The Lonely Bull Trail is a primitive backpacking trail in one of the large wilderness areas in the northern Kruger National Park.
The trail stretches over 4 days and 3 nights and we had to carry our own tents, water and food and camp rough in the bush, with two armed guides to show us the way and make sure we did not get eaten.
This was the first multi-day hike for all of us and although we did loads of research, there was an enormous and somewhat scary unknown ahead.
My biggest fears:
So with these fairly serious animal and ablution concerns, combined with my track record as a seasoned unhappy camper, why on earth did we choose to do this?
Continue reading…
When we headed for a week in the Central Drakensberg recently, our goal was to do as little as possible – this was our annual holiday and we badly needed a break. We booked a week’s timeshare at the Drakensberg Sun and headed into the mountains dreaming of long lazy morning lie-ins, afternoon naps and plenty of early nights – completely contrary to our usual action-packed adventures.
After a day or two, we had done exactly what we planned – absolutely nothing. Although very relaxing for some of us, cabin fever started to kick in for others and our teens were starting to bounce off the walls and each other. So, we reluctantly emerged from our beds, grabbed our backpacks and headed off each day to see what the Central Berg has in store for adventurous families.
Continue reading…
Walking through the wilderness with the wind at your back and the sun shining warmly on your face is in our family’s opinion the perfect way to spend a day. The combination of clean air, pure silence, breath-taking views and some healthy cardio works magic on our souls. We are so lucky to be literally surrounded with hiking opportunities and have made it our mission to get out there and discover the trails in and around Nelson Mandela Bay.
Here are four of our favourites so far:
Continue reading…
For us, travel is all about the destination rather than the accommodation. We focus on the activities and exploring the location and things to do in an area rather than what bed we sleep in. However, there are certain places with such unique accommodation that the bed becomes the destination all in itself.
We put together this list of weird and wonderful places to stay in the Garden Route with a delightfully quirky road trip in mind – starting at Port Elizabeth and ending in Cape Town. It would take 12-14 days to experience one of the most beautiful parts of the world in the most unique and memorable way and combining all these peculiar places to stay into one trip would be quite frankly phenomenal.
My name is Sarah and I am an Instagram travel junkie.
I spend hours pouring over travel photos and dreaming of visiting the most Instagram-able destinations, taking my own photos and adding them to Chasing the Rainbow’s Instagram account. The Grand Canyon’s distinctive Horseshoe Bend, Canada’s pale turquoise Lake Louise, the Faroe Islands’ spectacular waterfalls, Victoria Falls’ rainbow in the mist….. there are just so many enviable destinations.
Top of my South African Instagram wish list is the Blyde River Canyon – the greenest canyon in the world. There is a rock that you can sit on with a view out over the Blyderivierspoortdam with its distinctive azure colour water surrounded by forest clad cliffs and huge rocky buttresses. My sparkly #rainbowtakkies would look oh-so-delicious right there on that rock.
I used to visit Mpumulanga’s Panorama Route every year way back before it was even called that. My parents owned timeshare at Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge and we did a yearly pilgrimage to the area, panning for gold in Pilgrims’ Rest, eating pancakes at Harries in Graskop, checking out all the incredible waterfalls – from Mac Mac to Lisbon, Berlin, Maria Shires, Bridal Veil and Lone Creek – and viewpoints at The Pinnacle, God’s Window, Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the Three Rondawels. But for some reason, in over a decade of visiting the area, I had never seen or heard of that famous view over the Blyde Rivier dam until Instagram popped it into my feed.
So when planning where to go in the week before our trip to the Kruger National Park, and looking for a timeshare swap in the area, Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge seemed like a great idea. Ralph and I had been there and done most of that, but it would be awesome to show it all to the kids with the added benefit of being able to capture it all on Instagram and get that sparkly rainbow nation takkie photo at Blyde River Canyon.
