I am a hopeless romantic at heart. It’s a symptom I inherited at birth when my mother decided to deliver me to this world on Valentines Day. Ever since then my birthday has become sidelined for love. Why not a Valentine’s card? I moan, when the deluge of waffly sentiments from granny gets posted through […]
Author Archives: Holly Meadows
Top 10 Things to do in Greyton – South Africa's Little England.
Greyton is a wee, twee village a couple of hours drive from Cape Town. Set in the Overberg region, with the Sonderend mountains as a backdrop, Greyton is all oak-lined lanes and itsy, bitsy country cottages. I recently spent a weekend here and it felt like I’d wound back the clock and time travelled into […]
12 Safari Highlights from the Kruger National Park
The Kruger National Park is one of Africa’s greatest attractions. It covers an area about the size of Israel, and is consequently the biggest national park in South Africa. Living in South Africa and not having been to the Kruger is considered a cardinal sin. I decided to make new year’s eve my first visit, […]
Boathouse to Botswana. New Travel Book Looks Behind-the-Scenes of African Safari Camps
A chance conversation at a friend’s wedding takes a very English restaurant manager from Oxford to the remotest deserts of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and the tropical swamplands of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Learning to cope with the heat and the tribal customs of the Himba and the San (Bushmen), adapting to work in an environment where […]
Prince William Backs African Conservation Awards
HRH The Duke of Cambridge has agreed to support a new annual award scheme that aims to celebrate outstanding achievement in the field of African conservation. Tusk, the African conservation charity of which Prince William is Royal Patron, has established The Tusk Conservation Awards in partnership with Investec Asset Management. Photo © Chris Jackson and Getty […]
Africa's Top 6 Travel Stories of 2012
With the close of 2012, and the 10th edition of Safari having just been released, we look back to some of our most favourite travel stories from the last year. 1. Magnificent Mara Africa Geographic founder Peter Borchert experienced the high drama of the annual migration of wildebeest through Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. ‘It […]
Attenborough's Epic New 'Africa' Series is released!
The grandfather of wildlife documentary, David Attenborough, presents his latest series – Africa. Now 86 years old, Attenborough first visited Africa to look for a strange bird called picathartes back in the fifties. Over half a century on since that first quest, and a lifetime of filming in Africa, you’d of thought he’d have seen it […]
Sylvester, Zimbabwe's Orphaned Cheetah, Finds a Home in Victoria Falls
In April 2010, in the Lowveld area of Zimbabwe, a cheetah gave birth to five cubs. Sadly within two days, in a cruel act of nature, she and four of her cubs were fatally attacked by a male lion, something which is common between apex predators in the wild. The sole survivor was discovered by […]
Tanzania Withdraws Proposal to Downlist Elephants
Earlier this year Tanzania applied to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for permission to hold a one-off sale of 101 tonnes of stockpiled ivory and to reduce protection for its elephant population. The African country intended to seek approval for trade in hunting trophies for non-commercial […]
10 Gifts from Africa this Christmas
1. Kanga from Kenya The kanga is a colourful piece of cotton cloth, worn by women and occasionally by men throughout Eastern Africa. The fabric is painted with pretty Arabic-style patterns, and along the one edge there is always a printed message in Swahili – usually a riddle or proverb such as “Mkipendana mambo huwa sawa — Everything is all […]
World Press Photo Contest: Winning Images from Africa
The 2012 World Press Photo Exhibition is currently being showcased in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, after which it will travel to the remaining chosen 45 countries on a world tour. For over 55 years the World Press Photo Contest has encouraged the highest standards in photojournalism, with an archive of winning images recording more […]
Kirstenbosch Summer Concerts 2012/13 Lineup
It’s that time of year again, when South Africa’s leading musicians tune-in to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Every Sunday afternoon, the floral heart of Cape Town hosts the quintessential mother city get-together – a lazy summer evening with friends, music and eat-your-heart-out mountain views. From November to early April the botanical gardens – a natural World […]
