Driving From Johannesburg to Cape Town Via The Garden Route

I spent 9 days in South Africa in February 2018, driving from Johannesburg to Cape Town via the Garden Route, stopping at Colesberg, Colchester and Knysna. On the way back from Cape Town I drove on the N1 to Leeu Gamka and then on to Ficksburg in the Free State to visit the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. This was on my last day in South Africa, after which I drove back to Johannesburg on the N3 to arrive at the Tempest Car Hire drop off desk at the airport at 630PM.

The story below is my recollection of this epic 3,500 kilometer road trip through South Africa, providing you some detailed instructions on how to drive from Johannesburg to Cape Town via the Garden Route.

Using this post you will find out about many national parks, the best places to stop on the garden route and how to drive on the South African roads.

Places To Stop From Johannesburg to Cape Town Via The Garden Route:

I have created several videos, some nice photos and maps as well as instructions for your next road trip around South Africa! Click on the headers to jump to the specific section on this page:

• My friend’s game reserve in the Free State near Heilbron
• Colesberg, a small town with a famous big hill
• The De Vuur Guest House in Colesberg
• Cradock, a frontier town in the Eastern Cape
• The Addo Elephant National Park
• Slept at the Elephant’s Footprint Guesthouse in Colchester
• Drove to Jeffrey’s Bay and then on to Tsitsikamma National Park
• Walk to the Big Tree National Park
• Trekked along the Big Mouth Trail on the Southern Coast
• Drove on an abandoned road to Nature’s Valley
• Stayed at The Senate Boutique Guest House in Knysnia
• Dinner at Bazala in Knysna
• Hiked the Wilderness National Park’s trails to the waterfall
• Swam in the lake under the waterfall at the Wilderness National Park.
• Drove to Cape Town, stopping off to refuel at Caledon
• Stayed at the StayEasy Hotel in Cape Town for three nights, breakfast included
• Walked around downtown Cape Town, visiting Company’s Garden
• Trek up to the Cable Car Base Station in Cape Town
• Walk to Table Mountain from the Botanical Gardens
• Lunch at the Market Hall near the V&A Waterfront
• Drive to Signal Hill to check out the sunset
• Dinner at the Craft Burger Bar in Sea Point
• Drove to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden
• Lunch at the top of Table Mountain
• Drive to Llandudno, a pretty beach town outside Cape Town
• Drive to the Boulders National Park to look at the Penguins
• Visited Scarborough Beach, the nearest free spot north of Cape Point
• Drive back on the N1, staying in Leeu Gamka
• Dinner at Steers Diner at the Laingsburg Shell Ultra City
• Drive to Ficksburg in the Free State
• Stay At The Green Acorn Guest House
• Dinner at the Imperani Guest House Restaurant
• Visit the Golden Gate Highlands National Park
• Climb to the Mushroom Rock to check out the surrounding views
• Drive to Johannesburg on the N3 Toll Road

Arriving in South Africa

We landed on time at Johannesburg Airport but it took three hours to get out of there! First the queue was humongous and then we had to wait like 20 minutes for the SIM card at the MTN shop to finally pick the car up 2.5 hours after arrival!

The airport customs checks were absolutely terrible, I was in the queue for almost two hours because out of the 45 windows only 10 of them were manned! And this was at the time when 4 or 5 long haul flights arrived and the queue was a mile long! This was probably the worst experience at any airport I landed at.

By the time I got on the road it was 1PM, which was my original estimated arrival time at my first stop, so I was three hours delayed. My friend’s shooting lodge was absolutely amazing: 1,500 acres with 1,700 wild beasts, zebras and antelopes!

I’ve never seen anything like this before, the wild animals were just running around freely as we were driving behind them in a Land Rover. It was a bit like in Jurassic Park, I suppose the film makers took the idea from a Safari Park.

Tip: plan to say at least one afternoon or night at a farm with wild animals, there are plenty of private game reserves along N1 between Colesberg and Johannesburg.

My friend was expecting us for 1PM with a barbecue of beef sausages and roast, crispy lamb but we arrived at 4PM instead because of the airport delays. Anyhow, the food was delicious and I just couldn’t find the same taste and cut anywhere else in South Africa.

The meat was perfect with its smoky flavour from the charcoal and the lamb fat was so crispy and tasty! I still think about it when I am hungry!

Food is definitely one of the highlights of any visit to South Africa. The only time I did not like the food was when I ate at a roadside burger chain.

Driving to Colesberg from Heilbron

We left my friend’s ranch near Heilbron at half past 6 and drove straight to Colesberg, a small town at the junction of the N1 and the N9. The N9 is the road south from Colesberg, connecting the center of South Africa to the Garden Route, Addo National Park and Tsitsikamma National Park.

The drive to Colesberg took nearly 6 hours so I arrived at the De Vuurs Guesthouse after midnight. I was so tired I parked up in their private parking lot and then headed to bed straight away.

