Tag: www.southafrica.net

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My faces of the year… South Africa

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My teachers would always tell me not to talk back but I always did.

Just like recently when The Scary One reminded me that I’d been away 10 times this year…

I reminded her that it was actually 11 if you count my trip up to Northern Ireland for the Open Golf Championship.

Which I definitely do.

Ian mighty: Boers and beasts

For all the trips I’ve had it has been an exceptional year after I struck out on my own after 30 years as a wage slave.

And while every one of the destinations boasted a beautiful vista or historical site or activity they all shared one thing in common.

Unforgettable people… and animals!

Sahara Port Elizabeth’s Raggy Charters doggie

Because it really is faces, not places, that make a holiday for me.

So if you want sunsets and sand, pools and paella then I’d suggest another site.

Or gated community (or asylum)!

So where do I start? Lost (again) in a national park in the Eastern Cape of South Africa… http://www.southafrica.net and http://www.southafrica.net/meetyoursouthafrica.

And https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/homemyoffice/whats-new-pussycat/

Leopard print

With local guide Alan who knows the land like the back of his hand.

Only it can’t be this land as we discovered going around in circles and only arriving back in our Port Elizabeth hotel at midnight.

After the bar had closed… never a good look for an Irish party!

Ian had more of a handle on things when he took us out on safari.

And helped us track down a leopard!

Township pals: With Xhanti

And all the time the ever-patient and always T-shirted Siseko kept us on track all across the Eastern Cape.

Our English host Rachel added smiles and youth to an old man’s photographs.

Rhino. Howiya?

And Xhanti put on a braai (or barbecue) for us in the biggest township in South Africa… https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/day-in-the-life-of-a-township/

While telling us stories from the armed conflict when he used to hide under the bed from the authorities.

When he wasn’t locked up in a prison cell.

Where the guards would give prisoners a Bible for redemption.

Only the Good Book is replete with stories of how the oppressed will rise up.

Good planning there!

Our South Africa: Host Rachel, Bandanaman and Jimmy

Of course there’s always one on every trip.

And as my good friend and doyen of the Travel circuit Eoghan Corry says: ‘if you don’t know who that is: it’s probably you.’

You see I wasn’t being woke enough for my thirtysomething Itish colleague about something or other.

Braii time: We’re all pals

Hey ho, it wouldn’t be the last person I’d fall out with over the year.

Still we made up by the end of the evening and back in Dublin we met at a function and it was air kisses all round.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

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Trawling the graveyards of history

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I’m dying to share this… how one woman is remembered in the Caribbean.

From the inscription which marks the span of her life.

From sunrise to sunset…

You have to think that Emily was a ray of sunshine herself.

Well, she was from Tobago, an island where rain is known as liquid sunshine… www.visittobago.gov.tt.

Insert your own caption here

And I left with a mountain of memories… It’s Robinson Crusoe’s very own Tobago and I should cocoa – Christmas in Tobago.

I was thinking about death today (no, not a heavy Saturday night) but a regular occurrence.

After visiting the ancient burial ground of Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, near my home here in Ireland.

 

It’s a mystery: In Tobago

I may well have inherited my fascination for graveyards from my Dear Old Dad who I’ll meet there one day.

The Tobagonians have a unique way of seeing life… and death.

As evidenced by this riddle on what has become the most famous grave on the island.

Riddle me this: In Tobago

So that you don’t have to strain your eyes too much the gist of the inscription on the 1783 grave in Plymouth reads in part:

‘She was a mother without knowing it, and a wife without letting her husband know it except by her kind indulgences to him.’

Riddles in Tobago

Now we were asked by our hosts the same question they pose to every visitor: ‘What the heck does it mean?’

My answer, the obvious one, is it’s a woman, whoever knows what goes on in their minds.

Marilyn and me: LA

I keep my eyes open for graves and final resting places wherever I go.

Just this year I discovered that Marilyn Monroe’s final resting place is off a busy street in LA… www.visitcalifornia.com and www.discoverlosangeles.com.

Where she is forced to spend eternity with her old nemesis Hugh Hefner which I tell you all about on this blog… My weekend with Marilyn

 

You can’t pick your neighbours

Of course, graveyards have strong personal connections to those who are related to, or are friends of the deceased.

World War I battlefields

Such as when I was the first of my family to kneel at the graveyard of my Great Uncle Willie who fell in Ieper, or Ypres.

While on that tour of the World War I battlefields In Flanders fields with www.gtitravel.ie and www.visitflanders.com and http://www.visit-somme.com I visited the Canadian and German memorials.

The Canadian memorial with its Caribou statue has a special resonance for my family as Grandpa George fought for the Canadian Army.

And met Granny Mary, a nurse, when he returned to Scotland.

A South African tale

War and graveyards tend to go hand in hand.

And in a visit to the Eastern Cape in South Africa at the start of the year What’s new pussycat? I braved the cold and the damp…

And the big game to visit the graveyard of an Afrikaans resistance fighter from the Boer War…

Of course hanging around graveyards at this time of year you’re liable do get some spooky vibes.

And the lines between this life and the next can become blurred.

Make of me and my colleagues from that trip to South Africa what you will… www.southafrica.net.

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South Africa’s prize boy from the township

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Iain Buchanan was uncharacteristically unSouth African when I asked him in February if the Springboks would win the Rugby World Cup.

No, man!

Well, Iain and the gang will be breaking out the Cape white wine.

With ice, like they do in South Africa, today in the Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve https://newmarkhotels.com/places/reserves/mount-camdeboo/.

The All Boks

Iain was more definite and enthused when asked about what Nelson Mandela had done for South Africa… What’s new pussycat?

