Country Round-Up: South Africa

Statistics

Days: 23. We spent two separate periods in South Africa: the first from February 3-14 and the second from March 10-22, 2017.

Cities: 12. Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Table View, Cederburg, Johannesburg, Addo, Jeffrey’s Bay, Stormsriver, The Crags, Knsyna, Wilderness, and Simon’s Town.

Apartment Rentals: 1. We rented a studio apartment through AirBNB for our final few days in Cape Town. This ended up being a mistake, since we were right above bars and restaurants on Long Street which were noisy until 3am. It was also really hot while we were there, and the apartment didn’t have any air conditioning or fans, resulting in a stuffy atmosphere. Needless to say, it was not our favorite place we’ve ever stayed!

Hotels/Hostels: 11. We stayed at: Cape Town Backpackers, Long Street Boutique Hotel, Once in Cape Town, and Loop 91 – all in Cape Town. We also stayed at: Premier OR Tambo in Johannesburg, Addo Self Catering in Addo, Cristal Cove Guesthouse in Jeffrey’s Bay, Dijembe Backpackers Lodge in Stormsriver, Wild Spirit Backpackers Lodge in The Crags, Fairy Knowe Backpackers in Wilderness, and Simonstown Boutique Backpackers in Simon’s Town.

Modes of Transportation: 8. Taxi, Uber, bus, tour van, Intrepid truck, ferry, rental car, and walking.

We stayed in a permanent tent at the hostel in Stormsriver, which was cozy and comfortable!

Q&A

What was your favorite site or place that you visited?

J: Either Addo Elephant Park, seeing the elephants up close and personal, or hanging out on Boulders Beach with the penguins. It was fun to get so close to animals that we don’t typically see here in the US!

L: Visiting Robben Island was a pretty moving experience for me. To learn about the history of apartheid in such an important place was incredible. I hadn’t expected to meet a former political prisoner and hear his story, which made the tour much more personal than just seeing the buildings on their own. In addition, I loved the ferry ride to/from the island, with beautiful views of Table Mountain and the harbor in Cape Town.

Hearing the personal story of a previous political inmate at Robben Island was especially moving for me.

What was the biggest surprise you had during this time?

J: How modern it was… I wasn’t expecting it to be so modern and have the infrastructure that it did.

L: I was surprised at how comfortable we felt nearly everywhere we went. Prior to visiting Africa, I had only known what I saw on tv and expected things to be so much different than what we were used to. However, we felt safe and at ease, not only in the small countryside towns but also in the bigger city of Cape Town. Having Elze to give us tips and show us around helped tremendously, so we quickly felt that we could return to live in Africa someday.

What was the lowest point for this part of the trip?

J: We found out after our roadtrip along the Garden Route that there are cameras on the roads to catch people speeding. For a couple months after our time in South Africa, we kept receiving speeding tickets in the mail.

L: I have two low points and both have to do with lodging in Cape Town. I briefly described our apartment rental above, where we were miserable and could hardly sleep due to the heat and noise. We also had an issue with the first hostel that we stayed at, who kicked us out of our room a day early by putting everything we had out in trash bags in the hallway closet. They claimed our reservation ended that day, but I had proof that we were supposed to have the room for another night. We were so upset that we left and spent the night at an expensive hotel nearby just to relax and calm down. We found out later that a friend on our Intrepid trip had the same experience at the same hostel; they had also kicked him out a day early claiming his reservation had ended as well. We suspect they overbooked and this was their way of dealing with it, but needless to say, we were not happy about it.

What was your favorite food or meal that you had?

J: The junkyard dog at Jerry’s Burgers. It was incredible!

L: I don’t think it’s any surprise that it was the Greed burger at Jerry’s Burgers. I’ve talked enough about it on this blog so I don’t need to say any more about it!

Cheers to our favorite restaurant in Cape Town – Jerry’s Burgers!

What would you change if you were to do it again?

J: I’m not unhappy with anything we did so it’s hard to think of something I would change. Nothing comes to mind!

L: Obviously, I would change some of our accommodations to something more suitable. Having visited Cape Town twice now, we have a better feel for where we would like to stay when we return someday. The other thing that was hard was dealing with jet lag when we arrived. Since we didn’t get much sleep and had an extra day of travel, we arrived feeling very tired and had a hard time adjusting to the time difference. If we would have had better travel on the way there, we could have adjusted quicker and enjoyed more of our time instead of spending the first few days napping at our hostel.

What advice would you give someone doing a similar trip and route?

J: Stop in the small towns and roadside attractions outside of the big cities. There are a lot of cool things that you wouldn’t find if you were just staying in the big cities. Don’t be afraid to get out on your own and explore!

L: Don’t be scared to travel by yourself, but do listen to warnings or advice from locals. While Jon and I never felt unsafe, we were aware of some of the dangers of traveling through South Africa. For instance, we never drove past dark and were careful about leaving things in the car. However, that shouldn’t dissuade anyone from traveling on their own; we met so many helpful and friendly people that made our trip a success! It’s a very diverse country with a lot to see and do, so give yourself the opportunity to get out there and do it.

We stopped at Thyme & Again – a cute shop/bakery/cafe for brunch and snacks along the Garden Route. We loved discovering places like this in South Africa!

What is the best memory that you’ll carry with you?

J: Addo Elephant Park. I had wanted to see elephants our entire time in Africa and it was amazing to see them so close to our car. The best memory is when we got stopped by an elephant in the road and made to back up, only to find the entire herd of elephants walk out of the bushes right in front of our car!

L: Finally meeting Elze and getting to know her was a highlight of our time. I felt like we were kindred spirits and immediately felt like lifelong friends. Aside from getting to know Elze, it’s hard to pick one specific memory as a favorite. A few of mine are sitting with the penguins at Boulder’s Beach, seeing the elephants right outside our car at Addo Elephant Park, and horseback riding through the Tsitsikamma Forest.

It was worth having our own car for a week; we made a last-minute decision to drive through Addo Elephant Park, which was a highlight of our road trip!

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Read about our time in South Africa…

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