Sikh And You Shall Find - And The Nairobi Express To Mombasa
Finding a place of tranquillity in our busy lives is often an illusion. Traveling opens doors to many cultures. Faiths and philosophies. During our adventures, we were exposed to a few that were both educational, inspirational and put a few myths and misconceptions to rest. Ultimately, we all...
Robertsons' Cruise Sea Views - Twiga Lodge - Finding Utopia In Kwale - The Kenyan East Coast
The familiar chime of a wake-up call cries shrilly down the passage where our friend will get up to go off on his Sunday morning walk. Ignoring the blind, light creeps shyly into our bedroom. It’s a thinly veiled chilly, grey light, cold against my cheek. It will rain soon I think....
Fly A Kite Or Take a Hike In Little Italy - Watamu Beach - Kenya
There we go, I have found it: a descriptive word. It took a few minutes rifling through the files in my mind. Pasty is what I’m looking for. That’s precisely what we looked like on arrival at Watamu Beach. The photographer captured my pale and pasty complexion perfectly. Behind me, a stretch...
Whisperings Of A Whirlwind Wandering In Amboseli National Park - Kenya - Onward To See The Sea
On a day like today, with rain, wind and mist whipping up a storm against our windows we spent twelve hours exploring the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Banks of dark clouds rumbled in the distance, echoing off Mount Kilimanjaro, and mist-shrouded the blue skies. When it rains while...
Press Pause And Reconnect -Wet Weather And Family Ties-Nairobi
One common consequence of divorce is that friends, family, and, in some cases, children may feel compelled to take sides, often without fully understanding the situation’s complexities. Suddenly, there is an unspoken pressure to align oneself with one party or another. It’s no secret that...
Dining Out On Discovering Delightful Nairobi Part 2
YOU, yes, you, are the inspiration for these scribblings. That is how I justify my ongoing missives to tell the story of places, people and ordinary things, from the most extraordinary to the very mundane. I am stirred by the colour of the sky and moved by the bright clothes worn by the poorest...
Notable Nairobi And The Nanyuki Choo-Choo A photographic Walk Part 1
Romance, Karin Blixen, handsome hunters, man-eating predators, and giraffes loping in languid, stretched-out strides across a grassy plain are the images I see in my mind’s eye whenever I think of Nairobi. Dust, heat, and colourfully beaded African ladies carrying heavy loads on regal heads...
Kenya – Hiking For A Bird's Eye View and Cycling Hell’s Gate National Park
Just swiping through these photos was enough to lift my mood. The radiant colours, cerulean sky, cotton ball clouds and endless views buoyed my flagging spirits. These Kenyan days were first-class. We were back on the farm with the Krugers. A kaleidoscope of giraffes and a lone gazelle welcomed...
Kenya – Camels And A Kalashnikov
Not even my spirit animal, the ever-joyful, rambunctious Cape Robin Chats, scrubbing in the dust can lift my melancholic spirits today. They’re trying their best, to no avail. A bone weary dog lies sleeping guarding the chicken meshed farm gate, supposedly lying in wait for his family to...
K.K.K Kruger, Kenya, Kinship
There are days when my mind does not settle on one spot. Instead, my attention span is short. This phenomenon happens when too many exciting things happen around me, and my FOMO kicks in. Right now, there are birds I’d like to photograph, people to meet and have conversations with, rugby,...
Let's Celebrate Christmas In July With A Stocking Full Of Surprises – Uganda Part 6 - Kidepo National Park, Sipi Falls, Source of the Nile, Jinga
A monster, state of the art 18-tonne Mercedes Overlander parked next door—a charming French couple with two boys. The youngest is having a bad day. Nothing seems to be working for him. He’s grumpy and annoyed. Tears of frustration can’t be mopped up fast enough, and his Maman has sent him off...
Going With The Flow - Slow Lanes in Uganda Part 5 Murchison Falls National Park
The negotiations taking place a mere ten meters from my window, where a clapped-out army green Defender is being appraised, have snatched my attention from my writing. The buyer, a true connoisseur of vintage vehicles, was immediately captivated by the unique features of this classic Land...
Spinning Clockwise At The Equator - Uganda Surprises
Gurus often suggest that we look closer and more reflectively and be wholly immersed in our immediate surroundings to understand a place’s essence. Our slow meander through Uganda allowed us to thoroughly savour each district we visited or explored. I liken it to stepping into an...
