Last night we held our South Africa meet up and had a brilliant time! A big thank you to everyone who came along and got involved and also to Alison, Tom, Dylan & Kate from STA Travel and Rob from @thirstforwine for sharing their expertise and knowledge of South Africa with us.

The evening began with a presentation from Tom from the Goodge St store & Alison from the Victoria store telling us about two specific tours STA offer, the “Kruger & Swaziland Express” and “South Africa Encompassed”.

They told us about the different areas and opportunities these tours cover and, as they had both been to South Africa recently, they showed us some of the amazing photos they had taken.

The evening then moved onto sampling some of the food and wine that South Africa has to offer. Everyone was in agreement that a huge part of your trip to a country involves the food and drink traditional to that country, so we were all pleased to be able to merge the two throughout the evening.

Rob from @thirstforwine was our guide on our South African wine tasting experience and guide us he did. We learnt about the history of South African wine production, the way different wines are fermented and how that affects the flavours, we tried to detect the different flavours that exist within one wine and also tried the “marmite of the wine world”, the pinotage variety.

We were joined last night by @Ailbhetweets, @mark_n, @cooksisterblog, @rodnushechka, @London_is_Cool, @TravelingEditor, @Sarah_Foden, @Katie_silcox, @kirstyabrown, @SDSLyons, @travelwithamate, @thirstforwine, @theaussienomad and their guests, so if you have any questions about South Africa or it’s wine, they’ll be the people to ask!

Our highlights of the evening:
Highlight of the STA Travel South Africa talk? Think it’s got to be Kruger National Park and the Big 5!
Highlight of the wine tasting? For us it was drinking the same bubbly that Nelson Mandela drank on his inauguration!
What were your highlights? Let us know in the comments : )

And don’t forget to check out our Alternative South Africa page on facebook to share questions as well as tips and advice about the Rainbow Nation!

Continuing with our South Africa focus and in keeping with the Alternative South Africa Facebook page we decided to embark on a little Flickr research. The result was the superb pool of photos titled Kruger National Park.

With over 3,500 entries to the group of the sights and beauty of the South African National Park there is plenty to be amazed by. The park is about the same size as Wales and is considered as one of the most diverse Game Reserves on the entire planet!

It is also the place where you can see the big five – Elephant, White Rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard. And, as the Flickr group demonstrates, this provides a great opportunity to capture some spectacular photos…

Have you visited Kruger National Park? If so leave a comment below.

African Buffalo – Piet Grobler

Rhino, Kruger National Park – Chris McLoughlin

*Update*

A couple more excellent photographs taken from Kruger Park. Maybe you have an image of an elephant? That’ll be the big five completed!

Male – Marie de la Hunt

Male Leopard, Kruger – Peter G Hall

We’ve got plenty going on this week including our South Africa themed meet-up. In light of this we thought we’d host a little competition on our Twitter @statravelbuzz giving you the chance to win a superb guidebook! We’ll twitpic it later in the week…

All you have to do is answer the South Africa based questions that Michelle will be firing out over Twitter for the rest of this week. Anyone @ing us back with the correct answer will have their name dropped into a suitable South African based substitute for a hat. Remember to use the hashtag #STATravelSA. We’re only going to be able to accept entries from UK based Twitterers, but apart from it’s all pretty straight-forward. Good luck!

If you’re interested in South Africa don’t hesitate to come along to our STA travelbuzz meet-up. It’s happening in Soho on Thursday night and kicking off at 7:30. There’s going to be plenty of South African information being shared and a fantastic session of wine-tasting hosted by Robert @thirstforwine. You can find all the details in this post – all we ask is you let us know you’re coming by email, Twitter or Facebook.

If you can’t make it to the event then don’t worry, you can still ask questions and share experiences on South Africa until your heart is content by joining in with the Alternative South Africa page on Facebook.

Recently we’ve been discussing South Africa quite a bit, here at STA travelbuzz and over on the Alternative South Africa Facebook page. Following on from all this we’re having an #STATravelSA meet-up!

The date to put in your diary is Thursday 2nd September at STA travelbuzz towers in Soho with the fun kicking off at 7:30pm. If you fancy partaking in some South Africa travel chat of the highest order then be sure to come on down. The evening will be hosted by STA travelbuzz’s Michelle and feature a discussion led by an STA Travel expert on SA and wine tasting courtesy of Robert who you can find on Twitter @thirstforwine and his blog WineCoversations.

Yes, we said wine-tasting! If you’ve been to some of our get togethers before you may have encountered Robert at our previous wine-tasting evening that focused on Australian wines. This time around, somewhat obviously, we’ll be concentrating on the grapey goodness provided by South Africa, which will give you a flavour of the Garden Route and Winelands regions.

If you’d like to train your palate by sampling some tasty vino and learn-a-plenty on the subject of South Africa then we’d love to see you there. All we ask is that you let us know you’re coming so we can pass on the details of how to find us. You can do this by either sending over an email, tweeting @statravelbuzz or through our Facebook page.

We looking forward to meeting you!

If you’re travelling to South Africa or just have an interest in the country known as the rainbow nation then come and get involved with our Alternative South Africa Facebook page.

There is plenty of discussion going on, all of which will help give you an insight into the sort of adventures and experiences available in the destination. Notable additions to the page include the entries from Clarissa and Katie form the blogs I Am Lucky and Travel Concpets on the Garden Route and Winelands.

