*Engagement*

Bonjour :)


Since I never made a formal announcement to the blog world I've decided to let you all in on something amazing... Jorg & I have gotten engaged!! For those of you who know us I know that this is yesterday's news, but it is only fair to mention it to all of my loyal randoms who read this blog.

<3

In honor of our engagement we had a wonderful party with our South African nearest & dearest. It was a stressful week of preparation but it was more than worth it in the end.

Green dress + good friends+ cupcakes + Mr. Spitbraai 

+ fiance + nice weather = happy heart

Of course I wish that my family and American friends could have been there, but my South African family made it just about perfect. I have such an amazing family at home and just when I thought life couldn't get any better I gained another amazing family here in SA.

 

 

 

 Thank you so much to everyone who could be part of our celebration <3

I'm really going to miss this place.

Kirstenbosch Concerts

Hi everyone!

First of all I would like to apologize for not posting as much, it has just been too nice outside to sit in and fiddle on the computer. Today is the first break in the heat wave and it is a big foggy outside so I can put up a nice post for all of you :).

So far I've been able to go to Kirstenbosch twice this summer for their summer concert series. Kirstenbosch is such an amazing atmosphere (for all of my Berkshirerite readers, it is like a younger version of Tanglewood). Everyone brings their blankets, sandwiches, wine, and snacks and claims their spot on the lawn. The venue is at the botanical garden so it is a perfect spot for an evening of music. The first concert we went to was Zebra & Giraffe. It was fun, but I didn't know any of their music and they didn't dress up like animals like I was hoping. The second concert was Plush, which was wonderful!

 

<3

Somebody looks GORGEous!

In an effort (which failed) to not renew my ridiculously expensive membership at Virgin Active I took to the Helderberg for some cardiovascular fun. Hiking up the gorge was one of the highlights of my trip in January so I was more than keen to go on up there again. After I was here in January the mountain caught fire, so it was quite interesting to see all of the new plant regrowth. It is amazing how life continues even after literally being burnt to the ground.

Jorg & I at the gorge a year ago!

Round One:
Gorge-ing with Georgious & Co

Jorg & I one year later <3

Apparently a vuvuzela is necessary on hikes

Round 2: Gorge-ing with AlMorgs

Winning

In the two trips I only tripped twice (what a clever statement!) , and nearly fell to my doom once. :) Still no leopards (thank goodness gracious). Next time we're going all the way up the mountain... dun dun dunnn.

A Merry Little Christmas

Hello World!

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy & Healthy 2012! May everyone have a wonderful 2012, I know I'm in for some adventure this year :).

I had a wonderful holiday season here with my second family in South Africa. While I missed my American family & friends so much, my heart was happy because I was surrounded with wonderful people who made me feel right at home.

I was feeling a bit let down by the South African holiday effort. Sure there was Christmas songs playing here and there, and psycho shoppers at the mall, but it was just really lacking that holiday coziness that comes with the dropping temperatures in New England. Then we grabbed some wine and a few blankets and spent a lovely little evening at Carols by Candlelight on the Vergelegen wine estate. Good friends, chipper carols, and pretty candles made for one beautiful evening.

 

On the 24th of December I celebrated my first German Christmas, because Germans apparently go against the grain and celebrate on the 24th (?). It was quite odd opening Santa's presents on Christmas Eve and waking up Christmas morning slightly disappointed by the lack of excitement, nonetheless it was a wonderful German Christmas.

Christmas Day was spent just a little differently than how I have normally spent Christmas with nothing other than a Christmas pool party of course!

 

I simply had a wonderful Christmas time. :)

Erindi Game Reserve

Erindi Game Reserve

About 2 hours outside of Windhoek, and 1 hour from Okahandja, lies a gorgeous private game reserve complete with leopard, wild dogs, a troop of elephants, buck galore, and more! With 79,000 ha of land our trip to Erindi was the closest thing I've ever done to staying in the bush. 

The accommodation at Erindi is called the Old Traders Lodge. The rooms are set up in semi-detached buildings all situated around a man-made watering hole. The watering hole is lit-up at night so we could see all sorts of wildlife all throughout the night from the comfort of our bed. While located in the wilderness we didn't exactly have to live like bushmen. The room had all the modern comforts of home, complete with air conditioning, mini-bar, and over sized bath. 

The dining facility at Old Traders was absolutely exquisite! Each meal was buffet style and delicious. As a semi-vegetarian/picky eater I was a little bit worried, but there were more than enough options for me. Although the food was fabulous, the best feature of the restaurant was its location overlooking an enormous and popular watering hole. Hippos and crocodiles are the most common sight at the watering hole during the day, but at night everything came out to play! Elephants and buck took over the watering hole and put on quite a show. We watched the elephants play in the water for hours. So beautiful. 

Of course I also have to talk about the game drive! Included with our stay were two 3-hour game drives, one at night and one in the morning. We attended the evening game drive and more or less slept straight through the one in the morning, oops! The guide took us out onto the property, leaving the road behind and drove right through the bush. We saw so many furry friends, unfortunately no leopard though. I swear I will see all five of the Big 5 if it is the last thing I do! We were lucky enough to see a pair of brother lions first thing on our drive. 

