We continued our journey toward Cape Town, with the spectacular Bloukrans Bridge directly on our route. This monumental concrete arch bridge is widely celebrated as an engineering marvel and has become one of South Africa’s premier adventure destinations, so naturally, we had to stop and...
After visiting the Big Tree, we drove a few more kilometres to Tsitsikamma National Park (🎟️367 ZAR), Africa’s first marine national park, proclaimed in 1964. In 2009, it became part of the unified Garden Route National Park, alongside the Wilderness and Knysna protected areas. The name...
A 500-metre wooden boardwalk through the indigenous forest near Storms River led us to one of the area’s most famous natural landmarks: The Big Tree, an ancient Outeniqua yellowwood (Podocarpus falcatus), South Africa’s national tree. Located in the Tsitsikamma Forest along...
Our last lovely stop of the day was Seal Point Lighthouse, situated in Cape St. Francis, approximately a 90-minute drive from Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). Overlooking the rugged Eastern Cape coastline, this historic lighthouse remains an active aid to maritime navigation. Today...
Our next destination was Jeffreys Bay, affectionately known as J-Bay, a world-renowned coastal town in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, approximately 75 km southwest of Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Situated near the western gateway to the Garden Route, J-Bay is surrounded by beautiful coastal...
We drove about 45 minutes from Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) to the Volkswagen AutoPavilion, an ultra-modern heritage centre and automotive museum at the main entrance to Volkswagen Group Africa’s manufacturing plant in Kariega, formerly Uitenhage. Opened in March 2004, the AutoPavilion...
One highlight of our stay in Gqeberha was visiting the St Croix Motor Museum and meeting its passionate owner and curator, Eben de Vos, a true petrolhead who has devoted decades to collecting, preserving, and celebrating South Africa’s automotive heritage. His collection also honours Port...
This was our second visit to the South African Air Force Museum, this time to its Gqeberha branch on the southern side of Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport (formerly Port Elizabeth Airport). A dedicated team of volunteers and the Friends of the SAAF Museum, under the curatorship...
We spent two nights in Gqeberha, officially renamed from Port Elizabeth in 2021, a major coastal city in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Known as the “Friendly City” and sometimes the “Windy City”, it combines attractive seaside suburbs, major...
Addo Elephant National Park is South Africa’s third-largest national park, about an hour’s drive northeast of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape. It is famous as the only conservation area in the world that protects the “Big 7″—the traditional...