Chiara Tronconi

I love traveling and I love journaling. Here I can express both my passions, keep a track of my favorite places in the world and create memories that will stay for a lifetime. Read more Göteborg, Svezia

Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 24, 2019
- ☀️ 29 °C
- Altitude: 1,751 m
- South Africa Gauteng City of Johannesburg Parktown University of the Witwatersrand -26.189948, 28.03161626°11’24” S 28°1’54” E
Day 16
Johannesburg
February 24, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Last day in South Africa. This evening we will take the plane to go back home.
We wake up at 8.30, take showers, fix the luggages and go for breakfast. The breakfast is painful, there are a lot of great options of food but what I can manage is to eat some yogurt with fruits.

The plan for the day is to take the Citysightseeinng bus and see the city by bus. We don’t have energies for doing more than that and also the city doesn’t seem safe enough to go around by ourselves. The bus tour is composed of two different busses.
Both tours are not particularly interesting, we pass by the zoo, some museums, and different monuments and buildings. The guide tells stories about the city and the different people living in it.

We decide to stop in an amusement park to take an icecream and to try to win some random stuff. That’s the highlight of the day.

After the tour we go to a shopping mall that is big and cheap and has a lot of interesting dresses. Here I find the dress for the wedding of Anni in April.

After the shopping center is time to go to pick the luggages and go to the airport.

The journey is more complicated than expected and takes a lot of time. We arrive at the airport just in time for the check-in. We manage to change clothes, do the check-in and and buy some food and souvenirs before is time for me to go to the gate and take the plane.

It is time to say goodbye! A brief hug and I find myself on the plane surrounded by French people. The trip goes very fast, with a big stomach ache and no hunger.
Tomorrow I will be back in Goteborg to meet Carlos and nothing could make me happier in the moment.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 23, 2019
- ☀️ 26 °C
- Altitude: 1,752 m
- South Africa Gauteng City of Johannesburg Parktown University of the Witwatersrand -26.189745, 28.0315226°11’23” S 28°1’53” E
Day 15
Johannesburg
February 23, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
The day starts with the worst mood. Tired, stomach pain, sadness.
We go to the airport, leave the car, take the plane. (Almost loose it because we were reading the story of Michale Jackson while waiting)

We arrive in Johannesburg, take the train to go to the hotel and do the check in.
We rest a bit in the hotel before finding the energies to go exploring.

We ask in reception what there is to see and the answer is: the mall. Okey then, the mall.
The mall is really nothing special, no interesting shops, or too expensive, and nothing to do. We are tired, bored, sad.
We take a walk around the blocks, scared by all the stories that we heard about the city. We take a slice of pizza at Pizza Hut but my stomach is still refusing to eat more than a few bites. I am tired, legs hurt, head is bumping and the stomach is sick. Perfect.
After exploring every corner of the area we go back to the hotel, rest, and then finally find the strength to go out for dinner.
We go to Hard Rock Cafe, the only place that seems interesting, but still not hungry. We take nachos and bruschetta and two non-alcoholic cocktails that are really good. I feel fever and I’m very tired. I manage to eat some food and drink my cocktail and after that I feel a bit better. It is not even 10 in the evening that we are in the bed tired and ready to sleep.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 22, 2019
- ☁️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 78 m
- South Africa Eastern Cape Nelson Mandela Bay Walmer -33.965727, 25.5827233°57’57” S 25°34’58” E
Day 14
Plettenberg - Port Elisabeth
February 22, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Today is the last day of driving.
We wake up a bit later in the morning because we are tired from the previous days and fuffi still doesn’t feel good. I feel okey but I start feeling all the consequences of a long trip.

We take breakfast and then back to the road. We stop in Storm River Mount, a national park where there is a suspended bridge that looks awesome. The drive in the park is very nice!
We reach the parking and we notice that it is possible to do Kayak in the river. For some non rational and crazy reason we decide that we want to do that! Suddenly we find ourselves dressed up to go kayaking, without any idea of what expect us.
Well, the experience was incredible! With the kayaks we went in the canyon and explored caves and the river until a point where we had to leave our boats, climb some rocks and go in the water for 200 meters with inflatable mats. We also got to jump in the water from a 4 meters rock!

After the kayak we went to eat something at the restaurant, but still we are not very hungry and I manage to eat half of my incredibly good burger. Such a waste!

