South Africa as seen through Instagram Photos

With great success from my Indonesia Instagram photo essay I now bring you “South Africa as seen through Instagram Photos”. The more I use Instagram and the more I share, tag and edit my photos and the more likes I get the more I seem to like / love Instagram. Its totally the new twitter / Facebook but much simpler with it all being photos.

Instagram is the app for people that only like to read books and things for the pictures. Thats like me. I’m much more attracted to pretty (fun/odd/quirky/unique) images than I am to just a whole bunch of words.

While in South Africa earlier this month I had an amazing experience going on multiple safaris in Kruger National Park, hanging out in Johannesburg, learning some deep history and visiting the townships, I took a fancy luxury train from Pretoria to Cape Town, hung out with penguins, took my first helicopter ride, ate some amazing food, made new friends and got to know others better and a whole lot more.

Also while on this trip I was transitioning from using my iPhone to using my fancy new Samsung Galaxy SIII. I had a bit of a rough go of it at the start as I fumbled with learning how to use it, its larger size and getting some great camera apps that I liked, but in the end I’ve become satisfied with it and I bet you might not even  be able to tell where the transition happens in the post. Lets see…. here is my photo essay South Africa as seen through Instagram photos.

Getting excited at JFK airport to fly to South Africa for the first time ever and to fly on South African airways for the first time too!

Flying from Johannesburg direct in a small plane to the And Beyond Safari Ngala Game Reserve a private part of Kruger National park was so exciting! Also I really wanted to buy this Safari hat and thought it looked awesome on me. To expensive though.

Esther at the Ngala Game Reserve has worked and cooked there for 19 years and she was telling me that she was “the magic ingredient” to what makes the food so great there.

It happened to be Halloween while we were in South Africa, and also I’m just slightly crazy, hence the Zebra mask.

One of the coolest things we saw on Safari was a Cheetah eating an Impala and the after math of the carcus as a jackal and dozens of vultures tear it apart. To see more watch my VIDEO.

All of the elephants we saw on Safari were so calm and peaceful including this old guy that we saw chomping on some trees with not a care in the world.

We also ate some AMAZING food while in South Africa, even if it was simple like corn on the cob and potato wedges with ribs like above they sure knew how to make it look fancy and drool worthy.

One of my favorite places that we stayed in on the whole trip was the tented camp at the Ngala Game reserve. It was probably one of the fanciest places I have ever stayed and it was literally a tent! So pretty and awesome.

A tree filled with lanterns at dinner.

While we were in South Africa the beautiful Jacaranda trees were in full bloom and the colour purple was seen everywhere. Gorgeous.

We ate dinner in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg one afternoon and it was such a tasty meal! Read more about it HERE.

Train tickets. While in South Africa we took a 27+ hour train journey from Pretoria to Cape Town and this train was even more fancier and luxurious than the Ghan train in Australia.

I got to go in a Helicopter for the first time ever!! We were surprised with not one but TWO helicopter rides to fly in style to lunch at a vineyard in Cape Town. Soooooo awesome!

My diggs at the fancy Queen Victoria hotel in Cape Town.

Crazy after dessert, dessert that we had in Cape Town. The pink cubes tasted like rose which I avoided but loved the marshmellows on the left that were peach flavoured.

Penguins! Of all the places in the world that penguins can be found in the wild, more of those places are warmer climates like South Africa then colder climates. We saw penguins on Boulders beach and then saw many more at the SANCCOB seabird rehabilitation centre. Be sure to visit when you are in Cape Town, South Africa and adopt your very own penguin!

A stunning view of Cape Point in Cape Town on a gorgeous sunny day. Watch out for side ways flying bird poop when its windy however…

A close up of a hand made beaded South Africa flag which hangs in the countries constitutional court.

Can you tell how awesome the Safari part of my trip was? It took up the first half of the photos. I did enjoy the whole country however and can’t wait until I can get back again and explore more.

Have you ever been to South Africa? What was your favorite part? Stay tuned for more South Africa posts and videos soon!

My trip to South Africa was sponsored by South Africa tourism however all views and opinions expressed are my own as always.

 

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