Category Archives: Road trip

South Africa ’14, Part 1: Drakensberge

26 March, 2014 jpcorp Leave a comment

Despite having been to the country only half a year before, we were so excited coming back to South Africa for another 3 weeks this time. There’s even a direct flight from Munich to Johannesburg that made the whole trip much more comfortable (we hate long flights). After the long winter in Europe, we didn’t want to spend any day in the city so upon arriving at the airport, we picked up our car and drove straight to Drakensberg, the highest moutain range in this part of the continent. There’s not much to do in the area except hiking so we did just that. We went into Winterton once, the nearest town, to buy some sim cards and found the perfect souvenir for our home. I think it was also the only non-food item we bought in the whole trip, along with countless bottles of local spices/herbs and miri miri sauce (P loves spices). March is Autumn time in the Southern hemisphere. Although the air was still warm, the winds on the mountain already turned a bit chilly, which made the evenings very pleasant. We couldn’t be any happier with the weather.

Arriving at Champagne Castle Hotel, about 30min from the village of Winterton

View across the hotel ground from our apartment

That rock is called Sphinx, one of the attractions in the area.

On the way to our next destination: "shopping mall" in Winterton — On the way to our next destination: “shopping mall” in Winterton

drakensberge south africa

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South Africa ’13, Part 6: Langebaan Lagoon

17 September, 2013 jpcorp Leave a comment

Langebaan is one of the many beach towns on the west coast of South Africa. We dicided to make a stop here hoping for some sea-sand-sun time but weren’t lucky with the weather. Afterall, September was post-winter time and the Atlantic ocean was never a warm place to swim in. We ended up spending most of our time by the pool at the hotel, going for long walks on the beach (imaginatively) picking out our favorite beach homes, and eating tons of seafoods every day.

The weather was pretty much like this the whole time: a little sun, a little rain, and lots of clouds.

Beach town in Langebaan lagoon.

We also visited a small National Park nearby that had one of the most beautiful beaches on the west coast: no single restaurant, no single tent, just you and the nature around.

It was a very windy day and the ocean seemed a bit “angry” as well.

The highlight of Langebaan is properly this beach bar /restaurant named Strandlooper. It looks more like a pirate hideaway than a restaurant and that’s the charm of it. Besides, you are served 10-course menu which are all prepared/grilled in front of your eyes. It’s nothing fancy but great seafoods prepared in the simpliest way, and the atmostphere was absolutely adorable. It was a little chilly on that day but the sun more than made up for it. We’d come here every week if we lived nearby.

Road trip, South Africa

South Africa ’13, Part 5: Augrabies Falls National Park

15 September, 2013 jpcorp Leave a comment

The name “Augrabies” stems from the word “Aukoerebis”, that’s what the Khoi people called the place. It translates to “great noice” because of the water falls that are fed by the 18km long Orange River gorge, especially during the rainy season. Unfortunately, we were there during the dry season: still some water but not much noice at all….. The falls are 56 meter high. However, they don’t look that high because the water runs down in cascades and not as a big steep fall.

Nevertheless, the landscape is breathtaking, great views and beautiful desert colors at sunset. There are some remarkable spots worth visiting and at the end of the days, it is great to go back to your bungalow and have a great meal at the camp’s restaurant – including our most favorite dessert Malva-cake. But see yourself:

Besides the falls, Augrabies is also known for the black hills. It looks particularly nice in dry season with the the yellow-ish grass in between the dark rocks and hills.

Would be nice to have a carpet at home which is as cozy as the grass here

A very remarkable landmark: a huge solid rock called “Moon rock” or “Whaleback”. The picture only shows a small part of it, it takes quite a while to climb on its top.

… and a bit more impressive look at night taken with long exposure

Rock dazzies are all over the place, the always seem to look kind of angry at you

The best thing at the end of a great day !!

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South Africa ’13, Part 4: Kgalagadi Park

12 September, 2013 jpcorp Leave a comment

Kgalagadi Park is one of the largest SANParks (South African National Parks) and the only one comprising two National Parks across border, a smaller part in South Africa and the bigger rest in Botswana. The name Kgalagadi means “place of thirst” in the local language because it is located within the Kalahari desert. We were so eager to get here that we forgot our camera bag at the Molopo Lodge where we stopped for lunch on the way. Only when we arrived in the Park did we realise it was missing. PANIC! Luckily, the lodge owner was so nice and kept it safe for us so the only thing we lost was the two-hour round trip. Phew! A pretty small price to pay.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the only mistake we made for this part of the trip. Firstly, we were pretty late with our planning so all the wilderness camps further north in the park were already fully booked by the time we enquired. We were forced to stay in Twee Rivieren Camp for all the three nights we were there, which was really unfortunate. The best way to explore a Safari, for us, is to stay one night a each camp and move on the next day so that you don’t have to drive the same road twice. Besides, the wilderness camps are much more adventurous and interesting because they lie deep in the park with lots of opportunities for game watching at sunset and during the night. The second mistake was our choice of transportation. You really need an SUV for a park like Kgalagadi to be able to go off-road deep into the Park to look for the most interesting animals. Our sedan shamefully failed as we tried to cross a small sand dune. Our third mistake, luckily our last, was the shortage of time of our schedule. We could have easily spent the whole week in this park because we both liked it so much. The pleasant weather in the desert during Spring time, the excitement when spotting a new specie we hadn’t yet known, the enormity of the Park, its color, its smell. We loved absolutely everything we saw and enjoyed every minute of the trip. When we left we already knew it wasn’t our last time there.