After our morning hike in Nature’s Valley, we continued along South Africa’s spectacular Garden Route, driving a few kilometres via Plettenberg Bay to Robberg Nature Reserve, a rugged, breathtaking coastal peninsula about 8 km south of town. Managed by CapeNature, Robberg (🎟️80 ZAR) is...
Our next stop was the tiny coastal village of Nature’s Valley, tucked away within the Tsitsikamma Section of the Garden Route National Park, between Plettenberg Bay and Storms River. Surrounded by the Tsitsikamma Mountains and the Groot River, this peaceful corner of the Western...
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...
We spent a lovely day exploring Ts’ehlanyane National Park, a rugged, high-altitude wilderness area in northern Lesotho’s Leribe District. The park is home to Maliba Lodge, one of Lesotho’s premier mountain retreats, where we stayed at the campsite right next to the...
After visiting the Sudwala Caves, we made a short stop at Elands River Waterfall and the old railway tunnel near Emgwenya, formerly known as Waterval Boven. The waterfall drops around 70–75 metres over the red cliffs in three separate ribbons. To reach the viewpoint, we had to walk...
Finally, we ventured outside Johannesburg, with our first stop at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Roodepoort, Gauteng. Covering around 300 hectares, this beautiful nature reserve is a popular green escape from the city, combining landscaped lawns, natural veld and an...
We spent a day in Eswatini’s oldest protected conservation area, Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary (🎟️ 95 ZAR), which covers roughly 4,560 hectares in the spectacular Ezulwini Valley, or “Valley of Heaven.” The landscape ranges from gentle open plains to rugged, high-altitude terrain in the...
We spent a day and a night at Cape Maclear after a 6-hour-long, tiring drive from Senga Bay along the severely damaged M10 road, followed by the final stretch on the S128 road, which was just as rough but even narrower and steeper. Cape Maclear is a stunning, laid-back fishing village...
Lake Ngozi is an awe-inspiring emerald-green crater lake nestled within the Uporoto Ridge Forest Reserve, about 22 kilometres south of Mbeya at an altitude of 2.620 meters. Surrounded by steep, forested crater walls, it is Africa’s second-largest crater lake and one of the...
Isalo began early for us at the national park office in Ranohira (🎟️ 65,000 MGA, tax 5,000 MGA), where we were assigned a mandatory guide for our 3-hour hike. This expense felt steep (160,000 MGA), especially since even a short visit requires paying for a full day. Established in 1962...