Braving Bokkom and other adventures on the Berg River
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Braving Bokkom and other adventures on the Berg River

Leaving the West Coast Peninsula and now-familiar places like Saldanha Bay and Paternoster behind us, Bevan and I continued our exploration of the coastline. I was very confused though when I heard talk of Velddrif, Port Owen and Laaiplek – all of which seemed to refer to the same place on the map! It was only after visiting this…

exploring cape columbine
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Paternoster and the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve

Leaving the industrial town of Saldanha Bay behind us, Bevan and I continued our exploration of the West Coast peninsular region, heading towards the town of Paternoster. Picture-perfect Paternoster Paternoster is one of the oldest fishing villages on the West Coast. Our first glimpse of the bay was from the top of the small dune…

Fishing Boat at Jacobs Bay
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Fossils, fairies and fishing towns on the West Coast Peninsula

As we discovered early on our journey of exploration on the West Coast, this area is full of surprises and unexpected attractions. We spent some time exploring the West Coast peninsular region and discovered all kinds of unique activities. Exploring the West Coast Peninsula back in time For starters, we visited the West Coast Fossil…

West Coast National Park
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The West Coast: So much more than the beach!

The Western Cape’s West Coast region was new territory for Bevan and I. From the first time that I saw pictures of whitewashed houses and turquoise water, I wanted to visit the West Coast. A life on the ocean, fresh fish straight from the sea, windswept white sand beaches – it all sounded too good…

Cape Town from Table Mountain

Racing Meg Mackenzie up Platteklip Gorge on Cape Town’s Table Mountain

The iconic Table Mountain stands proud over the city of Cape Town. It is an instantly recognisable sight and together with its scenic beauty and floral and animal diversity, is one of the reasons why Cape Town is voted as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The mountain itself has also been…

Cape Mountain Zebra
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Mountain Zebra National Park: Best View in the Karoo

For me, Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape province is a very special place. Heck, the entire of the Eastern Cape province is a special place for me, but that can be the subject of a different article! Mountain Zebra NP is situated on high ground close to Cradock. The entire park has…

The forest canopy
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Hogsback: Stepping into Middle-earth

A lush primary forest is the last thing you’d expect to find in the hot, dry and acacia-thicketed Eastern Cape province. In this largely thicket- or shrubland-dominated region the small mountain village of Hogsback is a rare gem, an oasis of cool green and misty mornings. Hogsback The Amathole mountains form the southern end of…

Bevan-Walking-to-the-Overhang
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Exploring the red mountains of the Golden Gate National Park

The Golden Gate National Park is home to some of the most incredible mountain and rock formations in the famous Drakensberg Mountain Range. This escarpment forms the dramatic border between the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho and the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provinces of South Africa. Lesotho is a country built in the clouds. The entire country…

Thomas at Lake Fundudzi
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Discovering Venda Culture on the African Ivory Route

Venda Culture was something completely new for me! Even the language, Venda, is something unfamiliar and doesn’t sound at all the Nguni languages of isiZulu and isiXhosa that I’ve grown up around. I had no idea what to expect from our next stop, and after Kruger National Park’s drought-ridden landscapes I certainly didn’t expect lush, fertile…

The most excitement we got from these young lions
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Kruger National Park: South Africa’s largest game reserve

The Kruger National Park needs no introduction so Bevan and I spent some time exploring this famous park to find out what all the fuss is about. South Africans love the bush. I’m not sure exactly why that is, considering a vast percentage of us live in urban areas and our connections to the bush…

Elephant mother and calf in the Kruger National Park
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Nothing Hazy about this View: Hazyview The gateway to Kruger National Park and more

Hazyview is generally known as a gateway town to the Kruger National Park. However, after a few days exploring the town and its other surrounding regions, we discovered that there is quite a bit more to Hazyview than meets the eye. Getting to know Hazyview Hazyview is a relatively small town in Mpumalanga’s Kruger Lowveld…

