Wow and again wow.

We have just completed a lengthy but amazing and well worth it drive from Johannesburg down to Durban and then over to Cape Town where we spend the last of this adventure!

Some stats from our road trip adventure:

• almost 36 hours driving
• three days in Durban, a night in Port Elizabth, a night in Oudsthoorn, a couple nights in Hermanus
• a few too many chicken pies for lunch (or breakfast) enroute
• lots of laughs on the road
• well deserved post drive pints  post all day drive
• riding an ostrich
• atleast 40 ‘ hurts do nuts’ (long story)
• 2 different Quantum Toyotas (hedalgo, and hedalgo 2.o)
• 18 glasses of wine with 18 pints of beer with a blue eyed husky in observation
• 2 boogie boards (with much salt water drunk while laughing)
• No wireless
• 4 sea kayaks
• Whales, penguins, seals, shy shark and grumpy Dussies (aka Scott’s  kindred spirits)
• One Terrior dog named Terri
• Too many gas stations and way too many pick and pay supermarkets
• An almost riot / civil unrest
• Too many Fantas
• One gun ( no joke )
• 2 big spiders
• Too many silver fish
• Lots of braais (BBQ) with way too much rice and the resulting meat sweats
• 2 near miss head on collisions
• 1 Hooters visit ( don’t judge us, there were playing the World Cup Rugby semi final and had ‘Big Daddy’ beer)
• Lots of bedroom ants complete with no air conditioning and some random-not-our-body-hair in the sheets
• Squall storm driving
• Lots of card games, bananagrams, monopoly and a Cards Against Humanity game
• Many morning runs
• Lots of Gravol
• Full Percy Jackson series read by many
• Defending garbage against a troop of 20 monkeys
• Way too much time on mapquest
• Never ending Seinfeild references
• A Ferris wheel

Well that’s probs enough to give you a good picture of the Garden Route, but here are some photos of this amazing route as well.

Did I already say wow!?

We are now in an amazing beach house in the suburb called Kommetjie in Cape Town for our last week. Stories of beach time to come shortly!

Brande

PS I sure am craving me some aisle 5 scallop potatoes …. 🙂

Today is an odd day for me …

I am adventuring Africa for 6 weeks with 7 people (husband and friends) and suddenly I find myself with a day all to myself. Perhaps a little lonely considering how much fun the 7 of us have together but also feels pretty darn amazing to have some ‘all about me time’. I am used to traveling alone from the past so it feels kind of neat to flashback to those days.

Here are the ‘all about me’ shenanigans I got up to today in beautiful Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe!

Morning Run: I have started each morning here with a jog about the neighborhood. The past couple of mornings I have either been spooked by or out right chased by local dogs (had to even hide in someone’s yard yesterday haha) – but today it IS all about me and I didn’t see a single dog on my run, no barking and no chasing. A great start!

Morning get clean and pretty: another great moment .. we have power and hot water today here in Victoria Falls! Yahoo my after a sweaty run morning shower was warm and there were even lights on in the room and air conditioning to boot!

Breakfast: my favourite meal of the day is breakfast, hands down! I love to find a super cute, quaint place for yummy breakfast and start my day journaling over eggs and toast. The best breakfast is a full Scottish Breaky but second to that is a full English Breakfast and that is the speciality of our Lodge here in Vic Falls!  Why yes I will have toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, fried tomato, fresh fruit and coffee. (Now you know why I run each morning!)

Post Breakfast relaxation: I have already accomplished a lot today so perhaps a little after breakfast nap / reading is in order. Ok!

Be a Tourist: Zimbabwe is a beautiful country and they do a great job making sure all the tourist sights are tourist friendly and the Victoria Falls Park was no exception. I have seen the falls from in the water in Zambia (Devil’s Pool), from a helicopter above, and now from the Zimbabwe side where you can see and feel the mist! Wow. I was speechless at the power of the water and its low water season. (Check out my Instagran for a video of the falls; the sound of the falls is awesome!)

Cafe Break: Well after 2 hours hiking in the heat (ok I will be honest I spent 30 mins in the mist of the Falls so I wasn’t baking the whole time) I needed a drink and some chill out time. So I hoofed it another 30mins to my favourite Cafe Africa and had me a yummy cold Hunter’s Cider and read my book. A good thirst quencher before strolling through all the markets in town.

Traffic Jam: even on vacation you can’t seem to get away from traffic jams. This one included a bunch of us pedestrians and a troop of 17 baboons! I will admit at one point I was surrounded and a little spooked they would go for my backpack but they just waltzed on by in baboon bare butt style.

Poolside finish: well of course I need some more relaxation! This is a vacation after all and I just walked over 5 hours in 40+ degree heat and there was even some shoe melting on the pavement. Even someone like me who loves walking and loves heat – I was melting! I felt like one of those old Smartie boxes that is left in the sun too long and all colour is drained out of it. The pool always helps!

Basically I love Victoria Falls and today was icing on the cake in this place! It’s like Victoria BC meets Oban Scotland with an Africa twist!

Off to watch some World Cup Rugby with the rest of my traveling band and hear about their white water rafting adventure today.

Brande

PS I ate worms yesterday, mopane worms that you fry up and dip in sauce. Much juicier than expected … or hoped for. Yick!

Well we did it! We climbed up and back down Mount Kilimanjaro and wow what an amazing yet really hard experience! No toe nails lost (yet), some gruesome blisters for one of us, a Kili cough for one of us, some sore muscles, lots of dirty clothes and all smiles for this crew!

As a reward, us Kili climbers all went on a 2 day safari here in Tanzania. We ventured to the Tangire National Park and the Ngorogoro Crater Conservation Lands and again another amazing experience!

I am posting this from the boarding line up for our next flight to Harare Zimbabwe where the next part of our adventure begins – so I will keep it short sweet and full of pics of our safari! Did I mention it was amazing??? Wow!

We saw so much more than these few pics but those photos are on the big camera. If you have never been on safari, put it on your list! Sure you are tossed around in a land cruiser like a human milkshake but you will be amazed at seeing animals out of a zoo. We even saw a pride of lions eating a water buffalo – a little graphic : circle of life for me but hey that’s the wild!

Updates on our Zimbabwe adventures coming soon … Assuming better wifi in Zim and than in Tz!

Brande