Best travel blog - Jul 2010

This was one of the toughest decisions yet as to who should win travel blog of the month. Cindy produced a very high quality and very interesting blog about her trip to Southern Africa, which also included useful tips for tourists. But there can be only one winner, and our blog of the month for July is "The Dark Destroyer's" fascinating write-up of his bike trip through Zimbabwe. Ronnie got on his bike and headed north-east out of Harare:

"To the east of the capital I passed many farms, where crops such as cotton, maize, millet and sorghum waved in the wind. The fields were well tended and I wondered if these farms were still being managed  white farmers… They looked too good to be managed by war veterans"

"The hills around Mutoko, and leading up to the border at Nyamapanda became higher and more pronounced, and I stopped to take a few photos of them, as I felt I was running a little ahead of schedule… There had been no road blocks to hinder my progress since leaving Harare, which was a change from the roads I had travelled on before this, where ever 50 kms or so, a uniformed officer would be flagging me down to ask the usual 20 questions…"

At Nyamapanda border somebody tried to sell him 5 litres of petrol for R100 - “I will buy the 5 litres from you on one condition, and that is if you allow me to pour the petrol over you and light it…!”

On the Mozambique side they attempted to bribe him - "I was about to get onto the bike and cross over to Mozambique, when a Police officer approached me and asked to see the Police Clearance Certificate for the bike… I told him I did not have one, but did have plenty of proof that the bike was mine, including a Carnet Certificate, which would not have been issued to me, had it not been so… He insisted I needed a clearance for the bike, and could not proceed without it…'But you can sort this out with a small donation to me, and I will let you go through…' he said. 'Oh, no…' was my reply, 'That would be illegal, and I don’t want you to get into trouble with your superiors… I better go back to South Africa and get the correct documents…' I gave him a long look and then decided not to beat around the bush any longer…'My friend, I will not bribe you or any other person to exit or enter a country… If you insist on having this document, which I do not have, then I am at fault, and will rather go back to where I came from to correct it, than pay you to look the other way… So, what is it going to be?'…He stared at me for a while and then shrugged his shoulders and said, 'You may proceed…!'"

Here's a summary of the other blog entries from July 2010:

In 2008 Cindy toured southern Africa for 2 weeks as part of a 36 strong Kellogg class (I assume she's referring to the Kellogg School of Management in the United States) called Global Initiatives in Management where you study a country and have a field trip to research your project of choice. In visiting southern Africa it therefore wasn't all play, and Cindy's team met up with  CIDA ("Taddy Blecher, the founder and president is one of the most inspirational men I've ever met in my whole life"), DRAFT FCB, Kraft, Newell Rubbermaid, P&G, SABMiller, Sho Sho Loza Marketing and TransUnion. She described the trip as "the most rewarding global travel I’ve completed to date". And here's what she did: in Johannesburg she based herself at Sandton's Garden Court Hotel by Nelson Mandela Square; from where she visited the Cradle of Humanity at Sterkfontein Caves, a walking tour of Soweto ("One of the little boys running around stole my umbrella"), Apartheid Museum, experienced Eskom's load shedding, ate at “8 at the Tower”, Moyo and “Wandies Restaurant” ("food is terrible").  She spent 1.5 days at Livingstone and Victoria Falls staying at the Zambezi Sun; from which she did  extreme sports (canoeing, zip lining, gorge swinging, rappelling and of bungee jumping), visited the Ebenezer Orphanage and School and viewed the Victoria Falls. Cindy stayed at the Mowana Safari Lodge in Chobe, Botswana, from which she did 3 safari land tours and one water tour In Cape Town she stayed at the Victoria Junction hotel ("totally nice, totally pricey"). She describes Cape Town as "a mix of Barcelona, San Francisco, wine-country Napa and still has a small town vibe". She visited the Green Craft market ("fun bargaining adventure"), Cape Point ("do NOT wear a dress"), the penguin beach, Camps Bay ("This turned into a very late night for me and several other Kelloggers that ended in bad decision making"), Stellenbosch, Fisherman's Wharf ("not very unique to Africa" other than the craft market). She described  “Savoy Cabbage” as being "hands down the best restaurant of the entire trip". They spent their evenings in Long Street at the Dubliner and Mama Africa.

I love blog entries which are focussed on a single topic, and in this one the Meyer family write about their stay at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront. They flew Air Namibia from Luanda to Cape Town via Windhoek. At the Waterfront they saw street performers, seals, visited the old trading post and then went up Table Mountain.

Treadlehead kicked off his day with a trip to the Addo Elephant Park, before heading to the luxurious Shamwari Game Reserve where they stayed at the Eagle's Crag. At Shamwari they saw white rhino, black rhino, giraffes, cheetahs, lion, impala, blesbok, springbok and zebra.

Alonna describes going to the Kruger Park as "like spending the weekend at Yellowstone, just with different animals and scenery" (she had expected "an open jeep on rough dirt roads, with lions and tigers roaming around the car and the guide holding a rifle"). The highlights were: becoming surrounded by a pack of about 20 water buffalo seeing groups of up to 10 elephant the rhinos which reminded her of dinosaurs with their tough skin and horns

In June we looked at Engogo again

And blog of the month for June goes to Hariharan, who described Engogo River Water Lodge as "the best place I have ever been to" (Ed: Coincidentally our top January travel posting involved Stephen Hayes writing about his childhood experiences in Ingogo, near where Hariharan enjoyed himself. I would love to visit the area sometime). Hariharan stayed in one of 3 cottages by the side of a river stream passing through the valley with a backdrop of the Drakensburg Mountain ranges. To top it all there was no cellphone coverage, leaving him completely cut out from the world (a good feeling).

