Africa Safari Blog

You get all kinds of visitors in your life, some welcome while others not so. Occasionally you get one which is utterly surprising and oh so welcome. We (a group of Jenman Safaris clients and myself – the Jenman guide) had such a visitor in our camp site at Epupa Falls in northern Namibia on the banks of the Kunene River.

The Nile Monitor, Varanus Niloticus, just wondered into our camp while we were all sitting around and started to explore the area… Looking for something to eat no doubt!! Read the rest of this entry »

This time we are letting you know about an event before it happens! And we hope to see you there – for anyone staying in Cape Town, you have no excuse not to be there! Come along and we will see you there… Food lovers from all over the country are expected to flock to this year’s Good Food & Wine Show® Cape Town see Gordon Ramsay, Mr Hell’s Kitchen, in action at the Show.

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Week 7 (22nd to 28th of March)

This week I experienced a really confusing situation…. When I wanted to get money at the ATM near work, a cash in transit vehicle looking like a tank stopped in front of the bank. Then three men jumped out, two of them carrying huge machine-guns and positioned themselves in front of the bank just next to the ATM… Instead of standing there they started to walk around while observing the area…and me for some reason. It’s not really a calming feeling if someone with a machine-gun is standing right behind you but (probably) I’ve never been safer while getting money before.

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Harvey World Travel Rondebosch, Claremont & Pinelands, hosted their second successful Travel Expo on Saturday the 27th March. It was held in the Protea Room at the Southern Sun Newlands Hotel from 9:30am to 13:30pm. Winter chose to make an appearance on the morning and clients were enticed to choose from a variety of destinations such as Madagascar, East Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, Rio de Janeiro to name but a few, whilst enjoying fresh doughnuts and a hot cup of coffee. A few lucky people walked away with some awesome prizes.

My highlight was helping and attending to a lovely Indian couple from Claremont. They’ve traveled the world and more recently spent time in India trying to find and see the elusive Bengal Tiger. They loved the entire experience, despite not seeing any tigers at all.

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I can’t decide – was the pork from Nobu (the ONE AND ONLY restaurant) or was the Thai curry from Wang Thai better? As I write this blog I am starting to feel very hungry… Each and every year Taste of Cape Town hosts a food festival at one of the schools in the mother city. This year the event was hosted at Rhodes High School in Mowbray and offered an exceptional setting for this food, wine and fun-filled event.
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Source: The Weekend Argus, 13th/14th March 2010

Kate Turkington tackles some more mountains…

The invitation was to visit the mountains of Lesotho and look at birds and wild flowers. Lesotho? After Tibet? You must be kidding! How could anything possibly compare with my recent trip to the mighty Himalayas?
But my traveller’s curiosity got the better of me. Maseru was my only previous experience of Africa’s Mountain Kingdom, which wasn’t exactly a Top 100 destination, but you never know…
My goal was Lesotho’s only National Park, Sehlathebe, established more than 45 years ago and situated in Lesotho’s south-eastern corner, in the Qacha’s Nek District. I knew that Lesotho is one of Africa’s smallest countries, but I had no idea that it’s also one of the most elevated. Most of the park lies at altitudes between 2 200m and 2 600m, and just outside the northern border, the mountains soar to 2 900m. The Orange River, whose source is in the highlands of Lesotho, flows through the park on its long journey west to the sea.
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Source: OutThere Travel, autumn 2010

Heading for the hills is always easy from Cape Town – everywhere you look are the towering fold mountains, the lower slopes of which are covered with vines. So a good bet might be to hole up in the Winelands. The popular guesthouses and retreats in Franschhoek, Stellenbosch and Paarl are always a sound bet, but there are also several lesser-known wine-growing areas where you can really get away from the crowds.

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Not too long ago Jenman Safaris hosted a braai for all of our safari guides (and staff). The Jenman Safaris office was converted into a great social area for the event – our back garden was filled with chairs, snacks, loud voices, laughter and (of course!) the braai! The turnout was great; potential guides, current guides, the operations team, sales staff, marketing staff, accounts team… in fact there were only a few people missing from this event this year.

It was a great opportunity to meet all of the Jenman Safaris guides and get to know a little but more about them and what they do… for instance: what their favourite countries are, what there special interests are and what there best safari meal to cook is (steaks, stews and even bread where some of the favourites!).

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