#Nature

Thorsten and I recently spent three days in Suurbraak, a tiny town in South Africa’s Overberg region. Thorsten (who is an architect) designed a holiday house there several years ago; now he’s designing a second house for the same clients. I was lucky enough to get invited along on his scouting mission.

I’m back in Joburg after a month-long trip to the U.S. – my second American journey in 2023. I spent most of this trip dealing with administrative and family issues, spending time in the same places I normally go: Maryland (and a little time in Washington, D.C.), South Carolina, and New York. But I also squeezed in a short trip to Rhode Island with my sister.

Read Quirky South Africa Part 1, about padstals, and Quirky South Africa Part 2, about Bethulie and the Gariep Dam.

I was talking to some South African friends about my visit to the Garden Route recently, and one of them said: “Maybe this is a dumb question. But what is the Garden Route, exactly?” And I realized that even though I’ve been there multiple times I did not exactly know.

Namibia is a giant desert, famous for its towering sand dunes. If you’re familiar with African travel then you’ve probably heard of the Sossusvlei dunes – which have become dune celebrities, thanks to Instagram – and maybe Walvis Bay’s Dune 7, the tallest dune in Namibia. But how about Namibia’s Koichab dunes…ever heard of those?

A year or so ago, at the height of the covid pandemic, I saw a friend’s Facebook post about a weekend excursion in a houseboat on the Vaal River. She rented the boat from Old Willow No. 7 Houseboat Charters, an hour’s drive from Joburg.