Join Nairobi-based photojournalist Nichole Sobecki and journalist and yoga teacher Jill Filipovic for an indulgent nine-day excursion in South Africa.

We’ll start off in Cape Town, one of the world’s most stunning cities, where we’ll practice with the city’s best yoga teachers (including the ones who trained Jill as a yoga teacher!); visit Robben Island, the Museum of Contemporary African Art, and other spaces that tell the story of this extraordinary country; and eat at some of the city’s best restaurants. It will be spring in South Africa, so a particularly beautiful time to be there: Crisp, cool, and lovely.

Then we’ll set off for wine country. On the way, we’ll take a private guided tour of a cheetah sanctuary that rehabilitates these endangered animals and returns them to the wild — and where Nichole has visited in her work for National Geographic covering conservation and the scourge of cheetah trafficking. Once in the Cape Winelands, we’ll practice yoga daily, indulge in farm-fresh food grown nearby, and almost definitely drink way too much wine in vineyards across Paarl, Stellenbosch, and Franschhoek.

Finally, we’ll fly east for safari, where we’ll stay in a luxury safari camp on a private conservancy near Kruger National Park. Bring your camera and come prepared to see the Big Five and much, much more.

Throughout the retreat, daily yoga will be on offer. Nichole will lead photography workshops — not just how to take a great photo on safari, but how to use visual tools to tell a compelling story. Jill will lead accompanying writing workshops focused on effective storytelling and weaving words with images. And we’ll both work with you individually on your own story-telling project.

What’s Included:

-Daily vinyasa flow yoga

-Options for intensive yoga workshops and/or restorative Yin

-Daily workshops in photography and writing

-Individual feedback and edits on writing and photo projects

-Shared accommodations in Cape Town, Cape Winelands, and on safari

-Three nights and four days of luxury safari on a private conservancy

-All transfers and flights within South Africa

-Conservancy fees

-Twice-daily game drives

-Entry to Robben Island and MOCAA in Cape Town

-Optional excursions including a hike up Table Mountain and a trip to Boulders Beach penguin colony

-Bush breakfasts and sundowners (AM breakfast and sunset drinks on safari)

-All meals, including dinners at some of South Africa’s (and the world’s) best restaurants

-Drinks, including juice, soda, beer, and house wine

-Wine tastings and bitings

-and much more