RONNIE & Michelle
Careering OffAfter over 30 years working, Ronnie & Michelle have decided to take the gap year (or two!) that we missed out on at the usual time. We have had stressful careers in Technology and Finance until now including start-ups and self-employment.
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The kids – Cameron & Daniel – have fled the nest to pursue their own adventures in life, leaving only the cats Tiger and Lexey to tie us down.
Following a health shock and seeing what has happened to many people we know around our age, we decided not to wait until we are in our 60’s and retired before resuming our love of travel and seeing the world. We are in the fortunate position of being able to pause working for a while.
It’s now time to career-off.
THE BLOG
South East Asia
We're careering off on Tuesday 19 December to South East Asia for almost 3 months. We're going via New Zealand for Christmas to visit Cameron and Eithne (that's pronounced "Enya" - some thing to do with Gaelic - don't ask!). Daniel is also coming with us. We've got an...
Iceland
After being home for less than a fortnight, we had itchy feet and we needed to travel. So we headed to Iceland for 4 days. It was snowing as we drove in from the airport to our hotel. We went for dinner nearby and a beer was £8, £9 for a small glass of wine. We headed...
Plettenberg Bay and on to Port Elizabeth
We spent 3 nights at the very quirky but lovely hotel "Grand Café and Rooms". Nobody can accuse it of being a bland chain hotel! Plettenberg Bay (or "Plett" to the locals) has some very nice beaches and restaurants. We met up with Bodil & Jacob, a Danish couple...
Heading for the Garden Route
From Franschhoek we headed towards the Garden Route. The next night we stayed on a ranch "De Opstal". This area is famous for its Ostrich farms. It was obligatory for us to have Ostrich steak for dinner which was meaty and excellent and didn't taste like chicken at...
Franschhoek Wine Lands
Franschhoek ("French Corner") was founded by the French Huguenots who fled France due to religious persecution. They were smart enough to bring some vines with them. Franschhoek's in a valley surrounded by mountains and perfect for growing grapes. Michelle and I both...
Cape Town & the Cape of Good Hope
We spent 3 nights in Cape Town. We had an amazing apartment by the V&A Waterfront. We took a boat trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years in prison. We saw his cell...
Camping in the Namibian desert at Sossusvlei
We drove via Walvis bay to see the migrating flamingos and then hundreds of kilometres on dirt roads. We passed the Tropic of Capricorn. So we’ve been to the equator (Ecuador) and the tropic of the goat within one year. We stopped to see some Quiver trees. They...
Swakopmund
We had a long day driving through the desert to Swakopmund. The name comes from a combination of the river “Swakop” in the local language and “mund” from the German occupation. Swakop means “river of excrement” and mund means mouth. So Swakopmund is the “mouth of the...
Etosha National Park
We have a very international group. Our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) is from Zimbabwe, our driver from South Africa, and in our group of 18 we have people from Canada, Australia, Belgium, Mexico, Switzerland, USA, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Scotland...
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