By Marga Hart
Travelling through South Africa had been long on our wish-list and I had spent many hours checking the Internet before deciding which trip to make. My husband, a radio-officer in the Merchant Marine in his younger years, wanted to visit Cape Town again, and that was one of the reasons we decided on the group tour from Johannesburg to Cape Town in 22 days by travel organisation Sawadee.
Mid-September, we arrived in Johannesburg late in the evening. We didn’t see much of the town, as we left early the next morning for the trip to Graskop. After having passed the townships at the edge of the town, we saw that many fields were burning or had been burnt, while other fields were still left untended.
Guide Riaan explained that controlled burning of the land was the African way of getting the fields ready for the next crop. At this time of the year, early spring, it made the landscape rather bleak.
When we got closer to Graskop, the landscape became hillier with huge planted forests for wood production. Riaan told us a lot of the wood was exported, mostly for the production of paper. So maybe the paper you’re reading now has a bit of Africa in it.
Graskop lies at the beginning of the Panorama Route, which we were following the next day. We visited Bourke’s Potholes and the Rondavels, both fascinating rock formations in Blyden River Canyon.
We also climbed up to “God’s Window,” from where we should have a marvellous view. Although low-hanging clouds blocked our view, the shapes of rocks and plants in the mist were still fascinating. We ended the day in Hazyview, close to Kruger Park, where we would have game drives the next two days.
The game drives brought us everything we had wished for. The first day we had seen The Big Five (Elephant, Leopard, Lion, Buffalo and Rhinoceros) before breakfast.
We met our first Giraffe within 100 metres. And then there were the graceful impalas, impressive zebras, baboons, kudus, gnus and many birds in a wonderful landscape.
Although the park was rather busy, we still had enough opportunities to see the animals, as the park was also very big and there were many places to watch them, especially at the waterholes.
The next two days, we paid a visit to Swaziland. You have to go through customs twice to get there. First you check out of South Africa, walk across the border and check in for Swaziland.
There we stayed at a tree lodge in Mantinga Nature Reserve and watched Nyalas grazing under it. We saw a cultural dance and visited Mlilwane Nature Reserve or Royal Garden, where we hiked the Hippo Trail without seeing any Hippopotamus. But we saw many other animals, among which blesboks and warthogs, and beautiful flowers. We visited a local market in the capital Manzini before returning to South Africa.
Back there, we would have liked to stay more than one night at Ubizane Zululand Tree Lodge, but the schedule took us to St. Lucia for a two-night stay. The village is situated on Tugela River, which is home to Nile Crocodiles and a number of Hippopotamus families. We saw some during a boat trip on the river. We were also told to watch out for hippos when walking in the village at night, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any.
The second day we had a game drive in nearby Hluhluwe National Park, famous for its Black and White Rhinoceros population. Each year, poachers, who want the animal’s horn, kill a number of rangers. Our guide told us that nowadays, a new law allowed rangers to kill poachers on the spot instead of arresting them.
We didn’t spot many Rhinos, but we saw a lot of other game and the landscape was beautiful. In the evening we enjoyed a “Braai,” a South African barbecue. The group had gone shopping for meat, salad and drinks and our guide and the driver took care of the roasting. As everybody got along very well, it was a lively and pleasant happening.
Our next leg took us to Drakensbergen, an imposing mountain range. Once again, our hotel was situated in a beautiful park and we had a nice patio in front of our room to enjoy the view. We stayed there for two nights and took a day trip to Drakensbergen’s Royal Natal National Park, where we hiked up to the Cascades.
Most of the group hiked higher up to the waterfall, but we decided to take it easy and walk back down, taking time to admire the birds and flowers on our way. The weather was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the walk.
The next morning, we had to get up early for a long drive to Semongkong in Lesotho. Once again, we crossed a border and arrived in a totally different landscape and culture. We were very happy with our skilled driver because we had to cross steep mountain passes with tricky hairpin bends to get there. The last part of the road was unpaved and at some places had some deep gullies on both sides.
The lodge was situated on a river with steep cliffs on the opposite side where Hadeda Ibises came roosting for the night. It was also on a kind of highway for the local people who walked, rode on their donkey or horse from and to the villages and farms higher up in the mountains.
Guide Isaac took us up there the next day to see the highest waterfall of the country. The weather was beautiful and the landscape fascinating. The men almost all wore special blankets and most of them also kept wearing them during the day, when temperatures rose to about 25º C.
As soon as the sun had set, temperatures started dropping to close to 0º C, and we were very happy to have a fireplace in the room; it was lit for us while we were having dinner at the restaurant.
