Our trip to Africa came totally out of the blue. Two weeks prior to going I
was approached by a friend who owns a stock image company, Image
Source. She was planning a shoot in Cape Town and needed a couple to get
involved, so naturally Jean and I jumped at the opportunity when asked to
go to South Africa. Wanting to make the most out of our trip we decided to
contact the lifestyle and tourism company Pure Africa, to help us plan the
remainder of our travels. As this really was so last minute we really didn’t
have enough time to even think about what we wanted to do whilst there.
All I knew was that there was no way I was going to Africa and not going on
Safari! Thankfully the guys at Pure Africa dealt with everything, and when I
say everything I mean, from the moment we touched down in Cape Town to
the car rental to the vineyard tour right through to booking our internal
flights into the bush in Zimbabwe plus all of our restaurant bookings in-
between. All we had to do was say yes to the proposed itinerary.
So leading up to our adventure Jean and I started watching a tonne of
documentaries on wildlife. That however, could have never prepared us for
how truly spectacular it was to experience first hand everything Africa had
to offer.
So lets start at the beginning with Cape Town...
THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE
We managed to find very reasonable flights with British Airways.
The flight was eleven hours and thirty minutes in total which
compared to our trip to Tahiti was a breeze! We arrived on the over
night flight which landed at 7.45am well rested and excited to
explore South Africa. We had hired a car from the airport as we
were advised that with all we had planned this would be the most
convenient. We then headed to our friend's apartment where we
would be spending the first night before heading to the villa for
the shoot. So after quickly showering we started to make our way
towards our first stop, Babylonstoren vineyard. Self-described as
one of the oldest Cape Dutch farms which houses not only its fruit
and vegetable garden of beauty and diversity, but also
accommodation, fine food and wine plus lots more. Already Cape
Towns beautifully versatile landscape was blowing us away and
That is even before we had laid eyes on the magic of the vineyard!
We were in a slight state of trance that we were actually there. The
exceptionally quick lead up seemed to have flied by in the blink of
an eye and here we were driving through the South-African
countryside surrounded by an aggressive mountainous back drop
which was unassumingly draped in clouds as the sun relentlessly
burnt through.
WINTER
ESCAPES