Three things we loved most about Kwazulu Natal

-
At Ushaka Marine World in Durban
Kwazulu Natal surprised me.
It really captured my heart and for the moment I think it is the best province in South Africa! Three things really stood out for us:

The Beaches

KZN beaches are great - even when it's windy. The weather is great - and when it is winter everywhere else - KZN seems to be at its best! We had a great time at all the beaches we went to; Ramsgate, Uvongo, Umzumbe, Mtunzini, Durban, St Lucia... they all felt safe, were clean and almost all of them had a lifegaurd or two on duty. 

Ramsgate beach

The Mountains
The Drakensberg Mountains are possibly South Africa's most famous mountain range. It stretches for 1000 km from the Eastern Cape into Limpopo Province and has some of the most majestic scenes I have seen in my life. The KZN section of the Mountain Club of South Africa has access to the best spots for rock climbing and hiking, and we will definitely be back for more of that!

Klip Kloof on the banks of the White Umfolozi river
Route 66
We loved the way the Zulu heritage has been preserved on route 66 in KZN. Around Ulundi - there is a whole heritage route that is filled with museums and places of interest and most of these place are FREE!
We stayed in Ulundi for 5 days and enjoyed learning all about their stories and history.

Emakhosini - Valley of Kings
The Wildlife
KZN is wild. It felt sometimes like someone just gave up trying to have the wild animals in parks and reserves and just started letting them roam free. Every river seemed to pose the risk of having a croc in it, every open field could have a leopard roaming free. This forced all of us to learn as much as we could about wild animals in the time we spent there. 
"What do you do when you run into a hippo"... "how to make sure if there are crocodiles nearby"... "what to do when you get bitten by a snake" are just some of the things that governed our conversations for the first few months.

Opmerkings

Plaas 'n opmerking

Gewilde plasings van hierdie blog

Kersfees-koekies!

-
Prent
Ek en my niggie Keara-Lin dreig nou al 'n rukkie om koekies te bak vir kersfees. So sy het toe uiteindelik gister die hele dag hier by my kom kuier en ons het 2 bakke vol koekies gebak! Ons het eers 'n Golden Cloud boks-koek gebak en cupcakes gemaak van dit Kyk net hoe mooi lyk dit! Dis nou nie - "food-magazine" kwaliteit nie, maar goed genoeg vir my blog, dink ek! Daar moes toe natuurlik ook tee-tyd gehou word! Toe begin ons met die soetkoekies - altyd 'n wenner!  Keara bestudeer haar handewerk met 'n kritiese oog - Kyk net hoe mooi :-) Die volgende batch was biscotti -- mmmmmmmm----  eweredig verdeel... :-P Feast your eyes! En laastens vanilla crescents Al die resepte wat ons gebruik het is op my pinterest-profile: http://pinterest.com/rutcloete/christmas-cookie-time/
Lees meer

The best surfing spots in South Africa along the West Coast (so far)

-
Prent
We have been road tripping South Africa for the last 10 months now, mostly along the coast. While we were in KZN, our son went for surfing lessons and the feeling was so awesome, he kept bugging us to get to more surfing spots and surf again. We eventually listened to him and bought a surfboard while we stayed in Langebaan. So, here is a newbie's opinion of where to surf along the West coast, starting in Langebaan. 1. Langebaan We stayed in Langebaan for a whole month in November 2018. We surfed in front of Kokomo's restaurant, where the waves were small enough to handle... or completely non-existent. Langebaan is one of the best places to windsurf and kitesurf... but since we did neither of the two - it wasn't one of our best places to surf. If you are a newbie and wanting to surf, we would recommend going to Muizenberg for that. Langebaan 2. Jacob's Bay We spent a day or two at Jacob's Bay, where there are only a few people and houses, so it feels...
Lees meer

Travelling through South Africa - some things we've learnt about self-catering accommodation

-
Prent
simple things make us happy - like having a "braai"  When we set off on our adventure, we had already decided (after some investigations) that the camping options in South Africa are simply too expensive to consider for a year long roadtrip. So we have been staying in self catering units these past few months, except for when we actually did camp at St lucia. We are currently in our fourth month and we have learnt some things along the way regarding self catering units in South Africa. 1. Everyone's standard of cleanliness is not the same. To overcome this, we have formed a habit of travelling with cloths and handy andy to clean where necessary. The funny thing is that most places do not place a broom or a mop in the unit so cleaning remains a challenge. We have stayed in a few places where the cupboards were puke-invokingly dirty... not sure how that works.. but anyway. 2. The basics are not always provided. You'd think that any plac...
Lees meer