Best travel blog - Oct 2010

We were particularly impressed with how Nathan ignored the fear mongers in his local country and headed off for deepest darkest Africa, but there can unfortuanately be only one winner, and this month it is Heather, who arranged the necessary security clearances, drove off to the diamond mining town of Oranjemund, Namibia:

"The roads are quiet, the houses small, the people friendly, the shops almost non-existent, and there was sand pretty much everywhere."

"Kids could run around and not worry about being hit by a car, or being mugged or raped. It’s completely different from home."

"The beach there is awesome; it’s clean, and there’s driftwood everywhere. The waves are absolutely massive, and the sounds and smells were amazing."

Sometimes people take such high quality photos that it's impossible for me not to make a mention of them. Cat caught a flight from Lanseria to Cape Town where she spent time photographing Hout Bay.

Elizabeth took the Baz Bus across South Africa with her Mom, and wrote about a drug bust: "We were heading back at night and when we were driving through a small town there were a bunch of police cars alongside the road forming a road block. They stopped our bus and everyone on board was confused about what was happening. Next thing we knew, the police opened the bus door and demanded to come inside and look through all our belongings. We handed them our bags and then all of the sudden we heard an officer in the back very sternly ask, ‘what is this?’ A girl in the back was caught with dagga (marijuana) in her bag and she needed to get off the bus and go with the police. Our whole bus then had to follow some other police cars to a police station where we were told to bring all of our bags inside the station. We were escorted to a conference room…where absolutely nothing happened. About 45 minutes later the girl came out (after paying a fine and getting fingerprinted) and the police told us we could all leave. Quite a strange and also kind of humorous encounter…humorous because apparently the fine for possessing dagga is based on the weight, however the police station has yet to invest in a scale. So, per their standard operating procedure,  they brought the dagga over to the nearest Seven Eleven to weigh it there. I will never think of a Seven Eleven the same…

Nathan decided to ignore all the fear-mongering and go to South Africa to enjoy the Fifa World Cup: "The people were extremely nice and we never felt threatened the entire time we were there." "We were flying via Dubai and we were happy to see tons of Americans, Mexicans and South Americans, all dressed in their team’s gear, getting ready to board the flight." "We got to Dubai after a 12 hour flight.  We flew Emirates and it was a pleasure.  It’s the best airline I’ve ever been on, with fairly large seats, personal LCD screens with 600 channels and front and bottom cameras so you can watch the scenery from the plane." "The Dubai airport is massive.  We had a 6 hour layover and got to explore a huge area.  It’s really the crossroads of the world and it was fun to see people from every corner of the globe."  "It was incredibly strange at first to drive a car on the other side of the road, but I got completely comfortable after two days.  The hardest part were the round-abouts and shifting with my left hand, although the South African drivers were more aggressive than drivers here."  "Most of the English were really nice, until we scored our equalizer on a howler by Robert Green, then they started to get really angry and a guy in our row tried to fight an older American fan with a neck brace on." "We drove through Golden Gate National Park and it was absolutely beautiful." "On match day, we went to some bars and were completely surprised by how many Algerians there were.  They were everywhere and wanted pictures with us.  Most were really nice, but a few were a bit angry with Americans.  We had ANOTHER fair goal disallowed on a blown call and the atmosphere was incredible.  People stood the entire match singing, chanting and blowing their vuvuzelas.  We had chance after chance and finally put one home in the 91st minute to send us through.  I don’t remember the next 10 minutes because everyone was celebrating so hard.  Andy and I got on TV right after the match and everyone stayed in the stadium celebrating for the next 30 mins, then went outside to sing and dance some more.  Katie got a ride on a police horse in exchange for her American flag and the party went on most of the night. Those 4 hours and that one moment were incredible.  Those moments are what make soccer the best sport in the world and now clearly top the list of the best sporting events I’ve ever been to." "We saw one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen from the top of a mountain, overlooking the Cape."

Photoblog of SA trains wins it in September

We listed some brilliant blogs in September, but there can only be one winner, and this time it's Peter Crook's photoblog of South African steam trains. Peter, a trained photographer, caught a Delta & KLM flight to Johannesburg (from Atlanta) to have a look at some . He took some lovely photos of the trains in South Africa's national collection "which is dumped in fields and looking pretty bad", had a day with Friends of the Rail, visited Reefsteamers in Pretoria and Sandstone Estates who have a "magnificent narrow gauge collection". At Creighton they stayed on Sisonke Stimela's luxury train.

Best travel blog in August 2010

This month the honours goes to Amanda, who after two excessively steamy days in Togo, two more excessively steamy days in Accra and, two trips to the Nigerian High Commission to obtain a transit visa ("Shame on my travel agent self for not checking the transit visa situation in advance"), finally made her way through Lagos to George (after her Ethiopian Airways flight was cancelled she took a 1-stop flight with SAA) to Oudtshoorn; and then back to Johannesburg where she hired a car and headed for Lesotho (where her friend Greg works for the Peace Corps). Lesotho "has a LOT of problems.  HIV has ravaged this small country, which is located in the dramatic Drakensberg Mountains, and is surrounded by South Africa.  It has the third-highest HIV prevalence in the world at about 23%, just behind its neighbors Swaziland and Botswana."

Best travel blog in July 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…!'"

In June we went back to Engogo

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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