Category: South Africa

What’s in a name? Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa.

Kwa Zulu-Christmas.
That doesn’t sound quite right, does it?
What if the history books wrote about Port Christmas?
Or the Colony of Christmas?

The Umzimvubu River and Port St Johns

…..as usual, the European powers that were, had no respect for local knowledge, so the Umzimvubu River is called the St Johns River on all maps, and in all books written up until the early 1900s.

The Trekbokke of the Karoo

An extermination party shows off their success.

The springbok treks in the late 1800s were akin to swarms of locusts moving over the land, and as devastating to sheep farmers, who often gave up farming after their grazing land had been destroyed by the springbokke.

The Beervlei Dam

It does not supply any towns with water. Considering that this the dry, almost desert like Little Karoo, you will think that strange, or a waste of precious water.

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, aka HIP

South Africa's oldest game reserve

…a huge black mamba, one of Africa’s most deadly snakes, rose up between them. They froze, and the snake went on its way, but came back when……

The Shongweni Falls and Railway Tunnels

As waterfalls go, it isn’t very spectacular, but if you venture down to the bottom of the gorge you will be awestruck by the railway tunnels there.

The Flowers of Hogsback, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

……the eclectic collection of residents is well known to the fairies that inhabit the beautiful surrounding forests and gardens. The waterfalls are extremely beautiful, the mountains are breath taking, and so on and so forth…..

Barberton – home to daisies and brave dogs

Not that well known of Barberton,, is the story of Cockney Liz, the high class call girl who travelled from England to South Africa to find her fiancé. Not finding him, she started off as a barmaid, and eventually earned fame and fortune; the fortune having started when a night with her was auctioned off – sometimes payment was made by the highest bidder in gold mining shares.

From elephant bush to stately homes – Durban’s Berea

Durban’s Berea: We were walking the concrete pavements, that not that long ago, not much more than 150 years ago, had been sub-tropical jungle, with huge trees and exotic plants growing in profusion right where we were walking.