The drive to Port Elisabeth is nothing special, the city even less. We are tired from the activity and the drive, we get scared by the people in the city, and we decide to just take a walk to the mall, buy something for dinner at the hotel and go back. Still, not hungry at all. We go to bed very tired, stomach feeling weird and quite sad because tomorrow we are heading to Johannesburg, which does not seems exciting.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 21, 2019
- ☁️ 24 °C
- Altitude: 35 m
- South Africa Province of the Western Cape Bitou Plettenberg Bay -34.06484, 23.35582534°3’53” S 23°21’21” E
Day 13
Mossel Bay - Plettenberg
February 21, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
Today is the first day of the official Garden Route and we are excited!!! If the landscape was so amazing yesterday, today it will be even better! - That’s before we discover that the Garden Route is the N2, which is nothing more than a highway supposed to be panoramic. We have one middle stop to arrive to Plettenberg and only 2.5 hours of driving in total! Paradise!
The road is, as expected, nothing special. We reach Krysna and leave the car to take a walk in the village. The place is cute and very touristic, with shops with souvenirs and African products and a really nice harbor.
We spend some time here and finally find some nice souvenirs, then we go back to the car to reach Plettenberg.
For once, it is 13.30 in the afternoon and we are checking in!!! The hotel is very nice! Clean and simple and very close to a beach. Our destination though is another one, so we pick the car and go to Look Out beach, a place where is possible to spot sharks, dolphins and wales (during winter). We decide to first go to the restaurant and then to the beach. The food is gorgeous and we are really hungry!
After the food an a big beer we go for a walk on the beach. We end up walking 6 km on the beach (quite hard with all the sand) and we spot a seal surfing the waves eating fishes plus tones of birds and an incredible landscape.
At the end of the walk we sit on the sun destroyed and enjoy the sun for some time before it gets shady and we decide to go back to the hotel.

We are very tired and it is hard once on the bed to go shower in order to go out for dinner. Plus that we are not really hungry after the food during lunch.

After some time we finally get ready to go out, dress up nicely to go to the restaurant on the beach close to the hotel, and head the door. Well, outside is foggy and cloudy and we are dressed like the best summer evening is waiting for us. We go fast to the restaurant and ask to sit inside. We are not very hungry so we only take a cocktail and some starters. They are very good! But Fuffi does not feel very well and leaves most of the food.

We go back to the hotel, and fuffi definitely doesn’t feel well. She runs to the toilet and pukes everything. The rest of the evening will be me calming her that she does not have malaria, and her coming and going from the toilet.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 20, 2019
- ☁️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 135 m
- South Africa Province of the Western Cape Mossel Bay Da Nova -34.192673, 22.1250134°11’34” S 22°7’30” E
Day 12
Betty's Bay and Mossel Bay
February 20, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
In the morning we enjoyed the breakfast that the nice lady of the hotel prepared for us and then we started our trip to reach Betty’s bay. The small village of Betty’s bay is famous for another colony of penguins that live there, much less touristic than the one in Boulders beach. But the main reason why we chose this small village was the road trip that connects Gordon’s bay to Betty’s bay. The drive is called Clearance Drive, and it is a coast road that makes you drive close to the cliffs, with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. The road is narrow but extremely panoramic. In the winter it is possible to spot whales in this areas.
We stopped many times to take pictures and enjoy the nature.

After the visit at the colony of penguins we moved forward to reach our next destination: the tip of Africa, the actual southest point of Africa. The road there was also incredible and particularly intense. After kilometers and kilometers of straight roads that seem taken from a coast to coast trip in the US, the GPS informs us that we suddenly have to turn left. Yes. Unfortunately on the left the only road that we see is a countryside road without asphalt. We check our destination, we check alternatives, no alternatives and right destination. So it is time to test also this car on terrain. We start driving in this desolated land, dry and golden with some trees and birds appearing now and then. The panorama is amazing and the car seems to deal quite good with the road. We do in total more or less 40 km in these conditions, with some parts with asphalt and some no, until we reach the white and red lighthouse of the tip of Africa. The landscape is incredible.

We leave the car and a wooden path that goes on the beach and in between stones takes us to the actual point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We climb rocks and take pics and observe the incredible landscape, before taking off again to the next destination. Aniston.

