Some More Singapore

Today I headed out towards Chinatown to start the day. It’s an amazing little district with a beautiful Buddhist temple, and lots of fun shops all along the streets. 

I did lots of wandering around, enjoying happy hour along side the Singapore River in the afternoon. I visited some of the fancy hotels, like the Raffles Hotel. I decided I had to try their Long Bar. If I was going to have an over priced Singapore Sling it would have to be in the bar that invented it. 

And wow, was it overpriced. But it was tasty and a fun experience. The bar is not in the original location anymore, but in 1915 the local bartender came up with the drink as Ladies were not permitted alcohol in public. So he created one that looked just like a fruit juice!

Also went back to the Marina Sands to watch their water and light show over the harbour. It is really spectacular with tons of water and laser lights. 

My last full day was more wandering, I started with Little India before wandering back towards the harbour. By the afternoon I had a cocktail overlooking the bay again before settling on an early night so I could pack. 

Seems like just a short visit to Singapore, but I also wanted to be at the airport early to check out the Jewel. It really is an amazing building with forests surrounding the open centre. The jewel is dominated by the 40 meter water fall from the oculus in the centre of the roof. It switched on at 10:00 while I was waiting, which I was happy to see it at full flow before I had to go catch my flight. 

Asia at Last

I am so excited to finally be in Asia, that is another continent I can check off the list. And I am in need of a bit of a change after three months of travel!

Singapore is just beautiful. It has so many tall modern building, but they have also preserved lots of old temples and colonial era architecture. 

I’m staying in a little hostel with my own “pod” to save some money while I’m here- because it is expensive!! I had a drink overlooking the marina and paid $20 for a beer!!!

My first day here I slept late, 24 hours of travel will do that to you, and then just wandered around. I passed a few of the iconic old hotels. Found a shopping centre where I had a late lunch, then ended up at the marina. 

I saw the statue of the Merlion, which is half fish half lion to honour the cities fishing heritage and original name means “City of the Lion”

I had a very overpriced beer overlooking the harbour, before heading back to my hostel. The next day I chose to take the hop on hop off tour of the city. It covers the various districts and drives up and around the botanical gardens. 

That night I went to the Gardens by the Bay, which was also hosting a Christmas Market. It was really fun to walk around the Supertrees and see all the holiday cheer- though I don’t understand why so many people had light up bunny ear headbands. 

I went up to the super tree observation deck which had a beautiful view over Singapore and the park. I watched the light show twice, once from the observation deck and once from the ground. They were very fun to watch with the Christmas music. 

Relaxing in Mauritius

 After a wonderful, but busy, trip to the continent of Africa I wanted to relax for a few days! I picked the gorgeous island of Mauritius and stayed at an amazing resort on the north side of the Island. Mauritius is quite small, and gets a lot of tourists from South Africa and Europe. So it was easy to get to from Joburg, but continuing on east will be annoying!

I arrived late in the evening at the resort, but they had part of the dinner buffet still open.  It is a lovely spot and I was really looking forward to exploring the property in the morning. It looked lovely in the evening at least!

II had mostly planned my stay for relaxing, and it was a good spot. There are two excellent pools, and a gorgeous beach as well. I spent several days just reading by the pool. Luckily the resort had a little give/take library.  Though there were not many English choices! I read almost all of them!

The other reason I picked this spot was for its diving. I had some friends honeymoon here and had raved about the diving. I signed up for two days and four dives with the company there, and it was fantastic. The water was clear and warm with lots of fish and turtles! The highlight actually happened between dives, while we were relaxing in the boat a pod of dolphins swam past us!  We grabbed our masks and snorkels and slid overboard to watch them swim by!

It really was a spectacular spot to stop and unwind after the busy African safari days, I’m all refreshed and ready to head to Asia to start exploring a whole new continent! My travel days is not going to be fun, I have to fly through Dubai to get to Singapore. Hopefully I can at least relax in a luxurious airport lounge!