I still can't believe how close we were to them! Amazing! We also saw our fair share of buck, and giraffe, and we caught a quick glimpse of the endangered Black Rhino! We stopped out on our drive for a lovely sundowner.

On our return to the Game Lodge we came across our lion brothers once again, but it was a bit more unnerving to come across them in the darkess. I was sitting in the front of the truck and I literally could have reached over and touched them. Our guide however was as cool as a cucumber. 

I was so sad come time to leave, I honestly could have done 2 weeks there, but my wallet does not permit such frivolous things. It cost R1400 per night, per person. This seems like quite a fair amount of money, but once you break everything down it really is not so much.

-Beautiful accommodation
-3 meals + tea & cake
-Sundowner
-2 game drives.

Also when converted into dollars it is about $175 per person per night. You will pay more to stay at a 2 star Howard Johnson's 45 minutes outside of New York City. I would say that it was worth the cost, but seeing as it was a birthday present for me I won't say anything. :)

All in all I give our stay at Erindi a 5 out of 5. Everything was just wonderful. A teeny tiny problem for me personally was the amount of bugs because I'm slightly terrified of them, but even with the creepy crawlies I had a 5 star time at Erindi!

Guide To Surviving Your Namibian Road Trip

Hello Everyone!

I am back now from my week long holiday in Namibia and what a trip it was. There are far too many things to put into one blog post so I've decided to divide my trip into a few different posts for your enjoyment. As you can see my first post will be my...

Guide to Surviving Your Namibian Road Trip

The roads in Namibia are no joke. While here in South Africa we do have the random baboon crossing and seemingly suicidal taxi drivers Namibia has many other things to worry about while driving.

Tip #1 - Know the law
                In Namibia there is a police facilitated road block about 70km outside of every city. They are quite purposeful in helping police forces catch smugglers and poachers because there is basically only one main road in all of Namibia, but they are an extreme hassle for the average holiday-ing foreigner. You must educate yourself on the various motor laws in Namibia, and on the fines attached to disobeying them, because Namibian police do not have any mercy, and in some cases fabricate fines.
               Real life example - We thought only the front seat passengers needed to be wearing seatbelts, but in reality the actual law is that all passengers need to be wearing seatbelts.
Us- " Good morning officer"
Officer- "Why aren't you 3 wearing seatbelts? That is $3,000 spot-fine for each"
Luckily we were able to talk our way out of this, but after actually researching the fine it is lawfully only supposed to be $300 per person. Many Namibians said that since it is now the Christmas season many officers are increasing their "spot-fines" (a fine you must pay in cash on the spot).
We inquired at the border what we need to lawfully drive in Namibia, and were told we only need our road tax papers... but here is a list of the things you actually DO need in order to avoid a fine.
-Road tax paperwork
-License sticker
-ZA sticker (if from South Africa, there is a $500 fine for not having)

 The police in Namibia are not friendly, so do not toy with them. They are strictly business.

Tip #2-Do not drive alone if you can help it
             I have never been a strong night-driver, but I could never make the drive alone in Namibia. 98% of the road does not have street lamps, and you literally drive in a basic straight line for hundreds of kilometers. It is so easy to nod-off on these roads due to their lack of lighting and towns, and extremely repetitive scenery.

While at most times there might not be any other drivers on the road, you must still be completely aware. Buck, rabbits, warthogs, and the random road-side horse are all along the side of the road and of course run in front of your car at the most convenient time. It is best to have a co-pilot to switch driving shifts with.

Tip #3- Always have a spare tire
                At some points along our trip the roads were unbelievably terrible. Enormous pot holes, large stones from road works, and huge drop-offs on the side of the road. Many of the roads are gravel as well, which does not make for an easy trip. Make sure to bring a spare tire because I can't think of anything worse that being stuck in the dark on the side of the road in Namibia. It is not safe, and there is hardly any cell phone service.  

The best place I've found for information on traveling in Namibia is the AA, so go online or give them a call before you even think about crossing the border in to Namibia.

Namibian roads = hectic.

Road Trip!

Tomorrow is the big day, road trip to Namibia!!

I'm so excited, seeing as I have never seen a desert in my life it should prove to be quite an exciting trip because as most of you know it doesn't take much to 'wow' me. Rather than it being a blonde thing we can just call it "Innocent Child Trapped in Adult Syndrome".

For my less-than-knowledgable American compadres here is a map of where Namibia is (save you the trouble of googling it :)  ) Namibia is the orange one :). Don't worry American friends, I know I sure as heck wasn't taught African geography in elementary school, only about Egypt haha.

So we drive up and up the coast in to the orange (and hopefully the border patrol folks let me by without any difficulty). It'll be a nice week of fun and animals wooo! I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures along the way (yea right like you thought I wouldn't, please).

So excited!!! :) :)