Category Archives: Main article

Meeting the Tattooed Headhunters of Nagaland By Sunita Koch

Meeting the Tattooed Headhunters of Nagaland

Nagaland is a state located in the far northeast corner of India on the border with Burma. Born and raised in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya, I grew up hearing stories about the ethnic clashes, separatist and underground movements that plagued the state. But then there were also the tales of the valour, indomitable spirit and fiercely independent nature of the Naga tribes. In fact, they were the last to come under British rule in the late 1880s. To prevent rebellion from the unruly Nagas, the British had to devise an administrative system which retained and respected Naga law so that the villages continued to operate almost unaltered.

Nagaland today is a peaceful state and insurgency problems have stopped. With its return to normalcy, the state has opened up to tourism and hosts one of the most extravagant and colourful festivals in the region – the internationally acclaimed Hornbill Festival (held in the first week of December every year).

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Just back from Sri Lanka by Francesca Jaggs

Just back from Sri Lanka by Francesca Jaggs
Just back from Sri Lanka by Francesca Jaggs

I had bronchitis a couple of weeks before I was due to travel to Sri Lanka. I suddenly did not want to go. I felt really vulnerable and depressed, but I also had faith that sunshine and a change of environment (I live in London) would be good medicine for me. My first mistake was to use the £10 voucher I was given by Sri Lankan airlines because of a 2 hour flight delay, to eat 3 oysters. Straight away I did not feel right.. but was it just nerves? I was not sick. I could not sleep on the plane and arrived zonked … and nauseous. So I meekly allowed a taxi tout to lead me to a taxi. I probably paid more than I should have but didn’t care. I am someone who normally avoids taxis but I was that desperately weary.

Konnichiwa from Kitarō

Konnichiwa from Kitarō

Comic book capers arriving in Sakaiminato on the Eastern DreamBy Pete Martin

It’s weird to be in Japan. It’s my first time and I really do feel like I’m on the other side of the world. Actually I am, after traveling across Russia on the Trans Siberia Railway and now across the Sea of Japan by ferry. A free shuttle bus takes me from the Eastern Dream into the centre of Sakaiminato. To my surprise, the bus drives on the right side of the road; by that, I mean the correct side, the left side, like in the UK.

As if to say a big konnichiwa (hello) and to my surprise there are colourful models of cartoon characters all over town. Every few metres along the main road, on rocks on the pavement cartoon caricatures have been placed. There are huge colourful comic posters on the walls of the buildings and the station too.

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Meet the Members – A life of travel

Meet the Members - A life of travel
Meet the Members – A life of travel

My first long-distance travel experience was accepting a one-year studentship to work at Guanajuato University Library in Mexico in the mid-1980s. I extended my time in Mexico for another year by working for the British Council in Mexico City. I loved Mexico and living there gave me a wonderful insight into the Mexican way of life. I spent holidays and weekends exploring Mexico and even ventured on a student trip to Cuba one week. I still have good friends in Mexico from this time.

After 2 years I returned to the UK and joined the British Council. This gave me the opportunity to travel during my 22 years working for them. My first trip was to run a 2-week librarianship course up in the copper belt of Zambia. Needless to say I stayed on to take a short safari and visit Victoria Falls, stopping off in Egypt on the way home.

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A Back Road Happenstance by Duncan Gough

 

A Back Road Happenstance by Duncan Gough
A Back Road Happenstance by Duncan Gough

Coming lunchtime and just what I am looking for:- water running from a plastic pipe but with a drinking cup left beside the fuente de beber close to a crude table and bench. No need for signs attesting to the water quality, the locals – gente local, obviously use this spring. I unpack my bread, Mahou, sausage and cheese (pan, cerveza, chorizo y manchego) and catch a large draft of clear, cold spring water. What a feast. A warbler sings a few phrases in the brush, but gives up. It is siesta time… I stretch out on the table and …

 

