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Safari is the most special form of travel we encountered.  It brings you to the edge:  remote location, special field equipment, expert guidance, real personal risk, high daily cost.  In return you are guaranteed a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  You escape from civilization and travel back to see nature the way it was centuries ago, before mankind […]

While in Soweto, we learned Michelle Obama would be there the next day, making a speech at the famous Regina Mundy church. This is the place where Archbishop Desmond Tutu preached and where many key events occurred in the Soweto uprisings. In the most famous, at a time when all of the ANC leadership had […]

Back when the British were first colonizing Africa, gold was discovered in what is now the area of Johannesburg. Upon further mining, it was realized that there was a massive vein of the precious metal and that more workers would be needed to harvest it all. People came in the thousands. Chinese, Europeans, Africans, everyone […]

From Capetown we took a short flight to Durbin.  We stayed outside the city on Salt Beach, near the borders of the Zulu nation.  The Zulus are the largest African tribe in South Africa – 8.5 million people out of 48 million in the country.  The current President is a Zulu.  The Zulus live in […]

The drums pulsed a steady beat as the warriors filed past. In keeping with Zulu tradition, female visitors were seated on the left and men on the right (all the better to defend the kraal and its occupants, should the sudden need arise). Our eyes attempted to adjust to the dim light inside but it […]

I don’t know what I had in mind when I imagined eating in Africa.  I hadn’t really given it much thought. If I had been asked to speculate I would have guessed that the cuisine would be simple dishes consisting mostly of sweet potatoes, rice, and other starches.  I certainly never thought we’d be eating […]

An iron door sealed us in.  We were locked into a large empty cement room.  A thin, spectacled black man stepped forward. “You are here for a short visit, but I was locked in this prison for nine years.  I was sent here by the white South African government because I had joined the military […]

“Strap on your helmets…3..2..1…GO!” Katherine and Russell, aka Team White, were off with a roar. Carter and I, Team Blue, had to wait 5 minutes before we could take off—in our super cool sidecar! We are about to embark on an Amazing Race through Cape Town. Each team would have to complete a series of […]

We meet Cany the host and Riaan the cook Also Willem and Nicholas who show us things at which to look We see cooking utensils and pots and pans galore There are so many ingredients there can’t possibly be any more The recipes, knifes, and spoons are laid out on the table There are two […]

We reached the Cape of Good Hope a few days ago. This is the farthest southwest point of Africa and it is among the lowest latitudes we had planned for our 365 Saturdays (Australia and New Zealand were the others). The Cape was a real hazard for sailors trying to make their way to India. […]

Piggy just arrived in South Africa and went to the edge of the country.  Can you guess the famous location where she is?  There are several clues in this picture.  Email your guess to me at katherine@365saturdays.org

I pet a cheetah yesterday. His name was Chobee. He weighed about as much as me, and I sat next to him and pet him. It was super cool. He even purred, in the cheetah’s deep rumbling way. This was is in Cape Town at the Cheetah Outreach Center. Before we petted Chobee we had […]