National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

I must resurrect this blog and briefly bring it out of retirement in order to announce the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year!

The Grand Prize Winner is none other than Greg Lecoeur for this photograph taken during the Sardine Run off Port St. John's. We were there with Greg when he took this photograph! So exciting!!! We counted on Greg to document our experience on the Sardine Run and he came through big time!

Viewing the photographs from the National Geographic contest was something we looked forward to every year during our stay in South Africa, whether it was in Pretoria or in Cape Town. I will miss seeing them in person this year.

Congratulations Greg! Now back to sleep in Singapore ...

Aloha meets Ubuntu

photo: Jason Patterson

I first started following the voyage of the Hokule'a last year at the suggestion of a friend who knew how much Vince and I enjoy the sport of sailing. At the time, the Hokule'a had just embarked on a historic leg of their worldwide journey, namely from Hawaii to Cape Town.

Their voyage is significant on many levels, but perhaps most notable is the fact that this particular leg signified the youngest culture (Polynesian) arriving at the cradle of humanity where the oldest cultures of mankind originated. This "reverse-migration" story with people returning to their roots piqued my interest even more than the sailing. I have been tracking the voyage ever since!

The crew of Hokule'a made landfall on the African continent in mid-October arriving in Maputo, Mozambique. From there, they made their way to Richards Bay in South Africa before stopping in Mossel Bay where they visited Pinnacle Point, an archaeological site where some of the oldest known hominin fossils have been unearthed. From there, Hokule'a rounded Cape Agulhas, the southern most point on the continent of Africa.

photo from TEC FB page

Along the way they picked up National Geographic photographer and The Explorers Club Fellow Dan Lin (right) who is from Simons Town, South Africa. Lin and TEC Fellow Nainoa Thompson (left) sailed across the southern tip of Africa and into the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Hokule'a with #ECFlag 124. This marks the first time in known history that a vessel from the Pacific Islands has ever reached the Atlantic.

Hokule'a finally reached Cape Town more than a month after landing in Africa where they were greeted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the spirit of Ubuntu for which he is a proponent. I had hoped to be in Cape Town to welcome them too when they arrived in port, but a little thing like moving to Asia at the end of November put the kibosh on that plan. 

However Vince was in Cape Town last week for work (and a stop over at the Royal Cape Yacht Club for a farewell drink in order to watch a friend's son race). He managed at least to make it over to the V&A where the Hokule'a is docked during its stay in Cape Town. The crew was not in to say Aloha to, but Vince kindly took a few pictures of the vessel for me to see. Amazing!



 

"Aloha" is a Hawaiian greeting and farewell that conveys affection, peace, mercy and compassion. "Ubuntu" is a Nguni Bantu term roughly translating to "human kindness." It is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally "human-ness", and is often translated as "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. 

I would have loved to have been there to see Aloha meet Ubuntu in person, but unfortunately the timing was just not on my side. I am encouraged though to know that at least it did happen.

 





To read more about the voyage of the Hokule'a check out these articles in:
The New York Times
and
National Geographic.

To track the voyage in real time, visit their website tracker, 

(Please note that the Polynesian Voyaging Society owns the trademark for the image of the voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a™)

Four Years in Paradise

It's been four years since we started the process of moving to South Africa. Almost Four Years in Paradise. And now our Great Migration to Africa is coming to an end.

But we're not returning to the USA quite yet. We are off to our next adventure in ...

Singapore!

Yep, we are on the move again. A new city and a new continent! I have mixed feelings about it actually. I have really enjoyed our time here in Africa. As a matter of fact I've loved it! And I haven't seen or done nearly everything I wanted to do while we were living here. There are still some 550 wine estates alone that we haven't visited! And I never made it to Ethiopia or Madagascar as I'd hoped. (But guess what? They will still be here for a return visit.)

