The date of my 3rd blogiversary hit me by surprise this year. (Honestly, I’d totally forgotten about it!) I was doing a little site maintenance last week and noticed the date of my first post – November 29th. Right away, I knew what I wanted to do – show some of my favorite photos of the last three years but there was no way to weed through more than 2,500...

A year ago, my friends and I traveled to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. When I was researching the Durban leg of the trip, I saw a photo of a rickshaw on Golden Mile Beach and decided I had to find one when I got there and go for a ride. On our way to the airport, I spotted this one near the beach and asked our driver to stop. We...

About an hour after we left Durban‘s King Shaka Airport, we were at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Though only a short distance away, it felt like a different world. As we exited, we noticed Stefan looking anxiously towards the arrivals gate then at his cell phone, as if trying to decide whether to make a call. We shouted his name and he turned and smiled widely. It was...

Our last morning in Durban began with us watching the sun as it rose over the Indian Ocean. And watching as the area known as the Golden Mile, Durban‘s popular stretch of beach came to life with vendors, tourists, swimmers, people out for their morning walk and workers cleaning up the beach. One of the things we wanted to do was dip our toes in the ocean. The sand was...

It wasn’t until I was sitting in the dining room of the Beach Hotel on the morning of our last day in Durban that I finally realized what I’d been missing during the two weeks we traveled around South Africa. At a table close to ours, a group of nattily attired women in dresses made from African fabric, sat engaged in lively conversation. In this room of business people, young professionals and...

I’m still not sure what it is about Durban – I can’t quite put my finger on it exactly. But whatever it is, it creeps under your skin, sneaks up to your chest, grabs hold of your heart and just doesn’t let go. Could it be the sunrise? Alison at Compassline Africa had booked us into the Beach Hotel and the room we had gave us front row seats to the...

When we began planning the Durban leg of our trip, we knew nothing about the rock paintings at Giant’s Castle but once we did, they quickly became a must-see. Created approximately 5,000 years ago by the first known inhabitants of South Africa, the Bushman or San people, and most of it located in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, they are the largest group of rock paintings to be found south of the...

Driving around Johannesburg, Cape Town and then Durban, we realized very quickly how astoundingly beautiful South Africa is. Each city has its unique charm, its own unmistakable landscape. Located on the eastern coast, Durban is the location of South Africa’s busiest port. It enjoys a balmy, subtropical climate. As we drove higher up the Drakensberg Mountains, we were enveloped by clouds. If Don, our driver and guide, was nervous, he didn’t...

When I spoke with Kieron Audain, the student and author who contacted me from Durban, he asked if we’d be visiting the Drakensberg. I had no idea what he was talking about. All we had been thinking about for Durban was a visit to Shakaland, a tour of the city and Umhlanga Rocks, and finding some good Indian restaurants. It was going to be a leisurely two days. But when...

Almost everyone we spoke to before we left the U.S. said we’d love Durban, although they didn’t say why exactly. The largest city in KwaZulu Natal, Durban is also an important manufacturing hub and port. It boasts a sub-tropical climate and some of South Africa’s best beaches. I didn’t know much about the city when I decided to plan that leg of our trip. And apart from a visit to Shakaland,...