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The Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation had initially run a competition from 2001-2007 to announce the "New 7 Wonders of the World" and that announcement was made on the 7 July 2007. Since then the focus has shifted to finding the "New 7 Wonders of Nature" and on 12 November 2011 Table Mountain was provisionally announced as one of them following a three year race to choose the world's most wonderful natural sites. In the initial results of the competition, in which hundreds of millions of votes were cast worldwide via mobile and internet platforms, the seven provisional winners in no particular order were:

The travel industry worldwide is bound to receive some hillarious complaints and we just thought that we would share some of these with you. We would like to re-iterate that these are not complaints that we at Journey Into Africa have received for our South African Safaris or any of our tours but they have been known to come through to other tour operators and travel agents in the industry. Enjoy!!!.

"I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

"It's lazy of the local shopkeeper to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned."

South Africa and the city of Cape Town in particular have received some fantastic news in that Cape Town has been named as the number 1 city in the 2011 TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Destination Awards ahead of other cities such as London, Sydney and New York. This bodes extremely well for anyone looking to holiday in South Africa as the ranking is completely unbiased.

TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel site that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. TripAdvisor is a public forum where the users get to share information and comment on travel destinations and services, allowing for good and bad comments. The website services are free to users and acts as an advertising model.

South African golf received a massive boost on Sunday 10 April 2011 when Charl Schwartzel became the third South African after Gary Player and Trevor Immelman to win the US Masters Golf Tournament and claim the coveted 'Green Jacket'.

Surprisingly Schwartzel won the tournament exactly 50 years to the day that Gary Player won the first of his three tournaments (1961, 1974, 1978). This win now gives South African's two US Masters titles in the last four years with Immelman winning in 2008. It also means that South African's currently hold two of the four 'Golf Majors' with Schwartsels' good friend Louis Oosthuizen in possession of 'The Open' (British) title that he won at St Andrews in Scotland 2010.

In early February 2011 many Namibia tours were affected by floods. The usually dry and world-renowned landscape at Sossusvlei with its panoramas were transformed by the strong flowing Tsauchab River into a vastly and extremely different setting with large pans of water filling the areas at the base of some of the world's tallest dunes. This resulted in access to this area becoming very limited. 

The red dunes of the Namib Desert, west of the Sesriem Canyon are commonly referred to as Sossusvlei but what they are actually referring to is the salt and clay pan that sometimes serves as a 'drainage basin' for the Tsauchab River. Even though the pan is called Sossusvlei it is actually the huge sand dunes that attract its many visitors from around the world to enjoy Namibia travel. These are the biggest and oldest dunes on earth and they form part of the southern Namib Desert, which stretches over 80 000km along the western coastal part of Namibia.

The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders) are situated on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and are roughly 1.7km wide and 108 metres high. The falls are part of two national parks, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia (66 km²) and Victoria Falls National Park (23 km²) in Zimbabwe, and are one of Southern Africa's major tourist attractions. They are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Vic Falls which have always been known as one of the '7 Natural Wonders of the World' are much higher than the Niagara Falls in North America and are possibly only rivalled in size by the Iguazu Falls in South America. Whilst Iguazu is divided into over 270 (relatively) 'small' falls and cataracts, Victoria is the largest single sheet of water in the world at 108 metres tall.

The steadily increasing regional rainfall this decade is influencing the hydrological extent of the Okavango Delta deeper into the Kalahari. This phenomenon is based on a cycle that shifts between wetter and drier peaks every forty years. The Boteti river, a major drainage channel of the Okavango Delta, is now in full flood throughout the year and so attracts water dependent wildlife from deep within the delta, a nomadic species from the seasonally dry Kalahari. Meno A Kwena Tented Camp that we make use of in our Botswana Safaris is even more ideally located for both riverine habitats and wildlife with relatively easy access to the saltpans of the Kalahari.

This fact is particularly important for tourism and wildlife viewing opportunities that produces a wider variety of wildlife and habitats than the Okavango and Kalahari individually. To this end, we encourage safari travellers to visit this unique area that most certainly completes a Botswana safari experience. There is perhaps no other area in Southern Africa where, on a single days drive, one can see hippos wallowing in the river and meerkats darting across the saltpans.

The Kruger Park in South Africa has two main seasons; a dry winter from April - October, and a wet summer from November - March. So when would be the best time to travel to Kruger? The park is known as an all-year destination, but the different seasons will have a varying impact on your safari. When planning your safari, you should keep two things in mind: What season will you be traveling, and which part of the Kruger Park will be the best for that season?

The winter is generally known as the best time of the year to do a Kruger safari. This period is quite dry and not very scenic as there is not much rain in the north of the country during our winter. This means that the leaves fall of the trees and rivers and waterholes dry up. With the bush thinned out and only some permanent waterholes staying wet, it is around these that you will spot the hordes of animals congregating. This is exactly the reason why the winter is best for wildlife watching. The animals are in the park all year round, but during the dry season it is easier to look through the bush and the wildlife concentrate in smaller areas and make them easier to find for tourists.