South Africa is epic in so many ways. To honour of Tourism Month and Heritage Day this month, I asked local and international travel bloggers what they love most about South Africa. Here’s what they said, along with a few interesting facts, you may not have…
Each weekend Mpumalanga’s highlands welcome visitors, with fresh trout, macademia nuts and whiskey, plus some boozy cake on the side. Dullstroom is what weekends are made of. Like a curled up cat rising from a nap, the morning mist gently lifts from the dams, dances with…
If you love craft beer, small-town living and spectacular landscapes then you have to join the Clarens Craft Beer Festival in the Free State. This small South African town is famed for its two-day annual beer festival, which happens around the last weekend of February. Besides beer,…
I followed in the ox-wagon tracks of the Great Trek through Jock of the Bushveld country along the Panorama Route three times in the last year. I wrote about my highlights for Travel Ideas magazine. Before you head out on a road trip along the…
10 friends. 16 days. 2 300 kilometres (or somewhere in that region) makes for an epic road trip along South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal coast. Last year, nine friends and I, packed ourselves into three cars to road trip across South Africa. We started in Johannesburg and made…
“Magical!” That’s the one word Vincenzia Diedericks uses to describe Kaapsehoop (or Kaapschehoop, according to the Dutch spelling). After a day trip to this small town in Mpumalanga’s highlands they bought a holiday home. “There’s something here, it earths you. When I put my feet…
I really enjoyed writing 2015 in Photographs earlier this year. It was a way to reflect on my travels throughout the year, to marvel once again at the magnificent paysages and UNESCO World Heritage Sites before me, to contemplate my smallness, to worship natural beauty, and…
When I was a kid I spent many weekends on the Vaal Dam because one of my closest friends had a holiday home there. We spent most of our time in or on the water. So I was REALLY pleased to head back there for…
Durban always makes me think of down time and summer holidays, frangipanis, Indian curry, puri pathas and bunny chow, but also its warm-hearted people – the tropical climate has obviously rubbed off on them, giving them a sunny disposition. In 2014 CNN named Durban South…
Updated January 2023: The road to animal exploitation is often paved with good intentions coupled with innocent ignorance. If you’re considering volunteering in South Africa (or anywhere for that matter) at a legitimate wildlife conservation project that’ll mean getting your hands dirty and no interactions…
When you explore eGoli, the city of gold, you’ll witness traces of the city’s early days from the 1880s when it was established as a gold mining town, and you’ll also see remnants of its fall, but know that you’re partaking in its rejuvenation, that’s…
In Art of Travel, Alain de Botton writes the truest of truths about solo travel. It goes something like this. “It seemed an advantage to be travelling alone. Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our…
There’s really no time to waste if you only have 48 hours in Cape Town, so let’s get right to it. First off, make sure you plan a much longer stay in the Mother City on your next visit. A weekend getaway to Cape Town…
Daréll Lourens of The Good Holiday invited Louise De Waal of Green Girls in Africa, Alfred Thorpe of Let There Be Light, me and a few others to join her on assignment in Cape Nature’s Gamkaberg Nature Reserve near Oudtshoorn, as she shot their new promotional video.…
I’m sitting on the verandah of Just Country Cottage, with my legs propped up on a wooden chair, looking out onto Lake Chrissie, as I eat breakfast, when a quacking duck waddles past. Two more follow suit. I don’t think much of it as I…
Wakkerstroom is Mpumalanga’s internationally-renowned wetland and birding destination that many South Africans don’t even know about. This article featured in the January 2016 issue of FlySafair’s Inflight magazine. If you give 83-year-old Oom Chris Smit enough time, he’ll talk you through Wakkerstroom’s history, from the time…