Our first stop on the Garden Route, the most famous coastal strip in South Africa, was at the Wild Spirit Backpackers in Nature’s Valley. It’s a beautiful and isolated hostel on a massive piece of land up in the mountains.…
Jeffrey’s Bay
Jeffrey’s Bay (J-Bay) is known as one of the best waves in the world and is the site of the main pro surf competition in South Africa each year. The town itself feels a lot like a family beach destination…
Wild Coast
Once we were done playing in the mountains and riding horses we headed south for the Wild Coast. Our first stop was to be Coffee Bay, a place we’d heard raving reviews about from a lot of other travelers, but first we…
Drakensberg
We left Richard’s Bay in the morning and headed to Drakensberg, a mountainous area to the west of Durban. When we arrived we checked in to a massive hostel (called ‘backpackers’ in South Africa) named Amphitheater. It was huge and extremely…
Swaziland
After Kruger and Chimp Eden we drove a couple hours in to Swaziland, a small country sitting between South Africa and Mozambique and the only absolute monarchy in Africa. We were expecting to feel like we were in a different country it…
Chimp Eden
After leaving Kruger we went to the Jane Goodall funded Chimp Eden, the only chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa. Chimps aren’t native to South Africa, but this center takes in chimps that have been rescued, mostly from very bad situations…
Kruger National Park
After 6 months of traveling and not having a chance to see any of my friends from back home it was awesome to be reunited with one of my best buds. Our first week in South Africa was a complete…
Leaving The Boat
Richard’s Bay, South Africa is my last stop aboard SV Obelisk and my departure is definitely bitter sweet. I originally set out to sail across the Indian Ocean for a couple of reasons; to learn more about sailing, to see if living…
Passage: Madagascar to South Africa
The passage from Mahajanga to Richard’s Bay South Africa is about 1100 miles on and was to be my last aboard Obelisk. It’s a very technical and challenging passage for two main reasons; strong and extremely variable currents and the…
Madagascar: Mahajanga
Mahajanga is a good sized port city where pretty much all visiting yachts check out before heading to South Africa. It’s not a big international tourist destination though it is known as a place where Malagasy’s from inland come for beach…