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Crossing the Great Kei River by Pont

Crossing the Great Kei River by pont into what used to be the old Transkei has always been on my South African bucket list. That was until I got to do it about 6 years or so ago.  Since then I've had the opportunity to do it a couple of times and I always look forward to it.  It's nothing fancy or out of this world, but it is special because there are so few ponts left in South Africa.…

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25/01/2021
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Spending a day in the Tsitsikamma – video

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IFafsAvdCQ&w=500&h=400]I have always wanted to make travel videos.  When I started working as a tourist guide in 1998 I had a little video camera which I filmed my tours with.  Back then I didn't know anything about editing.  The video was basically what I shot and I had to make sure the video was rewound just far enough for the next shot to start where I wanted it to.  All those videos are somewhere on VHS tapes in a cupboard at…

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18/11/2017
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Drakensberg Amphitheater views

South Africa has two iconic "flat" mountains.  Table Mountain in the west and the Drakensberg's Amphitheater in the east.  It is below the Amphitheater in the Royal Natal National Park that we camped at Mahai during December and like with Table Mountain I just could not get enough of looking up at the Amphitheater.  Well truthfully, not just the Amphitheater but all the mountains around us, but that's what you do when you live in a city by the coast.…

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26/04/2017
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When it rains in Nieu-Bethesda

A couple of weeks ago I headed up to Nieu-Bethesda in the Karoo Heartland with a colleague for a tourism meeting.  En route we encountered the Fish River in full flow at Jansenville, puddles and pools next to the road approaching Graaff-Reinet and a very wet village at our destination.  The word Karoo comes from the Khoi language and means Place of Thirst, very appropriate for this arid region.  So it's not often that you see puddles of water in…

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20/03/2017
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Sunday Falls Trail – Royal Natal National Park

How can one visit the Drakesnberg and not do some of the amazing hiking trails the Berg has to offer to take in the magnificent mountain views, streams and waterfalls around?  Over the ten days we spent camping at Mahai in the Royal Natal National Park in the Northern Drakensberg we split our time between doing some of the day walks around the park and just chilling in the campsite.  Over the first few days we took the walk up…

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06/03/2017
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Hiking to Tiger Falls – Royal Natal National Park

The Drakensberg is famous for the trails that crisscross her spine, meanders across her back, explore her valleys, marvel at her fabulous buttresses, enter her wooded vales, wade through her streams and end up at waterfalls flowing over her.  It's enough to want to throw your head back and shout in ecstasy.  Yes I know what that all sounded like, but heck, that mountain truly is sexy.  For our ten days of camping at Mahai in the Royal Natal National…

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01/03/2017
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Swimming at Cascades – Royal Natal National Park

When you arrive at Mahai campsite in the Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg, one of the first things you notice is that there is no swimming pool.  "What! No swimming pool? How is one supposed to cool down on those hot barmy summers days while camping?" you ask.  Mahai doesn't have a swimming pool for a purpose.  The campsite sits on the banks of the Mahai River and 15 minutes upstream along the Queen's Causeway is where you…

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27/02/2017
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Mahai Campsite – heaven in the Drakensberg

Nestled in a beautiful valley in the Royal Natal National Park of the Northern Drakensberg is a campsite that regularly makes lists of top campsites in South Africa. Six years ago we discovered Mahai Campsite for the first time and spend an unfortunate holiday there during major floods that hit the area that summer.  Even with all that it still counts as one of our favorite holidays and when we left that year we vowed to be back some time.…

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17/02/2017
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Admiring the Amphitheatre in the Northern Drakensberg

2017 has kicked off and the ball is in the air with all the players jostling for places below trying to catch what the year is kicking their way.  We ended off 2016 with two weeks camping in the Royal Natal National Park (RNNP) in the Drakensberg hence my little stretch of silence.  I have so many pictures from the trip I'm working through and some of them really show off the beauty of that area very well which means…

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09/01/2017
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The (second) longest bridge in South Africa

My normal route through the Karoo Heartland of the Eastern Cape when heading up north is over Cradock and Steynsburg towards Venterstad and then a short left to the Gariep Dam before hitting the N1 for Bloemfontein.  Before my last trip to Johannesburg I had a closer look at the Geocaching map to see if there are any possible alternative routes that will take me to cache locations I haven't been to.  A couple of green dots around the town…

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02/11/2016