Cape Town is the first stop on this southern Africa odyssey. Table Mountain is the obvious draw, but this far-flung outdoor city also has some tremendous beaches.
From there, you can meander along the garden route to the watersports capital of Port Elizabeth, before heading north to Blomfontein, the western gateway to Lesotho. This island state is surrounded on all sides by South Africa due to various historical quirks, which have created a unique culture in the mountainous nation; it’s the only country in the world which is entirely over 1,000 metres high.
After you’ve hiked and pony trekked the heights and walked in the footsteps of dinosaurs, drop back into South Africa to see the bright lights of beach city Durban.
Swaziland is now a bus ride away for a riot of colourful African ceremonies and some serene game viewing.
In the last week, hire a car to drive to Kruger National Park for one of the easiest self-drive safari experiences. Leave the park just in time to catch your flight to Johannesburg.
Week one
If the Seychelles, the Rockies and the Caribbean collided on an African plain, you might well get something approaching the beauty of Cape Town. Take the My Citi bus from the airport (€4) and try the friendly and safe Parliament Hotel www.parliamenthotel.co.za (€55).
Once you’ve got your bearings, head up Table Mountain; Platteklip Gorge is the easiest climbing route (it takes about two hours) or you can sail up effortlessly by cable car (€14 return).
Robben Island is another must-see; a former political prisoner will talk you through life in the prison that held Nelson Mandela among others during apartheid. The pastel hues of the Bo-Kaap district will bring you back to the present day; it’s easy to spend an afternoon wandering this mostly Muslim neighbourhood.
Beyond that, the possibilities are endless: surfing, swimming, wine tours, wildlife at the Cape of Good Hope, dozens of museums. A week will barely be enough.
Week two
From Cape Town, the garden route snakes eastward between the mountains and the Indian Ocean for about eight hours to Port Elizabeth. Prepare for a surfeit of astoundingly lovely views as you pass 10 nature reserves.
There are lots of great places to stop, Stilbaai being one of the best as it’s close to the Pauline Bohnen Local Nature Reserve and Blombos, where the oldest known human settlement was discovered in the caves. If you aren’t hiring a car, consider the Baz Bus, which offers a hop-on-hop-off service along the route for €97. Pick-up and drop-off are from their list of well-priced hostels (www.bazbus.com).
Port Elizabeth itself is the queen of watersports, with scuba diving, fishing and surfing all happening in Nelson Mandela Bay. Depending on the season, there’s also an excellent chance of seeing humpback whales, southern right whales, Bryde’s whales and various dolphin species.
Terrestrial animals and birds can be viewed easily from here at the Addo Elephant National Park but there are many other private reserves nearby too.
One of the best features of South Africa is astoundingly good accommodation for very little money in the upper budget to mid-range section; in town, The Manor 38 provides home-away-from-home accommodation for around €57 (www.manorcollection.co.za).
Week three
An overnight Greyhound bus will take you north to the ‘fountain of flowers’ that is Bloemfontain in just under 12 hours (it currently leaves at 5pm and costs €23; www.greyhound.co.za).
The www.TuscanyLodge.co.za is a bargain here at €25. There’s also the quirky www.thegolflodge.co.za for €40 with Chesterfield sofas and marble baths. Bloemfontain has a few museums worth seeing, most notably the Anglo-Boer War Museum; the Naval Hill and Franklin Game Reserve also merits a stroll. Forty kilometres out of town, the Soetdoring Nature Reserve has lions in an enclosure in the middle of the park and a hiking trail along the Modder River, which is perfect for families.
A day or so should suffice here, as Bloemfontein is principally the jumping off point for a trip to Lesotho. Big Sky Coaches take three hours to reach Maseru Bridge and charge around €4. A day in the capital is all you need to get your bearings.
Forced migration and Boer incursions created this intriguing country as the Basotho tribe went ever higher into the mountains in search of safety.
They escaped to what has been described as “a world without fences”. You can get to most places by bus if you are patient, but to get really intimate with the landscape, you’ll need a different form of locomotion.
Try spending a few days hiking in the mountain national park of Sehlabathebe; you’ll experience the kind of seclusion that is hard to find these days and enjoy vistas of waving grasses dotted with wildflowers, waterfalls and small lakes.
The sandstone formations are particularly amazing, especially the multitude of arches rising out of the grass. Jonathan’s Lodge offer accommodation (+266 223 26075).
Finish the week with pony trekking the 39-kilometre Ts’ehlan-yane National Park hiking trail. The www.maliba-lodge.com has riverside huts from €56 per person.
Week four
South of Maseru, Lesotho has two must-sees. First is a dose of the rustic in Malealea village, which has ancient cave paintings, thatched mud huts and mind-blowing scenery. The local lodge (www.malealea.co.ls) is a century old and can help with pretty much anything you’d like to do. Forest huts start at €11 per person.
From there, rejoin the road south to Quithing district. If you’re driving, it’s worth diverting again to Mohale’s Hoek to see the cannibal caves of Motlejoa. Back on the road, indented dinosaur footprints can be seen at Masitise cave, while Moye area has a raised version of footprints. Locals will be happy to guide you.
