Nature loving, wellness seeking, easygoing goofballs - these are our adventures
Dreaming of moments on the road 💛
Bus building has taken up almost all of our spare time, so moments for travel have been very limited, but we cannot wait to hit the road and get to do some serious traveling around beautiful NZ! Only a couple months to go, we hope, and then we’ll be sharing more incredible views like this, on the road towards Milford Sound in NZ’s South Island 🫶🏻
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Feels like home 🥰
When we bought Zulu the Bus, it was fitted with the original Bi-fold doors which are great, but they made the bus feel more like a bus and less like a home.
We were so excited to find that when we took Zulu to be painted that we could have a door and frame fitted and engineered by John, the engineer at Rob Walker’s Spraypaint and Smash Repair.
Swipe to see the progress! 👉🏼
1. The original door
2. We got the door - time to make a frame!
3. The basic framework
4. Fitting and welding the metalwork for the framing.
5. Moulding, sanding and priming the final shape before fitting and painting.
6. The final product! We love it!
We are so happy to walk in through a new door that makes us feel at home. Our door is Odyssey Entrance door which is both a safety door and has a mozzie net to keep the bugs out and the air flowing through.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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New adventures, new landscapes 🍃
A snippet from our visit to New Zealand last year where we stopped in at the magical Hokitika Gorge. With its beyond blue, glacial waters, it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. An easy 15 minutes walk from the car park, with glimpses of the river along the way, gets you to this epic point in the gorge.
T-minus 34 days till we’re on a plane and heading over to the Land of the Long White Cloud. It’s all getting very real, real fast. But we are so excited and cannot wait to share more incredible sceneries like this!
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Reminiscing about our best moments spent in Kruger and this morning with a beautiful pride of lions in golden light was right up there.
We’re likely two months away from our big move over to New Zealand, where this scene may seem very distant to us, but our time in the bush will always be part of us. We’ve lived it, we’ve breathed it, we’ve been so intensely invested in it.
As difficult as it is to say goodbye to the life we know and love, the excitement of new adventures is keeping us going and besides, we will be back. For family, for business and for us. We’re sure we’ll be spending many hours flipping through photos and videos from Africa when we’re cruising through NZ in our bus 😋
For now, enjoy some lion love and let us know which is your fav below 👇🏽 🤗
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A boy, his vellies and his truck… Just the classic age old love story 😋
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Could you imagine enjoying your morning coffee with this view? All from the comfort of your luxury train carriage suite 🤍
Swipe right for the most beautiful river views and share with a friend who you would want to share this with!
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To my wonderful, wild and free Chené - Happy Woman’s Day 🤍
Thank you for all the light you bring to this world. You are an inspiration to me and so many others. I am forever grateful for you and I promise to be there to encourage and support you in spreading your big beautiful wings wider everyday.
I love you!
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Wild and free on the bridge overlooking the Letaba River at sunrise. Forever grateful for our trusty Toyota Hilux, Thane, and all the adventures he takes us on. We’ve poured love and effort into him and built him up to just how we want him, offering all the space, organisation and bells and whistles we could ask for!
And just look at that front end 😍 Leave us a 🔥 below if you agree he’s one of the best looking adventure companions around!
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Coffee in hand and sun on skin. The sounds of nature filling our ears with it’s beautiful chords and it’s sights warming our hearts.
Days spent around this pool at were so good for our souls. Starting our morning right is such a great way to set the tone for the day and gives us calm and clarity to tackle the tasks at hand.
3 easy steps we take, in just 20mins, to kick off our day just right are:
•Make a yummy cup of coffee
•Find a quite spot (with a great view if possible) to sit
•Take 10-15mins to focus on our breath and slow our worlds down
Give this a try and we guarantee your day will kick off on a high! Leave a ✌🏼 below and share with a friend who needs to implement this into their mornings 🤗
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We loved our little visit to Shalati, a unique train hotel suspended over the Sabie River. With the most incredible views of the Kruger National Park, luxurious train carriage suites and delish food and wine to finish it off, this is one of the most special ways to experience the bush.
We love camping and ‘roughing it’, but we could definitely enjoy a night or two in this small slice of heaven! Hint hint 😋
Give us a 🙌🏽 below if you would stay here and tag who you would bring with 💛
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Peering through to the week ahead like 😃
We feel like we’re living a dream right now! With 5 days down of another (at least) month in the Kruger Park, we couldn’t ask for much more in life at the moment. Besides being in the most beautiful of places, we are pouring our energy into the things that matter to us most and which we believe are the building blocks for creating the life we really want.
There are still stresses and concerns and doubts that creep in, but we choose to believe that life is happening for us and every step we take is the perfect one, even if it may not seem that way in the moment.
