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Travel Quotes

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~ Mark Twain

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."
~ Martin Buber

Garth Macartney said on 30 Jan, 2009 (16h23)... The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it
~T.S Elliot

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
~George Moore

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Friday, the 8th of January 2010

Malawi Comes Online with HooNoze.com

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:14 pm (SAST)

Malawi comes online with HooNoze.com

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Shiluvari Review 23.6.09

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:38 pm (SAST)

Shiluvari Lakeside Lodge

Clare Wilkie-Girardin and Michel Girardin

Tel: 015 556 3406

Fax: 015 556 3413

Cell: 082 603 0451

Email: clare@shiluvari.com

Website: www.shiluvari.com

Getting there: Shiluvari Lakeside Lodge is at Elim, 25km east of Louis Trichardt in Limpopo province. From Johannesburg it’s 420km, from Polokwane 133km, from Kruger National Park’s Pafuri Gate it’s 240km and from Punda Maria (via Thohoyandou), it’s 121km. Kathy and Chris Waddington were hosted recently.

Shiluvari Lakeside Lodge is an ideal destination from which to discover the ‘land of legends’ in northern Limpopo province.

Many are the tales told around Shiluvari’s blazing log-fire, at the cosy pub, or, when the African sun beats down, in the shade of a marula tree surrounded by evocative sculptures. All reveal glimpses of a historical cornucopia just waiting to be explored and the natural beauty that abounds in this off-the-beaten-track region. It’s convenient to the upper northern reaches of Kruger National Park and the Mapungubwe Game Reserve and World Heritage Site, as well as the Zoutpansberg Skirmishes Route (2^nd Anglo-Boer War).

Here an ancient mystique cloaks the surrounding mountains and the myriad sacred lakes, pools and secret places of traditional healing rituals. For this is the land of Modjadji the rain queen and legends of great python gods said to consume virgins.

Shiluvari Lakeside Lodge is a retreat on a peninsula within the Albasini Dam, a conservancy at the foot of the Luonde Mountains. It’s also the centrepiece of much historical intrigue. The ‘radical’ Swiss missionary and medical doctor George Liengme, who once served at the court of a Mozambican king of Gaza before founding the Elim Mission Hospital in the 1890s, is the great-grandfather of Michel Girardin, co-owner of Shiluvari along with his father, Eric, and long-time family friend, Max Tlakula.

After being jailed during the Shangaan wars in Mozambique, Liengme packed his children and wife into a wagon and headed for South Africa. He settled at Elim where he established the now renowned hospital, which remains an integral part of the life of the rural people.

Garden of art

Shiluvari’s lakeside setting resonates with the artistry and culture unique to the area. The gardens, a combination of natural bush and cultivated garden, offer surprises at every turn, from the carved women ‘Domba’ dancers fronting the carpark to Albasini eels by Phineas Musuvhelele, to the spectacular ‘Fallen King’ of the late renowned sculptor, John Baloyi. This dramatic extension of the natural shape of a section of ironwood was inspired by the artist’s fascination with European history and philosophy and depicts the death of Louis XVI during the French Revolution.

In pride of place in front of the wide, wrap-around veranda of the main building is a peaceful Zen garden, inspired by Michel’s father and dedicated to ‘mothers everywhere’. Adjacent is a lap pool, complete with children’s bathing area, offering expansive views of the lake and Luonde Mountain and the perfect spot for sundowners or watching glorious sunrises.

Eclectic sophistication

Clare’s decorative touch, as featherlight as that of the dragonfly that inspires Shiluvari’s logo, is understated luxury in each of the well-appointed rooms. There are no pretensions at Shiluvari –most of it, buildings included, are hand-crafted by local artists, carpenters and builders under Eric’s supervision, so a hand-hewn aspect is brought to the lodge’s sophistication.

The Girardins have made use of the wares and skills of local community enterprises, including the Rivoni Society for the Blind, who made the wooden cupboard frames, exquisitely beaded wall-hangings and woven sisal mats. The women of the Mashamba/Mkhondeni Pottery Village created attractive pot-belly fireplaces and hand-basin pedestals that add a rustic touch in the cool thatch rooms. Each opens to a patio in the shade of trees alive with birdsong, with views of either the lake or mountain. Bold, colourful table runners, combining traditional Venda fabric with the spotted detail typical of Shangaan decoration, were made by the Madi a Thavha Mountain Project, while the percale duvet covers are embroidered by the Tsonga Textiles Women’s Project.