Fanie Botha Trail Panorama Route
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Getting to know Graskop: The Fanie Botha hiking trail and more

The small towns of Graskop, Sabie and Pilgrim’s Rest in the Kruger Lowveld region of Mpumalanga, are all situated in close proximity to each other. While there isn’t much distance between them, each town does have its own unique charm and appeal. Much like Sabie, Graskop has a plethora of beautiful natural sites like walking…

Thomas in the convoy of 4x4s in the Makhonjwa Mountains
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Barberton: Adventure fever in gold-rush country

Barberton in the Kruger Lowveld region of Mpumalanga isn’t a place that we were too familiar with before this trip. The only time we had ever heard about it before was on the daily weather forecast. Apart from its tendency to be partly cloudy with the occasional afternoon thundershower, we really didn’t know what to…

isandlwana in the rain
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The Battlefields: Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift

No other place seems to have played as pivotal a role in the history of South Africa as that of KwaZulu-Natal. Specifically, the battlefields region around Dundee. All three powers of the early South Africa met here – the Boer and Zulu in the 1830s, British and Zulu during the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879, and…

Ithala Game Reserve
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Ithala Game Reserve: The valley of a thousand mountains

Ithala Game Reserve totally blew us away! Ithala Game Reserve just outside Louwsburg in northern KwaZulu-Natal is a relatively new reserve. Established in 1973, the land previously had a number of uses including gold mining. Evidence of varied and poor land use management is visible in some areas of the park in the form of…

Bevan at Lala Nek
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Sun, snorkeling and sand roads in northern KwaZulu-Natal

Bevan and I have just been fortunate enough to have spent some time in the Coastal Forest section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. This area of the park includes the stretch of northern KwaZulu-Natal coastline between Sodwana Bay and Kosi Bay near the Mozambique border. This is a remote section of coastline, accessible for the most part…

Sunset at Sodwana Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal
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Bush Walks, 1,000 Year Old Trees and the Best Sunsets Ever in iSimangaliso

Hi everyone. We left things off last time inside the Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Game Reserve. Since then, we’ve headed back into the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and had a week characterised by extreme weather that changed just about every plan we had. Somehow though, things have a way of working themselves out. We were sad to leave the Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Game…

Mission Rocks
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Sad Goodbyes to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Welcome to our second update from the St Lucia section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Expectations exceeded If someone had asked us before we started the trip how long we thought we’d spend in this area, we would have said three days, possibly four to be generous? We were sure that that would have been…

Trail running group
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Trail Running Pilot with KZN Trail Running in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

We’re writing from St Lucia again, but this time we have something a little bit different to report back on: Trail Running The iSimangaliso and KZN Trail Running Pilot Event We were recently invited to take part in a pilot trail running event in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, hosted by iSimangaliso and KZN Trail Running. The purpose of…

Lake St Lucia estuary
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Exploring St Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Today we’re writing from the Cape Vidal section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park iSimangaliso is a park that needs no introduction. It was proclaimed as South Africa’s very first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. It was awarded this status for its unique ecosystems, its biodiversity and sheer beauty. This is…

Exploring the mangrove forest on the banks of the Umlalazi River
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Exploring the forests of southern Zululand and Mtunzini

Hi everyone and welcome to stop number 2 on the Ultimate South African Road Trip: This week we’re visiting Mtunzini. Mtunzini and the Umlalazi Nature Reserve Mtunzini is a small coastal village about 130 km north of Durban. I’ve lived in Durban my whole life and this is the first time I’ve ever been to Mtunzi….

Shayamanzi-on-the-Jozini-Dam

Tiger Fishing on Jozini Dam with Shayamanzi

Welcome to the beautiful Jozini Dam on the northern border of Kwazulu-Natal. (Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for our latest travel videos!) The Shayamanzi on Jozini Dam We’ve just spent the last 2 nights on the Shayamanzi II which is a live-aboard house boat that operates on the Jozini Dam. The good people from Shayamanzi contacted me…