So cheers to big dreams, happy hearts, time spent in nature and many evenings around a camp fire 💛
We hope you have the most wonderful of weeks ahead and sending all the good vibes your way 🤗
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Watching our little camp space transform into a magical wonderful in the evenings is one of our favourite experiences 🥰 The key to a cozy camp is warm and gentle lighting and we feel we have got this down to a tee! We avoid harsh white light and rather opt for warm, glowing light sources that give off just enough light and create great atmosphere.
4 great options for gentle camp lighting we use are:
• wire string lights from The Crazy Store
• beautiful candle holder and citronella candle from Mr Price Home
• white and yellow dual colour LED lights from National Luna (using the yellow LEDs)
• a glowing fire
Save this post for your next camping trip and transform your camp space into a magical, glowing wonderful 😍
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One of our favourite spots to visit when we’re in the Drakensberg is the Valley Bakery. It’s quaint, country cottage feel and delicious food make it the perfect place for a relaxing brunch or quiet afternoon tea. The homemade pastries and other yummies that are on offer are certainly drool-worthy and we recommend you take a few home with you!
A few other reasons you should visit:
• some of the mountain bike trails in the area swing past the bakery so you can stop in for a mid-ride break
• there is a kids playground so you can let the little ones run wild while you enjoy your coffee in peace
• paintings, pottery and other local crafts can be purchased at the shop too
• the beautiful gardens, together with the mountain backdrop, create a very peaceful atmosphere and leave you feeling content and at ease
Don’t miss out on this mountain treat and save this post for your next visit to the Drakensberg! ☕️
This time next week we’ll be back in our most favouritist of places, the Kruger! An entire month awaits us again, this time however we’ll be doing it a little different… Our camping gear will be left at home and we’ll be staying in guest houses and chalets, offering a different take on the Kruger experience. Chené’s family is flying out from New Zealand and we’ll be playing tour guide for the month, covering most of the park 🙌🏽
Join us as we take you along another epic adventure, full of wildlife, laughs and Kruger loving fun! We’re sad to not be camping, but looking forward to experiencing something different for us, plus we can offer insight into the camps for those who are not that keen on camping or don’t have the gear for it right now 🤗
Today we pack as tomorrow we drive up to the Drakensberg for a few days, enjoying some mountain air and a few hikes before continuing on to Kruger.
Is there anything you’d like to know about our trip? Leave a comment below and we’ll answer! 🍃
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Early morning outdoor showers with the golden light peeking through ☀️
Invigorating and freeing, there is nothing quite like showering outdoors to make you feel alive! We particularly enjoyed this outdoor shower at Pafuri Tented Camp, overlooking the Luvuvhu River and feeling totally immersed in nature 🍃
Do you have a favourite outdoor shower spot?Let us know below! We’d love to compile a list of the best outdoor showers in SA! 🤗
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The ease of being immersed in nature, where the feeling of calm and connectedness radiates through you, becomes the way of life with time spent out here. Watching animals come and go, free in their movements, is an experience that resonates with parts of us that long to exist in a bygone era.
Hoyo-Hoyo gave us a glimpse into that time, unfenced and surrounded by nature and wilderness, letting you feel as if you are part of it all.
Here are a few special moments from our time at the lodge and we are so grateful to have had them! Share with someone who you know would love to experience this too 🐘
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Hello 2023!
We look ahead to what is possibly going to be the most daunting, yet exciting, year for either of us. 2022 saw us walk away from the comfortable life we knew in the bush. It was a lifestyle we had both lived for the majority of our adult lives and one that we loved. We experienced the most incredible moments in the wild, met new and wonderful people constantly, lived in the most beautiful of places and were happy. Yet we were confined to what we do and felt a longing to do more with our lives. We also gave pretty much the entirety of our energy and time to others, which was very fulfilling for the most part, but deeply felt we needed a shift towards giving our own-selves our time and energy.
Cue the decision to step into the big wide world of endless opportunity. As the old saying goes, the world is now our oyster and we have the freedom to create whatever life we choose. This is incredibly exciting to us, but also quite daunting. We have a fairly clear vision for the life we want to live, but knowing where to begin with it all can feel rather overwhelming. Freedom is beautiful, but it requires us to really hone in our focus on what we want to do otherwise it feels like we may be swept away in the ocean of possibility. So with this new found freedom also comes a new found responsibility to ourselves to make sure we constantly show up for us, be consistent for us, set routines that give us structure and stay disciplined through it all.
We took some time to set intentions for ourselves, along with our goals for the year. These are the top 5 we want to achieve/work towards:
• Become Africa Travel experts - we will be joining Chené’s mom in her travel business, specializing in Africa travel (more to come on this 😃)
• Creating incredible visual content - we want to work towards creating the most beautiful content we possibly can. Being creative really stimulates us and we’ll be investing time to up skill our photography and videography. We also aim for this to be part of our work portfolio.