Unchartered territory around Lake Hashinge, Ethiopia By Sam McManus

Unchartered territory around Lake Hashinge, Ethiopia By Sam McManus
Unchartered territory around Lake Hashinge, Ethiopia By Sam McManus

The only lake of any size in the northern province of Tigray, Lake Hashinge feels like the Como of Ethiopia. It joins two large areas of lush flatland to the north and south where droves of cattle and other livestock are brought to graze and water. At a 2500m elevation the lake waters rest calmly, enclosed to the east and west by beautifully terraced foothills. A church flashed like an aquamarine stone on a hillside as the sunlight caught it, the rays then abruptly cut off by an angry cloud rolling in to the higher peaks. I walked west along the south side of the lake, enjoying the shading of the water created by the rippling breeze, greeted by shepherds herding huge-horned cattle coming the other way. My plan was to walk up into the mountains on the west side of the lake, head north for two days, come down into the small town of Maychew, then summit Mt. Tsibet. Situated to the northwest of the town at 3935m, it is the highest in mountain in Tigray. I had not heard of anyone doing the walk and didn’t bring a tent, assuming there would be plenty of mountain villages there upon whose hospitality I could rely.

The walk up into the foothills through grass-thatched villages was beautiful. The lake shimmered on my right hand side and everything was green.

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Globe 2018 Spring Picture Quiz

Globe 2018 Winter 2018 Picture Quiz Winner

Congratulations to Kay Grey who won a year’s membership of the Globetrotters Club in the Winter 2018 picture quiz by correctly naming the location in which this picture was taken.

Globe 2018 Spring Picture Quiz

The location in the photo is Song Kol in Kyrgyzstan. There were a few incorrect entries this time but the text gave enough clues to narrow it down…

Song Kol is the alpine lake that was mentioned. The traditional nomadic dwelling in the picture can be called a yurt or a ger as well as a few other names but the only national flag to depict the pinnacle of this construction set into a yellow sun on a red background is that of Kyrgyzstan.

Would you have got the answer right?

Why not have a go at the latest question?

Globe 2018 Spring Picture Quiz

Have a look at these pictures and read the clues to answer the question – where in the world is this?

Globe 2018 Spring Picture Quiz

One of the world’s oldest republics and also one of the world’s smallest independent nations, this landlocked mountainous microstate is said to have more vehicles than people!

Globe 2018 Spring Picture Quiz

The civil police are dressed in blue and yellow (below) and the national guard who are found outside public palaces (inset) are attired in a green and red uniform.

So, where on earth am I?

Send your answer to editor@globetrotters.co.uk before the closing date of 31st July

My Indian Experience By Francesca Jaggs

My Indian Experience By Francesca Jaggs

India has a reputation for transforming people. Since I returned just a week ago I have had 2 people ask me how I think it has changed me. I didn’t know how to answer. Well, this was my 4th visit, and also travels to other countries have had a huge impact on me… how was this different? I am older and more experienced than when I travelled to Israel and Turkey when I was 23 years old and up for adventure, change and expansion of my world view and I underwent tremendous personal growth. But maybe the countries themselves were not the main catalyst


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Don’t Cry For Me Argentina By Paul Gillingham

Don't Cry For Me Argentina By Paul Gillingham
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina By Paul Gillingham

‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ was resonating from loudspeakers throughout the Sunday market in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, sounding even more wonderfully romantic sung in Spanish as ‘No Llores Por Mi Argentina’.

It was balm to my spirits, having just experienced one of the great scams inflicted on foreigners in that city. Heading to the market that morning I suddenly felt splodges fall on my head and shoulders from a balcony above.

A young woman immediately approached with a handkerchief, offering to wipe away the mess.‘Please remove your rucksack’, she said haltingly in English. No chance, I thought, having been told earlier that morning by a young Frenchman that he’d lost his passport, wallet, camera and all the pictures he’d taken in a year’s travelling in a similar scam just the day before. The scam was tried on me not once, but twice that same day without success, but thankfully did not diminish one jot my enjoyment of the city. Buenos Aires is a city of contrasts.

