xoxo
Stephanie

I hope to take the children on safari again at some point. They went ballistic. It was incredible to see their faces when we saw elephant and giraffe and warthog and buck and zebra. I can’t wait for them to see lion. It’s a truly such an “awe”some experience.

You’ll have to let me know when you go back – I’d love to hear about your visit :)

Best wishes,

Sonya

Welcome! Thanks so much for stopping by. I am so happy to have a South African reader:)

It would be so wonderful to take your children back to South Africa on holiday. I hope that you will have that chance someday. There is no bad time to go, really. But, I look forward to the day that my children will be old enough to really “get it”. We’re already talking about when we can go back – the children just fell in love with it. They bonded so beautifully with their cousins – they miss them terribly.

Before we left on our trip, I, too, was a bit frustrated with the lack of information on Gluten Free South Africa. Fortunately, our family was willing to do some scouting for me in advance. I ended up finding quite a bit of organic produce at Woolworths. For packaged gluten free items, such as bread, muffin and waffle mixes, cereals, nuts, seeds, etc, I went to Dischem. They carry more well know brands, such as Schar and Orgran. I would consider their selection extensive compared to other stores. Holland and Barrett does carry a limited amount of GF snack-type items. We did find a place in Durban (on the Berea) called Earth Mother that was a shop as well as a cafe. They had some of the harder to find GF items, like millet, nut butters and avocado mayonnaise. The cafe served mostly GF, whole foods based meals. A fair amount of the items offered were also raw.

Because we have considerable dietary restrictions, we decided to bring as much food as we possibly could. I had the brilliant idea of shipping food in advance so we wouldn’t have to use up valuable luggage space. I arrived at the post office and was told it would cost me $600 to mail it. {Insert jaw-dropping-to-floor sound here}. So, I returned home (box in hand) determined to figure out how to make it work. At the end of the day, we ended up fitting a fair amount of food in our bags and passed through customs with no questions asked.

The tough part was eating out. We did it – but it was a challenge. We ended up sticking with places that served fresh fish that could be broiled (with nothing on it). We only got sick once after eating out at least a half a dozen times. I reckon it was butter, not gluten. They LOVE butter over there!

warm regards
Stephanie

I have been dreaming about taking my husband and kids to South Africa for years. I, like your husband, was born in South Africa (Cape Town) and left as a child when we moved to Israel. I dream of giving them the opportunity to experience Africa. Your post got the dream going again….
I have a 10 year old celiac son. I have found little information on the web regarding Gluten free South Africa.
Do you have any useful tips?

With Thanks,
Sonya

p.s. I loooove Sosaties. My mom often makes them when we braai.

Thank you, my dear. So glad you liked reading the post. I loved writing it. I confess it took me a while to finish it, actually. There were so many things I wanted to include. Sometimes – and you probably agree – it’s hard to put into words the essence of a place you visit.

The wedding photo is of our dear friends Dean and Angela. They got married on the top of a hill overlooking the Indian Ocean. It was breathtaking. My mother-in-law babysat so my husband and I had a date night. There were people there I hadn’t seen in years so it was so fun!

Funny about delayed posts. It was actually YOU that inspired me, that it wasn’t too late. I remembered you still posted about your trip to Key West even though it had been a bit since your visit. Didn’t matter much to me at all – I still so enjoyed reading that post. Thanks for that:)

Looking forward to seeing the upcoming posts on your latest adventures.

Hugs,
Stephanie

Thanks,

Shirley