Family Time

My last day at the Lodge was wonderful. In the evening we did a walk with the local bushmen who taught us about their culture. It is absolutely amazing how their ancestors learned how to survive the harsh dry seasons. There is a plant that sucks up moisture in a big root ball that can be squeezed for liquid. 

In the morning we followed some young lions as the searched for the hunt. They were just juveniles so apparently not very skilled yet. Momma will keep sharing her kills with them but they’ll have to grow up soon- more cubs are on the way. 

We did get an update that The Animal Who Shall Not Be Named was spotted on the other side of the property. Our guide drove all out to get us there- it was almost time for me to catch my plane!! But we got to spend a bit of time looking at three of the the chubby unicorns. It was just amazing. 

After that I had to catch my flight- after one last look at the young lions guarding the airstrip! Then it was off to Maun where I caught my connection to Joburg. 

The next week was spent relaxing with family, I stayed with my cousins and really enjoyed seeing them and their kids. We had a lovely lunch at a hotel overlooking the cradle of humankind, I saw the Constitution Hill with the old fort and prison, and saw the Origins Museum at the University that holds many of the finds from the cradle. 

And most importantly got hugs from as many cousins as I could manage. I missed a couple on this trip- I’ll just have to come back next year!!

Botswana just gets Better

My next destination was Kanana Lodge in the Okavango Delta. I took a small six seater plane ride that made a couple stops along the way to drop off other passengers. I got to ride shotgun up front, which was a pretty cool experience.  The lodges all have small private landing strips so they were incredibly isolated. 

There was a small thunderstorm sitting over Kanana as I arrived, luckily it shifted out of the way just before the pilot decided to turn around. 

Kanana is a private concession lodge. It was absolutely beautiful and wild. A fence was in place to keep the elephants out. But literally anything else could walk aroIt was a magical place where I spent two nights. On the game drives we saw plenty of lions, including some cubs. We saw leopards- one totally chill female who let us watch her patrol her borders and a skittish male who bolted like a flash.  We had a hippo that charged our jeep, monkeys swinging in the trees and a massive buffalo herd. 

The second night I did a makoro canoe ride. While these were originally hollowed out canoes, we had a fibreglass one. But expertly poled through the channels. 

It was exceptionally peaceful with no engines running, just the three of us and all the birds.  After the boat trip we had our sundowner cocktail by the water and saw the most magnificent sunset. I have never seen the sky streak like that. Myself, the American and the Swiss guy were awestruck. Our guides laughed at us and told us it’s pretty common in the rainy season. 

It was hard to leave. But the next stop is Dinaka which is in the northern Kalahari and home to lions with males who have magnificent dark manes. 

Dinaka is crazy beautiful. I’m actually writing this in a pool overlooking a water hole. A minute ago I was photographing a wilde beast that came to drink. (From the pool)

But the craziest thing happened last night. Sitting at dinner on the deck one of the guides announced the lions had come. We leapt up, quietly, and rushed to the edge. There were five lions drinking water maybe 15 feet away. (Though none with a magnificent mane)

One of the young males actually wandered over and lay down on the walkway that led to all the rooms. They were so close and so beautiful. It was awe inspiring. 

They did eventually wander off so we finished dinner, then the guides led us to our rooms. But the lions were roaring all night, from all around our cabins  it was a little nerve wracking to turn off the light knowing a screen door and some mosquito netting was all that was between me and the lions!! 

But we obviously survived as I’m writing this now! We are hoping for more lions tonight but the guides think they have kept going and are now on a neighbouring property. So worst case I’ll try my hand at some astrophotography tonight. 

There were lots more elephants, hippos and birds. Oh there are lots of birds.  There are lots of antelopes and impalas and jackals and zebras- and everyone has babies! I just love photographing the little animals. 

A Photographic Safari

My next stop was Botswana. I was picked up at my hotel and driven across the border to the Chobe National Park near Kasane where I stayed at the Pangolin Photo Safari Hotel. 