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Lebanon – At the Crossroads By Sam McManus

Lebanon – At the Crossroads By Sam McManus

The drive up from the city had been both disorientating and familiar. It is strange to see in the same panorama both the turquoise ripples of the Mediterranean and mountains heavily laden with flashing snow, petering out to a light dusting of castor sugar lower down. Familiarity emanated from the solid traditional houses of creamy stone and orange roof brick, windswept Grecian trees with branches of smoke tendrils, green poplars. All the signs were in Arabic and the dust of the Middle East was in the air, yet it felt like Southern Europe. And Lebanon is in fact the perfect balance between these two worlds.

Transformational Moments by Pete Martin

Transformational Moments by Pete Martin
Transformational Moments by Pete Martin

Pete Martin describes St Basil’s in Moscow, one of the many places around the world that has taken his breath away and he now calls his Transformational Moments.

I enter Red Square. It’s un- believable. I have that same feeling I got in Times Square, in
Tiananmen Square, at the Grand Canyon and on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. I experienced a similar feeling at the Taj Mahal.

In these moments, I am lost for words, totally taken aback that I am here witnessing a sight that I did not think I ever would. I have a feeling of being alive and seeing some- thing I had previously only thing I had dreamed of.

Globe Winter 2015

Globe Winter 2015 cropGlobe is an info-packed newsletter with travelogues by members, book reviews, travel tips, bargains and news. There is a mutual aid section where you can exchange information; place advertisements and find travel companions.

In the Current Issue

  • Travel News All the latest news, discounts and events for Globies
  • Remembering Doris Dunkerley
  • Ex-Pat – A novel by Chris Watts Chris sets the scene on a strange small Greek island in this intriguing extract
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  • Wintery Norway Gavin’s expensive yet picturesque trip
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Odessa – the next big city break By David Redford

Odessa – the next big city break By David Redford

The city break is a phenomenon of our times, and the ability to jet off to a foreign city for two or three nights has broadened all our horizons. In recent years the “hot” destinations have gradually moved from Western European capitals to edgier cities further east or south; as each gets taken over by stag and hen parties in search of cheap booze the cognoscenti move on to the next big thing.

The popularity of a city for a short break is very dependent on the availability of a direct flight from the UK on a low cost airline; cities which may be fascinating to visit but which lack a direct connection thus tend to stay under the radar.

I visited such a city in May 2019 and want to urge you to go there before it is discovered; it has an oceanside location, wonderful baroque architecture, inexpensive hotels and restaurants, many museums and galleries and a stupendous opera and ballet theatre with tickets for less than a tenner. I’m talking about Odessa, on the Black Sea coast of southern Ukraine.

Write in (1) …Bishkek to Beijing with Gavin Fernandes

Long term club member, traveller extraordinaire and beer connoisseur Gavin has done it again with his latest adventure !  Whilst at the Travel Adventure show in London, Gavin entered Oasis Overland’s competition to win a place on their 40 day Silk Road expedition and won !  Congratulations Gavin and as he says in his own words… 🙂

The Ant

So here’s the story so far…

It all started with the Adventure Travel Show 2012 for which I volunteered as an Independent Travel Advisor as I have done every year if I’m in London and The Globetrotters Club has a stand there…

Shortly after getting details of the venue from Dick, I discovered the Show’s Facebook page and clicked-on so I got their updates. One of the first tweets was news that Oasis Overland were offering places on their Silk Road Expedition at half price for a limited time as a Show Offer. It was to be an “Exploratory” trip and would be followed by a Japanese film crew documenting the journey and one of their travelling countrymen as he made this 15 week overland trip. Apparently they’d filmed a couple of overland trips before on other continents, also featuring Japanese passengers as part of a series to introduce this relatively unknown method of travel to their viewers.