• Focusing on our mental and physical health - taking time each and every day for the practices that bring us clarity, calm and good energy. Movement, meditation, journaling and prayer are the pillars of our health and happiness.
• Spending more time connecting with nature - the place that makes us feel most fulfilled. Time in nature nourishes, nurtures and heals us. The need to directly connect with nature stirs in the depths of our being.
• Travel - new countries, new landscapes, new experiences. We’re excited to seek out and experience the more unique and beautiful places in the world.
What are your goals or intentions for the year ahead? Let us know below; we’d love to hear what you’re working towards! 🤍
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#2023
Last light 💫
Sitting in Shingwedzi in the Kruger National Park, the final glow of the sun illuminated our camp in hues of orange and rose gold; a gentle light easing us into the end of another day. The time of day to slow down and reflect, acknowledging the challenges that have been overcome, feeling gratitude for the experiences had and letting the mind wonder as what might be tomorrow.
This is much like today. We’re in the twilight hours of 2022, busy reflecting on the hurdles this year has brought us, the life changing and wonderful experiences we have had, and looking forward to all we are hoping to achieve in the next year. If you had told us that we would be unemployed and leaving most of what we know behind at the end of this year, we would have been hard pressed to believe you. But here we are and we wouldn’t change it for the world. Wide eyed and eager, we cannot wait to leap into the endless possibilities that lie ahead of us going into the new year.
We can’t quite believe another year has passed, but we are grateful for it all. We are grateful to those who have supported us, encouraged us and shown us so much love. We thank you. We are grateful for the beautiful places we have seen and unforgettable moments we have experienced. We are grateful for the challenges that have helped us grow. We are grateful that we get to create a life that makes us so damn happy.
Wishing you all a wonderful year to come; cheers to the last light of 2022 💛✨
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#2022
Time to relax 🍃
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! The holidays have begun, the last hustle and bustle at the shops is coming to an end and everything is starting to settle. Time to take out the hammocks, sit back, relax and enjoy some quality time with family and friends.
We hope you have a very special day tomorrow, filled with joy and time with loved ones.
Merry Christmas everyone!✨
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Bush Television…
The best TV one could ask for 🍃 One we watched intently everyday for the past six weeks, providing us with the most incredible viewing and experiences.
Biggest bonus - it’s unaffected by load shedding! 😎
Who else will trade a bush TV over a traditional TV? Give us a hands up below 🙌🏽
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Just us & Thane 🌿
One of our greatest values is freedom. The freedom to move, to be on our own time, to live the way we want to live. The past month and a half has been a big change for us. After working in the safari industry for a combined 19 years, it has been so wonderful to be on the road, taking each day as it comes and living for every moment.
Just the two of us and Thane are our lives right now. With our few belongings packed and stored, living minimally has been a breathe of fresh air. It’s amazing how simplicity can take the weight off ones shoulders.
This will be life for the foreseeable future with many adventures ahead of us. We have got some big plans which we will share as they materialise but for now freedom is the way of life for us and we’re taking full advantage ✌🏼
Thank you to everyone for your support and for following us along on this beautiful journey 💛
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Leopard in a tree 🍃🐆
No matter how many leopards we have seen in our many years as guides, each and every time we see one it is as special as the first - especially when in Kruger! We came across this stunning male leopard close to Orpen dam, laying up in a large sausage tree and it truly was a spectacular sight.
Most people think that leopards are always found in trees but, on the contrary, we see them most often on the ground. That’s why when they are seen in a tree, it is so very special to see! 😉
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A magnificent Baobab 🍃
One of the oldest baobab’s in Kruger was our drink stop spot one afternoon during our stay in Pafuri. Baobab’s are already spectacular trees, but this one comes with some extra spice. Not only is it one of the oldest baobabs (and possibly the oldest) in Kruger, but many years ago it used to be the abode of a Sangoma, or witch doctor.
As we arrived at the tree, before hearing that a Sangoma once lived here, Chene walked into the creviced trunk and immediately felt a strange energy through her entire body, which sent her running back out 😂 Our guide, Andre, then explained that this Sangoma used to inhabit this crevice and spent many years here working on his mooties and concoctions. He had also dug various gem stones into the bark of the tree, which some you could still see embedded.
As we stood around this tree enjoying our drinks, the energy moved and ebbed through us, taking us back through the years and giving us a glimpse as to all this tree may have experienced.
Pafuri is such an incredible area of the Kruger National Park and boasts so many wonders, including this beautiful baobab, and if you ever have the chance to go and experience it, you definitely should! We cannot wait to be back there again 🤍
Ps. Swipe to the end to see the face of the Sangoma, still living on in the bark of the tree, watching over all those that come by😋
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Our favourite afternoon camp activities 🔥
An afternoon spent relaxing in camp is a great way to unwind and end off a day in the bush. These are our 5 best ways to ease into a beautiful evening while camping:
1. Taking a moment to sit and enjoy the sounds around you. We love to close our eyes, get comfortable and let ourselves sink into the bliss that is the sound of nature.
