Towns of the Karoo: Nieu-Bethesda
At the end of my recent trip through the Karoo, after a stopover in Philippolis and an Inventure in the desert, I spent two nights in another tiny Karoo town: Nieu-Bethesda. A kilometer or [...]
An Inventure in the Great Karoo
17 May 2025 The day starts with walking across the freezing river in the dark with bare feet and a head lamp. Fuck this shit, I think, as we toil up a nearly vertical [...]
The National Arts Festival: It Changed Me.
I recently returned from a weekend at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), where I was invited to participate in the Standard Bank Art "Be Part of the Arts" social media campaign. [...]
Quirky South Africa, Part 3: The Garden Route
Read Quirky South Africa Part 1, about padstals, and Quirky South Africa Part 2, about Bethulie and the Gariep Dam. I was talking to some South African friends about my visit to the Garden [...]
Cruising Along the Eastern Cape’s Route 72
There's a beautiful stretch of coastline in the Eastern Cape, about halfway between Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) and East London. Sometimes referred to as "the Sunshine Coast", this area stretches along Route 72 and [...]
Pilgrimage to the Big Pineapple
I'm not sure when I first saw a photo of the Big Pineapple. It might have been in a blog post, or maybe somewhere on Instagram. But I do know one thing for certain: [...]
A Visitor’s Guide to Bathurst
Last year, before the pandemic, I started a campaign called #10SouthAfricanTowns. I planned to visit ten small towns all over South Africa during 2020. Bathurst, 20 kilometers inland from Port Alfred in the Eastern [...]
Five Cheetahs and an Aardvark
We tiptoed along as the sun lowered behind us. The wind howled. Tendai pointed ahead and we could just make out the body of a large animal with three small, spotted heads bobbing around [...]
South Africa’s Wild, Wild Coast: Part 3 (With Donkeys)
Read Part 1. Read Part 2. Our epic trip to Dwesa Nature Reserve wasn't the end of our Wild Coast adventure; we still had another stop at the Amapondo Backpacker Lodge in Port St. [...]
Five Bloggers Rock Port Elizabeth
I just spent four days in Port Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela Bay, with four other bloggers. It rocked. The first photo I shot in Port Elizabeth on Thursday morning. Left to right: Rachel of [...]
Scenes From the Eastern Cape
I’m in the Eastern Cape at the moment. The Eastern Cape is one of my favorite South African provinces; the people are friendly, the pace is slow, and the scenery is beautiful in a [...]