I had a quick look at the website and then emailed the company to check if the offer details were true and express my interest in the trip. I got a reply confirming that it was an offer for the duration of the travel shows and responded that I would come and chat to them there…

When I did, I discovered that they were also running a raffle to win a place on the trip; one winner from a prize draw at this show, another from the Destinations Show a week later. Each would win half the trip: either Istanbul to Bishkek or Bishkek to Beijing.

I was still mulling over the idea of doing the trip when I arrived at Destinations to discover that a winner had been drawn for the first leg – and it wasn’t me… but I could enter the second draw now..!

I was somewhat taken aback to receive a phone call the following week to tell me that my name had been picked out of the box and I’d won a place on the trip from Bishkek to Beijing!

In the days that followed, the question was “How do I get to Bishkek?” Do I now buy the first leg of the trip from Istanbul or fly to Kyrgyzstan? I considered all sorts of options including a route through Georgia and Armenia, transiting Azerbaijan and crossing the Caspian before coming down through Turkmenistan to meet the truck in Ashgabat!

My current plan is to join the trip in eastern Turkey before the drive across Iran. I’ve travelled around Turkey twice before (once on another truck on a similar route) so I’ll take the chance visit some new places in the country instead.

And at the end of the trip, I end up in north-east China, where I was based for a year in 2007 studying for a Master’s in photography. Might be a few friends and colleagues to look up…

This is the full trip as advertised on their website at full price

http://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/trips/Asia/details/147/-Exploratory–Silk-Road-Trip-15-Weeks-Istanbul-to-Beijing—-One-time-only-expedition-for-2012-.html

and I’ve attached an image of the route map.

Bishkek to Beijing
Bishkek to Beijing

Any other questions, please do ask…!

Gav

Globe goes digital.

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2 i’s Coffee Bar Skiffle – It’s Not Just Rock ‘N Roll by Tony Annis

2 I’s album coverThe still cameras flash, the video cameras turn, the crowd press forward – Old Compton St. inTony Annis and the Plaque Soho half closed off. Nothing new about this – It could be an event anywhere anytime but it wasn’t. This was the unveiling of Westminster’s latest Green plaque – see picture right complete with a picture of the author himself! The plaque commemorates the original 2 i’s Coffee Bar – where Skiffle and early British Rock ‘N Roll was born (1956-1970).

This pack of cameras, were not pointing at some youthful stars or celebrities but at a grey brigade of the young at heart. Amongst musicians and singers were: Sir Cliff Richard, Chas McDevitt, Jim Sullivan, Vince Eager, Wee Willie Harris, John Pilgrim, Bruce Welch plus too many others to mention. Fans also came from as far away as Jersey to relive their days of youthful fun either playing or being part of the packed, hot, hand jiving audience – A death trap if there ever had been a fire and would not now be permitted by ‘Health and Safety’, but we loved it.

This day was so successful that the ‘Tales From The Woods’ Roots Music Magazine, has booked the 100 Club, in Oxford Street, for the 28th Jan. 2007 for a tribute to the 2 I’s and the Coffee bar scene in the 1950’s.

Blue JeansSo I’m trying to track down some of the ‘Blue Jeans’ – see the photo left – and their fans and I know that some of them read the GT E-News in both California and Australia, because they have contacted me in the past but alas my computer has crashed many times and I have lost their addresses over the time. So I need to know – Where are they now? Guitarists, George Plumber, Bob Mills (Londoners) and Les Vas (Goa) are the last of the group to be contacted as Michael Fogarty (T-Chest Bass) and I (Drums) are already in touch.

As one of my friends says “You are only young twice” – So go for it and join us jumping and jiving at the 100 Club in Oxford Street – Let the good times roll as the rest of our big adventure continues into middle age!