Headboards and pedestals were carved by locals David Murathi and Justice Mugwenya, who also contributed some of the large sculptures in the gardens. Gardener Piet Mathosi turns his hand to weaving mats, alongside Betty’s grandmother, and basket-making, for which he has become a sought-after supplier among regular visitors to Shiluvari.

Hand and towel rails, mirrors, hanging light baskets and shelving are made from invader species like blue gum (eucalyptus) and black wattle, with a local initiative putting the exotic woods to practical use at the same time as they clear the area of invasives.

Gourmet cuisine

The lodge has both a restaurant and al fresco terrace, a bar and comfortable lounge area. Chef Poppy Ramashiya and her assistant, Maria Netshisaulu have created a reputation for themselves and Shiluvari for the gourmet cuisine they offer: from their special breakfast muesli presentation – a visual feast in itself – that pre-empts a traditional cooked breakfast done to perfection, to the a la carte and three-course dinners, all are presented with panache.

Their many honours include the prestigious KWV/Laborie Bush Banquet award.

Spiritual Wellness

The scene is set for the Girardins’ newest dream: creating a spiritual wellness centre within the restful gardens of Shiluvari. Earth Sense aims to provide a holistic retreat offering body and soul restorative massages and treatments using local ingredients like raw Soutpansberg salt, baobab, avocado and macadamia oils, and wild ginger, all growing in profusion and inextricably linked with Venda history and culture.

Michel wants to create a spiritual healing centre based on natural remedies and philosophies. He has been inspired by Jung’s teachings and hosts alternative healing tours, including visits by shamans from the Americas who are interested in learning more about traditional African healing rituals.

Fair Trade

Michel and Clare ensured that Shiluvari was one of the first establishments to meet the strict criteria to be accredited by Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA).

“Our ultimate aim is to be totally self-sufficient, while growing our capacity in local tourism and development. We’re focusing on capacity and growth of our staff, with the aim of having them absorb the leadership role. Training and skills development, and enabling people to earn a fair wage are key.”

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PALAMA tender

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:20 pm (SAST)

Read the Sunday Times 24 May 2009 page 15 for the tender for the provision of:
1. Professional venue finding services BID NUMBER 02/2009
2. Venues from pre-approved service providers BID NUMBER 03/2009
Documents available on http://www.palama.gov.za

PALAMA: The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy

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Mokala Game Park 13 May 2009

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:19 pm (SAST)

Indaba 2009 has come and gone in a blur, with excellent business contacts - and friendships - discovered, revisited or cemented. What a great bunch of individuals make up our tourism community.

Among my most memorable meetings were those with a travel operator who makes sure disabled and "differently abled" people get to see the wonders South Africa has to offer. He's opened up a whole new world for many who thought they would never travel again.

With the help of those amazing people at Storms River Adventures, he's had the pleasure of arranging for wheelchair-bound people to enjoy the thrill of a canopy tour in the Tsitsikamma Forest. He's also been privileged to help a child dying of leukaemia to live his final dream of meeting owls and other raptors at a Hout Bay bird sanctuary.

Then there's the wildlife vet who is combining his vocation with educating student vets and scientists - and travellers with an interest in the medical care of the animals that bring so much pleasure to visitors to game farms, parks and reserves. His, too, is a a humbling story of how eco-tourism rands, dollars, euros and yen are making a difference where it counts.

But these are both stories in their own right, to be written soon.

I was lucky too, to bump into the people from Mokala Game Park in the Northern Cape, the 'newest' of the Sanparks' reserves. I had visited last year to see how the landscape was transforming from its previous incarnation as a hunting lodge - now a breeding centre for some of SA's most endangered animals and plants. At the time, I learned of their plans to provide great accommodation for those who can't afford the high costs of luxury lodges, or who simply prefer being in a tent in the bush. At my Indaba meeting, I discovered that the new, very special campsite is ahead of schedule and are due to open in September. They'll provide private ablutions and kitchen facilities for each campsite, and the camp has its very own waterhole for great viewing of the massive herds of disease-free buffalo, roan, sable and other antelope, among a myriad other creatures large and small, from the comfort of your deckchair. Mokala also offers night drives and stargazing trips, as well as educational visits to ancient Khoi-San etchings. Mokala is also especially well-placed to visit the Anglo-Boer War sites at Magersfontein and all along the main highway up to and including Kimberley.

