Lesotho

I loved being in Lesotho.  In many ways it reminded me of provinces in northern India - Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh.  The people were incredibly friendly and the sky was the most gorgeous blue (when it wasn't overcast!).We did a lot of walking and then had a stunning drive through the mountains to get back to South Africa.

CLICK HERE for photos posted on Nav's Facebook site

This was the road in and out of the Malealea Lodge where we stayed.
Click on this link to see more photos on the lodge website: 
CLICK HERE for Malealea Lodge

The scenery of Lesotho as we drove.

On the gorge walk.

 


















The rewarding swim at the end!

Stu and Tash's Wedding

On Sunday, 28 February 2010 Stu and Tash got married in the Drakensberg, South Africa.  The wedding was the perfect ending to a brilliant week that we spent in the Drakensberg.  We had the pleasure of meeting both Stu and Tash's family and had great weather (apart from the odd afternoon thunder storm).

The Drakensberg region is stunning.  Photos don't do it justice as they don't capture how epic the landscape is.

It was the incredible setting for the wedding, as I hope the photos below show.

For more photos see Nav's link:

CLICK HERE for more photos

The church (complete with white roses over the entrance)

 

Inside the church

The beautiful bride and mother (and a very proud groom).

 

Mandy - Tash's sister and my new style icon!

The green dress gets another outing.

 

 

One of the many stunning waterfalls that we saw.

 

 

On a gorge walk.

Our accommodation during the wedding.  Inkosana Lodge.  

Click on the following link to see photos of the lodge: 
CLICK HERE for Inkosana Lodge 

 

The rondavels.

 

The view from our rondavel door.

Margaret River

After the wedding we caught a flight to Perth to spend a few days in the Margaret River region of Western Australia.  It is similar to Central Otago in two ways: (a) it is a place that I have always wanted to visit and (b) it has a number of wineries.  Hooray!

The scenery was stunning.  I love Australian native plants especially the Eucalyptus trees (gum trees).

We hired a 4x4 vehicle with the tent on top to have a trial run (or as Nav referred to it as the 'Beta Test'*) before our African leg of the trip.  It did indeed prove to be testing.  Fridge decided to work on its own timetable, bolt loose on our tent and tent poles missing from Neil and Lenka's tent.  The positives outweighed the few hiccups with visits to local wineries, version farms, olive oil shops and stunning beaches to swim in.  To top it all off, huge epic skies that had beautiful cloud patterns.

It wasn't a hard life - a couple of wine tastings a day, swim in the Indian Ocean, fresh venison, and again (for me at least) more tonkings in the board game.

Below are some of my favourite photos that hopefully will give you an idea of what we saw.

* ah...the terminology from working days lives on!

A driveway to a vineyard.  The longest was 2.8km!

The beaches

Lenka, Neil and Nav

Our camping set up

Neil and Lenka's Wedding

On Sunday, 7th of March, Nav and I had the joy of being guests at Neil and Lenka's wedding at Silos Estate,  Berry, Australia.  The wedding was 7 years to the day from when they first met in London.

It was a stunning wedding with great weather, food, wine, and people. 

Below are some pictures of the wedding.  Other photo's can be found by clicking here:
More wedding photos

Roz, Rob and wee Harry

Neil, Lenka, Alice (Lenka's sister) and Tobias (Alice's wee man) 

The gentlemen

The ladies

The vineyard

Central Otago

Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, is a place that I have always wanted to visit.  We spent a week there visiting wineries and walking through the old gold mining areas.  The roads were amazing.