Quirky Traveller's Tales

With hype building up around the island of Cape Verde the media has focused its eye upon the archipelago just off the coast of Senegal. The islands have been dubbed the new Caribbean and you can certainly see why.  Holidays to Cape Verde have become increasingly popular over the last few years with people looking to get away to luxurious new locations.

There are a surprising number of things for tourists to do and with towering mountains terraced in greens and a volcano reaching towards the sky, you will be astounded at the amazing scenery.  There are also world class water sports on offer and vibrant festivals titillating the senses. The island appears to be a mix between the Sahara and the Canary Islands and one of the most stunning destinations in the world.

The most famous inhabitant, who certainly brought the island to the world stage, was singer Cesaria Evora. Her songs are filled with a longing for the island, which she yearns to return to. The island is certainly diverse and has every type of landscape possible on offer: from Maio’s dry flats to the lush valleys of Santo Antão.

Diving is also a huge attraction and with many shipwrecks scattered along the shore there are certainly many exciting places to explore. You can see an example of the gigantic ships scattered along the cost on Santa Maria beach. The coastline is littered with similar ships that have become stranded in the shallow waters.

Cape Verde Underwater by Dive World

There are many destinations around the world, but Cape Verde is certainly worth adding to your bucket list for a number of quirky reasons.

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Having travelled through the southern part of Africa extensively in the last few years, I felt as though I had managed to see it all. I have showered mere metres away from a waterhole with elephants splashing around and have eaten a meal of Mopane worms, a delicacy, with a local chief. Never did I think I would experience anywhere more special.

Recently I tried something different from my usual game viewing experience in the famous Kruger National Park in South Africa. I packed my suitcase, took out all the necessary travel essentials and headed for the mountains in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal. I was hardly prepared for the immense beauty my eyes were lucky to be treated to. Kwa-Zulu Natal spans the east coast of South Africa, and is also home to the Drakensberg Mountains – one of the most ancient mountain ranges in the world, and a treat for every one of your five senses.

Sight - On your way to the Drakensberg, you will need to drive through rather monotonous farmlands, which in my experience look the same no matter where in the world you are. Looking ahead to the horizon, however, you will suddenly see the most spectacular mountains which will fill your very soul with a sense of awe.

Smell - If you are lucky to arrive on a day of one of the incredible thunderstorms which often happen in the summer months, close your eyes and take a deep breath. I’ve been to many different countries throughout the world, but nowhere else have I been able to experience fresh air. The valleys between the mountains, with their lush green vegetation, produce the most fantastic fresh smells you will ever experience.

Touch – The Drakensberg mountains are made of tough granite and softer sandstone. You will feel these different textures on the soles of your feet, but you would do yourself a disservice not to go on one of the many day-hikes available in the area and let one of the locals acting as a guide introduce you to all the plants and rocks and mosses – known as grandfather’s beard – which grow on the trees. Feel the textures with your hands and you can almost feel as if you’ve become a part of the earth.

Sound – The Drakensberg is home to the famous Drakensberg Boy’s Choir School. These boys, from the ages of 9 to 15, spend their days learning some of the most famous musical works ever produced. You won’t believe that you are in one of the toughest parts of Africa when you are in their state-of-the art auditorium listening to angelic voices singing Mozart’s Requiem and other famous works.

Taste – Experience warm farm-style meals all freshly made at the local restaurants, which are really farm kitchens, with amazingly fresh ingredients straight from their land, and cap off the delight of the Drakensberg with a sherry, watching the sun set.

Author Matthew Wilke works for EssentialTravel as a writer and product specialist.

Sponsor Essential Travel offers a wide range of travel essentials which are easily and securely booked online, including travel insurance, airport hotels, airport lounges and airport parking.

Guest Post by Clare Appleyard

South Africa is a country full of startling contrasts.  Abject poverty yet ostentatious wealth; barren deserts yet lush forests; extreme heat yet bitter cold.  However, no contrast surprised me more than the sight that caught me unawares one day as we drove down yet another stretch of mundane South African highway. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a huge, colourful Chinese-styled temple appears out of nowhere, dominating the landscape and leaving you staring in awe.

