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Explorers Club brings you…A Walk in the Wild 2017
Explorers Club launches its first mini-Expedition..
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Stage 2 Marathon des Sables 2016: Comms from Ash
Now that she is in the thick of the race, only now do you realise what an immense effort this is. Here are her postings from her departure from the UK, via my brother Nick: 8 April: Ash left Mells yesterday afternoon and spent the evening with her tent buddies, a chicken burger and a…
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My Sister-in-Law, Ash Sinfield, takes on the toughest foot race on earth, second stage today…
Ash has just completed the 2nd stage of the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) today. She has been training for two years. It is a six-day, 251 km (156 mi) ultramarathon, which is the equivalent of six regular marathons. The longest single stage (2009) is 91 km (57 mi) long. This multiday race is held every year in…
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The Trigger – Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World To War. Tim Butcher talks at The Library, Franschhoek, on 11th September
Please find details on how to book tickets on the link below: Tim Butcher talk Sept 11, 2014
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A recce into the depths of the Okavango Delta
Rear-Admiral Dorian Hoy, able-fisherman master Sam Hoy and I (tackle-master, bottle washer, deck-scrubber) threw caution to the wind and took off up a channel from Maun to see how far we could get into the swamps in a day. Laden with drinks, snacks, binos and fishing tackle we launched at dawn, following a GPS route…
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Entering a Time Warp – The Kariba Ferry across Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe
The choice of dribbling along for twenty-two hours across an expanse of water or battling for forty-eight hours across corrugated roads and bottomless potholes was an easy one. It was an especially easy decision as it was like entering a time capsule – The Kariba Ferry. We squeezed onto one of the three available berths…
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'Chasing The Devil' – In Search of Africa’s Fighting Spirit. Tim Butcher lectures at The Library, Franschhoek
Best-selling author (Blood River) and adventure-traveller Tim Butcher lost friends in Sierra Leone during its civil war and was threatened with death by the Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, but he faced down these demons by trekking 350 miles through the jungle on an epic journey to one of Africa’s most overlooked regions. He wanted to…
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National Parks of Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo
One of the purposes of coming to this region is to uncover some of the lesser known backroads and wilder areas. Although the larger wildlife has remained elusive it has not in the least detracted from the mountains, lakes and rivers of that we have encountered. Snakes, on the other hand, have been much more…
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The Accursed Mountains of Theth, Albania
For seven months Theth is isolated, cut off by the winter snows. The rocky track to get there is arduous, with slippery hairpin bends, even when the snows have melted in May. As we climbed the narrow pass and entered the clouds, the weather closed in, and the temperature slumped. Tea was taken on top,…
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Gravediggers; Sweaty Twins; the Harushas of Theth; a bizarre serenading boatman and multiple shots at dawn – some of the characters so far….
The first foray into the unknown has taken in Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. Not your a-list destinations, but the so called underbelly of the Balkans. These are some of the characters that opened our eyes to the local hospitality, filled with generosity, usually flushed down with some home made rakija, no matter what time…
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An expedition sailing down the Irrawaddy, through the James Bond islands and onto Langkawi
In 2002 I organised a sailing escapade in the Far East. It was four months long and it started 1,000 miles up the Irrawaddy River in Burma, close to the Chinese border, and ended at Langkawi in Malaysia. Recently a sailing magazine in the US asked a few questions about the voyage and the article,…
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Hike to Cabane d'Orny in the memory of Hannes Esterhuyse
I met Lindy a few weeks ago, while she was staying at The Map Room in Franschhoek. She has written a story about tracing her brothers tragic last climb on a mountain in Switzerland, and wanted to share the journey. How I miss my brother Hannes. He died in August 2008 whilst climbing le Petit…
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Iona National Park, Angola 3rd & 4th July
We drove through the southern edge of the Iona National Park in Angola to make tracks back to the Namibian border. We passed through some remote areas, with very slow progress across river beds and rocky passes and through Himba territory. A very weary group pushed through the border back into Namibia on the 4th…
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Virgin Kunene Camp 2nd July
We left Foz and discovered an untouched camp on the banks of the Cunene where we unwound for two nights after the crossing, before the long trek to the border.