About the author Tony Annis: Have camera will travel. Over the top but not yet over the hill. Past sixty five and still alive, my get up and go has not entirely got up and gone – like good whisky, I’m still going strong. Travelling through these global villages of ours is great adventure but to me it is the people that make this wonderful world, as well as the exotic places that I love to visit. See you over the next horizon, Tony.


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Globe goes digital.

globe-resp-screenshot

After holding membership fees at 1995 prices we have reduced them by producing Globe digitally (and saving on the printing and postage costs).

Members can read Globe on or offline on

  • iPads & tablets.
  • Kindles & E-readers.
  • Smartphones; iPhone & Android.
  • Laptops and Computers.
  • Print out a paper copy of Globe .

Club membership now £12 a year for every member wherever they are in the world.

Not a member?

Join now with our no-risk guarantee. If you find that Globetrotters does not offer the advice and information you need, let us know within 14 days of joining  and we will refund your subscription fee in full. Join today-Just Click Here!

As a member, you will be a part of the oldest travel network in existence and have the opportunity to make new friends who share your interest in travel. Once you are a member, you will receive a copy of Globe, access to our members area where you can contact other club members around the world, and even stay with some of them or offer to put fellow Globetrotters yourself!

Click here to join & become a Globetrotter.

Rio de Janeiro 'Cidade Maravilhosa' or 'Reasons to be cheerful in Rio' by Tony Annis

Being ‘shaked, rattled and rolled’ round this exciting city in the 584 bus that seems to cover nearly all the main parts of the south of Rio at a breakneck speed. Laranjeiras to Leblon via Botafogo-Copacabana and Ipanema all for about 20p. A bus that stops to pick you up anywhere on route if it is at all possible and drops you as near to your destination as possible it can. The 584 does this probably to maximise the passenger’s numbers for its owners and it is no doubt against ‘Heath & Safety’ but I liked it! Another one I liked. The fact you can call collect, from the beaches and all round the boroughs by using the ‘Big Ear’ telephones (Orelhï¿Â½o). These telephones are to Rio, like the red tel. box is to London – So a mobile is less necessary than in London.

 A magazine sent me to Rio a short time ago and I also made a private visit of four months last summer, so I thought I would let the GT Club members know of some of my favourite haunts.

Fruit Juice bars are around all over the place. Polis Sucos is one such place, in Rua Maria Quiterial, Ipanema open 6am to midnight. The bar staff vying with each other in trying to tell us their favourite fruit cocktails-  Such as “papaya with orange” enthuses one. “Nï¿Â½o, mango and strawberry” shouts another. Livia, a customer joins in. Breaking away from her juice, this Carioca charmer says, “passion fruit and mango is where it’s at. Have we tried it? Can she buy us one? Are we enjoying Rio”? Adam Baines and I finally leave having bought four fruit cocktails and spent nearly £2-50. The staff of this bar are always trying to outdo other bars in freshness and service. Another favourite bar, in Leme – ‘Sindicato do Chopp’ (Union of draught beers) Avenida Atlantica 3806, opens early until very late. Not only great beer but also very good food at value prices just opposite the beach, a place, for locals, surfers, footballers and the bikini crowd gather to have fun, Carioca’s love to say, “The father makes the money in Sao Paulo and the son blows it on good times in Rio” all of course talking about everything except work that four letter word, that is like illness – It happens but why mention it? I have watched the dawn rise in this friendly bar, after many a night on the town, a good pit stop as I wound my weary way home.

