We woke up with the sun at 5:30am and promptly jumped out of bed to take thousands of photos of Arenal in all of its morning glory. Waking up with a view of a volcano is pretty surreal, especially with such a crazy hellacious day of travel trying to get there. Where am I?!
Next time you’re in Mammoth Lakes, head about 10 miles south of town to Benton Crossing Road, where you can find more hot springs than you’ll know what to do with! Our best bet for finding relatively empty pools was…
One of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve had to date: shark diving!
I woke up in Hermanus before dawn and drove the long, dark stretch of road over to Kleinbaai to meet up with the White Shark Projects team for a morning dive. Even the drive there seemed a little eerie, with bicyclists and people on foot popping up out of the darkness on the side of the road, making the drive pretty harrowing. I was lost in thought imagining all sorts of scary shark scenarios and they were forcing me to pay attention to the road! Thanks for keeping me present, roadside people.
Last spring I took the luxurious Rovos Rail from Cape Town to Pretoria, traveling across the Karoo with pitstops in Matjiesfontein and Kimberley. The trip took two days, slowly traversing the vast and varied land that is South Africa. We embarked from the station in Cape Town midday and made it to Matjiesfontein by sunset, which created a pretty stunning backdrop for the train! Matjiesfontein is a random little town without much going on, but it was fun to explore and get a drink at the local pub.
On my first visit to Africa, I took a week to tour the Garden Route and was traveling serendipitously without any solid plans… While I was hanging out in Hermanus, I read a magazine that was raving about Phantom Forest, an eco-reserve in Knysna, so I decided to make that my next stop! The trip was a pretty huge whirlwind of awesome, but Phantom Forest stood out among other hotels with its amazing views, hilltop privacy, monkeys!, delicious homemade breakfast, and a cabin that felt like my own personal fort in the Afromontane forest. I even got to see a Knysna Turaco! [/lourie, whatever you guys are calling it!]
We’re going to Costa Rica at the end of February and have been trying to get in better hiking shape, so this weekend we went to McMenemy trail to check out the sights and wend our way up to one of the better lookouts in all of SB county. One of my goals is to capture every last plant that ever existed and this trail helped bump up my collection. Please see:
After a week landlocked in the Selous, we hopped a flight out of Dar Es Salaam over to Zanzibar. The company we booked a flight through had a little trouble deciphering my name and instead of getting “Kelly Lane” on my ticket they came up with “Kruy Lank.” Close! Luckily security was a little lax, so my boarding pass and my passport didn’t have to match.
On the northernmost peninsula of Zanzibar Island, Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel overlooks a sparkling expanse of iridescent Indian Ocean, a cluster of whitewashed and palm thatched cottages in rich tropical gardens. Its myriad pathways are shaded by elegant palms, creating soft sun-dappled walkways between beach and banda, balcony and bar.
