u/VirginiaOnSafari

Africa’s Travel Indaba Day 1

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Amazing properties, including a $130,000 per night, exusive use private Indian Ocean island that sleeps 8.

If anyone wants to splurge on that, I’ll hook you up. 😳

After work, an outrageously amazing business dinner at the famed Oyster Box. The jewel of the Durban area, with old school colonial design, unparalled location, and perfect service. If I’m in KZN, I simply can’t pass up the opportunity.

Arrived Monday. Show began yesterday.

I was pitched a $130,000 per night exclusive use Indian Ocean island that sleeps 8. If anyone is interested, I can hook you up!😂

If anyone is attending Africa’s Travel Indaba this weekend, reach out!

Right before surgery, my surgeon laid it all out.

35 years of experience.
His first assist, 26 years with him.
Scrub tech, 26 years.
Anesthesia provider, 30 years.

Over 120 years of experience in one operating room, and more importantly, those people working TOGETHER as a team.

People online love to treat plastic surgery like ordering from a menu or bargain shopping for a deal. Meanwhile this is someone literally dissecting your face.

So yes, I did my homework.

Published work. Surgical education. Peer training. Long-term staff retention. Consistency. Decades of befores and afters. Reputation among other surgeons, not just social media followers. Quiet confidence.

The surgeon’s surgeon.

Sitting there getting marked up for surgery, I felt calm. That quiet confidence in the room told me everything I needed to know.

Our last day in Mozambique was another perfect day by the sea. Hammocks, swinging like a kid over the infinity pool, and one last boat ride across the Indian Ocean.

No crowds, no loud resort chaos, just quiet beaches, fresh seafood, warm ocean air, and that feeling that time had slowed down a little. The exclusivity of this place is the luxury.

I spend about half the year working in southern Africa, and places like this still stop me in my tracks. Bush one week, beach the next. It’s a pretty incredible way to live.

Now it’s back to South Africa, to trade the ocean for elephants.

Part 5, pre-op markings.

What my surgeon is mapping out:

He’s breaking down what’s called the gonial triad, the structure that gives you that snatched jawline.

My entire face had shifted downward over time, as they do… My jaw went from a sharp, defined triangle to a rectangle with my skin seeming to puddle under my jaw and chin, and I was hyper aware of it. Restoring my jawline was one of the main reasons I chose surgery.

He’s showing where my jaw had flattened with age, compared to the shape I had when I was younger, and why that definition had softened.

You can see the submandibular gland bulge contributing to the loss of shadow under the jaw, so the plan was to reduce it, not remove it, just carefully shave it down to restore a clean, more youthful contour.

And for everyone who asks, that gland is still there. I still produce saliva normally and I don’t have dry mouth. It was reduced, not taken out, it still works, and you have multiple other salivary glands doing the job, as well.

I’ve seen a lot of deep plane facelifts where that gland isn’t addressed. The early results can look great, but over time, as swelling settles and tissues relax, that fullness under the jaw usually reappears. Tightening alone won’t give long term results, I’ve seen enough before and afters to appreciate Dr. O’Daniel’s reasons for addressing mine. Shave them down, Doc!

Then he walks through repositioning, using existing structures like the tail of the parotid to lengthen my jaw, and moving the buccal fat pad to my cheek for fullness. Instead of fillers, he used my own tissue, which is natural and regenerative.

He addressed all the deeper structures, not just tightening the surface, so the result actually holds. I certainly do not want to recover from facelift surgery again, to get to my original goal, as my recovery has been intense.

Did a full wine tasting day through South Africa’s coastal Winelands and the variety packed into one region is incredible. What a far cry the coastal winelands are from Stellencosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, etc!

Started at Idiom Wines with wine pairings alongside fresh pasta dishes, then headed over to Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate for wine and chocolate pairings overlooking the water.

Then we ended the night at a luxury Airbnb on the water with a hot pink hot tub and a giant unicorn statue like that was the most normal progression possible.

South African wine country is elite, but also occasionally feels like someone mixed luxury travel with a fever dream, and I mean that as a compliment. 🍷🦄

One of my favorite things about being on a private concession inside Kruger National Park is getting to sit with a sighting like this and actually watch behavior unfold naturally.

No chaos, no convoy of vehicles, just a lioness completely locked in while our guide talked us through every move she was making.

The crouch. The pauses. The ears twitching. The way she used the grass and wind.

The tension in moments like this is unreal because you know something is about to happen… you just don’t know if she’s going to pull it off.

Do you think she made the kill? 🦁

Day 3 in Mozambique

I’ve become very committed to the art of doing absolutely nothing.

Champagne in hand, book in my lap, watching fishermen in traditional dhows deliver the day’s fresh catch, while the sun drops into the Indian Ocean.

I normally struggle to sit still. But here? It just happened effortlessly. Realizing 2 hours had passed while reading without interruption was my big accomplishment of the day.

