City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert took me by surprise in the best way. It follows the profoundly vain Vivian - a self-proclaimed narcissist - as she recounts the tale of how she met Angela’s father. It’s a little like the TV show How I Met Your Mother and just as long. (The story of how Vivian met Angela’s father could have been told in 100 pages rather than 500). The story starts with Vivian…
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Growing up, my travel bucket list included far-off places like India, Spain, Scotland and Australia. But as I’ve got older, my gaze has turned inward and I’ve found myself longing to explore the wonderland that is Africa. It was with a certain amount of shame that I would tell people that I hadn’t explored much outside of Cape Town. I’d been to Johannesburg a handful of times and I’d been to the…
Continue reading: Magoebaskloof: A Weekend Among the Tree Giants
There are few things that make you pause quite like a view that stretches out before you without end. I love finding them, those views that seem to go impossibly on and on. It’s one of my favourite parts of going on any adventure and why I love being a passenger more than I like being a driver. Which is why I was excited to finally venture to Paarl Rock and hike up to its famous viewing point.…
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Mrs P’s dizzying journey to find her husband, Dr Henry Parker, aboard the ship they’ve spent most of their lives on won’t make my top-20 list. Here’s why: the book describes a fair amount of fantastic destinations without actually taking you there. In fact, it offers the most minimal of snapshots for a book whose main character has travelled the world. The Last Voyage of Mrs. Henry Parker by…
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The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley is a fairly quick read and one that you can pick up and put down at your leisure. The story follows Julian, Monica, Hazard, Riley and towards the end, Alice too as they try to be more authentic with those around them. It starts with Julian leaving a notebook at Monica’s café and in it, he’s written his deepest truth and the story unfolds from there as each…
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AnnMarie Wolpe who died in 2018, was a South African anti-apartheid activist, socialist and feminist. In her lifetime, she wrote an autobiography, authored and co-authored several books on gender and education, contributed to numerous academic journals and was a founding member of the Feminist Review. She was also a wife, mother and grandmother. Before her accomplishments though, she was a…
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Making the most of a sunny winters day, three friends and I met up for what I thought was a gentle hike along Mont Rochelle’s Uitkyk trail on Saturday 18 July 2020. Equipped with face masks, snacks and our cameras, we paid the R50 entrance fee and set off just after 10am. The first few hundred metres wind their way towards what was my first challenge: an even more winding and steep path up to…
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Some months ago, I wrote this for a blog post that another company was doing on VoiceMap. I had just started working there and was pretty proud of it but it never got published. Today I decided to publish it here, to share with all of you what I do during the day, when I’m not on an adventure, behind the camera or in the kitchen. One of travel’s greatest joys is exploring somewhere new, and…
Continue reading: VoiceMap: A Platform for Storytellers and Travellers
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary is one love story you won’t want to put down. It’s an easy, breezy type of read perfect for poolside indulgences and cocoa by the fire. The lives of the two main characters, Tiffy and Leon, are pushed together when Tiffy begins a flatshare agreement with Leon, who she’s never met. He’s a nurse working the night shifts and she’s a book editor with a regular 9 to 5,…
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Every summer holiday for the last five years, I venture down the Cape’s breathtaking Garden Route to Knysna where my boyfriend’s family live. In the summer of 2017/2018, I got the idea from his grandmother to spend a few extra days and drive to Addo Elephant National Park, home to over six hundred elephants, and so my planning began. The first issue was finding a place to stay. While Addo has…
Continue reading: Travel Memory: Encountering the Giants of the Garden RouteAllow analytics? It uses cookies to show which stories and photos readers enjoy, and only runs if you agree.