SOUTH AFRICA

Days 1 - 7

We spend our first few days in Cape Town where we allow sufficient free time to do all clients usually enjoy in Cape Town including a visit Robben Island, taking the cable car to Table Mountain as well as time to visit the Waterfront including the Aquarium.  

By day four we head towards Gainsbaai from where we can organise a shark dive before heading on to to Cape Aguilhas which is the southern most point of Africa and famous for whale watching.

The coast line at De Hoop Nature Reserve is a particularly famous whale viewing area. This is a fabulous reserve in which to get out and stretch your legs and particularly between June and December there is a great chance of seeing southern right whales, the coast line being an important nursery area during this time. From here we travel through the Outenigua Mountains, the name derived from that of a Khoisan tribe once resident in the mountains and means "they who bear honey". Arriving at Cango Caves we can take a tour, the caves containing spectacular halls and grand limestone formations, before a visit to an Ostrich Farm, Oudtshoorn, being the ostrich capital of the world. Handling tiny fluffy ostrich chicks is a delight!! Racing on the back of an enormous adult a huge laugh!

Days 8 – 12  

We find ourselves continuing on the road along the Garden Route through Knysna, Tsitsikamma Forest to arrive at the Bloukrans Bridge bungee, the highest commercially operated bungee jump in the world located 216 meters above the Bloukrans River.   Blackwater tubing at Storms Rver is also a ton of fun.

The surfing waves at Jeffreys Bay are legendary, and "J-bay" as it is affectionately known, was well known as a hippie hangout in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We stop over here before heading to Addo Elephant National Park. The original elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only eleven elephants remained in the area. Today this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 450 elephants, Cape buffalo, black rhino, a variety of antelope species, as well as a unique flightless dung beetle that is found almost exclusively in Addo.  Addo incorporates the largest coastal dune field in the southern hemisphere.  This park boasts the Big Seven, (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard, southern right whale and great white shark) and  also protects the world's largest Cape gannet breeding population on Bird Island.

Days 13 - 16

Heading north we now travel to the Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock.  This area with its rolling plains and deep valleys is an entrancing preserve for 300 Cape mountain zebra. Other mammals found here include the cheetah, Cape buffalo, black rhino, eland, black wildebeest, red hartebeest and gemsbok, while mountain reedbuck and grey rhebok frequent the higher areas. The caracal occupies the niche of primary predator.  We then route via Bloemfontein and Bethlehem before our final highlight before reaching Johannesburg, Golden Gate Highlands National Park. The park derives its name from the brilliant shades of gold cast by the sun on the park's sandstone cliffs, especially the imposing Brandwag rock, keeping vigil over the main rest camp. We finish at the Ritz Backpackers of Johannesburg. Do give yourself an extra day in Jo’burg at the end. There is plenty to do here including a tour of Soweto and a visit to the Apartheid Museum.

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