Image courtesy www.nanhua.co.za

“What the hell is that thing?” I ask my partner, struggling to keep my eyes on the road whilst at the same time wanting to stare at the intricately detailed and colourful architecture.

“It’s the Nan Hua Buddhist Temple”, Davina replies, “haven’t you heard of it?”

Apparently I hadn’t.

Near the town of Bronkhorstspruit, a typically Afrikaans residential area, lies one of the most striking cultural and architectural anomalies in South Africa. The Nan Hua Buddhist Temple is the largest Buddhist temple in the entire Southern Hemisphere and is the African headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan’s largest monastery. When you consider the generally conservative outlook of the Afrikaner locals, the temple seems entirely out of place in this part of South Africa.

Bronkhorstspruit is a small farming town, located close to the border of South Africa’s Gauteng and Mpumulanga provinces, and has its origins back in the 1850’s with the settlement of a group of Voortrekkers (immigrants to the interior of South Africa from the Cape Colonies). In 1992, a local city council executive and church minister, interested in promoting Taiwanese investments in his town, donated the land upon which the Temple was built.

Image by author

The Nan Hua Buddhist Temple is now a significant tourist attraction in this part of South Africa, and its attached seminary attracts students from around Africa for a 3 year period of study. The Temple actively promotes Buddhism within Africa and functions as a non-profit charity/religious organisation, with a goal of becoming financially self-sufficient.

The temple is most popular each year at the time of Chinese New Year celebrations. It is at this time that visitors flock to the Temple in their thousands, for tea ceremonies, traditional vegetarian Chinese food, fireworks, dragon dancing and stalls selling traditional Chinese handicrafts.

There’s no need to wait for Chinese New Year to head on through to Nan Hua though; the temple regularly holds Temple Tours and, each Sunday you can sample a vegetarian lunch in the dining hall.  Nan Hua also offers meditation retreats for beginner and intermediate-level students and personally, I cannot think of anything more quirky than studying meditation and Buddhism in the heart of the South African Christian heartland!

Image courtesy of www.nanhua.coza

Whether you fancy meditating or not, a trip to Nan Hua certainly calms the soul. You can spend hours strolling through the gardens, or just admiring the phenomenal colours and architecture whilst taking advantage of the abundant photographic opportunities.  Impressive? Yes. Quirky? Definitely!

Clare Appleyard

Author: Clare Appleyard

Clare is a fun-loving corporate refugee living in Johannesburg, South Africa.  As a travel activist and diamond entrepreneur, she is fortunate enough to have visited 5 of the 7 continents on her travels, and plans on growing that list.  Clare owns both a diamond business and and frequently shares her love of travel at EarthTravelUnlimited.

Follow her on Twitter: @clareappleyard

Adventure travel has grown massively in the last 10 years and it is often hard to find a truly unique travel experience, getting off the beaten track and into the heart and soul of a place. Yet in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, it’s possible to experience an environment that has barely changed since the Old Testament, living and travelling with the nomadic Bedouin.

With a colour spectrum ranging from bright white into vibrant yellows, oranges and reds, and ending in deepest inky black, the Sinai is far from the barren sandy expanse that springs to mind. Rather it boasts a complex eco system and stretches from tropical coastline through sandy expanses and mountainous sandstone valleys to rich oases such as Ein Hodra.

For me, there’s no pleasure in a marathon desert trek, testing endurance and stamina. Rather Sinai offers the chance to learn about the 80,000 Bedouins living and working in this awe-inspiring environment; peace, quiet and beauty are not to be rushed through, and the heat of the day is not something to take on!

The language here is Arabic and it’s little surprise that the words nadir, zenith and alchemy belong to it – from deepest depths to highest peaks there is certainly magic in the air!

My list of ‘must sees’ for Sinai travellers

The prehistoric Nawamis: mysterious Stone Age structures dating back to 4000-3150 BC, which archaeologists believe are burial chambers due to the offerings found there (coloured beads, shell bracelets, tools and bones), although the identity of those buried there remains unclear.

The El Gibi plateau, the sandstone mountains of Jebel Matamir and Jebel Birga: perfect for exploring and offer remarkable views – photographers around the world talk of the incomparable light of early evening in Sinai.