Again terrain roads and infinite straight roads guide us until Aniston. It is a very small village famous for a beach with a cave where is possible to go inside from the beach side when the sea is calm. We leave the car and start the small hike to the cave. It is desert. Sand and dunes everywhere, the sea on one side and hills of sand on the other. It is very warm but definitely worth it. We reach the small beach where the cave is by descending steep stairs. But there is no cave. Apparently the ocean is too high today. A bit disappointed we take our way back to the car and we decide to stay sometime in the beach before reaching out final destination of the day. The sun is warm but the waves are big and fast and it is impossible to bathe. We spend some time playing with the waves and sitting on the sand before leaving the place.
3 more hours of driving. Today it is the longest drive we have on the plan. We are now tired and very hungry, the sun guess down and Fuffi keeps driving slow and calm until we reach Mossel Bay. We are very satisfied because we didn’t think we would actually reach so far!

Before going to the hotel we decide to go to a restaurant that was suggested on the guide “King Fisher”. The place is directly on a terrace that goes on the ocean, the weather is still quite warm and the moon is huge in front of us. We order a huge plate for two of fish! We are super hungry! Unfortunately, our stomachs are not ready to take so much food after an entire day of nothing, and in the end we leave quite a lot of food there.

We go to check in in this small hotel quite close to the beach. The place is modest, the owner too. I am quite tipsy after a huge cheap glass of good white wine and it is easy to fall asleep.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 19, 2019
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 91 m
- South Africa Province of the Western Cape Diasstrand -34.351879, 18.48280134°21’7” S 18°28’58” E
Day 11
Cape of Good Hope
February 19, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
In the morning we leave the hotel with another discussion about the payment of the bill, and we head to Cape of Good Hope.
It is not a very long drive and it’s very enjoyable. We get there and we discover that the place is very big and has a lot of different paths. We start from a side path that goes up to the mountain to see Cape of good hope from a distant point, and then we move to the other path to walk to the historical light house. The path is incredible and we stop every second to take pictures! On the way back we even buy some souvenirs.
Funny fact: a baboon stole my water and I got really scared! Fuffi said “if we were in a cartoon you would have jumped on me like Scooby doo”. The monkey came close to me, tried to take the water, I jumped and threw the water to her, but she would not stop, she went to Fuffi that gently passed the bottle to the monkey, and then monkey was happy, took the water and left me with a trauma.

After Cape of good hope we had to hurry in order to go to see the colony of penguins. With one hour driving we were in boulders beach!
The colony was huge!!! Thousand of penguins living their lives without caring at all about us being there watching them and taking pictures of them!
In the beach next to boulders beach it is possible to bathe, and that’s where we did our first bath! Together with penguins!

We stayed at the beach until the sun went down, then we picked an icecream and prepared ourselves for a long drive to Gordon’s bay.
On our way there we got stuck on the street because of a huge event that was going on in a small village. We had to change our path and take a highway that was not recommended and that made us arrive at Gordon’s bay tired and stressed.

Luckily at the hotel the landlady was really nice, warmed up some food for us that we took in the room and we could rest properly getting ready for the day after!Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 18, 2019
- ☀️ 26 °C
- Altitude: 13 m
- South Africa Province of the Western Cape Cape Town -33.925219, 18.42407633°55’31” S 18°25’27” E
Day 10
Day two in Cape Town
February 18, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Today we have the entire day in the city!
We wake up a bit later, tired after so many days waking up really early, and we start the day having a discussion with the owner of the hotel because according to him breakfast is not included. Tired of discussing he allows us to have breakfast but we decide that tomorrow we will have breakfast somewhere else.
We start the day with a walk to the city center where we plan to join a walking tour of the city. We stopped by a market that sells really nice clothes and stuff and we end up buying skirts and souvenirs.

The tour starts at 11.00 and I find it very enjoyable. There is not much to see actually, the buildings are not so special and the city doesn’t have much touristic attractions, but te guide gives a really nice review of the story of Cape Town describing different places and stories of people who participated to history.
After the tour we go to see this part of the city that is representative for the collided houses. Here lived colonialists in the past, became after a area where blacks people lived during apartheid and it is today a symbol of equality.

