The Road to Brandvlei - our great Karoo adventure

This March we were very lucky to be invited to a friend's wedding here in South Africa. The lovely bride comes from a tiny little village in the middle of the Northern Cape called Brandvlei. Even by Northern Cape standards this town is really tiny and remote, located right in the middle of the Tankwa-Namakwa desert and about 150km from the nearest town (which is another equally small village). It would be at least 1,200km journey from Johannesburg to get to Brandvlei (taking in some sights on the way), a one-of-a-kind road trip with a really good party at the end of it. How could we say no?!

Sunset on the road to Kimberley

Johannesburg to Kimberley

The first stretch of road was the N12 to Kimberely which passes all the way through the Free State. There isn't much of interest to see on the way and you can drive it in about 5 hours (with a stop for coffee). We spent our first night of the road trip in Kimberley, capital of the Northern Cape and a city most famous for its diamonds.

Kimberley was the first real diamond-rush town in South Africa and within just a few years in the 19th Century this hot and dusty town became the biggest settlement in South Africa (before of course they discovered the biggest Gold Reef in the world in Gauteng and Jozi stole the title). As you can imagine the city's most famous attraction is the mine. The Big Hole as they like to call it, is the biggest mine dug without the use of heavy machinery in the world. It's pretty crazy. The Big Hole has a big museum attached to it (pretty good actually) as well as one of those quaint recreations of an old mining town (I have to admit I do like that sort of thing).

Besides the Big Hole, there's not a huge amount to do in Kimberley so we spent the rest of our time chilling in the courtyard of The Halfway House (one of the oldest pubs in town) and lounging around at our beautiful guesthouse (75 on Milner – highly, highly recommended) and generally recovering from the at times terrifying drive through the Free State (word to the wise: do not drive the road around Potchefstroom in the dark, it's a death trap!).

Kimberley to Augrabie Falls

For the next leg of our trip we crossed the Karoo and drove up to the border with Namibia to see the Augrabie (pronounced O-khrabie) Falls, one of the biggest waterfalls in Southern Africa. The Karoo desert was a lot greener looking than I expected, but still very much a desert nevertheless. As we crossed up to the northern border of South Africa our road began to follow the Orange River. Around this part of the country it is noticeably greener. The river is tapped to irrigate vineyards which produce wine and raisins and when you are right next to the river it looks almost tropical.

A quick stop for lunch at the Irish Pub in by far the biggest town around here, Upington, and we continued on our way. We didn't make it to the falls that night and instead slept at a very posh hotel in Kakamas, a reasonably sized (for the Northern Cape) town which relies heavily on grape farming to sustain the community.

A rainbow in the Karoo - unexpected!

The next morning we headed off to check out the waterfall, which by this point was in full flow after particularly heavy rains further up the river. It was seriously impressive and awe-inspiring. All around this area for hundreds of kilometres you just have heat and silence, then suddenly bam 'the Great Noise'. It was also probably the hottest place I've ever been to in my life – 38 degrees C (unimaginable heat!). There are no clouds and no shade and the rocks reflect the blazing sun right back at you like an oven. The kind of place where you could fry an egg on the ground (seriously).

Augrabies to Brandvlei

In the last stretch of our journey, a mere 300kms, we crossed over into the Tankwa desert (or Namakwa as the sign had it, I'm still not sure which it is really, the locals don't seem to agree on it). This place was seriously desolate and remote. Between us and Brandvlei was just one tiny town, at least 120kms down the road. The heat was insane and the land spreads out so far and wide and flat with absolutely no buildings or structures it almost reminds you of the sea. And it's just a long straight road for several hundred kilometres.

The last town we passed through before Brandvlei was Kenhardt. I think they have some kind of spring there as it was a lot greener than dry and dusty Brandvlei. This part of the world is famous for its Paadstalls (kind of roadside farm shops/snack stops), the one in Kenhardt was particularly nice. 

This area is also famous for these crazy trees, Quiver Trees. They are so called because the San bushmen used to use the branches to make quivers for their arrows. The trunks are so solid they actually feel like stone and these big tree-like things are in fact succulents (which is evident from their 'leafs'). They take a long time to grow and are quite rare and only in this part of the country are they really thriving.

Finally at around 3pm we rolled into town. Brandvlei is only about 10 streets by 5 streets big and has one hotel, which we of course were all staying in. The less said about the Hotel Brandvlei the better. Never in my life have I been so harassed at night by mosquitoes (mosquitoes in the desert, WTF?!) and the security was quite hilarious (padlock for when you leave, chair pushed up against the door for when you sleep)...But hey, we made it, we were in the true Middle of Nowhere, we wouldn't be driving tomorrow and the next few days were going to be amazing. To be continued...

29.07.2013 The Drakensberg Escarpment - Mpumalanga

(click on photos to enlarge and view gallery)

After four months on the continent, this week we finally took our first long holiday in South Africa. My husband's parents were here from Europe to visit, so it was a family holiday. I was really determined to do something special, to see a wide variety of things and prove the 'South Africa has it all' claims, whilst also relaxing and staying in quality places. I made a lot of demands for myself for sure. Was it stressful to organise? You bet! Having not yet had any personal experience of safaris and long South African road trips, nor knowing much about the places I wanted to visit - I was putting my best hopes into tripadvisor and the blogosphere, generally working the internet to help make it the best possible holiday.

