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Are you ready for a BIG monthly recap? Because it doesn’t get any bigger than this.
My dear readers, I visited my 100th country. Botswana. I’ve been working toward this travel goal for many years, and I’m so thrilled to have finally made it happen.
I spent 34 days in Africa — my longest trip to the continent yet. And with such a busy tour planned for September, I knew I’d have no time to get my August recap up, so now I’m pairing the two months together.
From an Italian island to the Czech countryside, from the Okavango Delta to Africa’s most fearsome waterfall, here’s what I got up to in August and September!
Let’s take a look!
Table of Contents
Destinations Visited
- Ischia (Forio and Sant’Angelo), and Naples, Italy
- Prague, Kutná Hora, Srbsko, and Řevnice, Czech Republic
- Cape Town, Franschhoek, and Johannesburg, South Africa
- Maun, Okavango Delta, Gweta, Makgadikgadi Pan, Nata, Kasane, and Chobe National Park, Botswana
- Livingstone, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, and Livingstone Island, Zambia
- Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
Highlights
The month began in the middle of my birthday trip to Ischia, and I turned 42! Charlie and I spent the day sailing around the island with Vito from West Coast Ischia, who was our skipper on our mini-moon three years ago!
It was so nice to re-connect with Vito and tell him we went to Ventotene because of him and IT WAS KIND OF WEIRD. And as a birthday treat, he dove for sea urchins which we ate fresh out of the shell on the boat.
Ischia is forever one of my favorite places in Italy, and it was so nice to celebrate there. I got to swim in the sea and eat pizza and tiramisu on my birthday. What could be better?
After Ischia, we stopped in Naples long enough to get pizza at Di Matteo (a new pizzeria for me, and it was excellent!), before heading home.
And then began our Africa trip! We started with a full week in Cape Town — and no, a week is not excessive in Cape Town. There are so many cool things to do there.
This was my fourth visit to Cape Town and Charlie’s first, so I was determined to show him the best of the city and also see some new places.
I FINALLY made it to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, for the first time. It was an incredibly moving place to visit and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
We also spent a day on the wine tram in Franschhoek, we had the meal of a lifetime at La Colombe, we took the hop-on hop-off bus to Table Mountain and around the beachy neighborhoods, I visited the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art, we ate such good food at Oranjezicht Farmers Market, we saw the penguins at Boulders Beach, we spent the night in an Airstream trailer on top of the Grand Daddy Hotel, and I got an amazing African outfit made for me.
And Charlie? He LOVES Cape Town now, and keeps talking about when we can go back.
Next began our tour through Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe with Rock My Adventure. This was my second Rock My Adventure tour and I knew it would be a fabulous time. And we started in Botswana, my 100th country!
(FYI: You can get £100 off any Rock My Adventure tour with the code KATE100.)
We started in Botswana with a safari in the Okavango Delta. Now, the Okavango Delta is far more remote than the busier Chobe National Park. There are fewer people here, and it has an interesting, watery atmosphere that is great for photos.
We camped in upscale tents with ensuite bathrooms (it sounds fancy until you consider that’s how you pee safely after dark!!), and our guide Master grew up in Okavango and knew it like the back of his hand. We saw lions (adult males, adult female, and the cutest little group of five cubs), a cheetah, and even an aardwolf!
Next up, we headed to the Makgadikgadi Pan to camp overnight under more stars than I’ve ever seen in my life. We rode quad bikes, we woke up to a bright pink sunrise, we met some San Bushmen, I held a scorpion, and then we got to meet a bunch of Kalahari meerkats!
We finished with a few game drives in Chobe National Park, home to more elephants than I’ve ever seen in my life. Taking a boat cruise and seeing a leopard (!) were the biggest highlights!
Next up was Victoria Falls. We started in Livingstone on the Zambia side (Zambia was country number 101 for me), and jumped right into the Devil’s Pool, dangling ourselves over the edge! (The Devil’s Pool is run like a military operation and nobody has ever gone over the falls or died.)
We also walked with rhinos at Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park (while it’s often wise not to identify rhino locations in Africa, the presence of rhinos is well-publicized here), and we had afternoon tea at the luxurious Royal Livingstone Hotel. I even played the piano in the lounge afterward and my friends and I had a singalong!