Free visiting the district we hurry to get to the boat that will take us to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela spent a part of his detention.
We manage to eat something before going on the boat.
In the harbor we spot many seals resting in the sun!
The boat takes around 20 minutes to arrive at the island. From there we take a bus with a guide that describes the different areas of the island and tells stories about the prison and the time where the island was a place where they sent people with lebbra.
After the bus tour we join a walking tour inside the prison. The guide is a former prisoner that with a lot of charm and passion tells about his story and the story of people he met in prison.
I loved the tour and especially the stories of the former prisoner!

Back in the city we spend the evening in the harbor, taking pictures of the sunset. We have dinner in a restaurant on the sea and the food is really good!
After dinner we spend sometime in the shops with souvenirs and then we go home walking.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 17, 2019
- ☀️ 24 °C
- Altitude: 129 m
- South Africa Province of the Western Cape City of Cape Town Shoebury Heights Rooikatkloof -33.990242, 18.4329533°59’25” S 18°25’59” E
Day 9
Day one in Cape Town
February 17, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
The flight to Cape Town goes fast and easy, and soon it is time to get our second car! This time a Ford Fiesta that we like immediately.

We go directly to the hotel because we want to have time later to explore the city.

The hotel is nice and clean and gives a familiar idea of “hostel” even if it is not.

Immediately we go exploring starting from the botanical gardens on the bottom of Table Mountain. We take lunch in a pretty restaurant in the middle of the park and then we go walking around. All the tourists that we didn’t see in Pretoria are now here and we feel more comfortable going around. The main attraction of the park is a tree bridge built on top of trees that gives a really nice view on the park and the city.

After the botanical garden we move to Table Mountain. What an experience!!! A cable car turning 365 degrees takes people to the top of the mountain giving amazing view of the city and of the nature of the mountain. We stay on the top for a long time, taking pictures of the panorama, hiking around and looking at Dessies. We stay there until sunset and the view is stunning!

When it gets dark a huge alarm informs tourists that is time to take the cable car back. Sadly we go back to the bottom and we go looking for food. We decide to go in the area of Hard Rock Cafe, ti buy t-shirt and have dinner. Finally we find a nice restaurant selling fish instead of the usual steak and we enjoy our prawns and fish a lot!

We take a walk in the area, Fuffi buys her t-shirt and we go back to the hotel! It is so late compared to the other days! Happy and satisfied by the city and the sun we go to sleep.Read more
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Traveler South Africa
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- Feb 16, 2019
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 1,751 m
- South Africa Gauteng City of Johannesburg Parktown University of the Witwatersrand -26.189948, 28.03161626°11’24” S 28°1’54” E
Day 8
Day 3 in Kruger
February 16, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
It is the day of departure and even if it feels like we have seen a lot and it is time to move on, it is a bit sad to leave this incredible place where we got so spoiled and we saw so many incredible things!

The game in the morning goes fast and even if it is incredible as always, it is a bit disappointing because we didn’t manage to see the Buffalo that was the last big5 we were missing. On the other hand we managed to see a big group of cheetahs relaxing in the grass!

After the ride and the breakfast is time to checkout. We buy some souvenirs, say goodbye to Texan and jump on our car. We have a long drive back to Johannesburg in front of us.

The drive goes smoothly and soon is time to say goodbye to our first car. It is now dirty and we got attached to it. We leave the car at the airport and we go to the hotel.
Tomorrow we have the flight to Cape Town.Read more
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- Feb 15, 2019
- 🌧 21 °C
- Altitude: 430 m
- South Africa Mpumalanga Stolznekspruit -25.332878, 31.39271625°19’58” S 31°23’34” E
Day 7
Day 2 in Kruger
February 15, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ 🌧 21 °C
5.00 is time to wake up.
Enthusiastic even is still sleepy we get ready for the second game! We take a quick tea and then we get in the car.
We go to see hippos and crocodiles in the river and then we go around in the savana looking for animals. We see a elephant with her kid, a leopard and a group of young lions waiting for the lioness to bring food. The savana is an amazing place and Texan is really good in catching signals of the animals and the environment. He manages to spot the leopard observing the behavior of the impalas that were in alert and all looking in one direction.

The rest of the day goes exactly like the day before, with the game in the evening where we manage to see male lions and we have to deal with an elephant that doesn’t want to let us pass in the road. We also spotted a family of rhino with a kid that Texan said was one week old!

We go to sleep early and amazed by everything we have seen during the day!Read more
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