This post was originally published in 2015 and has been fully updated in 2026 with new travel tips, directions and accommodation info. Until my recent visit to Val, I hadn’t even heard of it. My excuse? Its size: it is the smallest hamlet in South…
O Nieu Bethesda, thou breath of the Great Karoo nourishment in this desert land that lieth not far from Camdeboo with roads made of endless sand that leadth visitors along the compass– cardinal points: four to this, the place where owls kiss leaving everyone wanting…
After two sweaty weeks in humid Tanzania – which I loved, don’t get me wrong, most of all because I am now bronze – I was looking forward to getting back to Johannesburg’s milder summer. Yet, I returned to a sweltering heatwave caused by a strong high-pressure system with…
Hundreds of South African Instagrammers and photographers packed their tripods, memory cards, and battery banks ahead of a cross-country road trip to Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape Province. They drove from Cape Town, the Garden Route, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Johannesburg and elsewhere. The reason was…
In South Africa, September is both Tourism and Heritage Month, so no there’s no excuse needed to justify a road trip through the country. And here’s a mathematical equation that proves it beyond doubt: Tourism Month = 9 days + 7 South African provinces + 3000-odd kilometres &…
If you love Instagram as much as I do, then you have to go to the first South African National Instameet. It’s happening in Graaff-Reinet from 24 – 27 September 2015 and everyone is invited! Here’s your chance to explore the little town in the…
Two hours from Johannesburg, on the rim of an extinct volcano, lies Kwa Maritane – a four-star bush lodge in the malaria-free Pilanesberg National Park, where elephant footprints are tracked by day and lion calls are heard at dusk. A young wildebeest springs across the…
Updated January 2018 It’s the best time of year along South African shores: whale watching season! I observed more whales than I could count along the 70km coastline at De Hoop Nature Reserve, in the Western Cape. This UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site is also…
It was only after I returned to South Africa in early 2012 – after living abroad and travelling for two years – that I truly began to explore Johannesburg as a tourist would. And that’s when my love affair with this city began. Here are 11 things…
This year I was hoping to participate in the fifth Put Foot Rally, perhaps I’ll go next year. My cousin, Pawel Motylski, and his team, The Polar Bear Express, won ‘Best Crew 2014’ and they told me all about their adventures. As seen in the…
Inner-city Johannesburg is an open-air gallery and international street-art destination – and it’s right here in our backyard. Graffiti writers work by the light of streetlamps and conceal their identities because of strict by-laws that govern vandalism to private and public property. Yet the walls…
Victoria Falls The Zambezi River, which straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, is the lifeline of the Victoria Falls and all the tourism it attracts and opportunity it creates for both countries. Even along the main road into town from the Victoria Falls International…
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge I celebrated the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge’s (VFSL) coming of age – its twentieth birthday celebration – in the company of the honourable Walter Mzembi, the Zimbabwean Minister of Tourism and Hospitality, and key players in the local and international travel…
I was last in Zimbabwe in 1994, as a wide-eyed seven-year-old, who had just entered the first grade; therefore I think it appropriate that I return two decades later, in the week of my Master’s graduation. I am staying in Victoria Falls – which the…
There are few reasons why anyone would agree to wake hours before the sun. A sunrise hot air balloon flight over the Magalies River Valley in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, well, that’s reason enough. Silence. This is the place of morning calm,…
These black and white, long-exposure captures of the Johannesburg skyline paint it in a different colour, to reveal the relaxed atmosphere that enveloped the cityscape at twilight on New Year’s Eve. Few cars were seen navigating the street grid that stretches below Randlords. One of…