GREETINGS FROM THE EDITOR
Making new
Memories
I’m fortunate enough to say it’s tricky
to single out the most incredible travel
experience I’ve had. Top of the list is
the time when, after hearing reports
that the whale sharks were making their
annual pilgrimage down the east coast
of Africa, we spontaneously hopped on
a plane to Mombasa to dive with the
gentle behemoths. The Cessna flying over
Mombasa’s tropical coastline to spot the
papa shillingi (shark covered in shillings)
sighted nothing during our three-day stay,
but I did find coral that turned from red
to white when you waved your hand over
it. I spent an entire dive entranced with
waving my magic wand over Mombasa’s
coral gardens. It wasn’t the big bucket
list adventure I’d come for, but it was
a glorious and unexpected addition
to the list – as most memorable travel
experiences are.
I’ve impulsively dived off a dhow to
swim with a pod of wild dolphins and
spent two unplanned months living in
a hut on the beach of the South Indian
fishing village of Arambol while waiting
for a new passport to arrive. There was a
night on Amsterdam’s pink strip sampling
absinthe in quantities that would make Van
Gogh blush, which landed us in the pages
of The Gay Times. And the time my friend
coerced me to get on a plane to Maun
instead of back home to Cape Town so
06 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE
that we could spend the next three days
in the Okavango Delta gliding silently past
hippos in our makoros (canoes carved
from the wood of an African ebony tree).
Not all of my top travel memories
have been unplanned or big international
escapades; one need not travel far to
have an adventure. On a sharkspotting
weekend in Gansbaai we met local legend
Norman the Foreman, red-faced, rugged
and missing a few teeth, who spent the
night regaling us with stories of his many
misadventures across Africa. The next
morning we went to say goodbye at the
construction site he was overseeing and
were treated to a fairground ride in the
scoop of his digger loader (I’ve got the
photos to prove it).
They haven’t all been wild, crazy
adventures either. Sharing G&Ts with my
mom as we cruised down the Zambezi
at sunset; playing mini-golf in Mauritius
with my brother and nephew, while trying
not to hit snails the size of our hands
slugging their way across the course;
watching a movie with a good friend at
the 100-year-old Tuschinski Theatre in
Amsterdam; and seeing my daughter’s
eyes widen in awe as she sighted her
first lion in the wild. These smaller, quiet
moments are all etched into my travel
memory too.
That is what this very special edition
of Sure Travel Journey is all about: to
remind us that travel shouldn’t be about
saying you’ve been there, ticking highlights
methodically off your list, or snapping
that Instagram-worthy selfie. Travel should
be about making new memories with
the people you care about, in new and
extraordinary places.
We hope this edition’s 18 travel
experiences – from the wild and weird to
the poignant and blissful – will inspire you
to do just that with Sure Travel in 2018
and beyond.
Melany Bendix
Editor