A question frequently asked is, "Can an exotic adventure be as good the second time?" My answer is a blunt, "Yes!"
After our two month visit to South Africa in 2017 we had the opportunity to return for a longer visit in the spring 2018. We broke all of the travel rules I suggested previously and made last minute plans for our extended trip. We planned to re-visit the highlights of our previous trip, spend more time in our favorite places, and visit new areas on the south and west coasts of this amazing country. As always, we wanted to combine adventure, relaxing vacation time, and wildlife photography in a variety of national parks all at a reasonable cost.
The adventure began flying from Jackson, Wyoming, to Salt Lake City, Amsterdam, and, finally, Cape Town, South Africa. We arrived in time to see the famous Cape Town bicycle race with about 30,000 riders and all of the amazing sights of the city on the cape. From there we drove south and were able to stay in one of only 3 cabins inside of Cape Point National Park. The Druiker cabin gave us access to the park when it was closed to visitors and a sneak preview of free roaming wildlife and empty hiking trails to Cape Point. It was a whole different way to see the park and its pristine beaches.
From Cape Point we traveled east along the south coast scenic highway and eventually, the Garden Route National Park. Here we found many broad regions of the park that we missed in our previous 3 days at Tsitsikama and the Storms River Mouth region of the park. Again, we were greeted with scenic vistas and gorgeous uninhabited beaches. We relaxed, hiked, and unwound from the long trip and slowed our minds to African time.
From the Garden Route we headed quickly to Addo Elephant National Park north of Port Elizabeth. This was one of our favorite spots last year and we wanted more days to explore and wanted to spend more time in the less visited southern half of the park. Addo is a hidden gem of SA – very few visitors and huge numbers of wildlife. It was common to see more than 200 elephants every day (some very close up) and also herds of Cape buffalo, red hartabeast, bontebok, occasional kudu, ostrich, secretary birds, and even a caracal cat, honey badger, and a black rhino. Knowing the roads and wildlife locations made this second visit even more fantastic than the first. If you visit SA, don't miss Addo.
Addo was our eastern most point of the coast drive and after 5 days we meandered back west along the coast and through the mountains. We were able to spend more time in amazing B&Bs as we hiked and learned the history of the southwest region of SA. After our time along the Indian Ocean we headed to the West Coast National Park north of Cape Town. We were rewarded with beautiful hiking and beaches extending as far as you could see. While we saw some birds including hundreds of flamingos and spoonbills and other wildlife, the West Coast NP is known primarily for its fields of wild flowers. We were there in the SA autumn and so had to only imagine the beauty across the rolling hills.
As we did last year, we saved the highlight for the end of our visit and flew to Johannesburg to pick up a small camper and drive 4 hours east to Kruger National Park. Our plan this year was to spend a full month in the park and visit new rest camps in the southern two-thirds of the park. The vastness of Kruger is hard to envision – twice the size of Yellowstone with more than 4 times the roads and a tiny, tiny fraction of the people.
We learned previously that camping in Kruger is quite different than in North America. Since everything is self-contained in the little 7M camper, it works best to move to a different camp each night and avoid back and forth drives. We started in our favorite camp at Crocodile Bridge in the south and spent several days back and forth to the Lower Sabie camp about 30 miles to the north. This area has the highest concentration and variety of wildlife from large predators to the giant herbivores to various ungulates. We were rewarded by amazing and unique sightings every single day.
Over the next 3 weeks we wandered through the southern and central regions of the Kruger and were fortunate to see dozens of big cats, African wild dogs, jackals and hyenas. We saw hundreds of large herbivores and thousands of ungulates. Each and every critter was special in its own way and the entire visit was yet another trip of a lifetime. Yes, you can go back and have an amazing experience. What are you waiting for?