The end of this particular road
After five months, twelve thousand kilometres, one broken tent, one puncture and an awful lot of insect repellent, we’ve spent the past week back-tracking across the country to bring this trip to a close. We have stitched together some of South Africa’s finest sights with some of its most breath-taking driving routes, but it’s probably…
The Orange River
The Orange River isn’t as well-celebrated as some of the other great African rivers, but as the longest within South Africa it is worth some attention. Our first week was spent on the banks of this river, overlooking a watercourse at least one hundred meters wide. Our second week was spent within earshot of the…
The Green-ish Kalahari
The attraction of the Kalahari was well established with us before our arrival and while we were prepared for the heat and the vastness of the place, we hadn’t expected it to be quite so green. Parts of southern Africa have received some much needed rainfall recently and as a result this corner of South…
Finding our stride
Much like the residents of Pisa in Italy, the good folk of Kimberly in South Africa have decided that there should be absolutely no room for interpretation in the naming of their tourist attractions. And it was with this guidance that we headed out to see The Big Hole. We were not disappointed with the…
The joys of the open road
Travelling with small children does sometimes feel a bit like spinning plates, and we were served a lesson this week on how a couple of minor oversights can quickly snowball into some broken crockery. We had made an early arrival at the highly impressive Ithala game reserve and all parties were thoroughly enjoying the fine…
Treading Carefully
Sitting on a sand dune one morning this past weekend, we found ourselves watching curious crocodiles poke their heads above a river channel in search of breakfast, while sharks thrashed about in the nearby surf, as hippos lurked around in the reeds no more than a hundred meters away. It turns out that this is…
On The Road Again
At the start of this journey, any casual observer could easily have spotted that we were not exactly travelling light. Indeed, rolling out of Cape Town we would have struggled to find room for an extra Swiss army knife. As a result, opening the vehicle doors at any new destination we often resembled some sort of spring-loaded travelling jumble…
Haven & Msikaba
Impressive places to visit are abundant along the Wild Coast, but most of them do seem to make you work quite hard to get there. We had recieved a few friendly warnings about the road leading to the Haven Hotel, but were reassured that it was really only troublesome if particularly wet. So after three…
A ripping good time
Last week began in the picturesque surrounds of Kingsvale Farm close to Bedford in the Eastern Cape, and in the hospitable arms of Ken and Simone. Ken had recently left behind the big city and the rock ‘n’ roll life of an environmental consultant in order to take the reins of this farm, which his…
South Africa at its finest
Those of you unfamiliar with South Africa may not appreciate some of the questionable actions from the ranks of Government over the past decade. Take for example the good folks running Eskom, who, as the State’s electricity public utility have not exactly showered themselves in glory during the past few years and as a result,…
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Enjoying the Wilderness
Our time in South Africa over the past few years has been largely spent expecting a new baby or nursing a new baby. As a result, we never really ventured with much gusto beyond weekend trips from Cape Town. As we plotted our route for this journey though, the voices championing a stop at Wilderness…
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Chapter Two
In those peaceful years of marriage before deciding to start a family we would often observe those distressed looking parents attempting to negotiate a gaggle of toddlers at an airport, or a restaurant, or a beach, or wherever. What idiots, we would smugly think to ourselves; what are they doing? And it was this superior wisdom that…
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Detouring 