But we have had some incredible experiences and exciting adventures. We have seen many natural wonders and marvelous forces of nature and we've had up-close and personal moments with rhinos, penguins, meerkats, nesting turtles, gorillas and sharks. We have explored the heavens above and crawled deep below the earth. We have challenged ourselves in the sky, on the land and in the sea. We have scaled a few hills and high mountains, but we still know our limits!

This has been a unique time to be living in South Africa too. In Johannesburg, we have seen first-hand the amazing renaissance happening right now in the Joburg CBD and while living in Cape Town, we have seen it bloom as a world class design and tourist destination. We have been here for so many important historical events like the passing of Nelson Mandela and the discovery of Homo naledi as well as historic cultural events such as Trevor Noah taking over the Daily Show in the USA and the first ever performances in South Africa by Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews.

We have really tried to "dig" into the diverse cultural landscape here, whether it be Ndebele, Zulu, Akrikaner, Cape Malay, Indian, English, Khomani San, or even the lost culture of Mapungubwe. We have met so many inspirational, amazing and  lovely people along the way and even made dear friends. It will be sad to say goodbye but saying au revoir is still better than if we hadn't made their acquaintances altogether, n'est-ce pas?  (I think so.) We have expanded our pan-African palate and shown some South Africans how it's done where we hail from. We have tried to fit in ... but we know who we are! And there was just enough art, music, theatre and dance to keep this self-professed culture whore relatively satisfied.

kangaroos!

wombat!

I will especially miss having the African bush at our doorstop. We will be trading in our beloved safaris to see the African Big Five - Rhinos, Lions, Cape Buffalo, Elephants and Leopards - for new safaris to see what I am calling the Asian Big Five plus Orangutans - Sumatran Rhinos, Tigers, Water Buffalo, Asian Elephants, Snow Leopards plus Orangutans. Living in Africa has certainly changed me and I hope I've changed Africa a little for the better with my conservation volunteering.

Vince in Phuket

But the good news is there is still much of Asia left for us to explore. Vince's beat will stretch from India in the west to Japan in the east, China in the north to New Zealand in the south. We will get a deeper understanding of the cultures in the parts of Asia we have already visited and there are plenty of new destinations to explore. (For instance, I have always wanted to go to Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Borneo - all a stone's throw from Singapore.)

Not to mention some of the best scuba diving in the world! (Good thing Vince got all his paperwork in order for the Sardine Run in June and Zanzibar in September.) For me, Asia has whales! And Singapore is only a Pacific Ocean away from our sons on the west coast of the United States with plenty of islands in between for us to meet up for holidays. Christmas in Hawaii next year?


Blogging has been a great experience and the results will serve as a comprehensive journal of our time here in Africa. But I will definitely not be blogging from my new digs in Singapore. For one thing, just about the time I am settled in Singapore I am committed to embark on a new blog where I will chronicle my Antarctica adventure as part of the 2041 Foundation's International Antarctic Expedition in March.

And secondly, I won't need it. I started The Great Wildebeest Migration blog to help me manage my own feelings about pulling up stakes and moving to the other side of the world far away from family, friends and the familiar. I am not in the same place moving from South Africa to Singapore, both literally and figuratively. So I will wind this blog down over the next couple of months and say good-bye to blogging about my expat adventures as well as living in South Africa!

We're off on our next adventure on the "Road to Singapore."

It's a Crime!

My South African book club loves crime novels. And they really love the crime novels written by Deon Meyer, one of (if not the) South Africa's most celebrated authors of that genre. I have read a few of Mr. Meyer's 11 published novels and I have to agree, they are a good read. 
 

Deon Meyer writes in Afrikaans and his novels have a true South African sensibility. They are currently translated into more that twenty languages - including English of course - and his books have a large international following. In fact, when I went to listen to the Sunday Times Talk with Michele Magwood on Wednesday night to launch his latest novel Icarus, it was on the eve of Mr. Meyer's promotional book tour through Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

wine and cheese reception on the lawns of Kingsmead

The Times Talk was part of the annual Kingsmead Book Fair and was held on the lovely Melrose campus  of  Kingsmead College.

