Out of New England: Our Journey to Africa, Part I

This is the first in a series of posts on our recent trip to southern Africa and the journeys our bags took with us. We started in the coastal city of Cape Town, South Africa and made our way north to the deserts of Namibia and the preserved plains of Botswana, concluding in Livingstone, Zambia with a quick jaunt across the border to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Along the way we snapped the stunning natural beauty of the African continent and used some of our favorite Lotuff Leather pieces. They're the bags we carried each step of the way - an affirmation that what leaves our New England shop stays with you all the time, becoming a part of your travels.

The Cape of Good Hope juts southerly out of the African continent, marking the point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans greet each other and where, for centuries, tradesmen, sailors, explorers and travelers have congregated.

Peering over it is the city of Cape Town, one of Africa's bustling and diverse metropolises. The riches that its natural resources and globally strategic location have delivered are noticeable in an accrued elegance evident around the city. Yet the pockmarks of a difficult past are still evident, providing a unique juxtaposition of a complex city of roughly 800,000 people.

We checked into the Ellerman House, a luxury complex nestled in between the heart of downtown Cape Town and the vast Table Mountain Natural Reserve. Like Nairobi and Rio De Janeiro, Cape Town is a city that pulls off a urban living with large swathes of preserved nature, all within its city limits.

Like so many have done so before, we used Cape Town as a point-de-entre into the rest of the African continent. After checking out of Ellerman, we flew north to the deserts of Namibia, where hot air ballon rides and sunset picnics awaited.