Clarissa believes the Garden Route as a ‘must see’ if you’re travelling to South Africa, and explains why in her post Top Places to Coast on the Garden Route,

“The Garden Route stretches from Mossel bay to the Tsitsikamma River Mouth and contains a multitude of treasures from golden secluded beaches with hidden castles, cliffs, forests and capes strung together with white surf pounding along them.”

Katie talks about the Winelands in her post, particularly Elgin Valley,

“The Elgin Valley is still the centre of the apple producing industry in South Africa, but is now also home to a thriving wine industry […] I found an area characterised by small family farms, world class wines and top young wine makers, some real characters…”

Also adding to the South Africa action is Caz from yTravel who has shared her thoughts on Captivating Cape Town. And there is one thing she feels the city is all about,

“The mountains. In Cape Town, everything comes back to the mountains. No matter where you stand in the surrounding areas of the city, your eyes are always drawn back to the imposing grandeur of Table Mountain and her sister’s Lions Head and Signal Hill standing stately above guarding the wealth of the metropolis below.”

If you’ve got experiences to share and tales to tell then don’t be shy. Come on over to the Alternative South Africa page and let us know what you got up to. And if you’re travelling to South Africa then check in to see what’s on offer, ask a question or just let us know your plans. I’m sure they’ll be plenty of people willing to offer some useful tips and advice!

After featuring Alternative South Africa Facebook page yesterday we decided to go and hunt out some more info and see what we could turn up. We’re of course still eager to hear your own experiences and thoughts so if you’d like to contribute just comment on the wall, be it a link, photos, video or just a mention for the best place to have a night out. However, due in no small part to host of guys more than happy to share a little bit SA knowledge, we’ve got a few ideas to kick things off…

Richard (@richmulholland) describes himself as a guy, some tattoos and a big mouth and has told us about Little Eden. As you can see below it’s a fairly picturesque location ideal for nature lovers.

Richard is also a fan of Jonnie’s Roti, ‘Gigantic Roti’s to Rave About!’ There’s a whole photo set devoted to it! Anyone else a fan?

Mike is a proud South African as described on his Twitter profile (@mikestopfourth) and as a sports fan is likely to be able to give you some pointers when it comes to such matters. He’s also recommended Kaapsche Hoop, which is renowned for the wild horses that roam freely about the village described as ‘a haven of beauty, peace and tranquillity.’

Ona sporting note, if it is golf you’re after then Craig (@craigrodney) listed a few resorts (resorts because there isn’t just golf available) he rates – Pezula, Simola, Oubaai, Pinnacle Point and Fancourt.

Mongezi, a writer and entrepreneur (@mongezi), suggests that going to Constitution Hill is a worthwhile visit,

“While in Johannesburg, I recommend you go to the Constitution Hill in Braamfontein. It has the Constitutional Court and one of the oldest prisons of Johannesburg. That is where some of the prominent leaders of South Africa, like Mandela, were held and tortured. […] The most defining moment for me, is that most of those were younger than I was at the time. If you can stomach it, there’s a coffee shop with great muffins there as well.”

And following on from the mention of muffins, it is the Banana Jam Café that gets his vote when it comes to going that little bit further,

“Banana Jam, a tropical feeling place. A young waiter with spiky hair welcomed us at the gate. He danced and chatted with us as though we were old friends. More than anything, he also managed to surpass every expectation we had of the place.”

Finally we have Nic (@nicharry) who gave us plenty on being a little more adventurous when it comes to touring Johannesburg,

“When in Jozi don’t do the things you’re told to do. You’ll be told these things by apprehensive Sandtonites who rarely travel past the Zoo on Jan Smuts. So what I suggest is that you get over it.”

He strongly believes that if you’re sensible you’ll be fine in the ‘big city’ and Jo’burg is a city you don’t want to miss out on,

“Head straight over to Market Square […], just take a walk around and be street smart. […] Live a little because Jozi is a city that breathes and moves and lives, you may as well live with it.”

Hopefully all of this will give you a bit of an insight into what you can get up to in South Africa. I’d like to finish with a big thanks to the guys above! Great work.

If you want to read more about the rainbow nation and get involved in passing on your thoughts don’t hesitate to investigate Alternative South Africa. We’d love to hear from you!

Our Alternative South Africa Facebook page is up and running ready for the sharing of tales from those fortunate enough to have visited the nation.

If you’ve had an adventure, we want to know about it. Your thoughts and experiences of Cape Town, the Winelands and Kruger National Park – or maybe you’ve travelled the Garden Route or even dived with a Great White Shark?

On the page already are Ricc’s experiences that range from the Sun City zip line to the beauty of Indigo Fields,

“Indigo Fields is not a spa, it’s exactly what I picture seeing when I die…kinda like Russell Crowe walking through the fields in Gladiator. They drive you to a cabin in the bush with a Land Rover and spoil you with hot stone massages and wine. After that, it’s hot tub and champagne, after the salt scrub and sauna of course.”

Also up is a link to Caz and Craig’s y Travel Blog who discusses a ‘green’ mode of transport available in South Africa – Ostrich. I kid you not and in case you were wondering, here’s a video,

If you’ve not been to South Africa but have an interest then there are numerous places online to jump on board and see what there is on offer. We’ve got our very own STA Explorer Clarissa who explains all on rainbow nation and there is also Marie in Lesotho.

Aside from these there is also the excellent African Travel Guide, South Africa – Travel Accommodation and Adventure, Travel Concepts, The Travel Tart, Go Backpacking, Truly South Africa and the Edge of Africa.

That’s plenty to start getting your teeth into, and if it whet’s the appetite then we’d love to hear what you’ve got to say over at Alternative South Africa.