a genetic thing. It’s not skin deep, I’m wired to love that slip of a Mediterranean country hemmed in by Spain on one side and the ocean on the other. My aunt lived in a tiny fishing village south of...
Driving Dirt Roads, Dunes And Deserts
Twenty years ago my life was a shambles. I was scared, insecure and I cried every day for almost 2 and a half years. I do believe I could’ve filled buckets with tears. Friends can only take so much. My best friends decided instead of writing me off they’d take me to Namibia. We’d celebrate my...
Surely Sundays Are Fun Days
In all my born days I never thought I would say "whoopy! Sundays are fun days". I’m a boarder for goodness’ sakes.We loathe Sundays.Turn on a radio and I recall Esmè Everard’s distinctive lilt as she read messages from Mums and girlfriends on “Forces Favourites”. That's my cue to fall into...
On Doctor's Orders
Isn’t exactly how it all happened. Summer colds are really the pits, especially in spring. We were both bitten by a bug. Runny noses, sneezing, bunged up sinuses, laryngitis and an embarrassing gungy cough. Not bad enough to tempt one to pull a duvet over one’s head, but enough to make you...
Singing Ching-Ching It's Spring
I go ballistic every time Butch announces “It’s Summer!” (Like clockwork he does it every year on the 23rd June).My beady eyes give him dirty looks as I shiver and shake from the cold, but, I start watching the signs. And then. When he starts paying attention to the weather forecasts, reads...
Schatzie Goes Hands, Knees And Bump-Sa-Daisy
That’s exactly how I made my descent into the Fish River Canyon. Slowly, measured steps and oftentimes on my behind. I had no dignity as I squatted to slide down rocks. When did my legs shorten? It was after 55. The audience looking down must’ve rolled their eyes while they whispered...
Floss, Gloss And Go
It happens once you get engaged, married or become pregnant. Everyone has advice. All good, solid cases based on past experiences. The problem is which one do you follow? If I had to take up all the tips, tricks and warnings I’ve had in the past week, I’d have to employ Sherpas to trek with...
Catching Kate In Vermaaklikheid
Bad news spreads like a rash. The world is upside down. Our own Juju is giving away his secret recipe and weight loss plan. The UK is in a shambles after Brexit. In the US there’s a possibility that a megalomaniac with a Hitleresque attitude and a permanent bad hair day, might become the...
The Old School Tie
Somewhere at the back of a wardrobe we all have one. Mine was stretched to its limits, having knotted it in Standard 6 it had to keep up with the times, dragged over my head, like a noose, the knot wound tighter and tighter. The tie got filthier and grubbier with each passing term, and as...
Mesmerizing Mana Magic
Here 21st Century human noise has been obliterated and Natures’ silence is deafening. That’s really all I can say. Magical Mana. Spiritual and Supernatural. The mighty Zambezi snakes through the enchanting forest of indigenous trees. Earth and water. Such powerful energy sources. ...
Friendship - There Is No Value
That's what you wrote in our Guest book before you left for the last time. You’ll not remember leaving a copy of your book titled "Sand In The Wind", with a note:8h30am “Good Morning! book under chair, something to read by a waterhole perhaps. Best Keith” It took a while, but, we made it to...
Time Travels Through Zimbabwe
The clock struck one and time stood still in Zimbabwe. It’s here that one fully appreciates that man’s influence on the Earth is small and insignificant, but, the conundrum is that technology also has the upper hand, for a while anyway it will. Plumtree border post was our port of entry and...
Meanderings During The Merry Month Of May
My favourite month by far, not too cold, not too hot, skies are bluer than blue and the landscape has changed into its autumn coat. With a very tight schedule and not many hours to spare we packed and readied ourselves to set off on a 3 week safari to Zimbabwe. We were awake before the...
The Weakest Link Takes A Hike
History tells us that contemplation, meditation, soul-searching and philosophising often takes place on mountain tops. Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Mandela and Ghandi did it. I had a close call, a wake-up call, a bruised ego, a sore bottom and a chipped toenail. Last week we packed our back...
In Etosha We Slosha In Galosha
A distant rumble, a short, sharp whip cracks, the skies light up while the heavens become darker, heavier. The smell of rain rolls over the dry, cracked earth. Every animal becomes aware and focuses on the storm as it gathers momentum. Stifling heat cools down. We’ve arrived in Etosha. That...
Resolution, Revolution Or Right On From Where We Left Off
The choice is always ours. New years have come and gone a few dozen times in my life, some good, some indifferent and some jolly awful. My New Years' resolutions have been a fickle affair, being of the opinion that if we try and don’t succeed this time we can start all over again in 365...
Monday Musings And Trip Advising
A week ago one of the children asked me how old I felt, without missing a beat I said 18. We must never get wiser with age, just a little more careful, then, we're sure to keep our freespirit alive. This morning while spinning I forced myself to stop looking at the very slow tick of the clock...
Treading Lightly On The Earth
Sometimes one meets a person who makes the right impression. I did, he's a strange man, quiet, introspective, solitary, a lot like the animals he loves. At first he is also quietly arrogant and a snob. He's a free spirit and born free, he played his guitar in pubs during the seventies,...
R is For Rhino Rob Restaurants and Red Wine
Animals, Beer/Braai, Creation Dinner, Elephant, Fishing, Giraffe, Hermanus, Impala, Jâgermeister, Knights, Long Street, Mama, Newton-Johnson, Open Bus, Precious, Quiet, Rhino, Sunshine, Tortoise, Unique, Vineyards, Watches, X-factor, Yellow African Sun, Zebra – this was the brief, we had to...
It's The Final Countdown
My throat closes, my pulse quickens, there’s a hand gripping my heart and nausea is creeping up on me, I’m not pregnant. Only one sleepie left. Their visits are always too short. Women used to shave their heads, wail and keen for their children, I could too. The pillow we shared this...
Shark Cage Diving in Kleinbaai
Being charged by a Rhino or stormed by an Elephant is exciting but nothing is as chilling or as exhilarating as being in a cage out at sea observing a Great White Shark in Shark Alley. He went from the very North of South Africa where he saw a very rare sighting, two Rhinos being hunted by a...
Road Tripping, Rondawels and Rhinos
Elephants! That was the brief. We did the groundwork, puffed South Africa up without sounding too arrogant or full of ourselves, now it had to prove itself. Not that we have any doubts on that score, but expectations had to be met. Fortunately the Kruger National Park does speak for itself. ...
Stay a while Crocodile
Make haste while the sun shines! Time waits for no man as we trundle along. It's true, we can see our lives flash past us when we have fun. When those glass doors at the Johannesburg International airport swooshed open I became one happy Mama, my girl was safely back on African soil. I...
My Funny Valentine
Like minced beef I forced myself into my new contouring spandex figure-hugging petticoat and sexy, lacy, red bra, a birthday gift from Precious when I was a size smaller but had no need of support, as we were camping in a rooftop tent in Xai-Xai, Mozambique, a decade ago! On Saturday evening my...