Next, we crossed to the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe: country 102!), where we viewed the falls from the viewing platforms (and dodged baboons), took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi, we cheered our friend Emily on as she bungee-jumped, and we spent an evening at a wonderful township restaurant called Dusty Road.
Charlie and I did a jetboat trip on the Zambezi, which seemed a little less violent than whitewater rafting, and it was so cool to see the waterfalls from the bottom of the gorge. Getting drenched on a hot day was a bonus!
Then the tour ended — and a new phase of the trip began. My mom flew in to travel around Africa with me for the final 12 days, and Charlie stayed with us for the first four.
We stayed four nights at the wonderful Waterfalls Lodge, which was such a nice place to catch our breath. The food was great, and you could get an hourlong massage AND a 45-minute facial for just $95 USD!
We got breakfast at the Lookout Cafe, overlooking the gorge; we took a fancier sunset cruise; and we went to the Boma dinner, where we ate local food, played drums, and danced.
Next, Mom and I headed to Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Hwange was a very different experience from Botswana — the wildlife was much more sparse. But when we had sightings, they were EXCEPTIONAL.
The highlight was seeing four cheetahs, a mother and her three cubs, three game drives in a row! We even saw the mother teach her cubs how to hunt an injured young Cape buffalo, but the other buffalo reared up and charged them!
We also spent time in the local community, visiting a school, a women’s health clinic, and the local anti-poaching task force.
We returned to Livingstone in Zambia for two brief nights, and in between, went to the Elephant Cafe — a place on the river where you can feed rescue elephants before having an outstanding meal. It was the best meal I ate on the Botswana/Zambia/Zimbabwe portion of the trip.
Finally, we crossed into Botswana and finished with two nights in Chobe. By then, I think we were both pretty tired, but we got some more wildlife sightings in, including some lions that had killed a zebra and dragged it beneath a tree.
We had an extra night in Johannesburg, so we stayed at a hotel I love, 54 on Bath (and Mom REALLY loved it, too!), and did a private walking tour with Lufuno of WithLocals, who is an awesome lady, and we left feeling like friends.
Good times in Prague. Good food, good friends, good times. We headed out to Srbsko and Řevnice in the countryside to enjoy the beautiful weather and some local beers.
My Czech American friend Esther from Boston visited Prague for a week, and we watched the eclipse, did a day trip to Kutná Hora (my pick for one of the best day trips from Prague), and went to a tufting class! Tufting is when you create a little rug out of fabric. It was easy and so fun.
And I FINALLY got to see The Odyssey after it was out for two months. (Prague is home to one of only six 70mm IMAX cinemas in Europe, so people have been traveling from all over and it’s been entirely sold out most weeks.)
Challenges
Burnout. I knew I’d be dealing with travel burnout when my summer schedule materialized. Between the beginning of June and the end of September, I had five trips scheduled and was away for more than 50% of the time overall.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t let my schedule get that bad — but these trips were built around weddings, birthdays, and family trips. And they were all AMAZING TRIPS and I am so glad I went on all of them!! I would do all of them again! But my mental health did pay for it.
So yes. I spent much of August feeling adrift, angsty, and disorganized. I felt like I couldn’t get any reasonable work done.
If a schedule like this happens again, I will sacrifice my birthday trip, perhaps postponing it until a time when things are less crazy.
The camping pee situation. We camped three times in Botswana on our tour — the first had ensuite tents, the second was on a salt pan free of animals, but the third time was camping in simple tents in the national park, extremely close to where we had seen a hyena.
In short: we were told it was not safe to use the toilets at night. They suggested we hold it, or jump outside the tent for a second, pee right there, and jump back in.
Well, there was no way I was peeing after hearing that!! Basically, Charlie fell asleep immediately but I was up for hours worrying that I would have to pee in the middle of the night. Then I fell asleep and Charlie woke up actually having to pee in the middle of the night!
We both woke up early and held it until the sun rose and we were cleared to use the toilet again. Knowing what I know now, I would have brought some kind of women’s portable urinal just to remove the anxiety.
A scary boat experience. The speedboat ride to the Elephant Cafe was surprisingly thrilling — you go over lots of rapids and get close to crocodiles! And it was a blast on the way there.
But on the way back, the boat suddenly conked out and at first our driver wouldn’t say what was wrong. Then he assured us not to worry, because he contacted his boss and they would send another boat to get us if we needed one. WHAT?!
