From the Cape of Good Hope to the mighty Drakensberg Mountains

• A great journey from Cape Town to the Drakensberg Mountains
• Beautiful coastal scenery along the Garden Route
• Vibrant culture and rich wildlife

Late February to March is a great time to visit South Africa, with the Cape and the garden route experiencing the warm days of summer and usually a drop in the winds that hit the cape earlier in the year. In Kwazulu Natal and the Drakensberg, the days become less humid and being the tail end of the local summer holidays it can be less busy.

HF Holidays’ South Africa Explorer tour offers a varied holiday. Hiking in the Cape, the famous Table Mountain experiences many clear days in February without the ‘table cloth’ cloud hanging over it. Walks on Cape Point and through the parks and forests and by the side of the rivers of the garden route, which at this time will be bathed in summer sunshine with long evenings in which to enjoy great South African hospitality.

The trip through the garden route concludes with a few nights at Addo National Park, where you can see elephant, rhino, giraffe and lions.

Over into Kwazulu Natal province we journey into the Drakensberg, a spectacular range of peaks, valleys and canyons which has been World Heritage Site status and offers a great variety and varying grades of fabulous walks.  The name translates at ‘Dragon’s Mountains’ or in Zulu as ‘Barrier of Spears’ and one of the unique things to see are the ancient rock paintings left by the San ‘bushmen’ ….a way of life that died out with the arrival of the Europeans and also with competition from other African groups.

In fact, the film Zulu featured the scenery of the Ampitheatre in the Drakensberg…a stunning backdrop used with poetic license by the film makers because the battles of Isandlwana and Rourke’s Drift actually took place almost 100 km to the east.

We stay for 3 nights and round off the holiday in style at the Cathedral Peak hotel. A lovely South African manor style hotel with a fantastic location in the heart of the ‘berg.  The views from the hotel are suberb, the facilities are first rate, including a lovely restaurant serving hearty South African food: a games room and welcoming bar: lovely gardens and a heated swimming pool. Above all is the great variety of walks from easy to strenuous, that can be taken directly from the hotel. No need for transportation, just straight out onto the hills.

South Africa is a large country, with big landscapes, a vibrant culture and interesting history. It can also be compared with Canada or New Zealand in that in the countryside it is a first world country, with little danger, is easy to travel around, English speaking and with fantastic and cheap food and drink. For landscape, culture, art, food & wine and of course wildlife, it is a remarkable place.

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