Along with being very good reads and thrilling thrillers, Mr. Meyer's novels retain much of their sense of Akrikaan-ism. He leaves many phrases and idioms untranslated and it is a very effective way to maintain that sense of place in his books. (And just in case you have trouble deducing the translations of the Afrikaans from their place in the sentence or paragraph, he does include a glossary in the back to help!) Mr. Meyer was born in Paarl, grew up in Klerksdorp in the gold mining region of Northwest Province, and currently lives in Stellenbosch.

Icarus is set in and around Cape Town and the Cape Winelands and involves the hit on the South African developer of the notorious Alibi smartphone application which supplies real-time alibis for philanderers and cheating spouses. Sounds intriguing!

South African Wines Part Ten: Holiday Weekend in Cape Town

picnic at Boschendal

A four-day holiday weekend in Cape Town for Heritage Day gave us another opportunity for some serious wine tasting and touring in the Cape Winelands - mostly Stellenbosch with a few strategic stops in Franschhoek, Somerset West and Constantia.

And since we were in a holiday mood, we decided to plan ahead for some other upcoming holidays. Friendsgiving is right around the corner and we will need to bring back some wine for our family Christmas dinner in Colorado.

Jordan

In Stellenbosch:

Jordan: Cobblers & Chameleons

Kathy and Gary Jordan descend from the Jordan Shoe family, a fixture in South Africa since 1877. And their aptly named Cobblers Hill is a homage to their footwear heritage. It is also the ultimate expression of the Jordan terroir!

Jordan also produces a range of wines whose profits support a PhD bursary for researchers studying the Cape dwarf chameleon, a native species commonly found on the wine estate. We tasted a 2012 Chameleon Merlot that contains no added sulphur. For anyone with a sulphur allergy who likes red wine ( and chameleons!), this is probably a godsend.

We bought two of the Bordeaux blend Cobblers Hill 2012, two of the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, a product of the oldest vines on the property and two of The Real McCoy Riesling 2015, the only 100% Reisling grape wine produced in South Africa.

De Morgenzon

De Morgenzon: Maestros & Wildebeests

Right next door to Jordan is De Morgenzon. Entering the hunting lodge-turned-tasting room was more like walking into a concert hall. The sound of music echoed off the vineyard-covered slopes to the valley below. We bought two each of the beautifully orchestrated DMZ Maestro 2013, a bold blend of five varietals and the 2013 DMZ Syrah

"The Chinese Girl"@ Delaire Graff

Delaire Graff: Diamonds & Tretchikoff

Delaire Graff has some serious pedigree and I do not know why it took three years for us to get here. Founded 30+ years ago by SA's dynamic wine duo John and Erica Platter, it was bought by SA's diamond king Laurence Graff about ten years ago. A Relais & Chateaux property, it is the jewel of the Cape Winelands! We bought two of their creamy and butter-y 2014 Chardonnay, two of their cinnamon-y 2015 Coastal Cuvee Sauvignon Blanc and two of their pepper-y 2014 Shiraz.

They also have quite an art collection. We were greeted at the door by Tretchikoff's "The Chinese Girl!"

We love Relais & Chateaux

yes, that Graff

vineyards and birds-of-paradise

Pinotage @ Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley: Valley Views & Pinotage

By this time we had picked up a wide variety of wines to drink for the upcoming holidays and we started to concentrate on filling in the gaps. We needed some Pinotage! So we dropped into Hidden Valley to taste and buy three bottles of their highly regarded 2013 Pinotage.

Port at Muratie

Muratie: Pedigree & Port

And some Port would be nice for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. For that, we visited Muratie. The Melck family have been making wine at Muratie since 1699! And the Muratie Cape Vintage Port is produced from a single vineyard planted in 1965. Not a bad pedigree either!

