Enjoying a local Lesotho beer from the Highest Pub in Africa - 9439 feet above sea level🍻
Not a bad view, eh? -S 🇱🇸
Tala Game Reserve, South Africa
Our first tour out of Durban was three-pronged. The first stop—and the reason we booked the tour—was a game drive in the Tala Preserve.
Up close with a journey of giraffe! This was our favorite moment of the day. Because we had a private tour, we were able to slowly exit the vehicle and walk a few feet out for a few photos. Pretty sure this is very much not allowed, but…well…
Reminds me of an African version of that famous The Beatles Abbey Road photo.
Up close with an elephant. More on this encounter below.
The giraffes as we first encountered them. This felt like such a quintessential setting for them!
This zebra was giving his younger brother the business for several minutes.
Our own private tour! Our guide proactively arranged this after we had arrived at the game reserve when he noticed that a number of kids were also going to be on our originally scheduled game drive. A pro move that really improved our experience—we were very grateful.
When we first discussed how to approach cameras for this trip, I told Jen that we needed long lenses so we could get a shot of a giraffe licking its own nostril, and well, mission accomplished!
Love the dried mud flaking off this white rhino.
Impala making a wild run for it.
Enjoyed seeing these two hippos, especially the youngin.
You spend a lot of time looking at animal butts during safaris, so here’s one of a zebra.
A silhouette of an impala
A flock of ostrich
We really enjoyed watching this browsing giraffe. Just chomped away for many minutes while we quietly snapped countless photos.
We very quickly got the attention of this group of water bucks.
It was brutally hot out, so most of our encounters were finding wildlife in the shade. This gorgeous tree spilled the shade out over the road, so that’s where this herd of impala spent their day.
A full body shot of a giraffe browsing an acacia tree.
A blesbok (heard of these before!) sporting some cool horns.
Natal Lion Park
The last two photos here, as well as the elephant one above, are from a tourist-trap called the Natal Lion Park. This was included in our tour, but…we wish it hadn’t been. Basically, it’s a zoo of sorts to ensure that tourists get their lion and elephant photos. The lions were in a very large (200+ acre) enclosure and you can drive your own vehicle around the roads looking for them. These were under the shade of a tree less than 50 meters from the entrance. They’re fed by park staff, and apparently get shifted between this park and various zoos.
The experience with this elephant felt especially tragic. You arrive on a hilltop elsewhere in the park, then a guy goes off over a hill and returns 15-20 minutes later leading an elephant over to you. Behind a wire fence, you hand a few carrots to the elephant and take some photos. Oy, no bueno. I can see why this place exists—tourists with just the day to explore off the cruise ship want to see a lion and elephant—but boy does it feel exploitative.
PheZulu Safari Park
The last stop on the tour was a visit to PheZulu for a “cultural experience” to watch some Zulu dancing. We weren’t especially interested in this—again, geared towards tourists—but sat through it anyway.
One of the first experiences we had in Pilanesberg National Park was these two subadult rhinos fighting one another. -J 🇿🇦
Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa
Our first safari game drive in Africa was in Pilanesberg National Park, 2.5 hours outside of Johannesburg. The park was formerly farmland located inside a large volcanic crater, but was rewilded as (mostly) natural habitat. -S 🇿🇦
An elephant drinking water, which is dripping off its trunk.
Our first giraffe sighting of the trip
We watched this guy spray himself with water for a bit, though it was hard to capture given our angle.
Two rhinos emerging from a shallow mud pit.
Zebra casually grazing
This doesn’t look like much, but it’s a dead impala in a tree—a recent leopard kill—though we could not locate the leopard, which was likely in the surrounding area, but bedded down and not visible from our various vantage points.
Wildebeest browsing
The two of these rhinos butted up against each other were challenging each other for seemingly the entire day.
Love the coloration on this elephant’s ears
We saw what seemed to be countless impala
The only warthog of the day
A hippo submerged in the water, with some impala nearby
A kudu surveys the landscape
An elephant in the bush
Hippos generally stay in the water during the day to keep their body temperature low, but this one in the distance seemed to enjoy just standing around for a bit.
Elephants browsing
A herd of wildebeast in the distance
Coming and going
My favorite elephant of the day
📷 You can find some more shots from the day on our public iCloud album.
Prayer time in the UAE -S 🇦🇪
🎥 Recapping United Arab Emirates
A short video recapping our time in the UAE.
Some other observations:
- English was the primary language on most of the signs we saw in Dubai; Arabic was also included, but in smaller font below the English version.
- That’s probably not too surprising—nearly 90% of Dubai is foreigners.
