Dear All This South Africa blog entry comes from Bloemfontein! I'm deep in the heart of Afrikaaner South Africa now - the signs are all in Afrikaans, and I hear Afrikaans being spoken much more commonly now than English. It feels like I'm in a really authentic part of South Africa. While other places I'd been to thus far hadn't been completely buzzing with tourists, I was definitely off-the-beaten track now and was loving it. As I believe I have mentioned in my blogs before, I always like to experience travels off the tourist trail. This South African state called Free State, formerly the independent Afrikaaner country of the Orange Free State which along with the Transvaal to the north-east around Johannesburg formed the two independent Boer Republics of the 19th century, felt very much that. ... read more

Dear All Yay! As mentioned in my last, I was so glad to be driving on decent roads again in the South African state of KwaZulu-Natal, after my time in the Eastern Cape. On a Sunday morning, I checked out of my little cottage accommodation in the coastal town of Port Edward, and drove on to Durban. This would be the final point on my coastal journey for this summer. I had been hugging the stunning and extremely varied South African coastline for two weeks now, from Cape Town to Durban, and from there my journey would take me inland for the rest of my time on this trip. I had the feeling at this time that my travel adventures would take a different turn from there on, and I was looking forward to it very ... read more

Dear All I bade farewell to lovely Knysna this morning, to continue my Road Trip eastwards along South Africa's famous Garden Route. There were so many places I could have stopped off at, it became difficult to choose. For this part of my adventure, I narrowed it down to firstly a stop at the Storms River Bridge in the Tsitsikamma National Park, a 120m high concrete arch bridge looming over a seriously stunning and high river canyon formed by the Storms River flowing deep down below. I'm not one to suffer greatly from vertigo, but walking across it and peering over the side seriously induced some knee-knocking moments for me. With a bit more time I would have loved to have explored the nearby village of Storms River by the coast. I didn't realise it but ... read more

Dear All So after a wonderful start in Cape Town, on the Saturday after my arrival in the country, my South African road trip began! I picked up my hire car at Cape Town airport, and bade goodbye to this beautiful city - the plan was to spend the next 15 days driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg, quite an epic journey and adventure I must admit! The first part of this country-long road trip would be spending a few days along the beautiful Western Cape coastline dubbed "The Garden Route", between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. As I began my wheeled adventure, I noted that South African roads seemed quite orderly and straightforward thus far. You have to watch out for a few drivers, mainly the minibus drivers who stop and start everywhere, sometimes drive ... read more

Dear All Greetings on the eve of my big summer journey 2023! I am all packed and ready to begin a 40-day trip through South Africa beginning tomorrow. I'm very excited, although I must admit a little nervous. It's the biggest trip I've done in quite a while, and compared with Scandinavia last year which was of equal length, it is a little further away and may require a bit more travel savviness which I've not used in a while. But very exciting nonetheless! This is actually the trip I was planning for the summer of 2020, but we all know what happened at that time. I've pretty much rekindled the exact same journey, with the only difference being replacing the South African "Baz Bus" to travel through South Africa, with hiring a car from Cape ... read more