South Africa : A country one must visit

After a year’s stay in this beautiful country, its time for me to pack up. I wasn’t optimistic a year ago when I set off from Singapore as most of my mates only warned me of taking huge life risk visiting this unsafe land. I must say they are as good as ignorant. Ofcourse, the country is not best place interms of safety but its just like any other country. All you have to be is RATIONALE. I had few friends who had horrible incidents like losing their mobiles, laptops etc but I know a lot (including myself) who had their best time living in SA.

Apart from the living, safety etc., this is a must visit place for any type of travel freaks. You can get pretty much everything that you wish on a travel sports, game drives, scenic drives, beaches, snow you name it. Here is the list of places I visited and enjoyed ranked from bottom to top.

Johannesburg

This is the economical capital of SA and my home for whole 1 year. Also, this is the city with most crime rate in Africa. Luckily, I lived all my time in the suburb called Sandton which is supposedly far safe than others. Regarding places to visit, all I could find worthy was Lions park (where you can hug white lion cubs and take pictures), Cradle of mankind (the first humans lived here), Montecasino (Off late, iam a casino freak) and Pretoria Zoo (well maintained and some rare animal species too)

Durban

In theory, it has a lots of history but practically, its just another beach city. The Ushaka marine world is defntly worth a visit for its maintenance and aquarium. I enjoyed the south coast watersports (Jet Ski) Skip this city if you are tight schedule. FYI, its 7 hours drive from Johannesburg.

St. Lucia (Elephan Coast)

7 hours drive from Joburg. Another coastal city where my son cut his cake on his second birth day. Unexpectedly, we enjoyed the place very much with cheetah farm, lovely beaches (specialy body boarding) and a decent game drive there. Go there only if you stay long term.

Drakensburg Mountains

Lies around 4.5 hours drive from Joburg. The trek to tugela (worlds second largest water falls) Was completely exciting and any trek freak would love to go here. The beautiful view of the frozen water falls made my day and will never forget the painful/exciting trek we had.

Blyde River Canyon/Kruger National Park

The only place I went twice in South Africa. Its not too far (4 hours drive) from Joburg but I suggest this place for any one who visits Joburg. This is the worlds 3rd largest canyon and the largest green canyon. The whole drive is eventful with scenic landscapes around. The whole panaroma route has lots of view points and this is an excellent stop over on the way to Kruger National Park. The Kruger National Park is one of the largest in Africa with 360 KM in length and 70 KM in width. Make sure you spend quiet some time and complete seeing all the big 5 (Leopard, African Elephants, Buffalo, Rhino, Lions) Make sure you stay inside the forest to get the real Kruger Experience

Cape Town

Arguably, one of the best cities in the world a tourist must go. The table mountains are the must watch along with Robben island meuseum. They are world heritage sites and good learning for history lovers too. The drive from Table mountains to Cape point is another experience altogether. The boulders beach was awesome full of penguins and I guess one of the few beaches in world with such a huge collection of penguins. However, the beaches are not ideal for swimming due to cold temp. Tip : Stay in Stellenbosch for best countryside experience and what more you want than sitting in the middle of vineyards on a sun set sipping true South African Wines

Scroll down to see my individual blog posts on few of the above mentioned places. If you are visiting South Africa keep two things in mind. Enjoy your best and keep the safety precautions in mind where ever you go. If you rent a car, always have GPS with you. Happy travelling