Our next stop was just a few hours down the road at Jeffery's Bay (J-Bay). We found a nice place to have lunch and more importantly, a milkshake. Took a bit of a snooz on the beach and jumped back in the car for our final push to our destination, Addo. Once again we were unsure of what we would find. We arrived in a lush, amazing setting. We were greeted by two beautiful german shepherds and the owner, Dave. We were shown to our room and Jess and I were in a bit of shock. We were pretty sure that we were being shown the wrong room. There is a beautiful view over looking  a river. The room itself was beautiful from the outdoor shower to the porcupine quill lampshade. We were both pretty certain this was not in our budget. As it turned out, we had been upgraded. The rooms we were supposed to have were being renovated and as a result we got bumped into what looked like the best room in the place.

 
The next morning we awoke and drove to the game park. Addo Elephant Park lived up to it's name. We saw more Elephants than I could have ever imagined. We spent the day gnawing on biltong and dried fruit.

 

Dennis: Since we know that the people you meet and your photo work are the best part of your small business, what does concern or frustrate you most?

Wow, that is a big question. It is hard for me to know where to start. There are many aspects to owning and running a business that take a lot of time and patience. Taxes for instance. Most of those things are just part of life as a business owner and in the future I will definitely be outsourcing that sort of thing!

At the moment my biggest concern is the effect that moving to a new city will have on my business. Charlie will be starting a doctorate program at UCLA in the fall which means that I will, along with our furry family, be moving to LA. The good news is that at least I will still be in California, the bad news is that I do not know a single person in the LA area. So I will essentially be starting all over. I will keep my clients in the Bay Area while branching out into southern California. So, for those of you with friends or family in Southern California... send them my way!

I hope that answered your question!

One Great Raodtrip

Ingredients:

• One sturdy vehicle
• Dried fruit nuts and biltong, enough to sustain you through hours and hours of driving
• Ipod loaded with songs you can sing along to
• you best friend in the seat next to you.
• one map book preferably with tattered pages and a lot of character

Shake vigorously for 3-10 days and enjoy.

It was Monday afternoon, Jess and I had just finished helping with a new program where she works at the sustainability institute (more about that later). We rushed to her little farm and packed all of the necessities and we hit the road with the killers blaring. We started our little adventure off just perfectly. As we drove the sun sunk behind the mountains of the western cape and the stars came out to guide us to our first destination. We made it to Storms River in just 51/2 hours. That was some kind of record. The journey seemed to fly by, but by the time we got there we were pretty exhausted and ready to flop into bed. We had no idea what to expect at the Tube n' Axe. We walked up to a backpackers filled with young people and one very friendly bartender who showed us to our diggs for the night. We were pretty happy to find two beds and a door that locked. We fell into bed and slept beautifully. In the morning we awoke to find that our first stop was actually stunning.

 
Jess decided to take a little nap in the morning sunshine.


Jess took this shot as I looked out at the beautiful view.

We decided to have a little hike at Storms River National park to the Swinging bridges. The hike was easy and the views were stunning. We took in the sounds and smells and enjoyed every step. The bridges were long and narrow and stretched across a beautiful blue river mouth.




 







Looking down it becomes obvious that the confluence is home to many many sharks. It is a bit of a thrill to walk over sharks on a swinging bridge. On the hike back we decided it would be a good idea to walk down to one last little cove.

 Jess and I couldn't help ourselves. We stripped down to our skivvies and jumped in. The water was so refreshing, it was a relief to wash off that film of dirt and sweat. After our swim we scampered past the enclaves of tourists and jumped in the jeep to continue on our adventure.