Cape and Garden Route
Close to both the Karoo and Eastern Cape game reserves, this is a seductive, scenic place to make your base camp. The Garden Route is a picturesque stretch from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to Storms River in the east and is the jewel in the crown of the south-eastern coast of South Africa.
It has miles of pure white sand beaches, serene lagoons, mirrored lakes, sprawling indigenous forests, rolling hills and sweeping bays that form a surfing playground for pods of dolphin. Its gastronomy and fine wines are world-renowned and its wildlife sanctuaries and eco-ventures are heralded.
KwaZulu Natal and the Drakensberg Mountains
KwaZulu Natal is the unspoilt secret of South Africa.Here, awe-inspiring heritage sites like iSimangaliso Wetland Park sit alongside the phenomenal ‘Barrier of Spears’ in the Drakensberg Mountains. It oozes history – the local Zulu and Anglo-Boer Wars making waves way beyond South Africa.
Dolphins and whales dot the waters along glimmering beaches and secretive coves. And picture-postcard pretty Durban offers endless food, drink and music options.
Mpumalanga and the
Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park is totally astounding. To think it is bigger than Israel is mind-boggling enough, but add into the equation a diversity of wildlife unparalleled anywhere else in Africa and it becomes a must see. Not only is Kruger South Africa’s No 1 flagship wildlife reserve, its 2 million hectares are also home to thousand year old bushman rock paintings and important archaeological sites like Masorini and Thulamela.
Spread across Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces and flanking the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders, Kruger is widely recognised as the ultimate safari
Botswana and Victoria Falls
Botswana is an enigma. At once one of the fastest developing economies in the world, and yet shrouded in century-old ancestral mythology. Its magical lands are teaming with wildlife trekking across vast salt pans and fearsome deserts, sheltering amongst giant baobabs, or wallowing in soothing wetlands and marshes.
Its indigenous name of ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ means ‘the smoke that thunders’. It’s where tonnes of mighty Zambezi River water crash 108 metres, kamikaze-like over its crags, before continuing on its journey as white water rapids. It’s a goose-bump-inducing UNESCO Natural World Heritage site.
