South Africa Tour 2017

Stellenbosch is a lovely town with a first class university - one of the top four in South Africa. I got to wander into the campus and talk to students - one studying law, another studying languages, and others studying finance and marketing. They were all bright, enthusiastic, motivated and optimistic about their future. The university smelled of intelligence. I...

We ended our South African adventure with a visit to Kruger National Park for a two day game drive. The first day, we saw a total of 29 creatures - exotic birds such as blue-purple starlings, red and yellow hornbill, fish eagle, vultures, brown snake eagle and lilac-breasted roller and loads of animals, including elephants, zebras, warthogs, giraffes, waterbuck, steenbok,...

My first visit to Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town was five years ago. It was a fabulous visit and I got to see some spectacular plant specimens - protea, leucospermum, cycads and all sorts of other exotic plants. However, my visit this week was somehow much more satisfying. I'm not sure why. I again saw wonderful collections of protea and...

Don’t you just love seeing heavenly beams of sunlight. I started taking photos of them when I was in South Africa recently and have not stopped snapping shots whenever I see them. The beams always remind me of evocative Turner skies or the swirling spiritual skies of El Greco. But I also always think of these wonderful words by Housman...