From The Highland Forests To Chance Encounters On The Plains Of Queen Elizabeth National Park - Discovering Uganda
Some mornings, I wake up and pinch myself. How different my life has turned out? I woke up at five thirty this morning, and in a past life, that would be the time I’d leave home to go for my Monday, Wednesday, or Friday walk with my girlfriends. We’d been doing so for thirty years; different...
Unexpectedly Trekking Gorillas In Uganda
This morning, I woke up with a spring in my step. It’s hard to believe, considering the day we had yesterday. In the background, I have Laurika Rauch singing about the Karoo, Mannejies Roux and her aunt, who would lay a table under a thorn tree, and serve figs and champagne. Her uncle, she...
Uganda - My Reflections And Discovering A "Rolex"
The Pearl of Africa – a term coined by Winston Churchill in 1908 due to the profusion of birds, insects, and reptiles found in this garden of Eden. Locals fondly call Uganda the Banana Republic honouring the hundreds of millions of humble banana trees. Pure gold, wrapped in a canary...
Remarkable Rwanda Part 3 - Domiciles, Lakes And Ellen The Generous
The rotund architect rubbed his puffy hand around in circles on his bloated face and through his mousey, sparse hair, pondering his shoes through bloodshot eyes while negatively shaking his head in frustration. Butch stood with his arms folded, feet akimbo and sighed. No one met my eyes. They...
I Wonder Rwanda, Is it All Tea Trees, Rainforests and Gorillas?
Hold a sea shell to your ear. Listen to the shh’s of lapping waves onto the shore. The cool breeze gently washes over me while I type. Outside, the tide is rolling in after a long day of receding behind the coral reef. The sky is aqua, and the sea, as far as the horizon, is six-year-old...
We Wend And Wander In Wonder Through Rwanda
At last! We are getting into the swing of things. Our days are longer, and distances travelled are slightly shorter as we fall into the relaxed African rhythm. This boils down to the realisation that I’m spending more time reading, cooking, relaxing and indulging in tiny treats like sitting with...
Break A Lake - Butch's Zambia Part 6 - Lake Tanganyika
Butch’s meander “down memory lane” was complete. He’d explored, found, re-examined and reminisced about his childhood. He’d told all his stories, and his heart was full. He could put his longing to revisit his idyllic childhood to bed wrapped in a cotton wool cloud of fond memories. We were...
Road Tripping Down Memory Lane - Butch's Zambia Part 5
I believe that childhood memories are sweet for most adults. Unsullied, pure and gentle, we recall our “small” years. Days are long, weekends endless, and a year takes a lifetime. Christmas, Easter, and our birthdays mark the passing of time in a candy-floss ball of sweet, spun sugar...
When The S**** Hits The Fan That's Not Amore!
When that unambiguous missile hits, no one is left unscathed. It’s uncanny how annoying minor inconveniences are, yet we refuse to recognise that first little glitch in our perfectly manicured life. It only takes one insignificant, imperfectly placed tile to shudder unbalanced to hit the next,...
Caught On The Spot -Savouring South Luangwa National Park – Butch’s Zambia Part 4
The Honey Badger’s top speed is 90kmph on a good road with no traffic. On busy African rural roads and highways, we go at a steady 65kmph if we’re lucky. What would normally be a four-hour trip takes nothing less than eight hours. We measure distances and then double the time up;...
Falling For Livingstone - Butch’s Zambia Part 3
Before I know it, it’s Thursday; weeks are slipping past me so quickly I have to double-check to ensure I’m on the same day as the calendar. We are currently traveling most days which makes it impossible to write or post blogs hence the lateness of this blog. Nostalgic memories and stories...
The Hippopotamus And Other Titillating Tales - Zambia Part 2
Our favourite destination would always be to visit a National Park. The dry season is the preferred time in Zambia. During the rainy season, Summer, many roads are impassable, the rivers are swollen, grasses are green and stand tall, obscuring our views and animals are dispersed throughout the...
Revisiting Butch's Childhood - Zambia Part 1
Butch was born on the 12th of December, 1949, in a small country hospital in Chingola, Zambia. Jan, his handsome dad, was a mine captain, and his gentle jazz pianist mom was a devoted wife, loving mother and the belle of the ball. After three daughters, Butch, the eldest son, was...
