On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
It was a bit of a whirlwind, but we spent something shy of two weeks with another couple (our vet and his wife) touring Cape Town, the wine country around Franschhoek and a private set of game preserves at the Sabi River (adjacent to Kruger National Park).
Bolstered by a very favorable rate of the USD to the South African Rand, we were able to enjoy top notch dining and drink – for instance, in nice Cape Town restaurants, entrees were about $15, a bottle of wine with a meal was under $20, and decent cocktails with quality spirits were $6. Hell, our minibar had a damn fine bottle of Pinotage for $16.
The view from our room balcony, looking toward Table Mountain. We were at the One&Only, a large resort hotel. Phenomenal views and service.
We stayed at the Mont Rochelle, Richard Branson’s very small boutique hotel. This was from the patio for our suite.
We started tastings early – 10 am. This courtyard was stunning.
Another beautiful site – the First Lady of Nigeria was dining there as well, so security was intense.
This was the first time anyone has seen this baby – the cub is about five weeks old, and it may have been the first time mama removed it from the den.
Lilac Breasted Roller
Wild Dogs – we got to watch them coordinate a hunt! Fascinating, and extremely cooperative.
This girl was relaxing on the roof of the Presidential Suite of the Selati lodge, absorbing heat. If you book it, a private leopard comes with it.
Dumbo here needs no intro. We did get charged by a full grown bull elephant in musth, which was intense.
Benny, our tracker, is only about 3-5 feet from this girl, who was apparently unsuccessful from her dinner hunt (guides and trackers can tell if they’ve fed).
Dude was fearless.
raven
Awesome!
Dirk Reinecke
Please send your wilddog pictures to wildlifeact.com/about-wildlife-act/wildlife-tracking-and-monitoring/african-wild-dog-monitoring/
This is because their patterns allow for the identification of individuals and helps with conservation efforts.
eclare
Great photos! Love the colors at Graff Estate.
J.
Wow! What a phenomenal trip and experience! Thanks for sharing.
EarthWindFire
Amazing!
VeniceRiley
It’s always a treat when an exchange rate makes for meals like that!
Van Buren
Now I have to add South Africa to my bucket list, though I question mixing wine tasting with lions.
MomSense
Wow!!!
Steve in the ATL
@Van Buren: Cape Town should be number one on everyone’s bucket list. It’s just amazing.
Betty
Those are some amazing pictures. Baby lion! Wine tasting at ten would have me asleep by noon. What a great trip.
Chris T.
It’s pretty easy, really: if the cat pays no attention to you, it’s been fed; if she catches and eats you, she was hungry. 😀
(cf. how you tell a brown bear from a grizzly: climb a tree, and if the bear climbs up the tree and eats you, it was a brown bear, but if the bear casually knocks the tree over with a paw and eats you, it was a grizzly…)
Dorothy A. Winsor
What an amazing trip.
Dan B
The Cape has some of the most unique and varied plants on earth and you’ve got some in your pictures. One ecosystem unique to the Cape is the Fine Finebosch which is descriptive of the fine grasslike predominant plants that are intermixed with hundreds of unique in the world short plants. The climate is similar to coastal southern California so some are grown in the US. A landscape architect friend visited the botanic gardens there which look amazing and romantic, like an exotic flowery heath.
Dirk Reinecke
@Van Buren: The wine tasting is on the opposite side of the country to the lions.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Great pics. We spent 6 months in South Africa (mostly in Jozy) adopting a child – 8 years old. Would have been younger except we were on the verge of traveling when the pandemic hit and that resulted in a somewhat more than 2 year delay. The favorable exchange rate really helped make it a reasonably affordable trip.
Other than the corruption and inefficiency of the administrative State, which is why we were there for six months rather than 2-3, it was a great place to be. We got to Cape Town for a long weekend (we found a school to put him in and were restricted by the school schedule as far as travel). Didn’t get to explore much because our kid found the hotel more interesting than Cape Town itself. But we stayed a block from the walk along the shore so one of us would take in the scenery while the other was on child care duty. It was pretty spectacular. I’d personally rank Vancouver and Rio de Janeiro ahead of it as far as the natural beauty of the setting, but it’s a close call.
We got to Pilanesburg for game viewing (smaller than Kruger so we saw a lot because the game has less square mileage to wander). A visit there is worth it for the scenery – semi-mountainous and very picturesque. Johannesburg gets a bad rap for not being Cape Town but taken on it’s own terms has its attractions. The Magliesburg mountains are nearby and picturesque and it’s set on a series of large hills – very similar to the Tuscan hills in size and coloration. Unfortunately the built environment is mostly shabby strip mall development rather than spectacular medieval and renaissance architecture. So not in Cape Town’s league but still pleasing to the eye.
The other place we managed to travel to was Clarens, which is up in the Drakensberg mountains just outside Golden Gate Highlands National Park. That was the highlight of the trip for me. It’s a great little low key mountain town. I’m too young to have seen Santa Fe and Taos before they got totally overrun but Clarens had that kind of vibe. Mellow, low key but with lots of great guest houses and dining options. Hiking trails run straight from town into the mountains so you don’t need to even get in your car to find a first rate hike. Honestly if the kid wants to move back I could see retiring to South Africa. Our retirement income would go sooo far. Once having seen it I have no doubt friends would make the trip regularly.
pieceofpeace
Gorgeous! Thanks for posting these impressive photos.
way2blue
What’s with the Trump toupee on the Lilac Breasted Roller? (Your animals shots are great—especially the pack of wild dogs. All I ever saw on safari in Kenya was their paw prints.)
Denali5
Great photos. Reminds me of how much I want to go to South Africa. Didn’t realize that the exchange rate is so favorable.