Rod & Tori's Travel Journal (Public view)

After our trip to Victoria Falls we set off to go on a walking safari in Hwange National park.  We drove into the park near to the Sinamatella camp and then headed on out into the wilds where we had our own spot high on the bank of a river.  We had a lovely tent complete with double bed and ensuite toilet and hot showe...

We again borrowed the pickup and after breakfast we drove ourselves the 500km-or-so to Victoria Falls. We checked into our hostel and walked from there to the National Park on the edge of the falls. We stumped up the outrageous $30pp entry fee for the tiny park and were glad we did as the views of these mighty ...

We stayed with Rod's cousins Catherine, Terence & Dylan for a few days in Bulawayo. Surprisingly, Bulawayo is a sleepy town considering it is the second largest city in the country! The large boulevades, colonial style and friendly people make it a charming place to visit. On Tuesday, we also visited with Cathe...

We arrived in Jo'burg airport on Sunday evening and were collected by a driver from our hostel, MoAfrica (after first buying noodles and chicken for dinner). The lodge/hostel was gorgeous and we spent a very comfortable night there (despite the all-night thunderstorm) before heading out to the city centre early ...

We spent most of the week socialising with Rod's SA family variously inviting ourselves round to people's houses!), and also preparing for our camping weekend at Beaverlac nature reserve. We thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the enthusiastic and excited (but rather long) exchanges in discussing what food to buy! Bea...

Sunday dawned and Tim had volunteered to take us up Table Mountain (even though he went up just the day before!). He chose the India Venster route up, as this is more challenging than a basic hike and takes us right underneath the cable-car route (so close you can talk to the people in the cable car!).  Kate (Rod'...

From Montagu we had only a short drive into Cape Town to return the car.  We drove out through the rock arch with the fort on top, took the toll and went through the tunnel to get to the Cape.  Our total distance for the whole road trip was: 3173km. Tim picked us up in his Land Rover and we went back to Tim & Margie's ...

Thankfully Montagu was a hot sunny 33°C so we took full advantage of the pool at the campsite and spent a glorious afternoon lazing around. In the evening we cooked up our own version of a potjie - a pikey; made with minced beef, a value pack of vegetables, potjie spices, left over pasta tomato sauce and a can o...

A long journey southwest through the karoo took us to the mountains near the south coast. We took the slow (but thoroughly enjoyable) road through Prince Albert's Pass – very scenic – and eventually popped out on the south coast at Plettenburg Bay, where we located our holiday home for the next two nights ...

After exiting Lesotho we headed southwest towards Gariep. Having survived the dirt road in Lesotho we decided to try one in SA, all 72km of it(!) as the tarred road alternative was twice as far. So far, so good. We diverted via Oviston Nature reserve where further off-road advnentures were scantly rewarded by o...