The city built around large rocks by Guanabara Bay and its famous beaches. Looking down from the Sugar Loaf towards the metropolis, on the right, at the foot of this massif sheer rock, I once climbed it, way back when I was nearly young, called in Portuguese ‘Pï¿Â½o de Aï¿Â½Ãƒ¯Ã‚¿Ã‚½car’: are  the still waters of the Rio Yacht Club and the fashionable, safe borough of ‘Urca’. Strike out to the left and after the small Praia Vermelha, then you pass Leme, one of my favourite beaches in a district that is of mixed incomes, like Notting Hill Gate (of a few years ago) but by the sea. Copacabana, where I grew up as a young boy with surfing and football on the beach has changed for the worst. Prostitutes everywhere and Large Five Star Hotels that dwarf the beautiful ‘Copacabana Palace’. More Police and private security than anywhere else, to no doubt protect the Tourist Trade! Arpoador, a big rock sticking out into the sea – Join hundreds of people and TV Crews from around the world watch the Sun go down over Ipanema, Leblon – Finally as the cloak of darkness spreads over you, hear the sound of the watchers on the rock clapping the gorgeous sunset. Ipanema and Leblon are two very good beaches. Ipanema, so very expensive because only two Kilometres in depth, has the great beach in front and a lovely lake with its cycle track all round it, right behind, then past that, the Statue of Christ and mountains. Leblon is the Knightsbridge of Rio, even richer than Ipanema, full of Bankers, business people and yet it is here – In the heart of rich man’s Rio that we find the altar of the poor man’s drink, ‘cachaï¿Â½a’.

 Distilled from humble sugar cane syrup, it helps the poor forget the hell of their worst hours. Cachaï¿Â½a, mixed with ice, lime and sugar, it becomes caipirinha – A great drink to give you a lift before going out, clearing your mind or even blowing your mind if you drink too much! Academia de Cachaï¿Â½a, Rua Conde Bernadotte 26, open midday to 3am, this is very best place to have the best cachaï¿Â½a with a choice of over seventy different types and barmen who really know how to mix the cocktails.

A crowded cycle track, the sun beating down, tanned youths with surf boards attached to their bikes, the sound of waves breaking on the beach, beautiful people, cycling, skating and jogging all around me – In fact on Sundays a three lane highway is closed by the beaches to enable the thousands of Cariocas to have enough room to move about in their various ways. Stop to have a cold beer, coconut or juice or watch some volley, as you cycle along this thirty Kilometre track beside the perfect sandy beaches. To go to beaches further out in the Barra, take the Surf bus that leaves ‘Largo do Machado’ twice a day and drops you off at the beach of your choice past Leblon and then brings you back later in afternoon.

 A lagoa (the Lake) behind Ipanema is just the place to go at night to have a low cost drink, meal and sometimes music in the various Kiosks near the water. But for a very special meal in a very good restaurant with ambiance and a perfect view over the start of Rio’s Jockey Club’s flood lit race track – with live music some days of the week – Three styles of food, Japanese, Pizza and European/Brazilian. Centro Gastronï¿Â½mico Victoria, Rua Mï¿Â½rio Ribeiro 410, Jockey Club Brasileiro, open from 2030 hrs, http://www.complexovictoria.com.br – Prices vary depending what you eat and drink but about average without drink 30$ a head. Less for Pizza than Lobster! Well worth a visit for a special night out. I love it and recommend it.

Finally, tucked into the arches of a viaduct at the bottom of Santa Tereza, that runs the last of Rio’s trams, that like the Routemaster in London, it will soon unfortunately disappear. So if you can – Take an exciting ride on this archaic yellow tram in the day time. This is also the bohemian/hippy club centre and a fantastic fun centre of music bars with low prices that goes on until whenever! Soon It’s 3am and how many caipirinias? So, do yourself a favour, don’t take the bus and be shaken and rolled !! – Pick up a taxi and get safely dropped back to where you are staying. That’s if you can still remember where you are staying?

About the author Tony Annis: Have camera will travel. Over the top but not yet over the hill. Past sixty five and still alive, my get up and go has not entirely got up and gone – like good whisky, I’m still going strong. Travelling through these global villages of ours is great adventure but to me it is the people that make this wonderful world, as well as the exotic places that I love to visit. See you over the next horizon, Tony.


