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Tuesday, January 18, 2022

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Between a wok and a hard place

Caroline Hurry - 11:33 am

First discovered in South Africa in 2017, the invasive polyphagous shot hole borer (PSHB) beetle from Southeast Asia is destroying many of South Africa’s most beautiful trees and ancient forests. The female infests trees with a fungus that feeds the beetle and kills the trees.⁠
On a more positive note, Heather Nependa from the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology in the Faculty of AgriScience at Stellenbosch University is undertaking research on the pest for her doctoral thesis.⁠
Her research site is 320-year-old Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West. ⁠
@vergelegen_wine_estate⁠
#travelwritespotlight #borerbeetle #StellenboschUniversity ⁠
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The Sandstone Spring Steam Festival in the Eastern Free State, just north of cherry-picking capital Ficksburg, is on track from November 19 to 22
Enjoy this world-famous getaway for one or four days. Savour the romance and history of vintage transport and the spectacular Narrow-Gauge Steam Railway. Take a steam train rides on the narrow-gauge railway. These will commence daily at 10am. Walk around the farming estate.
Marvel at the vast, pristine collection of old engines, farm equipment, ox wagons, and military vehicles. Where else in the world can you watch 36 Afrikaner trek oxen happily working in unison?
The Sandstone Heritage Trust’s steam magic, heritage transportation, and authentic farming below the Maluti Mountains thrill visitors from around the world, who rejoice in the wide-open spaces, panoramic picnic spots and refreshments.
Entrance fees: R200 per person, R125 per child under 12, including train rides. Call 051 933 2235 or 071 658 6970 for reservations. The organisers report bookings already streaming in. @sandstoneinaction @tillysmithdix #steamtrain #sandstonetrail #postcovidtravel #starsofsandstone #starsofsandstone2029 #travelwritespotlight

At first glance it resembles an abandoned village of 587 fairy tale castles, which is not far from the truth. Work on the Burj al Babas luxury residential retreat near the rural village of Mudurnu in Turkey’s Bolu region, was abandoned in 2018 when its developers, the Sarot Property Group applied for bankruptcy protection in 2018.
#BurjalBabas #ghosttown #abandonedvillage #turkey #travelwritespotlight #travelwrite

$When Blaise Hopkinson first went to Beirut in the late 90s, it was a beaming city, full of beautiful people, good food, culture, class and history. The Phoenicians had left their mark. ‘Gemmayzeh’s street life, bars and restaurants were enchanting, although as a foreigner I never felt welcome at all. I always found the Lebanese very excluding, fractious and abrasive, even when I worked with them in Dubai. Gemmayzeh was one of the earliest gentrifications in Beirut and its unique, French mandate architecture is charming, although the port explosion has laid waste to many a façade. Mar Mikhaël is a later addition to the trendy bar and dining scene, but it too has suffered untold damage. It will take another generation to restore old Beirut. In Johannesburg, we grew up with Lebanese folks and until I went to their country I always wondered why they left. For all the beauty the fractiousness of the country made it, for some, unliveable. Today it is even stranger.’ #beirutexplosion #beirutblast #beirutportexplosion #portofbeirut #beirutport #talkaboutbeirut #beirut #lebanon #travelbeirut #travelwrite #travelwritespotlight #beirut$

Wild cat lovers are in for a treat at Emdoneni Lodge near Hluhluwe in KwaZulu Natal where you can combine a spa-getaway and pleasant stay with Instagrammable cheetah action. Trish Beaver had a wild time here that included getting up close and personal with some of South Africa'smost endangered cats and spotting hippo during a cruise on the St Lucia estuary @emdoneni @trishbeaversa
#travelwritespotlight #emdonenilodge #travel #travelblogger #travelawesome #southafrica #southafricaza #southafricatour #africa #safari #safaritour #cheetah #travelwrite #endangeredcats #ZululandCatConservationProject #Zululand

Come summer, the slow Norwegian sun casts a magic spell over the cinematic landscape of glorious fjords, mountains, forests, remote farmhouses, and wooden churches dating back hundreds of years.
In a hired #SkodaSuperb, @danishengineering and I took the Helsingør ferry to Helsingborg in Sweden and beetled up the West Coast passing Halmstad and Gothenburg, before crossing the Svinesund Bridge into Norway.
Just over an hour after crossing the Svinesund Bridge, we drove into Oslo and checked into the @amerikalinjen hotel, where staff were warm and friendly.
From Oslo, we headed for Lillehammer and onto Hafjell in Øyer, famous for the pine-covered slopes, lakes, and valleys of the soaring Øyerfjellet mountain range. Above a squiggle of precipitous bends along a toll road is the @pellestovahotell in Hafjell set amid lakes, wooden farmhouses, bucolic meadows and clanking cowbells.
At Larvik, famous for Norway’s biggest spa at the @farrisbad hotel, we spent a blissful afternoon exploring saunas with sea views; and pools that massaged your feet. Later that evening, we tucked into salmon steaks on our balcony overlooking the beach filled with wheeling seagulls and holidaymakers.
#flyBA #NorwegianRoadTrip #Amerikanlinjen #FarrisBad #SummerinNorway #øyerfjellet #pellestova #hafjell#visitlillehammer #pellestovahotell #Larvik #travelwritespotlight #traveltuesday

The aesthetic past is ever present in this an archipelago of decaying beauty slowly succumbing to the sea
Venice – its temples and palaces like “fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven” according to Percy Bysshe Shelley – is a magnet for poets, lovers, tourists, pigeons, and thieves. And, you have to hand it to them.
The San Marco pickpockets – among the most skilled in the world – nimbly lifted 100 euros from my purse, while I paid for a T-shirt – making it the priciest in my wardrobe.
The tanned gondoliers are more upfront about parting tourists from their money but Venice wouldn’t be the same without a glide in one of these sleek, black boats. You can see the wooden oars being carved in a shop just behind San Marco’s Piazza, a tourist tabernacle of mosaic and marble, where sunlight bouncing off the golden angel atop the bell tower bathes spires in an iridescent benediction. We drank coffee, listening to the melodic strains of a string quartet.
In this exquisite city that seems miraculously built on water, the light is an alchemist blending slimy brick, dirt, and battered agate, into rosy tones and romantic dereliction.
“Under the day’s azure eyes” (Percy’s prose) we traversed an emerald lagoon across to Burano to find the gaily painted houses of a fishing community and little old ladies sitting outside their cottages making lace.
I couldn’t imagine living here for too long tho – think of the damp (!) – but dreamy Venice is a poetic antidote to a surfeit of reality.
We sailed here on the #OceaniaRiviera
#ThrowbackThursday #travelwritespotlight #venezia #PercyByssheShelley #floatingcity

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