This Easter, Gareth and I were lucky enough to spend two weeks in South Africa. It was by far the most exciting and adventurous trip I’ve ever taken (I cried tears of happiness two different times!), as well as the farthest from home.
We had 13 packed days in South Africa (and one day in Cairo!) and while it’s impossible to do everything in 13 days, I put hours and hours into researching the perfect itinerary — all that hard work paid off, because I think I did it!
In the coming weeks I’m going to post about each of the five sections of the trip in detail, but here I’m going to share the basic itinerary. Having only two weeks meant some things had to be left off, but I think we fit in a great mix. Each of our five segments felt very different — because of that by the time we came back to London two weeks later, it felt like we had been gone for months and been on five completely different trips.
Day 1
We took a red eye from London to Cairo on Egypt Air. While there were cheaper options, this one allowed me to build in an 18 hour layover, which was enough time to do a great tour of the city. While one day is not nearly enough to cover Egypt, it did feel like we saw nearly every major tourist attraction in Cairo itself.
Days 2 – 4
We landed in Johannesburg at 5:00 am on the second day of our trip. We had a car rental ready and waiting, and drove the 4.5 hours to Crocodile Bridge Gate, which was the nearest to our camp. We did an evening game drive our first night, and sunrise and sunset tours days three and four. I have so many tips and recommendations about Kruger, as well as a cost breakdown – it’s more affordable than you may think! I think this was the best part of our trip — it was so magical, and completely unlike anything else I’ve ever done. We had three nights and nearly three full days there, and while I would have loved to stay longer I didn’t feel rushed or like we didn’t have enough time to have a real safari experience.
Days 5 – 8
We left Kruger at 4:00 am day five and drove back to Joburg airport to catch our flight to Port Elizabeth — and started the Garden Route! The Garden Route runs from Storms River to Mossel Bay, and while we only stayed in Storms River and Knysna, we did activities in each of the stops along the way. We had four days and three nights for this part of the trip, and it was so fun to move from place to place, making each day its own new adventure. During this trip we did one of the best hikes of my life, ziplined, kayaked, cliff jumped, ate some really good food, and drove through some astounding landscapes.
Days 9 – 10
Wine region! During planning, we went back and forth on this — having lived so close to Santa Barbara and in La Rioja, I wasn’t sure taking a few days out of our trip to go on wine tastings would be worth it. I’m so so glad we went! We had planned on Stellenbosch, as I had heard the name thrown around much more often, but Franschhoek is like its cuter, smaller little sister and was an oasis in the mountains. Plus Franschhoek has a wine tram! Need I say more??
Days 10 – 14
Day ten was really just the journey from Franschhoek to Cape Town (we stopped in Betty’s Bay to see the penguins, and took a longer route along the coast which was so. worth. it). Cape Town was incredible. It was one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to, and I absolutely need to go back, hopefully for much longer — though not because I feel like I missed any major tourist attractions (minus one).
We did so much — a walking tour of the city, climbed Table Mountain (it was so hard, but so worth it), went to Bo Kapp, ate at some amazing restaurants, went to The Waterfront, hung out in Company’s Gardens, shopped along Green Market Square, and had dinner in a Township. Cape Town was the first place we really had time to just wander and take everything day by day, and it was welcomed after the packed schedule we had leading up to it. It was the perfect, chilled end to an incredible trip.
Like it said, there’s no way to do absolutely everything, and there are some things not on this itinerary that others may no be willing to skip — we didn’t go shark diving because I don’t think after that I’d ever get in the water unless I was still in a cage. We didn’t to Addo or an Ostrich Park because we had seen so many elephants and ostriches along the way. But in the detailed posts I’ll explain where and how you can do these things and give as much information as we can!
Coming back to London we were welcomed with a week straight of predicted rain. So far, that has been accurate. While I miss South Africa and really want to go back some day, I feel so grateful for the trip we had. It gave me some much needed headspace, and I feel excited for the coming summer here in London — maybe there will even be some sunshine!!
