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Without question, the hardest part of our lives at home to leave for this trip around the world was our dogs, Ayla and Sadie. More than our cats or horses or house or things. OK, maybe or maybe not more than our friends, but equal at any rate. They are our canine children and siblings, [...]  What is new, gnu? A wildebeest eyes us as we stop to watch during a safari drive at Schotia Safari Park. They’re called gnu because of the noise they make. Let sleeping rhinos lie. A white rhino lounging in the late afternoon. As we drove around in an open air Landy, our guide, [...] Tsitsikamma National Park, South Africa Leaping on the suspension bridge at the mouth of the Storms River, Tsitsikamma, South Africa A section of the Otter Trail over the rocks A view from the Otter Trail near Storms River. The seas were too rough and we were unable to go kayaking into the mouth. Building [...] Bloukrans Bridge, Tsitsikamma, home to the world’s highest commercial bungy jump. Hannah was nervous for days. We had heard about the bungy jump from Bloukrans Bridge and checked the minimum age for jumpers. It was 14. This meant that she had no excuse, other than her own fear, to hold her back from making the [...] Our wandering brings some interesting juxtapositions, showing us the full story by coincidence. Driving out of Baviaanskloof into the Gamtoos Valley of South Africa, we were surrounded by citrus orchards. Looking for a place to spend the night, we happened upon a sweet little guest house overlooking rows of lemon trees. We watched the tractor [...] A vervet monkey in Baviaanskloof watching us. Little did we know he was thinking of sandwiches. A troop of vervet monkeys just came through our camp. About six of them are still crashing about in the thicket lining the side of our space, grey with black faces, small dark hands and feet gripping the acacia [...]
The open entry into the tree house. It’s interesting how perception and expectation create our comfort level and how stories of unfamiliar places become blurred. What is really an isolated incident, the small dot of paint is smeared by the mind’s palm across the whole map. Even knowing this, I fall victim to my own [...] Ostrich Ride South Africa from John Gill on Vimeo. An ostrich pulled wagon at Highgate Ostrich Showfarm “I want to hold a baby cheetah!” Hannah was almost beside herself with excitement when she found information about the Cango Wildlife Ranch in Oudtshoorn. The movie Duma has long been a favorite of both girls, and the idea that we might get to interact with these impressive cats was a big draw. We were [...] We spent a lifetime on the ranch, connecting people who live in cities to horses and the outdoors. Now, on the opposite side of the world, we’ve immersed ourselves in South African agriculture. We’ve learned that the reeds used for thatch grow only between the Breede and Gourits Rivers, and the plants take at least [...] |
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