And we’re back again

So, I’m probably the worst blogger in history for the simple fact that I just don’t put out enough stuff! It’s been over a year since I actually published anything, but during that time I’ve actually started writing posts on multiple trips and activities. The problem is that I haven’t finished any of them. There have been multiple reasons for this; work has been very busy and stressful this year, I’ve had to deal with a couple of illnesses, and we’re in the process of buying a house, which, given it is a new-build that is still in the process of being built, is taking up a lot of time. But I think the main reason is just procrastination. Or more accurately, it is the thought that, given I’m not a natural writer, doing this site to the level I’d like just takes so much time. I’ll over-think every sentence, re-read them over and over, meaning even a short piece will take hours. And I’m not the kind of person who can just do something for ten minutes every day – I need time to get into the swing of things and dedicate a good chunk of time to really sink my teeth into it. So, putting these things together I just tend to put it off and it ends up with nothing getting finished.

I was saying these things to a friend recently, who has her own blog and she said that her outlook was that it was better to have something out there, even if it’s not perfect, rather than nothing at all. I think this is a good view to have, especially as this is just mainly for Radka and myself. Personally, all I really want from this is somewhere to journal my experiences and be able to share some of the photos that I really enjoy taking. It is the travelling and the photography that are my real passions, rather than writing, so I’m going to try and not care so much about whether the words themselves are any good. It’s better to have something out there rather than nothing.

So, here’s another attempt to kick-start this site – let’s see how I do this time at trying to get the balance right! I’m going to begin with a big trip from last year, as we were lucky enough to get to visit South Africa. This trip had actually been planned for Easter 2020, as we had friends getting married there. So, the plan had been to spend time with them at the wedding, head to Cape Town and then head home via Johannesburg and Kruger National Park. Of course, COVID properly hit a month before the trip and two weeks before we were supposed to fly, the flights were officially cancelled. Whilst we got our main flight covered, we ended up losing our internal flights as the airline went bankrupt. The other main expense we’d already shelled out for was our trip to Kruger National Park. Given the proximity to when we were supposed to be there, we were unable to cancel for a full refund. The options they gave us were either to receive a 50% refund, or that they’d honour the booking at some point in the future. Given that the tourist industry was taking a huge hit and the fact that we would want to go there at some point, we decided to risk it and leave our booking with them. Fast forward four years and we had no idea if it would still be valid (we hadn’t been given a voucher or anything like that), but after finding the old emails and getting in touch, they did indeed allow us to still use the previous reservation. This was the major reason that we decided to go to South Africa for this trip, so that we could make use of the booking and finally see Kruger National Park! (If anyone’s wondering the friends still got married and had an amazing time – just with a lot fewer people present).

Given that we weren’t attending a wedding this time, we adjusted our plans into two main sections, a road trip from Gqeberha to Cape Town along the Garden Route, and the visit to Kruger National Park. If you want to read about our experiences there or just skim through the photos, then please click on the links.