I've certainly learnt a lot already from organising this trip and seen a lot too. Venues aside, this trip really made me realize that, no matter where you are heading or what your budget is, it is the South African people themselves who really make the holiday. These are some of the friendliest, most cheerful, relaxed and helpful people you can meet anywhere in the world. After 6 plus years of living in Russia where the people are not generally described using those same adjectives above, I can wholeheartedly say that the people really can make the place.

So, back to the trip. Here was our itinerary for a week in North-Eastern South Africa:

 -- 3 nights in Sabie in Mpumalanga Province at the Drakensburg Escarpment

 -- 3 nights in Phalaborwa, Limpopo Province at the gate to central Kruger National Park

-- 1 night in Haenertsburg, Limpopo on the drive back to Johannesburg

Sabie and surrounds

We arrived after a 4 hour drive to Sabie in the early evening. My navigation skills unfortunately let me down whilst trying to leave Joburg and I accidentally took us through the Alexandra shanty town (instead of around it). Here the tiny narrow streets are thronged with people, goats, potholes, heavily laden telegraph poles, tightly packed shacks and no street signs whatsoever. It was an eye-opening experience and I really want to go back and have a guided tour. But, at the time, it was pre-etty stressful.

In Sabie we checked into the Sabie Townhouse guesthouse, which is a lovely relaxed place with a nice (but freezing) honesty bar and lovely spacious (but also chilly) rooms. Our hosts made us a huge breakfast spread each morning with homemade banana bread and muffins, fruit and the full cooked breakfast too. Plus they also prepared a packed breakfast for the days we got up early to drive to Kruger, which was much appreciated. We then set off the next day to see the sights.

Another epic game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire at the bar

Blyde River Canyon

The Blyde River Canyon is the area's biggest attraction. For the adventurous types there's white water rafting, hiking, mountain biking and canopy trails (where you zoom across gorges on those zipline thingies), while for the more sedate visitor there are the views.

First stop on the Escarpment tourist trail about 40 minutes before you reach the canyon proper is God's Window, where you can peer over the massive cliffs which marks the end of the Highveld and the beginning of the Lowveld some 900 metres below. They say that if you are here on a clear night you can see all the way to the lights of Maputo in Mozambique. Nearby there are also many waterfalls which you can stop at, we chose the Berlin Falls, for no reason other than it was recommended by our townhouse.

God's Window

Berlin Falls

Further on up towards the mouth of the canyon you reach Bourke's Luck Potholes, an area of fantastic rock formations carved by the Blyde river. The area is named after a local prospector who found gold here, but failed to get rich as the actual gold seam was located a short way south of his claim.

From here you drive on another half hour to reach the big canyon view at a point called Three Rondavels. The Three Rondavels are three round rock formations which were each named by the local Pedi tribe after one of the chief's wives (I don't remember the names now). The canyon itself is said to be the third largest in the world (after the Grand Canyon and Fish River Canyon in Namibia) - whether that statistic is based on depth, width or length I have no idea. Regardless, it is pretty spectacular.

Echo Caves

Another half an hour beyond the canyon we also stopped at the Echo Caves near to Ohrigstad. This was my favourite attraction in the whole area. Not really well marked on the tourist trail, the caves attract few visitors meaning it was just us and our guide wandering through this strange underground world.

These ancient caves were re-discovered in the 1920s by a local farmer who kept mysteriously losing his cattle. After much head-scratching he eventually found that the cows had wandered into this massive system of caves and perished. In recent years miners have been sent down to explore the area and find where the caves lead. So far they have reached 19kms (for lack of oxygen in their tanks they couldn't continue any further) although it is believed the caves may stretch for 40kms!

They were named echo caves by the local Pedi tribe who used to hide here in the 19^th Century while they warred with the Swazis. The Pedis lived out on the hot plains during the winter and retreated to the cooler mountain areas to escape the summer heat. At some point they started to find that thieving Swazis had been through their villages while they were away and destroyed their land and stolen crops. Thus the troubles began. During the worst times the Pedi tribe would hide in the caves from the marauding Swazis with their animals and belongings. A lookout man was sent to the entrance and if he saw trouble he would start beating one of the hollow stalactites near the entrance to the caves making a loud booming sound which would act as a warning message echoing for kilometres telling his people to hide.

The tour was not real potholing per say, but did require much more athleticism than we had first guessed. In the end we only did one half of the two kilometer tour as our guide warned us that in the second half of our journey we would be required to crawl and that in some areas there was very little air. Definitely not for claustrophobes.

Pilgrim's Rest

Pilgrim's Rest is a classic old fashioned mining town about 35 minutes from Sabie. The whole town is considered as a national heritage site and so feels more like a museum than a real 'living' community. That said the buildings are very pretty, there are plenty of cute craft shops and little tea rooms and you can also go down to the stream and try your hand at panning for gold. There are an unusually high number of people selling African crafts here which we felt were overpriced compared to what we had seen elsewhere. If you are looking to buy African crafts (and I recommend you do) you will find better prices at the waterfalls or up on the canyon view point.