October has been a manic month. Katherine’s arrival from Kenya proved to be the catalyst for an admin-filled couple of weeks as we searched for a new home in Cape Town, while simultaneously organising phones, bank accounts, credit cards, insurance, jobs and all the rest of that ‘fun’ stuff.
Anyway, after a couple of frantic weeks, we seem to have made good headway and are already feeling decidedly more settled (if somewhat exhausted as well). Today we signed a lease on a lovely little two-bedroom apartment on Beach Road in Sea Point with awesome sea views and two balconies for my braais! It has all the potential to become a great new base for us, as we start the newest chapter of our life together in Cape Town.
We did manage to sneak in a long weekend away with mates to check out the whales off the coast of Hermanus (www.hermanus.co.za/whales.asp). It was a fun-filled and action-packed couple of days with lots of exercise, beach time, whale-spotting walks and rugby watching: an all round super-cool weekend away with good friends.
Tomorrow we depart on our much anticipated trip to the parks of the Northern Cape and Namibia. First stop is Mokala (www.sanparks.org/parks/mokala/) where South Africa’s newest national park has already carved out a reputation as a stronghold and breeding ground for endangered herbivores and I look forward to discovering more about this little-known park, which lies a stone’s throw from Kimberly.
After three nights in Mokala, we head to the Kgalagadi (www.sanparks.org/parks/kgalagadi/) for the last week of October. The Kalahari thirst-lands are undoubtedly my favourite wilderness area in South Africa. It has been six long years since I last visited this iconic national park and I am extremely excited to finally be headed back there.
After reacquainting myself with the Kalahari, magazine assignments will take me into Namibia. The trip will predominantly focus on the NamibRand Nature Reserve and Sossusvlei area, although it looks like we will also manage to squeeze in a couple of days in Swakopmund and a six-day river trip down the Orange River on our way home.
With so much to look forward to … this hardly classifies as ‘another tough month in Africa’!