#Travel

December 31, 2012: The day I nearly lost my life to a pair of German-speaking rhinoceros. (Rhinoceroses? Rhino? Rhinoceri? Thoughts welcome.)

Gretel, the German lady rhinoceros.

Okay, the statement above could be a slight exaggeration. I’m not sure though. I’ll tell the story and let you decide.

The guessing game is over. In the unlikely event that you haven’t figured it out already, I spent the Christmas and New Years holidays in Namibia.

Me in Namibia on Christmas morning. There was a lot of sand there. (Photo: Michelle Stern)

…Guess where?

Those of you who know me or follow me on Facebook or Instagram already know. But the rest of you can try to guess.

I’m going home tomorrow after a fantastic but very exhausting trip. It will probably take weeks for me to get caught up on my blog so this is just a taste of what’s to come. In the meantime, happy 2013.

I love living in Melville because it’s a walkable neighborhood. However, “walkable” is a relative term. I can walk up to 7th Street to meet a friend for dinner, but walking home alone at night is a risk. And although walking from one place to another within Melville is easy, traveling on foot from Melville to any of the nearby suburbs – Parkview, Emmerentia, Greenside etc. – is a mission.

This is my third summer in Joburg and I’ve yet to write a post about jacarandas. The jacarandas bloom around October or November, and the Jozi suburbs become shrouded in purple for a couple of weeks. We need to appreciate jacaranda season while we have it. Jacarandas are an invasive species in South Africa and the public is banned from planting new ones.