I should add that after my shipwreck in Indonesia in 2011, I had severe anxiety on boats for several years. Even on something as small as a rowboat. (While I was never diagnosed, a friend who is a military spouse told me my symptoms were consistent with PTSD.)
Today I’m mostly fine on boats, but that anxiety flares up when something goes wrong — and it did this day. You DO NOT want to be on a broken boat on the Upper Zambezi. If no one rescues you, YOU GO OVER THE FALLS. If a hippo doesn’t eat you first.
Anyway — the engine was slow, but we made it back in one piece. It was not fun for me.
Flight drama. My mom and I nearly missed not just one but three flights home from Africa!
I’ll be brief: our driver in Johannesburg did not follow Uber directions or Google Maps directions, probably taking his “special secret airport route,” and our 35-minute journey to the airport turned into an hour. Oh, and our check-in was in one terminal and our flight left from another terminal. We made it JUST in time.
(Lesson for you: plan to arrive at OR Tambo Airport much earlier than you think you need to. I would aim to get there three hours before your flight.)
Then on the flight from Johannesburg to Dubai, the flight attendant hit my mom’s knee hard with the beverage cart, her knee swelled up pretty badly, and the crew urged us to go to the Dubai Airport Medical Center during our layover.
The medical staff were great and she was cleared to fly quickly — BUT they could not find anyone to transfer her back in a wheelchair. So we basically had to wait, continuously hound the staff to CALL AGAIN, and long story short, we came within minutes of missing our next flights (hers to Boston and mine to Prague), arriving just in time for final boarding. Sheesh.
My mom is feeling much better now, and I’m thankful that Charlie and I had the foresight to upgrade her to business class on her 14-hour flight to Boston. 14 hours in economy with a knee injury would NOT have been fun.
Blog Post of the Month
Best eSIM for Italy — You know I’m an Italy expert, and this has plenty of information not only on different kinds of eSIMs, but things you need to know when staying connected in Italy!
Most Popular Post on Instagram
It’s been 10 years since I last visited Cape Town. What’s changed? I’m trying to do more carousels-with-text-on-them posts (so much less work than video, phew!), and this one did extremely well.
A lot has changed in Cape Town since my last visit. Nonalcoholic beers, wines, and spirits are so much more popular now! Uber has a much further reach! There is a new contemporary art museum!
And also…the rand has fallen significantly, which sadly is rough on South Africans. But that also means this city, already great value for money, has become even more of a bargain for international travelers.
Either way, if you haven’t been to Cape Town in a while, maybe this might get you planning a future visit!
What I Listened To This Month
Wow. Now that my Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums challenge is over (I finished in July!), where do I go from here?
This month…I listened to Madonna. I listened to Olivia Rodrigo. I listened to Pitbull, Kendrick, Jessie Ware.
Rosie O’Donnell on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast was my podcast highlight of the month. I adore Rosie. She has rizz for days.
In other news, I’d love to find a new podcast that is some kind of women’s self-empowerment and business combination, but from someone who is actually successful in something besides teaching people how to do what she does. Anyone have any recommendations?
What I Watched This Month
Widow’s Bay on Apple TV+. For the record, I started watching it BEFORE it won all the Emmys this month!
This show is a comedy. It’s a horror. It stars the incredible Matthew Rhys — a Brit with one of the best American accents ever — it takes place on an island off the coast of New England, and it’s full of quirky characters.
I feel like the less you know about this show going in, the better. So go watch it!
What I Read This Month
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elisa Williams (2026) — It’s 1995, and 14-year-old Tati is determined to find out the identity of her father. And as she begins to search, the novel tells the stories of six generations of her ancestors, and the curse that bound them all.
I absolutely loved this book — it reminded me a lot of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, which also tells the story of generations of Black Americans and the unique challenges they each faced. There are so many things that we inherit from our ancestors, and sometimes to take a leap is the most powerful way you can change things for your bloodline.
Every generation is drawn so vividly, and you end up loving the characters and feeling so much of their pain.
I think this might be the best novel I’ve read so far this year. Highly recommended.
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025) — Sarah Wynn-Williams was so determined to get a job at Facebook in its early days that she invented one for herself: a diplomat-type position regulating Facebook’s international presence.
