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When tourists travel to South Africa, it is usually to see the Kruger Park, Cape Town, the Winelands, Robben Island and maybe the Garden Route. But there is one part of South Africa’s nature and history, that is not very well known, but just as interesting and impressive. I am talking about the huge, deep, pre-historic, marvelous (and maybe a little bit scary) caves of South Africa.
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I have one goal with this post; I will inspire you to travel! No, even better, I will give you the inspiration you need to go on a real adventure! It’s a lofty goal, but I will try. By handing to you all the good reasons to travel, all the reasons why you deserve an adventure, all the reason why you should not just dream. If I succeed, please let me know, it would make my day!
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I am the first to admit that Sahara has never crossed my mind when adding places to my long travel destination wish-list. And I am also the first to admit that The Africa Travel Blog has a huge bias towards Southern Africa. However, today I will step in a new direction. I will try to create an image of Sahara as a real travel destination rather than “that big, empty space we fly across on the way to South Africa”. And I know that I have a new image of Sahara after seeing these photos and video.
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Mount Kilimanjaro is not only Africa’s highest peak, it is also one of Africa’s most popular physical challenges! At 5892 meters above sea level, and 4600 meters above it’s base, the mountain provides a serious and demanding trek that takes between 6 and 10 days, depending on which of the six routes your climbing.
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Self drive safaris is a very popular way for travelers to see the wildlife in Africa. And personally I think it is the most fun way too. But I am inclined to attribute that to my still fairly young age. I have the impression that younger travelers prefer the adventurous spirit of self drives, while the more mature and settled traveler will lean towards a guided safari with a driver that knows what he’s doing. Though, I do apologize to all of my senior readers who were offended by my stereotyped categorizing.
So let’s forget about the stereotypes and rather start discussing some advice and essential questions about self drive safaris;
What to bring on a self drive safari?
What to know before I go on a self drive safari?
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One of my favorite travel moments from Africa was a self drive safari in Etosha National Park in Namibia with my girlfriend, Eleyce. At that time we had been traveling around Southern Africa in “public” overstuffed minibuses for several weeks, so we decided that we deserved our own car for the safari. I still remember the fat smiles on our faces as we sat down in our rented Toyota Yaris. Not exactly a Land Rover like most of the other tourists, but to us the Yaris was a highly appreciated luxury!
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Anyone interested in an “off the beaten path” idea for side trips in Africa should consider the following Human Evolution trips.
1. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
The Transvaal hosts several important discoveries. There is a large exhibit and if you call ahead you can arrange to take a free tour with one of the research assistants. You will learn about human evolution and the important fossils that were found in the area surrounding Swartkrans and Sterkfontein. You can even see the actually fossil of Mrs. Ples. An Australopithicas Afrikanus skull, dated 2-3 million years ago, one of the first apes to walk upright. Truly amazing.
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Garden Route offers everything from cute, little beach towns, to world class surfs and world class bungee jumping. I have already mentioned my road trip along the Garden Route, so here I will continue with sharing pictures and thoughts about one specific adventure this trip included: The World’s Highest Commercial Bungee Jump!
So we were on our way, driving, pretending to be all cool about it, while at the same time being extremely excited. I couldn’t tell if I was scared or not, but I was definitely not feeling normal. We got there, went on to the scale, had are weight written on our wrist in a bold, fat print (no place to be self conscious), and were strapped up in some sort of harness. I still wonder what this harness was for. Honestly I think it was just a thing they did to make us feel safe and protected. I can’t remember they ever strapped the harness into anything. Other than a tiny little rope to the “foot loop” during the jump. Anyways, after these preparations they led us out onto the bridge (see pictures).
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Traveling along the Garden Route between Cape Town and Jeffrey’s Bay can be a very relaxing, beautiful and scenic beach town vacation. Or it can be an adrenalin filled, active and adventurous road trip. For me it was both, with surfing and bungee jumping in between the laid back beach days. Me and my friend, Michael, rented an old (I mean OLD) Mercedes Benz, and hit the roads. Cruising down the highways, with our surfboards tightly tied to the brand new roof rack, we cruised towards the surfs and small towns along the southern tip of Africa’s coast.
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