I think that’s what I loved most about this place. It felt quiet in a way that’s getting hard to find anymore. Not touristy AT ALL. Not overbuilt AT ALL. Just beautiful and calm and completely removed from real life for a little while.

Only 4 units, exclusive use only. So very nice.

From a trip last year off Mozambique near the Bazaruto Archipelago.

We went out by boat hoping to catch some marine life and it turned into one of those days where everything happens at once.

Humpbacks surfacing nearby, spinner dolphins moving fast and disappearing just as quickly, and a boat that wasn’t exactly helping with stability.

At some point I gave up on getting “good footage” and just watched it instead.

The coastline there sits between reef systems and open ocean, so you get a mix of species moving through rather than one predictable sighting.

The diving and snorkeling are INSANE.

I went to St. Sebastian, Mozambique and flew into Vilankulo. A short drive later they loaded our luggage onto a boat and we headed out across the Indian Ocean.

The chalets were one of my favorite parts. They’re huge, open, airy, and wrapped in these long grass roofs that move with the breeze.

They open straight out to the water, and to get onto the deck I had to push through the grass with my hands. It sounds like nothing, but it really gave me a thrill! 😂

Inside, it was soft light, big bed under mosquito netting, everything neutral and calm. Outdoor shower, fireplace, big lounge, and gorgeous lighting in the evenings. You wake up with the ocean right there, no barrier between you and it.

We had the whole place to ourselves, it’s exclusive use, so it was just our group. The staff-to-guest ratio was kind of wild, but not in a formal, stuffy way. Things just happened without asking.

What I probably appreciated most was how flexible everything was. If we wanted to go out on the water, we’d give them about an hour’s notice and the boat was ready. Fishing, diving on pristine reefs, or just heading out to watch whales pass through. Champagne picnics to enjoy…

I’ve stayed in a lot of “luxury” places and this is one I’ll definitely return to.

We’re used to building, leading, solving, producing.

This wasn’t that.

I took a trip with a few of my C-level, always-on, high-performing girlfriends to a remote lodge tucked deep in the Soutpansberg Mountains in South Africa, and it did something I didn’t think was possible.

It slowed us down.

No packed itinerary. No pressure to “make the most of it.” No constant stimulation.

Just space.

Days looked like champagne by the pool, long, unhurried hikes with ridiculous mountain and waterfall views, spa treatments that recalibrated our nervous systems, and meals where nobody was checking their phone between bites.

And then the evenings shifted everything.

Outdoor showers at sunset. Conversations that went way past surface level. The kind you don’t have time for in real life.

And the sky… I’ve never seen anything like it. No light pollution, just layers of stars that really put things into perspective.

One night, we did a private sleep-out.

No walls, no noise, no distractions. Just lying there under that sky with your thoughts. And leopard calling in the distance. 😳

No notifications. No decisions. No one needing anything from you.

This kind of experience isn’t flashy. It’s not over-the-top. It’s just… intentional.

And honestly, I don’t think it would appeal to everyone.

But for the right group of women, at the right time in their lives, it hits in a way that’s hard to explain until you’ve felt it.

Luxury doesn’t always mean over-the-top glitz.

Sometimes it looks like a remote beach lodge on the Indian Ocean, so far off the beaten path I was convinced GPS had us lost getting there.

Nothing 100 miles north, nothing 60 miles south, and not another person in sight.

No beach clubs. No crowds. No noise.

Just a quiet stretch of coastline, warm water, and the kind of space that’s getting harder and harder to find.

We finally arrived… and it was worth every mile.

Curious how others here define luxury, does this count for you?

Watching my surgeon map my face is less like pre-op planning and more like watching a sculptor work. A great facelift is architecture.

Here he continues talking through the plan, discussing the perioral fat pad, micro liposuction, buccal fat pad repositioning, restoring youthful chin contour with fat transfer, and his emphasis on preserving natural features rather than creating a different person.

At one point he presses on an area with his Sharpie while demonstrating what he calls his “ballotable test,” showing how the buccal fat pad can be gently pushed back, then slowly herniate forward again. He has a paper coming out based on more than 1,000 cases on how he uses the buccal fat pad to augment the cheek or jawline, depending on the face.

He also explains how aging flattens central fat pads, subtly changing chin shape over time, and how he would restore rather than alter.

This is the side of facial rejuvenation most people never see, individualized anatomy, judgment, restraint, art.

And honestly, hearing your surgeon talk this way before ever picking up a scalpel inspires a great deal of confidence.

Performed by Dr. T. Gerald O’Daniel, Louisville, Kentucky, triple board certified plastic surgeon and global educator.

Happy to answer any questions.

Classic Africa pivot.

Plans changed, so I ended up at the Cradle of Humankind, originally for archaeology, active hominin research, and excavation sites. I had no idea this traditional Zulu homestead was there.