‘A great man, a great man.’

You can’t separate the Rainbow Nation and the modern Springboks story. Nor should you.

And I somehow think that Mandela will be smiling broadly up there today for Siya Kolisi.

Braai high: In the Port Elizabeth township

The boy from the Port Elizabeth township.

Which I visited on that same trip to PE and the Eastern Cape… Day in the life of a township and https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/home/whats-new-pussycat/.

And had a braai (a South African barbecue) in the type of shebeen Kolisi referenced in his victory speech.

We’re all Springboks here. In the township

Where I met a resistance fighter, Xhanti, who now spends his weekends on a golf course until recently a whites preserve.

A resistance fighter and a fine golfer, Xhanti

Growing up and watching from afar you couldn’t support South African sportsmen because of apartheid.

Now it’s hard not to.

And today as Kolisi testified they will be celebrating as much in the townships as on the farms.

MEET YOU AT THE BRAAI

And some important websites: www.southafrica.net/meetyoursouthafrica.

And www.southafrica.net.

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Dog days… It’s International Dog Day

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Right, just to address a false impression, particularly on this International Dogs Day. I don’t dislike dogs.

I probably prefer cats but there are some doggies I have fallen in love with.

The first was Dinky, the Welsh corgi at Shovlin’s guesthouse in Narin-Portnoo, Co. Donegal.

A real prince of dogs, his is the breed so beloved by the Queen.

We would regularly sit on the craggs and I would throw balls to him so he could run on the wide golden sands.

Yes, that beach is all mine: Dinky

My Dear Old Dad, not the biggest animal lover, even took to him.

Narin-Portnoo was a favourite family holiday, my Mum’s parents and sister Nora lived just up the road in Brockagh, near Ballybofey.

And, of course, it was the first place I took the Scary One, when she was merely a little daunting, and the Son and Heir.

Visit http://www.carnaweenhouse.com and http://www.donegalcottageholidays.com.

Like people, I suppose we all have our types, and I venture for the loyal, sparky types. It helps if they’re cute too.

The best friend a man ever had was Greyfriars Bobby who I make no apologies in bringing up again and whom Disney made a film about.

Bobby slept on the grave of his maister (that’s Scottish for master) in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirk (a graveyard). And their graves lie next to each other now.

That’s my pub too: Greyfriars Bobby

There is a statue outside the kirk, and a pub, in his honour too.

Every time I’m back in Edinburgh I make a pilgrimage up to see him, and just for research have a dram (a whisky) in the pub. http://www.greyfriarskirk.com http://www.edinburgh.org http://www.visitscotland.com

Ever work with pets

They say never work with pets or children… but television and the movies always fall back on doggies and kids. They are a sure-fire earning winner.

The best dog on TV because he is, and because he’s on the best television show ever made is Eddie, Martin’s best pal, on Frasier.

Sahara bumpety: With Sahara in Algoa Bay, off Port Elizabeth, South Africa

And because of that I always have a soft spot for Jack Russells.

Sahara. the South African Jack Russell is the mascot of Raggy Charters whale and dolphin-watching boat firm in Port Elizabeth.

Heck, I don’t think owner Lloyd would object to me saying it’s Sahara who runs things around there.

Here he is pointing out the bottlenose blue dolphins to us in Algoa Bay… it’s the bottlenose dolphin capital of the world. http://www.raggycharters.co.za. And, of course, check out all that PE and South Africa has to offer http://www.southafrica.net http://www.meetyoursouthafrica.net and http://www.nmbt.co.za.

I know there is a certain irony in begging up dogs as my South African article What’s new pussycat? was in praise of cats

But all God’s creatures have a place in the choir… and this blog.

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Here’s to beer

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It’s beer o’clock… who am I kidding? Any hour of the day is beer time on this International Beer Day.

And that’s why I’m saying… here’s to the Brewery and Two Goats Deli in Nieu Bethesda, Dulf’s Burger in Hamburg, Tom’s Bierhaus in Ieper in Belgium.

And where ever your local boozer is.

But firstly would you let me take you to a dusty Karoo town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa?

Because it was there that I spent a very pleasant afternoon in the baking sun, drinking samples of stouts and ciders.

And before falling asleep on the swing bed.

That said, they are good memories that I hark back to on this International Beer Day.

Bok to the beer

This is where I sampled South Africa out of a glass… or five.

For more visit http://www.karooconnections.o.za/tours/nieu. And check out my review of the Eastern Cape… https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/home/whats-new-pussycat/

And here’s a couple of other pics of me drinking beer…

Burger and beer

In Germany, obviously, with a local Astra Pilsener lager and a hamburger. It must be Hamburg. Let’s relive it… https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/hamburgers-and-ships/

Belgian beer

And a large one with Simon in Tom’s Bar in Ieper in Belgium.

It was a poignant trip finding my Great Uncles who fell in the War.

But this was downtime… and I bet Willie and Patrick drunk the beer too. https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/firstworldwar-in-flanders-fields/

The Virginian

Virginia in the US: And this is a blonde I picked up in Bristol. A beer that is. visit http://www.virginia.org.

So why don’t you join me on my day out in Virginia which was billed as Beer and Battlefields and took me back in time to the days of Stonewall Jackson. https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/home/easy-dc-2/

We’ll leave it at that for just now… I’m thirsty.

Dear Jesse

Apart from to say, a big thank you to Californian Jesse Avshalomov for giving us the excuse.

Because it was Jesse who founded the thing in 2007 in Santa Cruz, Southern California.

And since its inception it has grown into a worldwide phenomenon (which I’m catching onto now) spanning 207 cities, 80 countries and six continents.

Prost!