The Eastern Part | South Africa

Welcome back everyone!

First I want to apologize in advance that this blog post will probably be as long as the last one. Maybe a bit too long I guess, I’m sorry! My last post ended with the domestic flight to Durban and that’s where we are going to begin again in this post :)

When we arrived in Durban on 31th of July we immediately picked up our rental car and drove to Umhlanga Rocks. We didn’t stayed a night in Durban because it would be too dangerous according to our travel agent. In Umhlanga we stayed in a beautiful guest house named Zeranka Logde, fifty meters from the beach! Unfortunately it was too cold to swim. The city centre had loads of good restaurants and pubs and also the beach promenade was worth seeing. We stayed here for only one night which was a real shame. Great place for a relaxing holiday!

We drove further to St. Lucia on 1st of August. A place known for its hippo’s and crocs. We stayed at the Rhino Coast Guesthouse which was nice. But it wasn’t as personal as the other accommodations we had before because this one was bigger. An advantage of the accommodation was that you could book excursions. We chose for a bike tour – obviously we are Dutch – and a boat trip to spot the hippos and crocodiles. Both were great. The bike tour because it was a bit scary and the boat trip because we saw so many hippo’s from such a short distance. Great experience!

We stayed in St. Lucia for two days and we had dinner at a restaurant called Reef and Dune both nights. The staff was so nice and the food was really good! Especially the desserts were amazing, the dessert menu changed every day. What else could you wish for?

The next day we went to our first national park, Hluhluwe National Park. This was our first experience with the real wildlife. We only drove 100 meters in the park when we already saw zebra’s and an elephant which was a great start. In the afternoon we had our first game drive and immediately by night. We saw Rhino’s and we ended up in the middle of a herd of buffalo’s. We stayed at the Hilltop Camp which had a beautiful view over the park. We had three small houses for 2 persons each. But we are with five, so adventurous as I am, I slept all by myself in the middle of wildlife. I love animals but I’m very afraid of insects and especially spiders. And that’s why, 10 minutes after we said goodbye and went to our own houses, someone knocked on my parents door.. There were spiders and other insects in my bed..

After this short night we drove to Swaziland. Since I have never been out of Europe before, I was really happy with more stamps in my passport haha. We stayed at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary which was absolutely great. The huts were very simple but perfect when you want to experience the real African feeling. In the middle of the camp there was a big fire where everyone chilled after dinner. We started the next day with a visit to a ‘’real Swazi village’’. Not. The experience was very nice but it was not real at all. It became a bit too commercial. We danced with the Swazi people and learned how they live. After the village tour my parents went for a hike and my sister and I decided to go horse riding through the zebra’s. It was a lot of fun!

The day after we went to Hazyview. It was a long drive and we arrived late. We stayed in this beautiful bed and breakfast called Idle&Wild B&B With a beautiful garden and four lovely dogs and one nosy cat. That night we had a power cut for the fourth time since we were in South Africa. Still don’t understand why! Hazyview is known for its panorama route. This is a route you have to drive by car with some amazing viewpoints and waterfalls. We drove it on our second day in Hazyview and it was absolutely worth it. One tip, start early. We started about 2 o’clock and only got to see 3 out of 10 of the viewpoints. I thought the most beautiful one was the Three Rondavels. At on of the view points we met a lot of school children who loved to take pictures of and with us. They were so cute!

The next day, the 8th of August, we planned to do a raft in the Sabie river. This was arranged by our accommodation. It was pretty scary because we saw crocodiles from so close. We even got the chance to swim in the water which was really cold. Luckily enough we haven’t seen any crocodiles while we were swimming. Thanks to the man who leaded us we have a lot of funny pictures and videos of it!

Hazyview was actually really close to the Kruger National Park, our next destination. We stayed at the Kruger for two nights in two different rest camps; Berg&Dal rest camp and Olifants rest camp. In these two days we got to see the complete big 5. We were so lucky. We also saw a Python in a tree and (what seemed to be) a cheetah from a really long distance. In the Kruger we did all the driving ourselves. We did not want to do any game drives here because you are riding around the park for the whole day to get to the next rest camp. So you will be really tired of spotting when you finally get there.

After these two great days in this rather famous park we went further to Timbavati National Park. This is a smaller national park which is connected with the Kruger. This was the best thing of the whole holiday. Without any doubt. We stayed at Umlani Bush Camp which is a really small camp for only 16 people in the middle of the wild park without any fences. There is no electricity (they do have WiFi by the way haha) and the stay includes 2 game drives a day. You had your own ranger and tracker (a spotter in front of the car) with a group of 10 people. You were always protected and escorted by them, even if you just had to pee. The game drives were amazing. We saw three leopards from only 1 meter distance. We saw six lions eating a giraffe. We saw so many incredible beautiful amazing things. You had also the possibility to stay in a three house for a couple of hours to spot animals and you had the opportunity to go on a bush walk. We did both and it was great and rather scary.

We saw the big five there like three times in only two days. The food was delicious and also included. Everyone was sitting at the camp fire drinking delicious Amarula all the time. And at night, you could hear the hyena’s calling each other. Everyone deserves to get this experience at least once in their lives. If you go to South Africa, visit this place!! Just one of the private bush camps in the Timbavati national Park. It is definitely worth all of the money. Some of the best pictures we made of the beautiful wildlife:

On the 13th of August we drove to our last destination. This was like a quick stop because driving it in one time was not possible. We stayed at ‘Granny Dot’s County Spot’. A bed and breakfast from two lovely old people. They made us dinner and they had a great pub inside the guesthouse. It wasn’t that luxurious but very nice. They also have two very cute dogs who love attention.

The next day was our last one. That day we drove to Johannesburg to fly back to Amsterdam. But we had one more stop to go; The Orlando Towers in Soweto. I always wanted to do a bungeejump since I was little and I finally got to do it at the place where I had dreamed of. Two 100 meter towers in the biggest township of the world, Soweto. I had no doubt at all and the jump was so cool. My sister and little brother also did the jump after a doubt of around an hour. This was an amazing end of an amazing holiday. After a long night flight  my boyfriend brought us home safely. Normal life immediatly started again but we still have memories and an experience we will never forget!! 

Thank you so much for reading my story about the best holiday of my life. I really hope you enjoyed it. At least I definitely did writing this story about the most amazing experiences I ever had and all I can do is recommending this country. It is the most beautiful country I have ever seen.

''South Africa

Winters with sunshine
Summers with rain
Red wine, roaring fires
Wildebeest, zebra, hyena on the plains
11 languages, 9 provinces
World heritage sites,
Small towns, sunsets and big city lights
We live for our rugby
Boerewors, biltong and braais
Our vuvuzela
Nelson Mandela
Our nation, our people,
Our gees and our Rand
We love South Africa
Our home and our land.''

Lots of Love,

Daphne