St Catherine’s Monastery: a World Heritage Site, the oldest surviving monastery in the world, which lies at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai.

My list of ‘must dos’ for Sinai visitors

A day’s snorkelling at one of the world’s leading dive sites, followed by a night at Ras Mohammed

A two day camel handling course with an astronomy evening (the stars are slightly more cooperative than the camels can be on occasion!)

… And if that still isn’t enough to tempt you to visit the Sinai peninsula I’ll leave you with one last thought: you may not immediately think of the desert as home from home but the Bedouins are possibly even more tea obsessed than we are as a nation. Some comforts are global!

Personal Profiles:

Dom Hall and Sam McConnell lead adventure travel trips to the Sinai. Both have travel, exploration and expeditions running through their veins and spend much time under canvas or in hammocks. You can find out more about them and their next trip to the Sinai here and on the Fieldskills website www.fieldskills.com and follow them on Twitter

Living abroad for almost 10 years some of my most memorable Christmas celebrations have been very far from my UK home. Here are 3 that were quirkily different …

Aswan, Egypt

In the early 80s a group of us spent one Christmas and New Year in Egypt.  On Christmas Day so we left our VERY basic hostel to find a cheap restaurant open which served festive fare and a drink. As you can imagine, in a predominantly Muslim country on a Saturday, that was not so easy … Eventually we found a little place by the Camel Market (not on that day), with a big table outside.  We were offered Roast chicken and chips with local beer… Perfect.

Whilst we waited (for hours) for the chicken, we drank warm beer and relished the hot sun, safe in the knowledge that back home in the UK it was probably raining and definitely cold.  The chicken was the toughest, ropiest old bird you could imagine – but we enjoyed it anyway as we reminisced about our favourite Christmas holidays, exchanged REALLY cheap and fun gifts, toasted absent friends and congratulated ourselves on having a very unChristmassy Christmas Day.

 Pattaya, Thailand

In 1990, a friend and I escaped from Hong Kong to stay at a luxury hotel in Pattaya, which looked absolutely dreamy. What we didn’t know was that during the Vietnam War, Pattaya had been a favourite place for soldiers to chill out and ‘relax’ – and their legacy lived on …

 Having arrived on Christmas Eve we decided to eat out in Pattaya the next day, so after a relaxing day by the pool we wandered into the town.  What a shock that was.  It was late afternoon and still daylight but all the bars were busy and it was obvious what delights were on offer for Christmas here… We wandered up and down Soi 6 barely able to contain our amazement. Some of the bars and clubs had festive decorations amidst the neon – I’ll never forget one sign which read ‘A Merry Christmas to all our Customers’ above a lap-dancing club offering some very exotic acts …

 Eventually we found a vaguely respectable bar where we had Pad Thai noodles and fended off the attentions of some very drunk Australian guys who’d clearly partaken of a fair bit of Christmas cheer.  As their propositions got more extreme we decided return to our hotel and leave Pattaya red light district to its own unique Christmas festivities!

 Queenstown, South Africa

“We’re having a Braai on Christmas Day – just family and a few mates …” thus was I introduced to Christmas Dinner, South African style. I was staying with my boyfriend’s family on their farm just outside Queenstown. The weather was fantastic; warm, sunny and fresh. On Christmas morning we exchanged presents, drank sparkling wine and opened cards showing Santas and snow-covered carol singers outside typical English churches; all very incongruous with the African veldt outside the back door.

 A Braai is a BBQ, SA style. On the biggest grill I’ve ever seen, was every kind of meat imaginable, including ostrich and Boerewors, a spicy sausage.  Huge buckets were filled with ice and beer, boxes of red wine stood outside the kitchen door next to a tall fridge full of white wine, soft drinks & mixers.  Two trestle tables were loaded up with all manner of salads, dips, breads and fruit, with a smaller table for the kids – and not a turkey or Brussel sprout in sight.

 By 4pm the party was in full swing and it was time for carols and the Christmas pudding. The farm workers joined us and as ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’ rang out into the African sky from over 50 voices, it seemed the best way ever to celebrate this wonderful season.

Whatever you do, wherever you are and whoever you are with, may your Christmas be quirky and bright