Their Ports seamlessly integrate alcohol, fruit and acidity into a delicious bundle of flavor. We purchased two bottles of their Ben Prins Cape Vintage 2011 which will go oh so well with some Christmas Stilton. (I am stopping in London on the way back to the USA for Christmas. Make a note: pick up some Stilton!)

And in Franschhoek:

Bean bags, baskets and blankets on the lawn @ Boschendal

Boschendal: Picnic & Friends

We passed on the fine restaurants at Jordan and Delaire Graff to join some friends for a picnic at Boschendal. Their Olive Press restaurant provided sumptuous baskets filled with cheese, charcuterie, salads, pates and tapenades. Delicious bread, some Boschendal Rose and Chardonnay, and some lively conversation. A perfect picnic!

fresh strawberries from Zetler's Berry Farm

For dessert, vanilla pots de creme made with fresh strawberries. It's strawberry picking time in the Cape Winelands!

La Motte

La Motte: Pierneef 

Honestly, we mainly went to La Motte to visit their museum ...





 









...  filled with original works of art by acclaimed South African artist Jacob Hendrik Pierneef. But we tasted too of course! FYI: La Motte even has a Pierneef Collection of premium wines named in honor of the artist. Tasting Pierneef in a room filled with his art? Priceless!

In Somerset West:

conservation at Waterkloof

Waterkloof: Biodiversity & Organic Wine Farming

Waterkloof is committed to conservation ... and wine! And at Waterkloof, they can go hand in hand.

Situated in the Cape Floral Region, Waterkloof has set aside 50% of their farm for conservation of the unique fynbos habitat. And the other 50% is set aside for biodynamic wine farming. Some of the strategies they implement include drip irrigation and biological pest control, mulching, clearing invasive and re-establishing native vegetation, maintaining flocks of chickens for for pest control and compost (and fresh eggs for their kitchen!), herds of cows for compost tea, flocks of Dorper sheep for weed control and Nitrogen replenishment, and developing an earthworm farms to replenish the soil on the farm and occasionally in the vineyards.

And there wine reflects their sense of place and commitment to the earth that nurtures it. We particularly like the infinitely drinkable Waterkloof Circle of Life Red - a blend of Merlot, Shiraz, and a tiny dollop of three other red varietals - and the Circle of Life White, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Semillon..












And finally, in Constantia:

 Groot Constantia: Celebrations!

Christmas dinner is going to be huge! Along with real family (my sons, my sister and her family, hopefully my brother and his family), we will probably be spending Christmas Eve with our adopted family - Charley and  Mary Lou and Ric. This calls for some serious celebratory wines. For that, we went to Groot Constantia to pick up a couple of bottles of their top 100 award-winning vintage 2012 Grand Constance and a few bottles of their birthday commemorative 2014 Reserve Red.

God bless us, everyone!

rosemary (hedges) and Darlene

Searching for Sugar Man ... the book

First it was the 2012 Academy Award-winning documentary film and now it is a book!

On Monday night we went to the book launch of Sugar Man. The Life, Death and Resurrection of Sixto Rodriguez by Craig Bartholomew Strydom and Stephen "Sugar" Segerman, the two fans whose search for Sugar Man after apartheid led to Rodriguez's performing live on stage in South Africa for the very first time in 1998.

The book launch was held at one of Vince's and my favorite tapas restaurants in Cape Town, La Parada (Order the croquetas de jamon!) There, the authors were interviewed by Marianne Thamm, herself an author as well as a columnist, satirist, and the assistant editor of Daily Maverick. After a conversational interview with Marianne, Craig and Sugar entertained questions from the audience and then signed copies of their book.

The authors (seated) with Thamm in the middle at La Parada

We absolutely loved the movie and we are big fans ourselves of Rodriguez's music as a result of watching it. But while director Malik Benjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man chronicled the book authors' odyssey to find out what had happened to their musical hero from the 1970s and 80s, their book presents a much bigger picture of the Rodriguez saga.