- Each Emirate seemed a bit distinct
🎥 Recapping Hong Kong & Macau
Here’s a video recap of our time in Hong Kong and Macau. It was a short visit, especially after having to trim several days from our original itinerary, but we felt like we saw enough to call it done.
One of my favorite parts of our time in Hong Kong was simply sitting at the edge of two tap houses and watching everyone pass by; it’s a great city for people watching.
I also don’t think I’ll forget how much shopping there is. It seemed like countless tall buildings also contained vertical malls, sporting a range of shops from clothing, to high end designer, to pharmacies, to fast food. All somehow with a familiar “American mall” vibe.
-S 🇭🇰🇲🇴
Exploring around the UAE
We only had a short time in the UAE, so we found a way to get the most bang for our buck—a day tour to 5 of the 7 Emerites.
On December 2, 1971, the Sheiks of what are now 6 of the 7 Emerites (the 7th joined a year later) decided to unify and form one country—the United Arab Emerites. (However, each Sheik still controls their own Emerite.) Throughout the country, there are many references to “7”: murals depicting the 7 Sheiks, 7 pots, etc.
We had already explored Dubai a bit the day prior, so this tour focused on Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Funairah. December 2nd is their “National day” of celebration, which just passed. So there were many UAE flags and decorations all over the country. Similar to the US for Fourth of July.
(Fun Fact—the Traveler’s Century Club (whose list we are currently using to count countries) counts each Emerite as a separate country/territory. While we are counting each Emerite separately in our personal total country counts, we are only counting the UAE as one country when we say we are planning on visiting 20 countries on this trip).
Here are some shots from the UAE! -J 🇦🇪
Some additions from Scott:
During our day tour around 5 of the 7 Emirates of the UAE, saw some camels on the side of the road in the Ras Al Khaimah Emirate. Then stopped at a place where they were penned-up in the Fujairah Emirate. -J 🇦🇪
ZOOM CALL - Coffee and Mimosas with Jen and Scott in Durban, South Africa on Sat. 12/14
Wanting to find out the scoop from our trip so far? Come join us on our first group Zoom call with coffee, mimosas, or your favorite morning drink (and maybe a cinnamon roll or something else fun) on Saturday, December 14, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (Arizona Time). We’ll do a recap of the places we’ve been so far–the good, bad, and the ugly :)
Here is the zoom link if you want to join: zoom.us/j/9515523…
And here’s the .ics invite to add to your calendar.
We look forward to seeing and chatting with everyone!
Our first day in Dubai was a scheduled zero day (nothing planned; time for rest/“chores”). But we did check out the Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest structure since 2009. It’s 2,722 feet surpasses the 2nd tallest building (Taipei 101, which we also saw earlier this week in Taipei). -J 🇦🇪
Spent our night watching ASU clobber ISU to win the B12 Championship and a spot in the playoffs in our Dubai hotel room. What an incredible season! Go Devils! -S 🇦🇪
HALFWAY DONE!
✅ Country 16/32 in our quest to drink a Guinness at an Irish Pub in 32 Countries. -S 🇦🇪
It’s haircut day—one of those things you rarely need a strategy for while traveling. Instead of my normal one, we had to buy a cheap AA-battery trimmer that we could keep in our checked luggage, as our carry-on backpacks are already far too heavy with our bevy of lithium batteries + devices. -S 🇦🇪
The Ruins of St Paul's in Macau
While most tourists go to Macau for the casino scene, our top destination there was the Ruins of St Paul’s, a Catholic Church built in the 1600s that’s now an iconic landmark and a part of the Historic Centre of Macao UNESCO World Heritage Site. -S 🇲🇴
The general scene
A story in two panels
Old versus new
Just a facade
A classic angle
Reflected
We’re heading to Dubai, United Arab Emirates today.
Don’t expect as many posts the next few days, as the UAE has some prohibitions that will cramp our normal style. Tomorrow we’ll explore on our own a bit during our “rest & laundry” day, then do a day tour of five of the Emirates on Sun. -S 🇦🇪
Senado Square in Macau is the main town square. The buildings that surround it and the design of the pavement are definitely Portuguese-influenced. It’s part of the UNESCO Historic Center of Macau World Heritage Site and the old pedestrian zones were pack with people. -J 🇲🇴
Took the turbojet over to Macau today, another SAR of China and our fourth TCC Country. Definitely the Vegas of China and there are Portuguese influences all over. Here are a few street scenes. -J 🇲🇴
Back in Hong Kong after spending the day in Macau. Marking off our requisite brewery here in HK while reviewing today’s photos. No Irish pub here, sadly.
We’ll get dinner at Brewdog down the street, as we have a mini quest to visit in each country in which this Scottish brewery has a location -S 🇭🇰
