Two weeks in South Africa

Friends of mine were in South Africa for the first time the other day, and they asked the obvious “where to?” questions.  South Africa is vast, and since they only had two weeks here, they needed to make the most of everyday.  They were very keen to drive to Namibia, but I definitely talked them out of that.  It is a great drive, and there is plenty to see and do there, but you would be wasting a lot of precious time for a short holiday.  My suggestion was as follows:

Hire a car and GPS in Cape Town which was the starting a departure point.  Go to the winelands, waterfront, robben eiland, table mountain, and all the other Cape Town Tourist spots.  I told them to stay for three days and then fly up to Nelspruit to hire another car there to go see the game at the Kruger National Park.  It’s much cheaper to stay in Nelspruit than in the park – and although this was not a “budget trip” for them, they were quite happy with the suggestion.  After four days, they saw all the wildlife that they had hoped to see.

A quick flight to Port Elizabeth, in the morning and a leisurely drive down to Plett and Knysna.  They found accommodation there, and with so much to do in the area, they stayed for three days.  They told me that they went on the John Benn, saw the elephant sanctuary and the bird world, birds of Eden – this is the largest aviary in Africa, if not the world!

After that, it was back on the road where they stayed a night in Wilderness, and then an very slow drive back to Cape Town.  This gave them one and a half days to settle into the idea that they were leaving – and to go taste some of the finest foods in South Africa at the waterfront.

They really enjoyed the trip, and I am really jealous that they have seen more of South Africa then I have!

The big five to pack – organizing a holiday in South Africa

Accommodation

Plan where you want to stay, how long you want to stay there and what type of accommodation you want.  If you are going to backpack, this is probably not necessary, but for hotels and guesthouses, it would be best to make a booking before.

Car Hire

In South Africa, the best way to get around is with your own car.  You can usually get a better deal by booking online, as they will offer unlimited mileage for the same price or cheaper!  You can also use a bus service. Passenger trains are not advisable

GPS

Not a necessity, but it makes life that much easier.  Its not good to use the GPS all the time – you really should just go out and get lost.  Its just nice to know that you can get back easily.

The suitcase

Pack for hot and cold.  Between Cape Town and Johannesburg, you get major weather changes.  We wont even go on about the Northern Cape!

Money

Take at least two or three forms of money.  Pick-pocketing and theft happens all over – so have some cash handy, as well as a credit card.  I usually keep them in different places.

All in all, have a great trip

Only a weekend…

My wife and I dont get much time off work, which makes doing a long trip pretty difficult.  This weekend, we decided to hire a car in Cape Town, and get away – only for the weekend.  It seems like such a short time, but it rejuvenates a person and we recommend it.  You switch off your phone, forget your laptop, jump into the car and just drive.

We picked up the hire car from the Cape Town airport, and got onto the N2 to Stellenbosch.  The wine farms there are gorgeous, and Spier, and internationally recognized venue has activities that can keep you there the whole day.  We stayed in the Protea hotel, where they gave us a massive room – the service was awesome.  The only thing that we found was that they obviously have not done that much touring themselves, as all they knew about were the wine farms – there is so much more to do!

The next day we took a drive to Worcester and Wellington, both small towns that are very quiet on Sundays – in fact, they are quiet all the time but even more so on Sunday!  There were many photo opportunities, and when we got back home it felt very refreshing.

South African being a South African tourist

Isn’t it funny how when visitors come here to tour this country, we end up discovering that we have seen very little of South Africa ourselves?! We decided to hire a vehicle, and get onto the road – no accommodation booked, just drive and see where we land up.

First day, we hired a vehicle in Cape Town, and drove along to the Hugenot tunnel, but turned off to Sonstraal road to go over Bain’s Kloof. What an awesome road – great turns, and majestic scenery. The river is far below, and we stopped to take pictures of the crazy guys paddling in the freezing waters. Continuing on the journey, we drove through snow… SNOW! We even stopped and had a snowball fight. This is definitely something that I have never done in all the years of living in South Africa, even though it was less than 1 ½ hours away.

We continued on our trip past some magnificent flowers – but we had timed it incorrectly, so they were not fully opened – but we did get out to fun in the fields a bit (we jumped one of the fences and climbed a hill too!) Soon, tired from the climb, we were back in the air-con vehicle, and on our way to Calvinia. We arrived quite late, and found a restaurant at the local garage (petrol station). Believe it or not, the food was pretty good and we had a roaring time with Dini, our waitress, bar lady, shopkeeper, and drinking buddy. Calvinia is small, so we could just walk home – no drinking and driving for us.

The next morning, after breakfast, we “looped back” and headed back to Cape Town via our next stop, Ceres. We had to go through Clanwilliam to get my tyre fixed first. In Ceres, we had an awesome time picking oranges and eating them and then a braai at night (way too much food). The cottage we stayed in was fantastic, and it was on a farm where we could go swim if it was warm enough.

Our next scheduled stop was St. Helena – but when we were driving through it, it did not look very exciting, so we continued on to Paternoster. We stayed at “the beach camp” in an A-frame with the waves lapping at our feet – how incredible!

Now we are back in Cape Town, and we will soon do all the local sites.