The book is broken up into four parts - The Mystery, The Man, The Music and The Movie and it outlines three separate journeys and the obstacles and triumphs that each presented: Rodriguez's struggle to make a life from his music, the search by two fans to find him, and Benjelloul's pursuit to bring the story to life on the screen.

And apparently there is talk of bringing the movie-turned-book to the stage in the form of a Broadway musical! Produced by Hal Prince no less! What?

Rodriguez is scheduled to perform live on stage again in South Africa next year but unfortunately we won't be here to see him. So the book is going to have to suffice. Until the Broadway musical, that is.

On the fringe ...

on the fringe ...

We were in Cape Town last weekend for the beginning of the second annual Cape Town Fringe Festival, a week of alternative music, theater, dance, magic, comedy and performance art.

City Hall

The center of the action was Cape Town City Hall which housed the box office and a media center, as well as a number of performance venues. Other venues around town included Jubilee Hall, the Galloway Theatre, the Fugard Theatre, Sgt. Peppers and the Alexander Bar.





 

the Fringe Club

City Hall was also the location of the Fringe Club. The Fridge Club had food, drink and live music on tap all day every day during the Festival to entertain audiences between Fringe performances. We were actually in town to see Orpheus in Africa and although it was performed at one of the Festival's venues, the Fugard Theatre, it was not technically part of the Fringe Festival. But that didn't stop us from taking in some of the alternative spirit on display at the Fringe Club!

Nikkei in CT

another two dessert night!

The combination of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine, Nikkei has become the latest gastronomic sensation to hit Europe’s culinary capitals. And now Charango (114 Bree Street) has brought Nikkei to Cape Town! (A charango by the way is a stringed instrument traditionally made from the shell of an armadillo.)

The most notable proponent of Nikkei is perhaps Nobu Matsuhisa, who has been using elements of this fusion cuisine since the late 1980s in his various Nobu restaurants throughout the world. Nobu in Tribeca was one of our favorite restaurants! Nobu's signature dish was his black cod in miso and we sampled Charango's version, the "Black Kob" langostine, with quinoa, pak choi and soy. I swear it was just as good!

Although Nobu was an early exponent of Nikkei, it has only recently been picked up by several high profile chefs in Europe, thanks partly to the success of Peruvian food throughout the continent. The most famous of these chefs is Ferran Adrià, the former El Bulli chef whose "molecular gastronomy" revolutionized the culinary scene in the 90s and frequently included elements of Nikkei. El Bulli is closed now but Ferran's younger brother, and former El Bulli chef, Albert Adrià has opened a new restaurant, Platka in Barcelona, with a menu built entirely on Nikkei cuisine. I do remember a particularly good "tuna belly" sushi dish with black currant jelly that was part of the extensive tasting menu at El Bulli and Vince had a Pork Belly dish at Charango made with pineapple jelly which reminded me just a little of it.

Charango has a great vibe too. Along with some beautiful frescoes, there were murals decorating the walls with definitions and fun facts about some of the different food elements. For instance, did you know that Leche de Tigre, a citrus-based ingredient used as a marinade for the Nikkei Ceviche, is both a hangover cure as well as an aphrodisiac? Hell yeah!

There were about six different Ceviches on the menu but since it was our first time, we stuck with the Charango House Ceviche. Fish, butternut, corn, chilli, coriander, aji, limo leche de tigre. Incredible!

excellent Pisco Sour

And Pisco. There were more than a dozen cocktails on the menu that used Pisco as the basis. Originally created in 1641 to dodge the King of Spain's excessive tax on wine, Peruvians call Pisco their native spirit. Meaning "bird" in the indigenous Quechua language, it is a fortified wine that is imbibed at any time of the day, even breakfast! (Hair of the bird?)

There were only three desserts on the menu but I just couldn't decide between the Toasted Quinoa Creme with burnt banana and rum butterscotch sauce, and the Picarones (sweet potatoes with dulce de leche!) So I didn't! I got both. Vince ordered the third dessert, the Blonde Chocolate Pave. Seasonal berries with manjar blanco, a South American blancmange.

