African highlands, Lesotho and the adjacent South African Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains), fall like soft folds of green felt and stretch beyond the horizon. This fairytale landscape is very different from the Africa I’ve been seeing so far. Iridescent green sunbirds with bright red bibs drink from equally bright red flowers in strange-looking trees. Every puddle has a frog in it, and if I didn’t already have a prince, I’d kiss every single one of them.
Grasshoppers and cranes are dressed for a ball. I don’t know, maybe at midnight they become boring brown and gray again, but right now their vibrant Victorian collars and crowns match their tuxedos, bowties, and pantyhose breeches.
The steep, slippery road to Lesotho was cold, windy, and foggy. It was like driving an obstacle course in molasses. Plus the windshield wipers gave up working. On the bright side though, every mountain flower and bush was covered in dew drops and looked bejeweled. Beyond the pass, the sun was shining. People dressed in blankets and Zapatista hats welcomingly waved as I took pictures of them and their cattle.
In open valleys between rocky peaks the sun was scorching. But on summits the freezing wind threatened to blow me away. I didn’t climb too high "“ just a bit over 3,300 meters. Well, the highest peak of Southern Africa is only 3,482 m high, so I couldn’t go much higher anyway.
Location: Drakensberg, South Africa
The picture of the young dark-haired woman in skimpy summer clothes holding a beer (woohoo! party time!)that accompanies this and some other articlea–I’m assuming it is the author–is offensive because it perpeturates a Western-centric idea that the world is our beach on which to party. It is not. What this picture says to me about your editorial decisions, is that this article is basically about this scantily clad writer, and not her travels. Whether she wants to be pin-up material is irrelevant to the words she writes, or should be.
If you want to be taken seriously as a travel site, do not use pictures like this. It smells of amateurism.
Dear Josh,
Thank you for your comments, but I couldn’t disagree more.
For me, the editorial decision to use this photo was a simple one. The writer wanted to use it and I didn’t find the photo distracting, in any way, to the quality of the writing or its ability to communicate positive travel experiences.
Moreover, I created In The Know Traveler, over five years ago, to be inclusive to the myriad of voices and styles of people who travel and the diverse cultures from around the world they represent. We wanted there to be something for everyone, even those who party on the beach. For ITKT to be taken seriously, it was paramount to include as many of these voices as possible, including the ones that disagree with our decisions.
I hope to hear more from you in the future.
Best,
devin
Editor ITKT
for the future can you please put some pictures on here so i can see and admire the pictures.thanks for listning!bye!
Hi Isabella,
The beauty of blogs are the immediacy of it all. Sadly, sometimes photos don’t come with the stories or our writers don’t have the ability to upload photos where they are at. However. I think I can convince Sarit to throw a couple of photos about this one in the near future.
Best,
devin
Editor ITKT