We loved out trip to South Africa so much last January, we decided to go back! While living in Botswana we really miss a lot of things about home. Of course we really miss our family and friends but we also really miss other things that we realize we took for granted such as bodies of water, soil, trees without thorns, trees that are taller than houses, customer service. South Africa has all of these essentials and more.

Last time in South Africa we drove from Botswana and stayed in St. Lucia, Durban and Drakensberg. You can read about that adventure in a previous post. This time we decided to do things a little different.

Back in May, Amanda received a wonderful birthday gift from our family, a week at a time-share of her choosing. After weeks of careful deliberation, we decided that a week in Durban would be fantastic. We joined forces with two other volunteers Lucie and Sunny and with our powers combined… we could afford to go on a two and a half week vacation!

When doing our pre-trip planning we discovered that there is no cheap way to rent a car or fly from the capital of Botswana to South Africa. Being the nerd I am I created an extensive Excel book of all the different travel methods (bus, train, car, plane) in various combinations, accounting for taxes, tolls and fuel costs. We came to the conclusion that taking the bus from Botswana to Johannesburg then flying to Durban, driving to Cape Town, flying back to JoBurg and bussing back to Gaborone was our best bet. So, the first step was to take the lovely Intercape bus. The bus leaves Botswana real early and gets into Johannesburg in the afternoon, 7 hours later. The bus is a very comfortable ride but unfortunately it drops you off in a super sketch part of a sketch city in the moderately sketch country so we took a taxi right away to the airport to catch our flight to Durban. Once in Durban we collected our rental car and headed to our condo.

We love Durban. I think it feels somewhat like San Diego, if I had to compare it to a city in the States. Long, split avenues with palm trees in the middle going all the way down endless public beaches with super high-end neighborhoods at each end. The condo we stayed at the whole week sits right on the waterfront in the south beach area. We shared a parking lot with uShaka Marine World, which is owned by Sea World and Wet n’ Wild. We spent most of the week enjoying the city and beach. The uShaka complex has some really great shops covering everything we would miss from a mall back home. But of course since this was a trip with three women and one man we would have to go to two other malls throughout the week. One of which I believe is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. We heard that claim a lot, is there no other big city in the Southern Hemisphere? Where you at Rio? Sydney? I have to be honest though, I enjoyed the big malls too.

We spent a whole day enjoying the Victoria Street Market/Indian Market. Durban is home to more people of Indian descent than any other place in the world outside of India. The market area of Durban has many sections including: spices, seafood, herbs, restaurants, clothing, beads and the typical tourist type shops selling goods from all over Africa. They must get them all from the same catalog though because when you go from one to the next you feel like you are in the exact same shop.

One day in Durban Amanda and I went to uShaka while Sunny and Lucie got tattoos and enjoyed the beach. We were pleasantly surprised at how large and complete the aquarium and water park were. I scored us half-price tickets online beforehand to it made the day even more enjoyable. The aquarium (largest in S.Hemisphere) and water park (largest in S.Hemisphere, ok I will stop) were great!

The drive from Durban to Addo was fairly long and uneventful until we had a miscommunication near our destination and were forced to take a very very long side trip (17 hours total!). The B&B/Backpacers we stayed at in Addo was Amazing! It is a beautiful family run citrus orchard. They had just harvested the Oranges but we were allowed to go and take some leftovers, so we filled a few bags of oranges with a few grapefruit and lemons. Sunny, Lucie and I went on a self drive through the local elephant park were we saw a good amount of animals. It was a lot different than Botswana’s parks, much less “wild.” Even the obligatory elephants were tiny and lacked tusks for the most part. (This is due to generations of poaching the largest animals with the largest tusks causing genetic selection.) However we did see a small family of lions in the distance, which is always impressive.

After another long drive (with no missed turns this time) along the beautiful coast we found ourselves, slightly inland, on switchbacks climbing a mountain and eventually descending a small mountain pass into the lovely little French Huguenot town of Franschhoek. Franschhoek is basically everything you thought you would never see in Africa; endless wineries, chocolatiers, cheeseries, charcuterie and fine dining (dubbed the “culinary capitol” of south Africa). We spent time in this idyllic little European-style village tasting wine, eating at nice restaurants and just overall enjoying the transplanted French culture, at a fraction of the price it would be in Europe! 

Our next stop in the winelands was in a college town/wine area (I know, bad combinations huh?) called Stellenbosch. Stellenbosh’s unique combinations of old wine estates and youthful student population make it a fun area. We visited more wineries in this area as well. On the second day we visited a brandy distillery which has won the coveted best brandy in the world award. The distillery had a very “boys club” feel with dark wood and dark leather furnishings. The second stop was at a champagne winery, which was the exact opposite in feel from the distillery, think Barbie Palace with crystal sparkling, lots of pink and lots of shinny things…the girls loved it.

Ahh Cape Town, the cosmopolitan “mother city” of South Africa. We all really enjoyed Cape Town for its variety and feel. In Cape Town we stayed at a great backpackers near the point and the World Cup stadium. 

One day in Cape Town we made the climb up one of the newly appointed “new7wonders of nature”, Table Top Mountain. It’s a tough climb. Most people choose to pay the money and ride the gondola. Once on top the view was amazing! Unfortunately it was short lived and we soon found ourselves among the clouds.

We also drove to the Cape of Good Hope and visited the only penguin colony in Africa.

Overall South Africa was a tour of all many of the things we miss from home mixed with things that are uniquely South African. We ate amazing food. We drank some amazing wine. We came back completely refreshed (and fat) and, after having been reminded of the comforts of the developed world, are now ready to come home.

We HIGHLY recommend South Africa- a tour of the winelands in specific- for your next vacation! The people are friendly, the views are magnificent, the food and wine are splendid and there is so much variety in culture, scenery and entertainment that you are sure to enjoy it no matter what your interests. (Let us know if you need some planning tips). We will definitely return again.

---Todd