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The infamous Killing Zone – battle to the mouth of the Kunene
It all started so well. In high spirits, after saying our goodbyes to those returning to the Cape, we took off with excitement and some trepidation to tackle the infamous stretch of coast from Flamingo to the Kunene River. Rico Sakko pioneered the beach run some ten years ago for adventure. The two vehicles narrowly…
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Angola – Update and Binga Bay to Flamingo Bay 26th to 29th June 2010
We took off northwards rolling between two walls of mopani bush along a dusty single lane track towards a destination unknown to any of us. The grand Angolan Adventure has begun. We have covered some four and a half thousand kilometres since leaving home and in Angola we have taken a route from Ruacana to…
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Venture into Angola – the introduction
We have decided to leave the lager louts swimming in their bibs of beer in Cape Town, during the World Cup, and venture north into uncharted territory for all of us. Although partly regretting we are not to be caught up in the fervor of World Cup mania, an altogether new and intriguing adventure awaits…
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Sojourn at Moondance, Willow Point
Seven days in and it feels as if I have reverted to stone age man. The water ran out on Wednesday and then the electrics went down last night. I am running up the hill to boil the tea water and have emptied the geyser. I bathe in warm brackish water from the vlei. Willow…
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No Worry, Chicken Curry – the Whittles family adventure
I came across this story on Alaistair Sawday’s newsletter and thought it sung of a ‘very Explorers Club’ story which embodies the Mark Twain quote ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away…
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New images of the Selinda Canoe Trail
The Selinda Canoe Trail in Botswana, run by the old four-fingered Dorian Hoy, bubbles for a short season when the waters fill the Selinda channel, from the Kwando River in the North and The Okavango in the south. We have the latest pics in what Nat Geo Adventure has listed as one of the Top…
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2010 Zambezi Expedition reaches Mblizi on Lake Kariba
Warren Willis and Francois Kruger are paddling the Zambezi, reaching the half-way mark, around Lake Kariba. Their latest news reads: ‘We set off from the source in NW Zambia. The section through Angola was approx 480km and took us 11 days including getting our passports back in Cazombo. It took another 26 days and another…
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A hungry croc tastes Rupert's canoe in Caboro Bassa
Below reads a story, of which much of us dream, of two men in two boats, on a great adventure down one of the most thrilling rivers in Africa. The photos appear on a blog below and Rupert has sent this story along to accompany the photos. Yesterday I received a message from Warren Willis…
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Rupert FitzMaurice and Justin Matterson descend the length of the Zambezi, dodging hippos and fending off crocs
By chance, some friends staying in The Explorers Club and I got chatting of adventures over some Chamonix Sauvignon Blanc Reserve at New Year. Kiki told me of two intrepid explorers she knew who descended the Zambezi River – source to sea – and I mentioned I had been to a lecture at the Royal…
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Ripley attacks Tibet and Mount Everest
Ripley returns with his next installment from peaks on the top of the world. This time circling, like a three-legged mountain goat in the Himalayas, around Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of the Earth. We were standing there scratching our heads again. The road was so bad that we were starting to wonder if we were even…
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Canoeing and walking through Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe
It would be hard to find a better place to drift down a wild river dodging pods of hippo and skirting submerged elephants crossing channels. Or walking freely through the bush stumbling across a pride of lion, and a leopard in the fork of a tangled wild fig tree. Mana Pools is unique and offers…
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Ripley attempts the Matterhorn….
Esteemed Hugo Ripley, a regular doyen of Explorers Club Franschhoek, has climbed out of journalistic retirement to contribute some words of wisdom to the ECB… of a past expedition, when he was a few kilos lighter. The great heyday of Alpine mountaineering in the 1850s completely passed the Matterhorn by. It was considered unclimeable. If…