So if you're going adventuring in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, planning a Battlefields Route around South Africa, following a route to the historic diamond mining frontier region, or just need some time out in the bush, pop in to Mokala for a night or three.

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Tourism helps animals in need

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:43 pm (SAST)

Tourism that helps animals in need

Anyone who has spent time camping and hiking on South Africa’s coast will have encountered its four-legged hoboes, writes Kathy.

On a remote sand dune In Mozambique it was Jess, a dark little mutt of indeterminate age who slept on the doormat outside our tent. A first-class watchdog despite a warm nose and weepy eyes, she was a devoted companion on long walks along wild, deserted beaches. She survived on ghost crabs and campers’ leftovers.

On the desolate beaches of Maputaland in far northern KwaZulu-Natal, Bones stole hearts (along with any boerewors left in jaw-snapping distance). At Coffee Bay on the Wild Coast Tess would hide at night in a little nook between cooler box and flysheet to avoid the amorous attentions of the four-legged gang that prowled the empty beaches.

At Port St Johns, a little black fur-ball, the runt of a litter, broke our hearts as she hobbled along, trying to keep up with her family as they scavenged along the shoreline. Her right front paw had been ripped off, and it looked suspiciously like a trapping injury. Watching the local canine gang at their hangout overlooking First Beach, it became clear little ‘Paw’ wasn’t even at the bottom of the totem pole when food was on offer.

There is no SPCA in Port St Johns, and no one seemed to care about the welfare of the homeless, ill or injured ‘braks’.

For in rural Africa, where poverty and hunger etch so many human faces, dogs, unless they are hunting animals, are often not important.

In their hideaway in the ancient Tsitsikamma Forest, the first adventure company to be accredited by Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) is making a difference in the lives of its neighbours, from helping township hounds to injecting new faith, skills and cash into the community.

Against a backdrop of similar experiences of ‘forgotten’ animals living among desperately poor people adjacent to the Stormsriver village at Tsitsikamma on the Eastern Cape coast, Fiona Lowndes decided caring for animals and caring for people should not be mutually exclusive.

Fiona, the partner of Ashley Wentworth, the founder of eco-adventure company Storms River Adventures (SRA), was convinced the two were intrinsically connected.

The company, known for bringing treetop canopy tours to South Africa first at Tsitsikamma and later through the affiliate, Canopy Tours SA, to Magaliesberg in Gauteng and Karkloof (KZN), ploughs much of its profits into the well-being of neighbouring communities. Fiona’s animal welfare ‘baby’ has burgeoned in four short years into a slick programme that meets the veterinary needs of some 200 dogs. It’s also introduced a new dimension in creating a deeply caring community.

“Learning to care for the animals has brought a new component into the lives of the people,” she says. “A revived culture of respect and empathy for each other has rippled through. It’s tangible. As they’ve become more in touch with the need to care for their animals, by extension they care more about the people around them.”

Through the generosity of vets, clinics are held regularly. Dogs and cats are dipped, de-wormed, treated for mange and other diseases, receive inoculations and are sterilised.

It has been a long, difficult road. “Animals, some with gaping wounds after run-ins with baboons, would be dumped outside my gate. Every day seemed to bring a new emergency. I just wasn’t equipped for the trauma of it.”

Fiona learnt the hard way about calming injured animals, disinfecting, treating and stitching wounds, helping with litters of pups and kittens and rushing seriously ill dogs to vets.

Now she has rallied a team of vets who visit each month. They charge nominal rates that cover their costs, which are sponsored by SRA.

And adventure tourists are thrilled to see the benefits of their holiday spend. They jump at the chance to accompany Fiona on her rounds and have named each of the chalets at the community-run Backpacker’s Lodge – initiated by SRA – after rescued animals.