What seemed great at first quickly became an enormous clusterfuck. Because the people working for Facebook had NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE DOING, and they were simply handed tons of money and power and encouraged to keep doing what they were doing.
This book was explosive when it came out. I only read it now because it became available on Kindle Unlimited (I have a free trial from a new Kindle). If you don’t like books that have a lot of endless darkness without any bright points, this might be a tougher read for you.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (1998) — This novel is the first in a wildly popular series about Precious Ramotswe, who opens the first women-run detective agency in Gaborone, Botswana, and solves cases around the country.
When I was in Botswana, I realized that this would be a good book to read while in the country — a book about an unconventional and successful Motswana woman. Then I was shocked to learn that the series is written by a white man from Zimbabwe! I did not expect that!
Even so, this book was very cozy as far as mysteries go (tracking down a wayward spouse, proving that people were lying, etc.). And I enjoyed it for getting a bit of local color in Botswana. If you want something African and sweet and low-stakes to read, this is a nice choice.
The Dry by Jane Harper (2016) — Australian Federal Agent Falk returns to his hometown for the first time in decades — a farm town in Victoria now wracked with drought — to attend the funeral of his best friend Luke, who apparently murdered his wife and child before killing himself. Soon he realizes that this case may be connected to a death of a young girl from decades ago.
This novel is beloved by thriller aficionados, including Stephen King. Thrillers aren’t necessarily my favorites, but I was eager to give it a try. The best thing about this book is the setting — the drought is described so vividly and colors absolutely everything that happens. The parched atmosphere adds an air of desperation to every interaction.
I did think that the book was a bit slower than I like, but the setting did make up for it. And it’s been made into a movie starring Eric Bana! I’ll be watching it for sure.
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (2007) — This novel tells the story of Ree Dolly, a poor teenage girl living in the Ozarks and trying to support her family. When her meth-cooking father disappears after putting their home up for bond, she goes on a journey to prove that he’s dead and save their home.
The writing in this book is detailed and deliberate, and the setting of the Ozarks is genuinely shocking. Blood and family ties are everything here. Justice is in the hands of vigilantes. There are few written rules and many, many unwritten rules. Kids grow up not realizing the desperation of their upbringing, and having no idea that there’s anything better.
In short, this book is extremely haunting, and one of the better books I’ve read about a specific place.
This book turned into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, and many think it’s her best performance (I watched it after finishing the book and agree).
This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum (2026) — Best friends Benny and Joy run a successful comedy podcast about surviving “against the odds” disasters. But when Joy suddenly disappears, the cops decide Benny might be involved — and he sets off on a journey to find out what happened.
Okay. This book did not do it for me. It felt way, way too cutesy and try-hard. Like the characters were hipsters plucked directly from 500 Days of Summer. I did not enjoy the writing style, and I found it so hard to believe that these two straight people could be closer to each other than their mediocre spouses and still not realize that they might be in love with each other.
The best thing about it was how it handled a character with a sleep disorder (narcolepsy) and worked it into the plot in a non-tokenistic way. (Some of the other characters, though? WAY tokenistic…)
I See You’ve Called In Dead by John Kenney (2025) — Obituary writer Bud Stanley has been in a funk for years. And when a drunken night leads to him writing and posting his own obituary on his news site, he starts going to funerals to learn how to live.
The thing that bothered me the most about this book was how much the characters, New Yorkers living in Carroll Gardens, drive everywhere.
Other than that, I had similar issues with this book as the previous one listed — the writing felt way too cutesy, way too try-hard.
My least favorite trope is the manic pixie dream girl, the quirky girl who is so weird and adorable and really likes the boring protagonist, for some reason. Well, not only does this book have a manic pixie dream girl (who goes to strangers’ funerals!), it also has a manic pixie dream boy, the protagonist’s closest friend!
Coming Up in October 2026
After being go-go-go all summer long, I am spending most of this fall at home. And boy, do I need it.
I have only one trip planned this month, and it’s just for a weekend — I’m traveling to Hamburg for Traverse 26, the travel creator conference!
I’m looking forward to seeing my friends, learning the latest developments in the industry, and spending time in one of my favorite places in Germany. Some cities just have a good vibe, and Hamburg is that to me.
Also, Hamburg is a 6.5-hour direct train from Prague, and you know how much I love long train journeys! I can’t wait to soak that up.