Martha Stewart visits South Africa (top May blog)

Well done to Martha Stewart on winning the best travel blog of the month for May - without a doubt the best job a celebrity has done of covering their trip to South Africa - I love the detail she goes into and the fantastic photos she shares. It was interesting listening to Martha Stewart on MNET's Full Access program, being interviewed by Mark Bayly at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (she was there for the Design Indaba, her first trip to South Africa). However, I didn't realise that she was also an avid blogger - here's her write up on her journey to South Africa. Martha travelled to SA with Susan Magrino and Kevin Sharkey, on a 15 hour SAA flight. Susan was dissapointed to discover that whilst SAA allows the use of full size laptops, they don't allow people to catch up with their emails on their Blackberries. Martha sensibly refrains from drinking alcoholic beverages on flights. After landing in Johannesburg, Martha and friends (including Ravi Naidoo, founder of Design Indaba ) took a Federal Air flight to the Kruger National Park, where they were staying at Singita.

On her third day in South Africa she flew to Singita Game Reserve's Boulders Lodge to visit its Justacia Village, an "authentic African village" populated with Shangaan people, originally from Mozambique.

Red Gannet's dragonfly blog

Best South African travel blog entry in April was Red Gannet's dragonfly blog. We look for something out of the ordinary, and he certainly met those criteria - he visited the less travelled outskirts of Cape Town - Somerset West (staying at the Lord Charles Hotel, and spending time at the small dam with lilypads), the picnic area near Paarl Rock and the Helderberg Nature Reserve, and spent time taking photographs of dragonflies. Here's a clickie of the Two-Striped Skimmer (which appears to have 4 stripes!), Orthetrum Caffrum.

March winner

And our winner for the month is Karen's trip from Cairo via Johannesburg to visit a missionary family in Port Elizabeth, and enjoy the town's "wide and clean" beaches and "beautiful blue" seas. Karen visited the Waterfront, the Kragga Kamma Game Park ("I couldn’t believe there is a place like that so close to town"), the Addo Elephant Park, drove to Plettenberg Bay (saw Monkeyland and the Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve), stopped at Bathurst to see the biggest pineapple in the world, the war memorial at St George's Park, the Donkin Reserve, Fort Frederick, the Boardwalk shopping centre, the cannon from "The Sacramento" and the township of Kwanobuhle.

And the best February 2010 Travel blog

The "Roving Cameraman" from Edinburgh, Scotland. Virgin Premium and Upper class were fully booked so the GMTV production crew sucked it up in economy class, whilst Emma Crossby enjoyed the luxury of Virgin Upper Class (aint it wonderful being the star of the show). And there was even drama up in the skies, with one of the GMTV crew catching a lady that suddenly collapsed, started shaking uncontrollably and turning a "strange purple colour" - the Virgin cabin staff were quickly dashing around with oxygen cylinders, portable defibrillators and findif there was a doctor on board (somehow there always seems to be one). The lady's problem was diagnosed and brought under control rather quickly.

After 12 hours of flying they they landed in Cape Town, where the hotel they specifically booked as as it was the only one which would guarantee to let them check-in early, let them down in this regard. Without much sleep, they went to the V&A Waterfront to shoot footage of the beautiful Emma Crosby with the (also beautiful) Table Mountain backdrop.

Top Jan 2010 travel blog

Stephen Hayes' touching account of growing up in Ingogo, a small spot in KwaZulu-Natal (then Natal), about halfway between Johannesburg and Durban, overlooked by three hills - Majuba, Inkwelo and Mount Prospect. Stephen spent several months in 1948 (a pivotal year in South Africa's history) at the Valley Inn Hotel. He swam in the river, learned how to play marbels, went for rides on ox wagons that came past laden with fire wood and went riding on donkeys. They were in Ingogo during the landmark 1948 general election when the National Party got in, and according to the "grown-ups" the one good thing coming out of the election was that they would be able to buy white bread again (the Nats had promised that they would bring back white bread if they were elected. During the war Stephen's mother used to buy brown flour and sifted it to make white bread). Thank you Stephen for drawing the past out into the light, for sharing and for ensuring that these memories are not lost to the sands of time.

Best travel blog posting in 2009

The size of Sean Brown's heart and the power of his pen made him our winner for travel blog of the year for 2009:

• "My mind could not escape the thought of the deplorable conditions that the hundreds of thousands of people that lived in what they call townships, but we would call slums or shacks."

• "Living in Camden, a city known for its violence and poverty, the bad experiences can stretch from annoying to dangerous. I will never look at my home the same again. In South Africa, including Johannesburg, 1 out of 3 women are raped and never report it."

• "Traveling on the bus, watching young girls walk home from school with their dusty school uniforms, I could not help but wonder how long it would be before those young ladies had their innocence snatched from them."

• "I asked a friend that I met in Cape Town about public transportation. Trains? “That’s what you get on if you want to get shot,” he remarked matter-of-fact

• "I am glad that my first time out the country, I was able to be a proud ambassador instead of an ashamed tourist, forced to explain the actions of #43."

• "I want to be more patient and forgiving. I want to take advantage of the blessings and privileges of being an American. I want to use my education to get a job where I can learn from the world’s mistakes and be an active part of a movement to bring social, economic, and environmental justice around to world. I want to do whatever I can to assure that no more girls are raped, no more activists are jailed, and no more oppression expands. This is what I owe the world for allowing me to inhabit it."

Best travel blog posting in 2008

With dreadlocks forming from a buildup of Namibian sand in his hair, braving a cruel 12 hours in a combi-trip from hell (filled with sweaty people), and having chats with a philosophising englishman amongst Swakopmund's lego-like structures; Sebastian Modak's account of his Namibian travels was our travel blog of the year for 2008.

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