about the hillratts
Stof and Sara Hillratt got married in September 2009 and started dreaming of things they could do: together they felt they could tackle the world! Actually, then they just decided to tackle the Pacific…
In 2011 they sailed across the Pacific from Mexico to Australia. They bought a gorgeous 41 foot Bristol sail boat in La Paz, Mexico which they named the Laura Takalani. They stopped off at, inter alia, the Marquesas Islands (here, here, here, here, here, here here and here), the Tuamotus (here, here, here, here, and here), Society Islands (here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), Cook Islands (here and here), Nuie (here and here), Tonga (here, here, here and here), Fiji (here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) and Vanuatu (here, here, here, here, here and here). It was the kind of priviledge they could only have dreamed of!
Thereafter? They hitched a ride around South East Asia for 6 weeks (here and here) before returning to Australia to sell their trusty boat (here, here, here, here, and here) and then spend a month traisping around New Zealand (here and here). Then they switched hemispheres (here) – leaving the biggest ocean behind them and began to prepare for crossing the biggest continent: Russia (here, here, here, here and here), Mongolia (here and here) and China (here and here) – all by train.
Then they flew home to start a new chapter.
Home for Stoffel and Saartjie is Cape Town, South Africa – a city they love with all their hearts (most of the time). In their past (pre-voyaging) lives Saartjie was a lawyer and Stoffel did internet-stuff. They came home and needed to shed the mantle of the past and are trying out new paths! They bought a house in the ‘burbs called Luleen that they had never seen and have a lot of loving to give said house. They also have a fabulous staffordshire bullterrier dog called Cowboy… whom keeps them humble and (fairly) well-exercised.
Justincase there’s any confusion: Saartjie does most of the writing. Stoffel takes most of the photos.
