Best of South Africa

We visited South Africa between October 31, 2013 and December 17, 2013. Despite our challenges to arrive into the country, after being denied boarding our flight for not having an onward ticket and spending 20 hours at Frankfurt airport without knowing what to do, we managed to book another flight and reached this beautiful land. The headache was worth it, South Africa is simply amazing! We traveled around the country by bus making stops in Hermanus, Cape Town, Table Mountain National Park, Storms River, Coffee Bay, Umkomaas, Durban, Royal Natal National Park, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Kruger National Park, Blydes River Canyon National Park, and Soweto. We accumulated 31 hours of waiting time along the road because the connections for transportation between towns are inconvenient. But all the waiting was well paid off by plenty unforgettable experiences with the local people. We also had our first hitchhiking experience while traveling along the countryside and felt lucky to get a ride to our destination with very kind people. The landscape of the country side by the coastline is stunning: green carpets of grass and forest extending across the entire territory, rondavels (traditional African round house) with vivid colors and perfectly shaped hay roofs spread around hills, cliffs ending by the turquoise ocean, people of all genders and ages waiving and smiling as we passed by, and mothers carrying their little ones tied to their backs with a towel wrapped to their bodies. We dream of the idea of living in a city like Cape Town, with a magical setting by the ocean, the marvelous Table Mountain we climbed, and the delightful wines of the region which are always a perfect excuse for tasting. Kruger National Park was one of the best experiences we’ve had so far in Our First World Trip. The joy of watching free wild animals in their natural environment is an adventure of a life time!