Art Arusha Arusha Art Arusha Au Revoir
Saturday, the 21st of October, 2023. The Springboks will be running onto the field in three and a half hours to beat the English in the semi-final of the RWC, and my nerves are shot. Butch has been preparing psychologically for the game all week. He’s listened to and watched every report,...
Lake Natron Naturally Maasai And An Active Volcano - Ol Doinyo Lengai
Butch has just been handed a 3kg Nile Perch. It is ginormous. Lake Tanganyika is breathtaking, and there are even waves on it. Small waves pound the beach a mere three meters from where I sit. The fish is for our evening braai. I'll make fish cakes with the leftovers for a roadside...
Serengeti - A Serendipitous Safari
Dear Sarine, Today, Ouvrou, I will kill two birds with one stone. As promised, here is the long overdue letter followed by a browse through my thousands of photographs before sorting, deleting and editing them starts in earnest. There will be no more gallivanting until I press post. I have...
Dear Diary - ABC In 1-2-3 - Galong-Galong Oh Do Come Along
Journaling, travelling, and recording my steps are in my blood. Writing my thoughts down is a whisper only I can hear, and in listening, to retrace my journies. My scribblings are not always to remember, but at times to forget. My Diary sets the record straight. “How can I begin anything new...
Celebrating One Year Of Travel - 22nd September 2022 -22nd September 2023 - A Retrospective
A year ago to the day, we set off from Worcester, in the Western Cape, on our African Adventure. Our route took us all along the west coast, the Richtersveld, Kgalagadi, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique for prawns and onwards north we bobbed with the tides and the tradewinds. The open road...
Driving Diesel, Dust, Donkeys - Daring Enduimet Wildlife Management Area
Enduimet Wildlife Management Area is a picturesque area stretching west of Kilimanjaro and a well-kept secret—a hidden gem bordering Amboseli National Park (Kenya) and Kilimanjaro National Park ecosystems. The area forms a vital corridor for large herds of elephant that migrate between the...
Arusha and Life With A Honey Badger
There are three of us on this trip (besides old “somebody”); believe me, Miss Honey Badger can throw her weight around and cause havoc . She appears all gentle and chilled but has a will of her own and lets us know all about it if she doesn’t have her way. She will not be ignored. Much of our...
Forests, Father Flamingo And Arusha National Park
Hullo! After ten days of intermittent to zero Wi-Fi connectivity we have a new MTN modem. We have just parked off in Livingstone, Zambia, at the Waterfront Campsite, where we have re-connected. Messages, emails and WhatsApps are flooding in from concerned friends and family. We are back,...
Keeping Promises And Another Spin Around The Sun Done - Tanga And Moshi
You must agree with this statement, “You’ve not experienced South Africa if you’ve only stuck to the N1 from Bloemfontein to Leeu Gamka?” Indeed. You have only touched the tip of the iceberg with a teaspoon. Right off the bat I must apologise for the quality of some of my photographs,...
Cutting Corners - Bagamoyo
We had our baby back, and we were on the road again. Whoop-whoop. Our mission was to go north from Dar es Salaam to Bagamoyo and slowly dance up to Tanga to keep a promise. The Honey Badger was in good form but, Butch reported still veering slightly to the left when braking. A break...
Island Style - Zipping Through Zany Zanzibar - It Is Hakuna Matata
It’s all about wanderlust and island dust. When we mention an island, our immediate reaction is, “Oh, how romantic”. I wonder why we’re all so intrigued by small land masses surrounded by an ocean. Zanzibar has always conjured exotic images and bright colours, blue seas, white beaches and...
Dar es Salaam - Peace In The Home
Some of us yearn to see the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, or Table Mountain. I have always wanted to see the Kigamboni Bridge. Sultan Majid bin Said of Zanzibar began building a new city close to Mzizima and named it Dar es Salaam. The name is commonly translated from...
Kilwa – Fishing For Compliments
Kilwa in Swahili means ‘Place of Fish’ or can mean markets too –the collective name given to three different areas on the Tanzanian coast: Kilwa Kisiwani, Kilwa Kivinje and Kilwa Masoko. We explored UNESCO-listed ruins, enjoyed the beach, ate seafood and chillaxed in our hammocks. ...
Tantalising Tanzania
If you had to ask me, “What is the most frustrating part of your journey?” Without hesitation, I’d say “ waiting.” Waiting for a diagnosis, parts or a time slot. Yesterday while filling our water tanks, something untoward happened. Water pressure, fatigue, or wear and tear to our pipes caused...