Giba Gorge

About 50 of us joined Getaway magazine and the Hi-Tec crew for a half-day hike at Giba Gorge on Sunday, 27 October.

What a stunning trail through the peaceful new and old-growth forests with spraying waterfalls and inspiring vistas – to the top, high above the N3 freeway – where it suddenly turned dangerous climbing in the pouring rain; not for the fainthearted!

A slow death

Next to Beach Bums, Westbrook Beach, north cost, KZN: Around 1940, the owners, a wealthy Indian couple, departed South Africa to return to India. The couple left the house to their children who’d never set foot on the property, and the place died a slow death – pieces removed bit by bit by the squatters who, whom to this day, still inhabit the hills across the road. The property is now in the process of being reclaimed as part of the beach; however, legalities prevail.

Back then, in its original grand state:

Now, in its graffitied shell:

No prizes for guessing the most popular word splashed over the many walls…

Out of control

Lions Valley Lodge, http://www.lionsvalley.co.za/, a stunning experience enveloped in virgin bushveld through 21,000 acres of the Nambiti Conservancy, within the Ladysmith area of KwaZulu-Natal. 

However, the one and only thing I disliked about the luxury game reserve was thinking about the lioness mating with her offspring after photographing the pair close up…

Of course there was no end to snappy away with my camera, almost like a video, and feeling in awe of being so close to lions in the "semi" wild...