Continuing the theme of debunking the bad press that has plagued South Africa in recent years, and highlighting in fact how safe it is to travel in SA, let’s have a look at the Boomer market, and why South Africa and surrounding region is the perfect destination for comfort loving oldies with a hankering to touch the wild.
Ease of Travel
African travel in general can be a multi-layered experience with the roughest of rough travel rubbing shoulders with displays of ridiculous opulence and splendor. Tour packages are usually insulated from the seething poverty of the outside, and tourists rarely touch the quintessence of Africa. In South Africa this is also true, but the contrast does not seem so striking here.
On the surface South Africa is one of the most sophisticated societies in the world, with an industrial and communications infrastructure that is comparable with anywhere in the developed world. In keeping with this the tourist industry is highly developed, efficient and sophisticated. Not only are the most obvious sights and sounds of Africa showcased and made easily available to the visitor, but the entire spectrum of a nation that enjoys incredible cultural, social and ecological diversity is in some way or another packaged in a manner that is both accessible and affordable.
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The Drakenstein Lion Park was recently brought to my attention as offering close contact with lions only 50km from CT.
5 minutes from Paarl (straight up the N1) the park is a sanctuary for captive bred lions that are unable to be reintroduced to the wild.
A number of opportunities exist for coming into close contact (but no touching), casual day trips, Volunteering and overnight tented accommodation within earshot of the blood curdling bellows.
Drakenstein Lion Park is privately funded and does not rear lions commercially for hunting or further captivity. You can also …
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For those of you looking forward to your Kruger Park trip, you may as well leave your camera’s at home since this footage below was taken.
It has all been done now and we might as well just give up 
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In Australia, just about everything is toxic and deadly. It is home to the worlds only known poisonous mammal, the duck billed platypus, the stupendously lethal box jellyfish and the blue ringed octopus, amongst many, many others.
True Blue Aussies are not going to lose sleep coming to South Africa, but perhaps the British, who’s most poisonous animal is the house cat, may be more tentative.
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As I’m sure some of you have noticed this Logue is pretty one-sided, so to speak, in the favour of Cape Town. There is nothing wrong with that, but there are other beautiful parts of South Africa that are just as attractive.
Philip has asked me to help provide a balance and let the readers know what is hip, hot and happening in Durban or Durbs to the locals!
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Not You Again!
Some things change, and some things don’t. Robert Mugabe, after almost five weeks of political hiatus, remains in power, while galloping inflation – touted now at about 355 000% – necessitated the issue of another new banknote, the third issue in a year. This time it was a Z$500 million bill, up 400 million from the last. Currently the rate of exchange is Z$52 million to £1 sterling. A letter I recently received from a friend in Harare told me that a brief trip to the supermarket to purchase 2 onions, 4 bread rolls, 1 packet of coffee, 2 litres of milk and a cucumber came to a total of Z$1.25 billion, which would have been Z$1.25 trillion had the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe not recently removed several zeros from the local currency. You may ask me how does a man who presides over such unimaginable economic lunacy survive in power, and the truth is I haven’t got a clue.
Warthog’s Revenge
While on the subject of swine species, warthogs have been creating a bit of a stir in the industry recently, contributing their share to the regular, but admittedly infrequent incidences of bitings, maulings, stingings and occasional deaths. These often result from the too-close commerce encouraged by wilderness guides between soft skinned urban tourists and wild animals. In this case it was a Canadian tourist, Brunhilde Galke, 69, visiting Huntershill private game park in the Eastern Cape, who ran foul of a ‘tame’ warthog in the dining room of the lodge. It was probably neither her fault nor the warthog’s, but a waiter who should have known better than kick the animal after it upset a dustbin in the bar area. The warthog rushed the waiter, but then vented it’s spleen more effectively against Brunhilde as she left the dining room and was making her way across the yard to her accommodations.
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Volunteering holidays are a highly enriching and immersive way to experience a foreign culture at the most grass roots level.
A number of exiting and exotic opportunities are now listed on Bootsnall, where you can choose your destination, activities and budget.
Most include accommodation and some include meals and excursions, all look like fantastic life changing experiences.
These selected opportunities currently exist in South Africa:
Animal Rescue society near Cape Town, South Africa:
This centre is a domestic animal rescue organisation located near Cape Town. Their goal is to provide animal health care and sterilisation to the local impoverished communities along with running an adoption programme for abandoned stray animals. Your work here will take on many roles from feeding and caring for the many animals to working closely with staff as they go out into the local informal settlements to collect, return and vaccinate animals on site. There is also the opportunity to work along side the resident vet, who requires assistance daily; this is not for the faint hearted. On quieter days you can get involved with a programme called ‘Open Paw’ which is a training programme to help the dogs understand basic commands helping with the adoption process.
Lion Monitoring Expedition in South Africa:
This is a chance for any lion lover to get up close and personal with these magnificent predators and other African mammals. Work alongside experienced researchers while learning and putting into practice, tracking and research techniques in South Africa. The reserve is based between the small towns of Gravelotte and Mica in the Limpopo Province and covers over 30,000 hectares of African wilderness. It is home to elephants, leopard, white rhino and various antelope species; you will be in the midst of some of the worlds most fascinating wildlife on a day-to-day basis. This is an amazing opportunity to learn about conservation and predator management, while enjoying a truly wilderness area, excellent wildlife viewing and at the same time contribution to African wildlife conservation. Your assistance in actively monitoring a lion pride is vital for the future development and success of this project and would make a fantastic addition to a gap year, sabbatical or annual holiday.
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I was reading some info on the 10 most dangerous animals in the world and it struck me that 8 of them were found mainly in Africa! That’s pretty good going.
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The Vredefort dome is the worlds largest meteor crater and is situated 120km SW of Johannesburg.
It is said to have been created by a chick chunk of rock the size of Table Mountain vaporizing 70 Cubic Kilometres of earth on impact and a crater 300km wide.
Vredefort’s original impact scar measures 380km across and consists of three concentric circles of uplifted rock. They were created by the rebound of rock below the impact site when the asteroid hit. Most of these structures have eroded away and are no longer clearly visible.
The dome is also known for its unusual chaotic magnetic properties, which make compasses swing wildly and amalgam fillings play K.i.s.s FM.
As a tourist destination, the dome is a place of great scenic beauty. Home to over 450 species of nesting birds, butterflies and other more interesting wildlife.
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Brian Habana, South Africa’s fast running (11sec for 100m) sweetheart of Rugby, recently raced a cheetah for charity, you can see the video on CNN.
They had to bring in a Hollywood stunt team to stage the event, and posted animal wranglers armed with tranq guns, all along the course to prevent the cheetah nibbling on Habana’s throat.
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