2. Light a fire and enjoy the warmth of the dancing flames as they bring the braai to life.
3. Play a card game. Exploding Kittens is all the rage with us at the moment and competition is fierce. Winner owns bragging rights and a night off from dishes (although we’re a great team and always end up helping each other anyway 😋)
4. Reminisce about the day and all the beautiful and awesome moments we got to experience. This always reminds us how lucky we are to be able to live the life we do 🥰💛
5. Pour a yummy glass of wine to sip on. We don’t drink much but a nice glass of wine with dinner or a cold beer on a hot day always hit the spot! We loveee a good chilled Chardonnay when camping - yummmm 🤤
Any favourites you would add to that list? Leave us a comment below👇🏽🤗⛺️
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Up close and personal 🐘
If you’re into camping and epic wildlife encounters, Punda Maria in the Kruger National Park is the place to be! The camp waterhole is conveniently placed right in front of the camping grounds, providing incredible game viewing from just on the safe side of the fence.
In our three nights spent and Punda Maria, we had large herds of elephants join us each afternoon and evening for their daily drinks of water, which gave us the most incredible experiences of elephants up close and personal.
We’d recommend one of the camp sites on the fence, close to the hide as these give the best views of the waterhole right from your tent 🥰
Give us a hands up if you’re down for some epic Ellie viewing 🙌🏽
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Bridges and birds ☀️
Staying in your vehicle in Kruger is a requirement, and rightly so (we mean, there is dangerous animals roaming around after all) so when there is an opportunity to hop out and stretch the legs and enjoy the view, we’re all in!
Majority of the large bridges in Kruger offer space to alight from your vehicle and take in the scenery around you. It is also a great place to game view and bird watch and many species were counted on this trip from these bridges.
Plus we’ll never turn down an opportunity to strike a pose with our favourite adventure rig, Thane 🥰 A huge shoutout to as always for the amazing products that make this trusty Toyota Hilux a little tougher and a whole lot prettier!
Here we stopped on the bridge over the Olifants River - one of our favourite! Do you have any favourite spots to stop and stretch the legs in Kruger? Let us know 🤗
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Afternoon camp vibes ✌🏼
More often than not, we’ll be on drive in the late afternoon seeking all the wonders of the wilderness. On the odd occasion though, we’ll enjoy an afternoon in camp and it is always magical!
With the sun setting, the fire lit and all the beautiful sounds of dusk, we loved an afternoon chill at Berg-en-Dal camp on our final afternoon there.
Which Kruger Park goers are you? Comment 1 for Drive Junkies or 2 for Camp Chillers 😎☀️👇🏽
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Taking time out in a hammock 💁🏻♀️
One of our favourite camp pastimes is laying in a hammock. We find it to be one of the best ways to kick back, relax and let the day unwind around us.
Take a snooze, read a book or simply enjoy nature around you. There’s no guidebook needed, just string it up and take it easy. It’s great for the soul!
If you haven’t done so yet, get yourself a hammock- we highly recommend it! 💛🤗
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The Magical Forest 🍃
Eerie and beautiful, the fever trees with their bare branches reaching towards the sky and covered in the luminous yellow-green dust leave you feeling like you’re deep in an enchanted forest.
An abundance of birds and a variety of fauna make this truly magical - a perfect place for a bush wedding perhaps 😉 We loved spending our morning here, listening to scaly-throated honeyguides and black cuckoos and exploring the forest floor.
We look forward to visiting again and maybe planning a very special day in amongst these ghostly giants 💛
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Imagine lying in complete darkness, snuggled in your sleeping bag, listening to the roars of lions piercing the stillness of the night right outside your tent… Raw, real and invigorating. This is what we experienced whilst Wild Camping at Somkhanda. One of the most incredible experiences we have ever had; to say we felt vulnerable was an understatement 😅 How would you like to experience this? Lean back, close your eyes and listen… Here’s a few of lion calls we heard throughout the night 🦁 • • #lion #lionroar #kingofthejungle #roar #nightsounds #naturesounds #wildcamping #meditation #soundsofnature #vulnerable #wild #campinglife #campingsouthafrica #southafrica #somkhanda #kzn #thewaynaylife
After an evening storm and heavy rain, we woke to this calm and gentle morning. Enjoy the sounds of droplets falling, branches crackling and insects and birds gently humming as the light of dawn breaks through the Raffia Palms around us. We hope this helps you ease into the weekend 🍃 • • #leanbackandlisten #naturesounds #soundsofthebush #outdoors #nature #listen #peaceful #serenity #soulfood #kosibay #thewaynaylife
Hluhluwe-Umfolozi
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