And it completely floored me.

It was created for a film production, but it is a real walk through village, built by Zulu craftsmen with historians consulted so the architectural and cultural details would be accurate. From the beehive huts to the woven kraal fencing, the craftsmanship and design are incredible.

What struck me most was the ingenuity of the architecture and how harmoniously the settlement sits in the landscape. I was there for paleoanthropology and unexpectedly got this deep dive into vernacular African design too.

Sometimes the best travel experiences are the ones you never planned. This was one of those.

Anyone else had a travel detour turn into the highlight of the trip?

Just a girl in the bush with a camera saying…

CHECK. THIS. OUT.

Kruger National Park never disappoints.

Tucked into the ancient sand forests near Kosi Bay, South Africa, close to the Mozambique border, this was one of the most remote and unexpectedly beautiful places I’ve stayed.

Getting there is part of the experience – sandy roads, rural villages, raffia palms, and that growing sense you’re leaving the modern world behind.

And then you arrive.

Raised wooden chalets under towering coastal forest. Birdsong instead of traffic. Ocean air moving through the trees. At night, skies so dark the stars are incredible.

What struck me most was how wild and layered this place is. In a single stay I watched hippos moving through glassy estuary channels, flamingos gathered in pale pink bands, explored the Kosi lake system by boat, and visited the traditional Thonga fish traps – a centuries-old, still-functioning system of sustainable fishing that felt like stepping into living history. We even had a picnic on the Indian Ocean!

The birdlife alone was absurd.

What I loved is that this place isn’t about over-the-top luxury. It’s about being comfortable in an extraordinary setting, with access to an intact coastal ecosystem few travelers ever see.

This stretch of coast feels very different from more developed destinations – ecologically rich, culturally fascinating, and wonderfully unpolished.

It takes effort to get there. Thats exactly why it remains so special. I love getting off the beaten track.

I realized my actual Part 1, filmed during pre-op markings and surgical planning, never loaded… so here it is.

My surgeon talks through volume loss, orbital hollowing, ligament support, buccal fat pad herniation, platysma changes, the submandibular glands, and what he calls the gonial triad — a concept from an upcoming paper of his involving three structures that influence jawline aging: the buccal fat pad, submandibular gland, and parotid tail.

At one point, he describes facial rejuvenation as adding, subtracting, and lifting.

I also loved hearing him say we weren’t trying to change how I’ve always looked, but restore support while preserving identity. That mattered to me.

This is the side of surgery most people never see — the analysis, the markings, the game plan.

And yes… I somehow posted Part 2 before Part 1. Because apparently even my facelift journey has plot twists. 😂😂😂

We went from “this place had zero life”

to “oh look… humanity figured out fire.”

Then into caves where bones don’t just disappear, they fossilize, and their stories are written in stone.

If you haven’t watched Cave of Bones yet, it’s worth it. It gives real context for what’s happening here, and why it matters.

This is the Cradle of Humankind, where some of our earliest human ancestors were discovered, where evidence may push back the timeline for controlled fire, and where researchers have explored provocative questions about early mortuary behavior.

Standing there, watching scientists uncover our ancestors with precision tools in real time, evolution stops feeling abstract and starts feeling very real.

Every time I go, I learn something new… and walk away feeling a little smarter.

If you’re a science nerd, archaeology buff, or just fascinated by human origins, this place is incredible!

PART 2- Looking back on this now is equal parts cringey and fascinating.

It was about 5:30 in the morning, I clearly looked exhausted, and honestly, looking great on camera was not on my mind.

What strikes me most now is not how I looked, but hearing my surgeon talk through his planning, even using old photos of me when I was younger to help guide a result that restored rather than changed my natural structure.

Going into this, I had no idea how much artistry goes into facial surgery. I thought of it as a procedure. I didn’t understand the design, restraint, and aesthetic judgment involved.

Listening back now, I can barely keep up with all he’s explaining, loss of volume, skeletal changes with aging, using my own fat for restoration. I remember sitting there practically unable to keep up with the layers of thought going into this. It was far more nuanced than I ever imagined.

And that reinforced something I feel strongly about, especially now: choose a surgeon with proven experience and artistic ability. Do your research. I researched for two years before finding mine.

These posts are vulnerable for me. I have a very public life through my company, and if I’m in front of a camera, I’m usually putting my best face forward. This was the opposite, no “being on,” no angles, no awareness, just me before surgery, half marked up in Sharpie and wide open.

And those dark circles under my eyes? Lifelong. I’m adopted, and when I was little my mother took me to doctors worried I might be anemic, because she didn’t have them and no one else in the family did either. Nope, just my face. 😅

Cringey? Absolutely. But I love that it captured such a raw pre-op moment.

For anyone researching surgeons, take your time. This is art as much as medicine. Choose accordingly.