To avoid having to return to the capital, keep going on the Quithing road to Qachas Nek, where you can pick up a minibus to leave Lesotho for Kokstad via Matatiele, and then take an interstate bus or a further minibus bound for subtropical Durban.
This is a city with a fusion of African, Asian and European culture reflected in the food and the music and it’s often fuelled by adrenaline.
You can roll yourself down the beach in a giant ball, hang-glide or gallop bareback, then celebrate the day with a sundowner above the waves at the Moyo Ushake Pier Bar.
Durban cuisine varies from five-star sophistication to world-class street food, but one unmissable experience is the bunny chow.
It’s essentially an entire loaf, hollowed out and then stuffed with curry. The gravy soaks into the bread and the whole thing is eaten (novices might like to buy a quarter to get started).
Durban cuisine varies from five-star sophistication to world-class street food, but one unmissable experience is the bunny chow
Township tours sometimes have a slightly questionable reputation, but www.bikeandsaddle.com does a good job of dispelling the feeling of being a gawping tourist by pedalling through the settlements.
You’ll get a chance to talk to locals and buy genuine crafts. A half-day costs €63, including the bike and refreshments.
The tour finishes up with a visit to the school where Nelson Mandela cast his first democratic vote in inaugural elections in 1994.
At the other end of the spectrum, to experience what life was like before the skyscrapers and traffic, head to the Valley of 1,000 Hills along the banks of the Umgeni River. Zulu people have lived here for centuries and you can explore their tribal lands.
From there, you can press on into the Drakensberg Mountains for rock art and hiking or the higher octane pursuits of sheer rock and ice climbing. Tours with companies such as www.streetscene.co.za are easy to book in the city.
Week five
Relax as you take the bus from Durban to Swaziland; you’re entering a realm of royal tradition with a friendly population and lower crime rate than neighbouring South Africa. The country has a functioning monarchy and revels in festivals and dances that have to be photographed to be believed. Try to time your visit with one of the three key cultural events.
The first is Incwala, an ancient ceremony in which the harvest festival crashes at full speed with juju and a royal jubilee. It takes place sometime in late December to mid-January, depending on ancestral astrology (dates are published online nearer the time).
Next is the Lusekwane (Sacred shrub) festival, another fascinating cultural phenomenon where thousands of young boys from all over the country are commissioned by the King to cut the shrub to fence the royal residence. And if you’re there in late August to early September, you’ll be lucky enough to see the Umhlanga or Reed Dance, where girls cut reeds and take them to the Queen Mother’s homestead in Ludzidzini to dance in traditional Swazi costume in her honour.
There is also some fantastic game viewing to be had here. Hlane Royal National Park has white rhinos, elephants and lions and you can walk here with a guide – www.biggameparks.org is a non-profit trust, which manages Hlane as well as two other parks and provides comprehensive information on accommodation.
Bus travel is not entirely straightforward from Durban and routes change rapidly. Ask your hostel or hotel to find out about the best operator to take you to Manzini, then contact Sondzela Backpacker (www.biggameparks.org/sondzela) to find out where they can pick you up from. This luxurious hostel has a swimming pool and offers guided mountain biking, horse riding and cultural tours. Accommodation costs as little as €5.50 per person.
Week six
The last stop on the itinerary is Kruger National Park, strung out in a northerly band of green just above Swaziland. The www.goswaziland.co.sz bus departs on Saturdays at 7am from the Swaziland capital of Mbabane to Nelspruit, gateway to Kruger. It costs €25. From there, you can hire a car (rustle up some fellow travellers to share the cost).
Failing that, or if you only want to spend a day in the park, you can stay on the bus all the way to Kruger and join the hop-in-and-ride at Numbi, Phabeni or Kruger gates.
You’ll get a safari tour for four hours from 7 to 11am or 2 to 6pm (www.sanparks.org).
Bear in mind though that one of the great joys of Kruger is actually driving yourself around this gigantic park, meaning that you can escape from other tourists and linger as long as you like during your game viewing. It’s really hard to beat an encounter with a feeding elephant herd or a leopard draped languidly over a tree viewed in peace from your own vehicle.
Aside from the Big Five (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino), the park has more species of large mammals than any other African park (147 species). There’s even packs of the elusive African wild dog.
A good place to base yourself is the Skukuza Restcamp (www.krugerpark.co.za), which has everything from dorms to rondavels and family cottages.
Safari tents start at €30 per person; camping with your own tent is much cheaper at €14 per person. A night drive will set you back €19 and is well worth it; guides spotlight the animals and know the best way to find scarcer creatures.
Another excellent reason to hire a car is that once you’ve finished your Kruger trip, you can drive straight to Johannesburg airport, thus avoiding downtown Jo’berg altogether. The city has a poor crime record and the bus station is particularly unsavoury, which makes this a tempting choice.
Better to leave South Africa on a Kruger high than with your pockets picked or possibly worse.