For an unusual safari in South Africa, take 2 Jack Russell dogs, 2 bicycles and two girls and travel where your fancy takes you!

Maria and her friend Liani made up their minds to travel around their native South Africa on a voyage of discovery.  In their own words this is how they got started …

“It was one night, at a get together, surrounded by friends and family, when the reality of the moment struck. What was usually fun and games, turned stale, suddenly! Stuck in the proverbial rut! The moment was too big to ignore, so, the obvious question was, where to go from here? So as if by design, we set off to St Lucia, to new horizons, self discoveries, and a tremendous awakening.”

Their blog is called My Life Changing Journey.

Go and read the rest of their inspiring story and let me know where you want to plant your own feet in their footsteps …

Endangered Loggerhead turtles have finally settled down to their nesting and created records on the Northern KwaZulu Natal coastline.

With careful monitoring over the project area, morning and night to ensure the safety of these huge sea creatures, the Loggerhead and the Leatherback turtles have responded by breeding almost entirely within the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, which is a designated marine protected area and a World Heritage site.

Numbers have declined in other areas due to the consumption of tutle meat and eggs by poverty-stricken communities and fishermen’s abandoned drift nets drowning the imprisoned turtles.

One of the most facinating places to visit on your tour of South Africa is the St Lucia Wetlands. The diversity of wildlife and outdoor activies will have you wishing you could stay forever! Imagine wandering through coastal forests fringed by white, sandy beaches watching the whales and dolphins perform for you in the surf, whilst if you are incredibly lucky, in the warm summer evenings in the months of October to March, you may well find the baby turtles emerging from their nest sites on their dash to the sea. What paradise!

Take a look at South Africa – The Good News for the full article on the safe haven for sea turtles, where you’ll discover more about the WWF/Green Trust Turtle Monitoring and Community Development Project.

A scrap of balloon has found its way across the Atlantic ocean from Martinsville, Virginia, USA to Plettenberg Bay, South Africa and inevitably found its way into the record books as the balloon that travelled the furthest in a geography competition held for the students of Collinsville Primary school. 281 helium balloons were launched with the nearest rival for the title travelling 144 miles, so the delighted 5 year old winner easily grabbed the attention.

The luggage-tag style attachment read, “We found the remnants of your balloon on the lawn of our hotel here in South Africa. What a trip the balloon took. We live in Cape Town and were vacationing here.” What a great place to vacation!
Having been released on the 15th September, the balloon seemed to make good progress with students at the school speculating that gentle Bermuda trade winds blew the balloon over the Atlantic, with another theory being that somehow the balloon found its way into the luggage compartment of an airplane!

I hope that the competition will have piqued a number of the students interest in visiting South Africa when they are old enough, because I am sure that Plettenburg Bay will more than live up to its billing. Long, sandy beaches with warm water lapping its edges, Plettenburg Bay lies on the Garden Route and is a must-visit destination on your travels.

Jewel of the Garden Route, Plettenberg Bay has a plethora of lagoons and estuaries as well as golden sand beaches, towering indigenous forests and unpolluted rivers. Explore, watch or just laze – the choice is yours.

Reading this story of safari in South Africa, I thought how well it is written and offers a different view of the traditional game to be found in South Africa.

Look away now, if the killing of game is not your thing, but if you can bear it, the story makes interesting reading. Take a look here and let me know your thoughts. Should any game be hunted or have we become a world in which we shy away from anything distasteful just because it’s been “Disney-fied”? Fluffy animals look cute on a cinema screen, but is that the reality – I think not. What do you think?