Saturday, 20 January 2018

Stellenbosch

Today we say goodbye to the Chans but not before chilling over a few glasses of good wine first. We picked up our rental car then drove to Ernie Els vineyard in Stellenbosch. Surrounded by rolling mountains and lush green vineyards, it was a beautiful place to spend the day.



Of course there has to be a place for people to practice their golf swing!

Beautiful spot for a driving range.

Until we meet again. 








The Cape Peninsula

We stayed in a lovely Airbnb in Bakoven, just five minutes walk from Camps Bay. The place was so comfortable it was difficult to drag everyone out of the house each day.

4B Houghton Road, Cape Town

The Chans came over to pick us up for a drive along the coast. The scenery was beautiful along the way. We stopped off at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town to visit the penguins.

Boulders Beach

Hundreds of African penguins everywhere.

November to January is moulting season, the entire moult takes about 20 days to complete. During this time, the penguins lose their fluff and gain “blue feathers”. This is the longest length of time the penguins will stay onshore.

The wind was so strong it was blowing up bits of sand. We had sand all over us when we got into the car again.

“Whatcha looking at?”

From Simon’s Bay we headed towards the Cape of Good Hope.


Who know what this crazy boy was doing.

Reunion with our round-the-world travelling companions again.

Absolutely stunning views from the top of the lookout point.

Little Miss 9 Year Old

Friday, 19 January 2018

Turning 9 in South Africa

Today our baby turned 9. We let the birthday girl plan our itinerary for the day and this is what she came up with. We started the day off with a movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, followed by lunch at the waterfront. MacDonalds of course! Then shopping for her birthday present, one dress and and skort. Next, back home to relax before sushi dinner with our travelling companions. Finally, back home to blow out her nine candles on her special cupcake cake. Happy birthday Little Monkey!







End of our journey in East Africa

We will leave Maasai Mara today and will head slowly towards Nairobi. Africa has been amazing. We’ve seen so much and experienced so many different things. It’s been a challenge for all of us, taken us out of our comfort zones, but I believe we’ve all grown with this experience. It’s the closest we’ve ever been to nature. Seeing all the animals and being in their environment has given us a new perspective on conservation. My only hope is that Ryan and Mia will remember this journey, and remember just how precious all the animals that we saw are, and in their own little way contribute towards their survival and protection.


Breakfast on the last day at Fig Tree Camp. Saying goodbye to our Maasai friend, Shakai, who tried to offer us 50 cows for Mia 😆. 

Our last image of wild Africa. A send off we will not forget quickly. Graceful giants of Mara.

Time to go...

The challenges of driving through undeveloped areas in East Africa. “Roads” which are constantly washed away heavy rains making it impossible for vehicles to pass with many often getting bogged in the mud. 

This truck was stuck, blocking traffic from getting through. The guys were absolutely clueless so Ben took matters into his own hands. He got out of the van and started digging the mud out with a shovel!

Out of the National Park, closer to civilisation we stopped at Lake Naivasha for a spot of boating. Little Lavigne happy to be held by Ryan.

A fisherman setting his nets. Fishing in this lake is dangerous work. These men enter the lake twice a day to set and to pull up their nets each day, walking extremely close to the many hippos who inhabit the lake. 

The lake’s resident hippos


Whenever I think of Africa, this is what I will always remember, and just how precious life in the wild is!



The beauty of the savanna

This would be our last game drive in East Africa, our final day in Maasai Mara. We were all feeling a little sad. Africa has been beyond our expectations, we’ve loved every minute of our time here. Nothing comes close to the feeling of peace and contentment being this close to nature. We set out at 5:45am to catch the sunrise over the savannah. The fiery red and bright orange colour of the sky were stunning. 



Gazelles up bright and early.

The symbolic lone acacia tree out in the middle of the savanna.

Ballooners out at dawn to catch the sunrise.



A couple of Thompson gazelles.

A morning feed for our baby zebra.

Not a morning person!

Ben drove us to the top of the hill...., where we could get out and walk about to stretch our legs. From here, we got an awesome 360 degree view of the savanna. And what a view it was!


During the migration season, the grass is not visible to the eye. All you see is thousands of animals pushed closely against each other. 

Looking out I could only imagine what it would be like to see the migration. It’s definitely something I would like to come back to see.

To remind us that we were actually here. 

Our African family for the last couple of weeks.

Mia teaching Lavigne the cup song from Pitch Perfect.

A very curious giraffe. 

The cutest and tiniest baby hippo we’ve seen so far.

A rare albino alligator.




We stopped for a picnic under this tree. When we looked up this was dangling over our heads. The unfinished meal of a cheetah, a leg and tail of a gazelle.


Maasai Mara is the only National Park which allows visitors to get out of their vehicles.

Thank goodness there were no hungry lions lurking around that day!

We came across this big fella not too far away but luckily we were safely back in the van.

Lion selfie.

You definitely do not want to be too close to this guy.

The last of the Big 5, the black Rhino. Mia has been searching for them for the last few days (I think secretly in her mind, she knows that she didn’t really “see” that rhino in Ngorongoro 😅). In our final few hours, Ben finds this magnificent beast for us. 

The perfect way to end our African adventure!