The second day, guides took the group on a tour of the village and the primary school. The school had a big playing field. A must, it appeared, as classes had over 70 pupils who had to take turns getting lessons. A group of girls sang and danced for us and we all donated royally, hoping it would make a tiny difference.
Next day we travelled back to South Africa and drove through the Karoo – a semi-desert with Fynbosch, low scrubs which had just started to bloom – to Graaff-Reinet.
We arrived at Camdeboo Cottages in Graaff-Reinet late in the afternoon. All cottages are national monuments, built during the 19th century, but very comfortable. We enjoyed a delicious, real African dinner with Springbok as a main course at its restaurant.
The next morning, we had time to visit the lovely old town before continuing to the south coast. We drove back through the budding Karoo before going up into the mountains of Tsitsikammen National Park and then down again to sea level.
We stayed at The Dunes Resort, close to Plettenberg Bay, and in the morning walked up to the beach through the dunes. Early birds from the group had already spotted dolphins in the waves, so around 11:00 am, we left with high hopes for our whale and dolphin expedition from the Bay.
We did spot a humpback whale and its young, but didn’t manage to take a good picture on the bobbing, crowded boat. A pod of dolphins passed the boat closely on our way back in, so we saw what we had come for, although we didn’t have proper pictures to prove it.
We spent the afternoon in Tsitsikammen National Park and hiked to the hanging bridge. The views of the ocean from the trail were marvellous, and the rocky scenery fascinating. I didn’t count the steps, but there must have been a few thousand. A good exercise after the long rides we had had.
For the next day, our guide had arranged lunch for the group with “oma” (94) in a township in Knysna. She lived in a Mandela house and she, her daughter and some neighbours wanted people to understand more of their lives.
When the late Mandela was president, he set up the programme for the houses. Families with at least one child and an income lower than 3,500 African Rands (210 USD) can apply for such a house.
They are made of concrete, have one or two bedrooms, a bathroom, electricity and running water. People get the house for free and it will stay in the family, but they can only sell it back to government if they ever want to leave.
In order to receive us, they had cleared out one bedroom and stored the furniture outside and prepared what they called a Sunday dinner.
After lunch, we could go on a tour in the township, but three of us preferred to stay and chat with the family. We heard about their hardships and struggle to get money for their children to study.
Selling these lunches was one way to earn something extra. Oma’s daughter had managed to send her daughters to university and now was saving money to do the same for her five-year-old son. The unemployment rate in South Africa is very high, so visits of tourists are a real blessing.
Rather quiet and impressed, we continued to Oudtshoorn, also an old town with a long history, where we had lunch and admired some of the old buildings before leaving for our stay in Swartberg Manor, situated in a beautiful, green valley of the Swartbergen. We enjoyed another African dinner, with Ostrich steak this time.
On our way to Somerset West the next day, we visited an Ostrich Farm, and drove through the Swartbergen with their colourful rock formation and high mountain pass. As we got close to our destination, it became obvious we were entering a suburban area, as roads got bigger and traffic denser. Cape Town was just around the corner.
The next day, we had time for a tour of another historical town: Stellenbosch. We walked along its river and visited the botanical garden. As it was spring time, the famous “suikerbossie” flowers were blooming and they were really beautiful.
The blooming peach orchards we passed on the last stretch to Cape Town were also beautiful. We also saw many vineyards and visited one, where we got to taste five of their wines.
We would stay in Cape Town for four days, as we had booked the option of a two-day extension.
We supposed we could do with some extra rest after our extensive travelling. On our first night, Riaan took us all to the Waterfront and told us about the do’s and don’ts of Cape Town.
The Waterfront is the main tourist attraction in Cape Town, with many restaurants and a big shopping mall. We found a nice place with the group for dinner and afterwards took a taxi back to the hotel.
Our last trip as a group was a day tour of Cape of Good Hope. It took us to the most southern part of Africa. Before we got there, we took a short boat trip to a rock that was home to lots of seals and visited a beach where the African Penguins live.
The views from the coastal road were magical. We closed off the day with dinner at a restaurant with live African music and African game on the menu.
The next day, we took it easy, walked a bit in the centre of town and bought some souvenirs. In the evening, we said farewell to most of the group. We also took leave of our guide Riaan and driver Michael. Both had done an excellent job!
We took the “hop on - hop off” bus the following morning to visit the botanical gardens at the foot of the Table Mountain. It was an experience of splendour and colour. The garden was very large and everything was in spring colours.
We strolled around, rested on shady benches watching the colourful birds flit among the branches and had a wonderful day, which we closed off with a quiet, delicious dinner at the Waterfront.
We had just enough time for a visit to Table Mountain the next day, as our flight left late in the evening. Travelling up there with the cable car was exciting and the views were marvellous. It was the perfect conclusion of a most wonderful tour through South Africa.