Top 10 Franschhoek Restaurants
With stately manor houses and vineyards setting the scene, the Cape wineland region is famed for being the culinary capital of South Africa. Here are ten, top Franschhoek eateries: 1. Monte Rochelle’s Country Kitchen is like a scene from provincial France – fillet medallions and asparagus risotto can be enjoyed outside on a cobbled terrace, overhung […]
Meskel, Ethiopia’s most Mesmerising Festival
With the heady scent of incense burning, and priests parading in their finest regalia, Meskel is Ethiopia’s most mesmerising orthodox Christian festival. Even for non-believers, Meskel offers an excuse to experience Ethiopia in celebration, with bonfires, feasting and parties lighting up the country as they have for over 1600 years. The focus of the celebration is […]
Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in Africa
The third, brand-spanking-new Rainbow Warrior is currently sailing in the Indian Ocean on a two-month-long fisheries campaign. Greenpeace has a long and tumultuous history with campaigning at sea. The first Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French intelligence in 1985, and after 22 years of tireless ocean front-lining (helping to end nuclear testing in the Pacific, […]
6 South African Spring Flowers
Every year South Africa comes alive with a carpet of colourful wild flowers. A good area to witness the Spring bloom is the dry and dusty Namaqualand region. Each year this semi-desert outback is transformed by a pageant of wild flowers. The Namaqualand flower route belongs to a series of drives within the region, from where you […]
Ryan Sandes Interview: South African trail runner Conquers Fish River Canyon
Ryan Sandes is a South African trail runner whose feet have taken him across China’s Gobi Desert, Chile’s Atacama and Egypt’s Sahara. Last month he tackled Namibia’s Fish river Canyon and smashed the record set in 2003, of 10 hours and 54 minutes, by just short of four hours. Ryan ran the second largest canyon in the world […]
Weekly Wanderlust: Kenya’s Lamu Island
Every Friday, as the working week draws to a close, my mind starts to wander off to far away lands and I sit here and salivate over exotic, come-get-me-now locations. Instead of dribbling and drooling all to myself, I’ve decided to share my travel lusts with you in a weekly blog post. This is my […]
Once in a Blue Moon. What does it mean?
Look up at the sky tonight and you’ll witness a rare blue moon… A timely cosmic salute to the late Neil Armstrong, whose memorial service happens to be today and whose family have asked us to pay tribute by looking at the moon and giving the astronaut a wink. Photo © NASA. Earth’s moon, photographed […]
6 Reasons to go to Kenya’s Rock-Rollicking Rift Valley Festival
Here’s why you should boogie-on-down with the bongos and birds, sounding-off on the shores of Lake Naivasha… 1. The festival takes place along the waters of Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, which means you can get foot loose and fancy free beside one of the valley’s few fresh water expanses. Fringed by thick papyrus, fertile farmland and […]
Saddle up for Kenya’s Camel Derby
With the Olympics coming to a close, Kenya’s competitive spirit has turned to next weekend’s annual camel derby. The event promises to be a hump-jerking contest, bringing colour and action to the remote desert outpost of Maralal. This year celebrates the 22nd derby, marking a sporting event that challenges locals and visitors to a 10 km camel […]
Kiteival: Mauritius’ Kite Surfing Carnival
Kite surf around the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in this wet n’ wild week-long water sport event. Kiteival invites riders to kite around the fringe of the Mauritian island in an event staged across five days. The festival brings together amateur and pro-surfers from across the world, and culminates in a weekend competition held […]
Just a lick of paint? Multinationals mar Maputo
When in Maputo, you can’t help but notice that nearly every single house lining the busy road between the city centre and airport, has received a very generous lick of paint… [slickr-flickr tag=”cocacola” captions=”on”] And with each paint job comes the big, fat, greedy stamp of some giant global brand. According to a Maputo resident […]
Rare spotless cheetah sighted in Kenya
Armed with a spotter plane made by the Israeli army (and coincidentally called Cheetah), a radio and a LandRover in hot pursuit, wildlife artist Guy Coombes went in search of the elusive ‘morph’ cheetah. “I was told about this incredible ‘morph’ phenomenon that has not been seen for over 90 years…the last one recorded was […]
