Travel Diary: Londolozi Yoga Safari in South Africa
In my wildest dreams (and despite a genuine yearning) I never thought I would get to see South Africa, and I never thought I would get to see South Africa for the following reasons:
1. I am pretty unpredictable on airplanes, and the thought of a sixteen-hour journey across the ocean didn’t exactly seem like the best way to bookend any fantastic getaway.
2. I work a full-time job, and escaping my office for a two-week vacation usually proves to be impossible. OK, not usually. Always.
3. I can be a finicky traveler. I like to lie by the pool with a good book and a cocktail as much as the next weary worker, but I also have an active streak and shudder at the thought of spending even one hour in a hotel gym.
4. I assumed it would be wildly (and prohibitively) expensive.
So, I thought, I may never make it to South Africa. That was fine. I was perfectly content lolling along the beach in Amagansett, visiting family up in Boston, and taking an annual jaunt to somewhere cool (and closer) like Europe or Costa Rica. I was fine with it. Really. That is, until a friend introduced me to Deb Calmeyer, and I started thinking that maybe it was finally time to make one of my big-time travel fantasies come true.
Deb and her father, Geoff, both natives of South Africa, launched their travel company, Roar Africa, in 2005 with a very simple mission: a perfectly personalized South African vacation. How personalized? If you love bird-watching, they will hire a guide to point out the indigenous species. Certified oenophile? A wine expert will take you to all the local wineries—even the ones way off the beaten path. Is a vacation not a vacation unless you end up lugging shopping bags through customs? The Calmeyer’s will pair you up with a personal shopper who will stroll Cape Town and haggle on your behalf. So it stood to reason they could figure out what to do with an exercise enthusiast who longed to see the African bush and was short on time and money—and they did: the Londolozi Yoga Safari.
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