Write in (3)

This year I received quite an unusual Christmas card from Myrna & Gene, who I’d met whilst sailing aboard the Soren Larssen in the Pacific Ocean – they related some of their latest adventures and I thought I share some of them with you, as there’s plenty of travel related detail in what they had to say. The Ant!!

As we were in South Africa at Christmas, our greetings to all of you are a little late! We were gone from mid-Oct. until the end of Jan. sailing as crew from Madagascar to Mozambique through part of the Bazarito Archipelago and on to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique before heading to Richards Bay & Durban in South Africa. The sailing vessel we were on was a 40′ sloop named “Juno” captained by Tom Hildebrandt, who had been on the boat since he bought it in Australia in 2004. School teacher Frances from San Francisco joined us in Madagascar and participated as crew until we reached Maputo. We helped with all manner of jobs whilst on board – from sailing the boat, scrubbing decks as well as the sides of the boat, stood watch, baked bread, cook meals, washed clothes in buckets on deck and helped with repairs as directed by the skipper.

On a small boat quarters are cramped, water is at a premium and mainly used for drinking & cooking, refrigeration is very limited and provisions are shopped for & brought to the dinghy and taken to the boat at anchor. On boats there is always something breaking down…just in the time that we were aboard “Juno” the boom broke off the mast, the windlass for bringing up the anchor chain quit working, the water intake plugged and the engine overheated & part of it melted! As a result we stayed tied up to the wharf in Richards Bay for a month while most of the major repairs were made. During this time Gene and I took off for two weeks to explore inland. Lyn from Malule Safaris took us to some wonderful nature reserves and escorted us personally through Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park, Dumazulu Cultural Village, the greater St. Lucia Wetland Estuary & Reserve and Kruger National Park. We saw white rhinoceros’s, elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, cape buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, nyala, duikers, water buck, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, hyenas, elands, steinboks, lions, leopards, and a great variety of birds. We also went up to the pinnacle at Blyde River Canyon to see the spectacular view from what is called God’s window. The day after our tour was completed Lyn took us to the farm where she grew up to meet her mom and dad and they invited us for Christmas dinner. What a treat!!!

We spent 6 days and nights at Imhambri Lodge in Meerensee which was a delightful place to stay. From here we were able to walk to the Methodist Church close by for a Christmas carol sing-a-long and a potluck Christmas morning service. They truly made us feel welcome. Back to the boat by the end of December and after two weeks we reached Durban, where we again were able to tie up to the wharf. Here we made friends with a number of the other yachties and were able to take real showers at their club. We also took a couple of day tours – one to The Giants Castle in the Drakensburg mountains to see the San bushman rock art paintings from thousands of years ago and the other to explore historic Pietermaritzburg & Howick Falls. The big thrill was to be zip lined on a canopy tour over the Karkloof falls and forest – what a ride harnessed and zipping along on the cable to eight different platforms.

Picture (Myrna & Gene Ginder): Nervously getting ready!!

Picture (Myrna & Gene Ginder): Gene in action!

Picture (Myrna & Gene Ginder): Nervously getting ready!!

Picture (Myrna & Gene Ginder): Gene in action!

We decided to get off the boat on 16th January and caught the backpackers Baz Bus to Capetown, where we had a marvellous eight days in Cape Town and then two days in Simons Town on the beach. Our spots visited list included the top of Table Mountain in the Cable Cars, a winery tour and walk through the Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens. There are frequent power outages in Cape Town and one night the tourists in the cable cars had to be rescued by the Search & Rescue team by crawling out the hatch on the top of the car and then being lowered down in harnesses & ropes to safety far below! Eating conjured up a number of good restaurants – my favourite being “Mama Africa” where I had crocodile kabobs and Gene had springbok steak! Our last two days were spent near the beach at Top Sails lodge in Simons Town where The Boulders National Park, spending a delightful day on the beach with the penguins, protected by the large boulders so the wind which always blows wasn’t quite as strong.

Love and have a very happy New Year! Myrna and Gene