We'll be back!

I was right!

I was right. Vince chose coral for my anniversary present! Coral earrings by Cinda Hunter at Amatuli in Kramerville and a coral necklace by Pichulik from Piece in Rosebank pictured on a Maasai kikoy scarf from Mikoy in Muizenberg.

Happy 35th Anniversary in Zanzibar!

What to wear to a Diner en Blanc

Diner en Blanc 2015

... in Cape Town it's on November 28 and I am still waiting to find out 2015's date in Johannesburg.

And already, Vince and I are busy making plans. Just as important as your choice of menu and table decorations is your choice of what to wear.

ostrich egg jewelry

Obviously you wear white. And they mean all white. But as a veteran now of two Diners en Blanc in Johannesburg, I can tell you it's not that simple. For instance women can get away with silver or nude shoes and men with a darker beige. You risk being turned away though with black shoes or a black belt. We've never risked it.

For the Diner en Blanc-Johannesburg in 2013 I went for comfort and wore pants. Ralph Lauren white eyelet trimmed pants and a floor length white crochet sweater, a Morgane Le Fay sleeveless blouse underneath and a Panama Hat from the Bryanston Organic Market on my head. Ostrich egg and silver jewelry and silver sequined straw wedges.

The only thing I bought especially for the DOB that year was my ostrich eggshell jewelry, purchased mostly from Avoova in Cape Town and Mambu Designs in the Bryanston Organic Market.

For our second Diner en Blanc-Johannesburg in 2014 I made more of an effort. I wore a white lace dress I found in a local Joburg boutique that has since closed, a Ralph Lauren Angora bolero that I already owned and I had a fascinator custom-made for me by The Little Hattery in Cape Town.

My sweater has a rhinestone clasp so I accessorized with Lulu Frost art deco rhinestone earrings and bought a pair of rhinestone embellished sandals. Sparkly!

  





These are some things to think about when deciding what to wear to Diner en Blanc in 2015.

The more elegant, the better. Save the white tee shirt, white pants and white flip flops for the beach. You will feel underdressed wearing them at DOB. People pull out all the stops! And there is usually a contest for best-dressed which makes people go even crazier with their fashion choices.

.

hats make nice centerpieces too

Include headwear in your ensemble. That means hats of course, but headwear is more than just hats. Here is your chance to think outside the box.

People wear anything from tiaras and crowns to platinum blonde wigs. Have fun!

Individualize with accessories. White sunglasses. Ostrich boas. Bow ties for men. Folding fans. Gloves. An ascot. And masks for that Carnival feeling.

Prepare for rain. Unless you live in the desert or if there is an absolute 0% chance of rain, think about it. If you care about what you're wearing and it's not waterproof, bring a white umbrella and / or a clear or white rain coat

Think French. Since DOB started in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, anything French goes, both on the table and on your person. Inspiration can come from the Eiffel Tower and the other monuments of Paris to ...

... an homage to some of the more imitable French style icons such as Marie Antoinette, Jean Seberg and Brigitte Bardot.

Some cities even have a contest for the dress or tablescape with the most French flair.

For one of these Diners someday, I am going to wear a white Marie Antoinette ship on my head!

DOB Barcelona was held on the beach in front of the Gehry fish

All terrain shoes. You never know where you'll be walking and on what surface. Could be gravel, grass, sand or concrete. Stilettos are probably not a good idea for most locations - always a well-guarded secret until the last minute. It's best to just plan for all terrains.

As always, the guys have a much easier time of it. A white button down shirt paired with white linen pants. White boat shoes or bucks. White slip-on sneakers or lace-ups for a more casual look. Vince wore a white linen guayabera and Panama hat with white slip-on sneakers in 2013. He stepped it up with a custom-made white linen suit, white boat shoes and a white pith helmet in 2014.

Let's go shopping!