Tswalu was born two decades ago when and English businessman named Stephen Boler began acquiring cattle farms in a far-flung corner of the southern Kalahari. His ultimate goal was to restore a huge swath of the desert back into a pristine wilderness. When Boler passed away in 1998, the reserve was taken over by the Oppenheimer family who continued […]

I’m not an avid biker. Nor do I have any sort of bike tech knowledge. I’ve been procrastinating giving my own bike a spring tune-up for about 6 years (and I’ve only owned the bike for 5 years). Although I don’t even own a helmet (much to the distress of my family and friends) or […]

On my recent holiday to Cape Town, all I wanted was more time. After two weeks I had climbed mountains, swam with sharks, cycled cities, and ate my weight in food, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. In a city that has so much to offer, you’ll find it’s hard to sit […]

Every time our Africa trip planner, Dan Achber, returns from a research trip (which he did just a few days ago) I hound him for photos from his journey. Dan has a knack for taking the kind of in-your-face wildlife photos that remind me it’s not merely what you see when you’re on safari, but […]

There’s an actual place in Uganda that’s actually called the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Hard to believe, but it’s true. I know, because one of our fearless Africa trip planners (Greg Sacks) has just spent a week there, trekking to see gorillas and chimps in the wild and wooly woods. It’ll be a another couple of weeks […]

It’s tax season. Not much fun, right? Perhaps, but I’d like to see if we can buck that trend and have some fun with numbers for a moment. A friend just sent me this photo of some actual paper money from Zimbabwe. One hundred trillion dollars, that’s more than a little mind-boggling. So, I turned […]

Any traveller to Morocco will inevitably come across these lonesome shrines dotted across the landscape of the Maghreb, from Tetuan to Tan-Tan. These “Marabouts” are the final resting places of Islamic holy men, “saints” if you will, although Islam officially frowns upon the concept. Morocco being Morocco, however, has traditions that stretch back before the arrival of […]

Nestled in the depths of the somewhat obscure Katavi National Park, far out in the western reaches of Tanzania, is a camp called Chada Katavi. If you look at a map it’s a touch closer to the Democratic Republic of Congo than to the Serengeti. In other words, the beaten path is nowhere to be seen. […]

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to talk statistics for a moment. The largest African elephants weigh in at around 13,000 lbs and stand 10 feet tall at the shoulder. Each of its two swiss-army-knife-like tusks can weigh in at 150 lbs with the largest recorded being 287 lbs each—which is kind of like having […]

Let’s go out on a limb and predict that the world isn’t going to end tomorrow. Christmas and New Year’s will come and go, and then those of us in the northernmost parts of the northern hemisphere will enter what one Trufflepig planner calls “the long, dark tea time of the soul.” Give your soul […]

We wax lyrical here at the Pig about the power and majesty of safari, but one thing we tend to neglect are the practicalities. When we speak to people the conversation invariably turns toward what the beds are like, how the food is and whether or not there will be clean drinking water. One thing […]

In its heyday, Zanzibar was regarded as something of an island paradise. Exotic and removed from the mainstream, it was an unspoilt draw for the rootless wanderers of the world. Benefiting from a bewildering array of influences, epic monuments to colonial vanity rubbed up against medieval medinas and ramshackle hovels. With a small population and […]

Sure, the flurries are a beautiful novelty right now. We’re all dreaming of a white Christmas too. But come January, escape is going to be the only thing on your mind. Plan your trip now with a few of our favourite suggestions for this January. You can call it a new year’s resolution if that […]

Let’s say you’ve been on safari in Africa a few times. If you’ve gone back more than once it’s pretty safe to say that you’re a fully-fledged safari junkie, and a traditional safari (a couple of weeks long with comfortable tented camps and two game drives a day) puts you right in your happy place. Let’s […]

The honeymoon’s over (and has been for a while)—now you have a whole family to consider, and you’re wondering how to make a safari work. We run down three properties that offer South Africa’s best; tailored specifically to babies, kids, and teenagers. Visiting Africa with a family requires plenty of special considerations. Malaria risk areas […]

Now that Halloween candy is marked down to half price, it’s only a matter of time before the malls are filled with Christmas carols reworked by pop stars, and all the merchandise to go along with it. But Santa, what we want this year is really quite small. It could fit in the slimmest of […]