So after you’ve taken a forest canopy tour through the treetops of the Tsitsikamma National Park, join Fiona on an animal welfare mission in Stormsriver West. This excursion is free and accommodates three guests at a time.

Contact: Storms River Adventures at 042 281 1836; email adventure@gardenroute.co.za or visit their website at www.stormsriver.com and www.Treetoptour.com

Visit the Fair Trade in Tourism SA website at www.fairtourismsa.org.za for listings of all organisations that comply with strict Free Trade in Tourism criteria.

The double spin-off is that Storms River Adventures is at the forefront in attracting a new brand of international tourist – those who want their dollars, pounds and euros to be seen to be making a difference to host communities and the environment.

Read Kathy's Fair Trading adventure company makes a difference

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Caravanners beware

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:09 pm (SAST)

Caravanners beware: count on municipal sites at your peril

If you should take it into your head to hook up a caravan to explore the much-vaunted Maloti Route – which skirts around the Drakensberg in the south, up and around Lesotho – be warned: Avoid municipal caravan parks. And apply your research skills!

Read Kathy Waddington's full story here

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Weston event 30 May 2009

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:55 pm (SAST)

Just a few short weeks and we’ll have another long, lazy weekend. Bad, we’re told, if commerce, production and manufacturing are your business, but great news for those in the retail and travel trades … and those among us who just can’t resist pointing our noses at new experiences at any opportunity.

Like digging into things historical. The mere hint of the word used to have me nodding off. Memories of rote-learning dates and endless rabbiting on about the Groot Trek was about as interesting for this rooinek meisie as watching mielies grow in the Free State. Classroom monologues about pitched battles and bloodshed stirred nothing but outrage in this declared pacifist: Boers and British and Zulus taking it in turns to butcher each other.

You get the picture. My history buff son has long since despaired of me. Yet standing in Holkrans cave in the rugged cliffs of Meiringskloof, near Ficksburg, I felt, for the first time, a connection with this ancient timeline. Here more than a thousand women and children were hidden by the Boers to escape the British and their concentration camps. It’s a cool, damp place, its entrance hidden behind great jumbled rocks and a forest of trees and plants and shrubs, and its length and breadth is immense. The quiet is broken by the steady drip-drip of water and birdcalls, and it’s a serene place. But an eerie sense pervades and the ancient echoes were, in my mind, of children’s voices, babies’ cries and the desperately calming tones of their mothers.

It’s when the reality of history strikes home that we feel that connection.

Near Mooi River, at Weston, there’s an agricultural school for boys. But at the time of the 2^nd Anglo Boer War, it was a remount depot, where the horses and mules used by British soldiers were encamped for training to withstand the barrage of war before being sent off to the frontlines. The depots were also there for treating the injured and sick cavalry mounts, which were shot when they were of no further use.

Today schoolboys at Weston have amassed a collection of horseshoes and other remnants of those days, which are kept in a museum in the school. Some of the old wartime buildings are still standing and three have been declared heritage sites. But it was finding mass graves and scattered horse and mule bones that touched the school’s farm manager and history teacher. It was time, they decided, to pay tribute to the animals that have, through the ages, done man’s bidding so unstintingly and honourably, even when death was the sure outcome.

Their dream is finally coming true: on May 30 and 31, there’ll be a weekend of honouring the animals that have been sacrificed in our man-made wars. They’ve created a monument out of horseshoes, and a crypt of bones will be buried and consecrated during a ceremony attended by mounted guards.

There’ll also be displays of horsemanship and battle enactments, and a military-style Ball has been arranged. And if you’d like to add a personal tribute, you can sponsor a ‘dressed’ horseshoe and plaque to be mounted on a Wall of Remembrance.

And when the Last Post sounds, it’s certain to raise a frisson as you make that connection with the past. So if you’re still planning your next long weekend, head inland for a brush with history.

Read the full story here

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Lianne Davies' Quote

Posted by Carol-Ann at 01:11 pm (SAST)

"In life the things we always cherish with fond memories are the ones when we travelled. It stays with you forever and no one can ever rob you of them... "

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Wednesday, the 15th of April 2009

Easter Weekend

Posted by Denise at 02:07 pm (SAST)

my easter holidays was so amazing

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