Best travel blog - Jun 2010
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).
Other June travel blogs
After Anneleigh had completed her yoga teachers training course, what better way to travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town than on a Premier Classe train. The trip got off to a dodgy start with the Premier Classe lounge at Park Station being too small for all the passengers and "sorry, I’m a terrible champagne snob and JCL just does not even make the cut-off of the category, never mind the list of drinkable local versions" - apparently the copper hot water pipes on the train had been stolen on its previous trip from Cape Town to Joburg. BUT wait for it, here's how the CEO of Premier Classe turned this into a marketing coup - he arrived at Park Station and announced that Premier Classe would be 100% refunding the full fare for the entire trip. |
John, who hails from the North Sea island of Sotra, decided to visit our shores. After flying to Cape Town with the "Luftewaffe" ("encased in a very small German torture seat"), he made his way to Matjiesfontein where he had breakfast at the hotel which is in an "ongoing state of dilapidation". He met up with a heli-pilot who reminded him "that no matter how cool you think your life is, there is always people who have a more interesting time of it". Next he went to Sutherland which: |
Jade (from Scotland), telling us about her travels to Joburg, says she's "in danger of becoming a travel blogger" (Ed: we would have no problem if she did, she writes a good story and takes a great photograph). Her comment that in Johannesburg "nothing was average or usual for me everything was out of the ordinary in some way" made me think of the famous Charles Dickens passage from a Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". I was reading a blog the other day, where there was a lot of debate about whether South African immigration authorities are sullen or friendly, and I was glad to hear that Jade's experience has been similar to my own, that "On arrive at Johannesburg the immigration staff were laughing and joking with each other while having a quick scan though my passport, not used to that at all". Some other things she had to say about Joburg: Jade recommends a visit to the Elephant Sanctuary, just north of Johannesburg. |
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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