I’m going to pause for a moment for a PSA for my photog friends. If you want to learn, develop your skills or just have an amazing guide- look up Pangolin Safaris. They are amazing. I learned so much while I was there. They also have good cameras with 600mm lenses for guests to use. 

I arrived in lots of time for the afternoon safari. We had a photo guide (Charl) and a game guide (Dan) and we went out on a boat on the Chobe River. It’s an amazing way to go, and our boats had the seats single file with swivel mounts and camera mounts so everyone had a great view. 

Birds are the easiest thing to hunt along the river, they are plentiful and brightly coloured. There are also lots of hippos. Mostly it’s just eyes and ears above the surface but we saw a few playing and rough housing in the water.  We also saw some elephants and crocodiles in the water. 

Some how every day just kept getting better.  It’s hard to separate the days now- I spent four nights in Chobe. Almost all of it was on the boat, we did one game drive in the park where we saw (sort of) lions.  Just little heads in the grass in the distance. But still exciting. 

We saw so many elephants, baby elephants and toddlers and the whole family. And let me tell you one thing that trancends species- boys playing in the water will always try to drown each other.  We literally spend hours watching three elephants playing and splashing and grappling trunks. It was amazing. 

We switched up guides too, and I was lucky enough to get Guts who is one of the owners and an amazing photographer. You’d think it was a bad thing the morning we got rained out of the drive, but we spent the time instead learning more techniques and about editing. 

We spotted 7 different kingfishers, rare birds on the Zambezi, fish eagles fighting over food, more elephants playing, sunsets and close encounters with crocs and hippos. 

And all the while the guide is giving tips, answering questions, telling jokes. And every so often orders everyone to put their cameras down, too look around and just take in the moment. 

I can’t gush about this place enough, 10/10 would recommend it. And they also have a house boat you can stay on that they will cruise up and down the river!

And in between all those moments, was meals being served family style at big tables, amazing friendly staff, and a fantastic cook who can also put on an amazing show. 

Into Africa

After a long overnight trip I finally arrived in Victoria Falls. Another spot I’ve wanted to see for a long time- and was supposed to visit in 2020. 

I stayed in the Shearwater Explorers village close to the falls. A very nice spot with a pool and a restaurant. I chose to sleep in the tented accommodation to save a few bucks. Basic tent but with a comfortable cot. Facilities were basic, but fine. 

After a relaxing evening, I started the next day with a tour to the Falls. I grew up near Niagara Falls, so I have seen impressive falls before. But these are amazing. Vic Falls are actually twice the hight and twice the length of our falls, but water levels fluctuate wildly. Now at their lowest ebb almost all of the Zambian side is dry. When the rainy season comes the water level can rise by up to two meters. 

The benefit of the low water means less spray, so I was able to lots of good views. We still got absolutely soaked. There is a reason Victoria Falls has a small rainforest beside it.  

Next was lunch at the Lookout Cafe. It has stunning views up the gorge to the bridge across the border. Some zip liners whizzed by, but no bungee jumpers today. 

In the evening was a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. It was just stunning to look at the scenery, there were also plenty of hippos and a couple elephants. We even saw one swim across the river. 

The next day was a trip to Livingston Island. Another low water bonus was the chance to swim in the Devils Pool.  First I had to cross the border from Zimbabwe into Zambia, I decided to walk between the border posts to see the bridge (apparently they call in Zimzam) and then took a taxi the rest of the way. When I met up with the tour company, they took us by boat to Livingston Island and then we swam a short way to a rocky spot near the edge of the falls. 

The Devils Pool lies right at the lip of the falls. There is a fairly deep spot and the a roughly 3 foot ledge before the drop. You can lie right on the ledge and look over!  It’s very cool. Though there are small fish that nibble at your feet and I was worried I’d fall over the edge when they startled me!

My last day I decided on relaxing. It dawned with blue skies so I lay by the pool. After lunch was a massage and a thunderstorm, then some relaxing by the bar. A great last night on Zimbabwe!