Adventures of an Expat in South Africa
For many expats moving to South Africa, it's not crime that scares them witless during their first few weeks in a new land, but a bird. The hadeda looks deceivingly beautiful but will be the reason you will wake up at five a.m. on your first South African morning from a screech to wake up the dead. You'll be convinced that someone is killing your neighbor or perhaps rather your neighbor's pig.
It was probably the most distasteful kiss I ever received. And definitely the muddiest. But how many people can say they've been kissed by an elephant on their birthday? *** Update 3/2018: Before visiting the elephant sanctuary, please read below why interaction with humans is bad for African animals, including these rescue elephants. ***
Klaserie is a private game reserve adjacent to Kruger Park, neither of them fenced in, meaning every living thing wandering around the fabled Kruger Park is perfectly at leisure to saunter on over to Klaserie Game Reserve. Somehow this makes viewing the animals extra special. With Kruger Park being one of the best spots in South Africa to see leopards, we had high hopes for Klaserie.
Having gone on several safaris since living in Africa, I have always wondered what it would be like to manage a game lodge. Is it exhausting? Do you get lonely? Do you ever tire of the animals?
So when we found ourselves at yet another game lodge over New Year’s, I ...
Another year in Africa is coming to a close, and our family will end it in pretty much the same way it began last January (let’s just hope without the emergency room): In the bush on a safari. ...
Literally a day after I published my last post about the need to protect the world’s shark population, the New York Times ran an article called Making Headway in the Movement to Protect the World’s Sharks. What ...
My recent story about shark cage diving made me realize how lucky we are to be living here in South Africa to even have such opportunities. Like I told you, I wasn’t even particularly gung-ho about the idea ...
Getting up close to a lion at the Lion Park in Johannesburg |
[Note: The Lion Park has recently gotten negative news for the practice of breeding lion cubs that are later sold to game farms to be used in canned hunts. Most visitors – like me at the time – don’t know about that darker side behind the faces of those cute cubs, so perhaps before ...
The breakfast spread at the Westin (there is even sushi! I told you we are a family of snobs) is just as exciting the second day. Noisette and I opt to just plow ahead with our own plan for a change, instead of opening the floor to debate. He wants to stand on the Cape of Good Hope, like I already ...
I find it amusing that back home we had Canadian geese, and they were a nuisance because they pooped all over the golf courses. Here in South Africa, you have Egyptian geese living on all the golf courses, and they are just as much of a pain.
Different goose, same difference. Just blame a country from ...