South African trip

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BillK

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Arrived home on Saturday from a 3 week trip to South Africa.

Flew into Cape Town and picked up a hirecar and rented a cell phone.


Rented the car from here in UK as generally, if you hire locally, the "free" mileage is very limited and I got unlimited mileage booking via Holiday Autos.
Vodacom, which I used, and another telcom company have outlets in the same area as the carhire outlets.

Booked all accommodation myself using the Portfolio books - contact info@portfoliocollection.com We stayed at Green Gables in Strand which was excellent, in terms of comfort, cost and food. Our hosts, Marion & Gerry Arrow made us at home from day one. Check out www.greengables.co.za to see the rooms and suites available. Highly recommended!


Next stop was at Wilderness where we stayed at "Anchorage". Beautiful setting and comfortable, though smallish, rooms. A bit clinical after Green Gables which maybe coloured our views, but a great setting by the river with lots of birdlife to watch from the balcony. [broken link removed]
Went to Graaf Reinet for our next stop, to a hotel, The Drostdy, we have stayed at three times previously. Beautiful little town, though grown since we last saw it in 1998. Have to say that the suite we had there had gone down hill since our last stay being scheduled for refurbishment. Talked to the manager and presented him with a list of problems we had identified and after looking at the room with us he waived the accommodation charges some Rand 1680.

Grahamstown next where we stayed with Mary Birt at Petworth Place. Great place, great hostess but a little bit scatty as I had to point out that we had stayed for two nights rather than the one she was charging us for.

[broken link removed]

From there back to Wilderness and on to Strand.

Average cost of accommodation, on a B&B basis was R550 per couple per night.

Will post opinions on what we did and saw during the trip if anyone is interested. Drove a total of 2400 miles or thereabouts during the 3 weeks so was glad we had hired a Camry.
 
Thanks for the very informative post, BillK — I've added it to the relevant key post, but also left it open here so that others can post questions/comments.
 
Did book a day game drive at Kariega (near Grahamstown) but they called me to cancel as the weather was so wet that theywere unable to get the Land Rovers into th parts of the park where the lions lurked.

Did go to the Karoo National Park near Graaf Reinet and drove our own car round.
We saw kudu, springbok, ostrich, meercat, oryx, dassies (Rock Hyrax; little furry beasts about the size of a guinea pig. Their closest living relative is the elephant!) Bateared fox, zebra, wildebeeste and buffalo. This for the princely sum of R30 each, compared to the R495 each at Kariega though that did include lunch.
The secret is to drive at walking pace so that the game isn't frightened.

My wife and I had been to the Kruger on a number of occasions when we lived in Swaziland, together with two of the reserves in Swaziland itself so we have seen all of the big five already but we were pleased that the cousin and wife saw as much.

Will add more info later, including how to stroke a cheetah.
 
My wife and I are contemplating a Garden route holiday for about 12-14 dasy this summer. Thought of spending a couple of days in Kariega
 
Is that our summer or the South African summer? They are just going into Winter now, though it has to be said that it was warmer there than it is here at the moment.
Web site for Kariega = http://www.kariega.co.za (www.kariega.co.za) though you probably already have it. Can't put my hands on price list for staying there, but memory suggests in the order of R1900 per person per night.

If you are going in our summer then you should be aware that winters in Eastern Cape can be quite cold and wet so youneed to have appropriate clothes with you. That said, the days can be pleasantly warm. (My experience re the cancellation due to bad weather is a case in point.)

There are many game reserves in the area so you could maybe go on spec.

If you stay in the area check out Grahamstown if the weather is bad. The museum there has a restored Victorian camera obscura which gives you a view of the town on a dished bed about 30 inches across. Incredibally detailed as you cab see the leaves moving on the trees, people walking about etc. Real spy in the sky which beats cctv cameras into cocked hat. I had never seen one before and found it incredible.

Assuming that you are hiring a car and driving yourself about, particularly if you are using the N roads, you will find that a trip of 400 - 450 km in the day can be achieved comfortably in about 4 hours assuming that you have a good sized car. My personal comfort zone gets shaky if the petrol gauge gets towards 1/2 empty; petrol stations can be a very long way apart so I always filled up once the gauge went below 3/4 full. The Camry I hired had a range monitor on the dashboard so that I knew how far I could get on the contents of the tank but I still get twitchy.
 
Hi there,

Just saw this post and though I may be able to give a couple of tips. I have been to SA a number of times now, most recently in November last year. Did the Garden route over a 6 day period this time. Have previously been to Kruger and game parks in Zimbabwe. Went on a day trip to Shamwari www.shamwari.com (at P.E. end of Garden Route, 1 hour from P.E.). As you will see from prices for accom on the site, staying there very pricey, but also means that the stock of game is incredible. We saw everything bar a leopard (which the ranger hadn't seen one of for 3 months, so we weren't that disappointed). The ranger tracked a lion with a kill and we sat about 5m away as he devoured the carcass! All drinks and food were included, and everything was 5* quality. It wasn't cheap (about Eur100 for the full day), but compared to my previous experiences, well worth it. We stayed in a national park, Addo Elephant Park, where you can drive your own car around, and here again, we saw a vast range of animals. They also have a floodlit waterhole where you can sit at night, hidden away and watch all the animals come and drink/hunt. This place was very reasonably priced, and rooms were basic, but very clean.

Along the Garden Route, check out a place called St Francis Bay. A hidden gem.......

Hope this helps.
 
Just saw this post. I'm not familiar with the hotels mentioned on the website but certainly Stellenbosch is well worth a visit. Check out the Toy Museum which is an old house with great gardens. The museum is stunning. Oom Samie se Winkel just down the road is an old shop which it is a pleasure to visit; prices not the cheapest I've seen in SA but a look into past times is worth a bit extra.

The Spier winery also houses a cheetah refuge/reserve at which for a modest payment (R60) you can stroke a cheetah. Other animals on site include many birds of prey, wildebeeste, zebra etc.

Overall looks very good for the price.

The only caveat I would suggest is the route taken to get there. We flew direct, Heathrow to Cape Town in 12 hours; other cheaper options would have taken up to 16 hours.
 
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