I had a good sleep at the guesthouse and then headed out at 7AM to get some water and snacks at the local Chinese wholesaler which was the only place open on Sunday morning.

My advice is that you avoid the so called “fresh orange juice” and banana as they don’t taste anything like what you get in Europe or the US. The orange juice was meant to be fresh, 100% but it tasted like mouldy soap and the banana was much harder and less sweet. Anyhow, I finished the banana as I had no breakfast at the guesthouse so I was starving.

Driving to Cradock from Colesberg

The drive to Cradock, my first stop on the way to the Addo Elephant National Park took about 2.5 hours through some beautiful countryside scenery. The hills around here are covered in grass with very few trees and the shape of the mountains are more like sugar loaves rather than anything else.

When I was there it was the most severe draught the country experienced so the grass was more yellowish brown than green but it was still quite pleasing on the eye.

The road was wide and very well built with a hard shoulder on both sides, one lane in each direction. The road painting was in the American style with a yellow line on the edge and white intermittent lines in the middle.

There were regular parking spots along the way, each with benches and trees for shade. It looked very well thought out and I must say I really enjoyed driving in South Africa.

The main railway line between Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg also runs along the road, and I was lucky enough to spot two major freight trains passing while I was driving to Cradock.

Arriving in Cradock in the Eastern Cape

Cradock is a small town at the intersection of a few country roads, including the N10, which I was travelling on after turning left off the N9 an hour and a half after leaving Colesberg.

Cradock is not really famous for anything to be honest, it is more like a reflection of a by-gone era in which cattle herders would drive their animals through the wide avenues of this settler town. There is still an air of nostalgia here as the old buildings and church, as well as the wide pavements reflect an age gone by when old fashioned agriculture ruled this land.

I’ll be honest I did not even get out of the car, instead I just drove around checking out the old streets, the historic downtown and the leafy suburbs while driving past. It is not because the place looked dodgy or anything like that but there really was no reason to get out and I wanted to make good progress to arrive at the Addo Elephant National Park shortly after lunchtime.

Driving to the Addo Elephant National Park

The Addo Elephant National Park is another hour and a half from Cradock along N10. It is a pretty spectacular place, although a little bit more pricey then the other parks in South Africa.

As far as I understand it used to be a private reserve and then it turned into a national park, looking after the last remaining 400 elephants in this region. Before the white settlers arrived the whole of South Africa was home to thousands of wild elephants roaming freely, but then the colonizers chopped down all the forests and turned the natural habitat of the elephant into agricultural land.

At the time of the Addo Elephant National Park’s foundation there were only a handful of elephants left in the wild, but now, thanks to the work of the park there are about 400 here.

I was planning to stay in a tent within the National Park, but Sanparks made a mistake and they cancelled my booking without informing me! I was fuming! My friend and I were planning this visit to the park for months and were looking forward to seeing the stars and listening to the Lions at night!

Instead, they told us we had to look for alternative accommodation! The receptionist offered a cottage at the other end of the park which we said we would book but because they took no deposit and it started raining we changed our mind and instead booked a room outside the park on Booking.com for less than half the price.

The Safari tent was going to cost only 200 rand for the night, but the cottage was going to be 2,100 rand without breakfast or telephone reception! What a ripoff we thought so we decided to drive through the park and see what we can then search for a room when we are outside the park. This is how we found the Elephant’s Footprint Lodge, about five minutes from the exit gate.

Driving Around Addo National Park

The Addo Elephant National Park itself covers thousands of acres and is divided in two parts. The northern side is more secluded and less visited – it is here where people go fishing and where the other observation and preservation projects are carried out.

The southern side is the touristy spot with a lot of trails for cars, part of which has tarmac while the majority is dirt road.

The dirt roads are also pretty good quality yet a lot of people turn around after the tarmac ends, which I found pretty nonsensical especially that most of the elephants roam around in the bit with the dirt roads. Also, most of the watering holes are in parts of the park with dirt roads so I would definitely recommend you drive on after the tarmac ends.

Something else I found unbelievable was that almost everyone turned around and rushed back to their hotels the moment it started raining! You come all the way to the Safari and when it rains you hide away? That is just totally silly! I carried on my trip around the park even during the monsoon like rain and managed to see some amazing wildlife coming out to enjoy the cooling effect of the rain after a scorching hot day.

In fact, I bet most of the elephants just couldn’t wait for the rain, to get a bit of fresh water in the stale watering holes. It was still raining when I stopped at one of the hideouts and as I was looking out from behind the walled compound I saw two elephants, a mother and child spraying mud at each other and fooling around in the rain.

And I was there alone with my friend, everyone else having rushed back to the “safety” of their dry hotel rooms. Later on during dinner at the Elephant’s Footprint Guesthouse I discovered that several people actually cancelled their excursions because of the rain! Pure Crazy!

Seeing The Elephants Close Up

I counted at least two dozen or more elephants roaming around the park and about five of them actually came about a meter’s distance to the car. On the way out there was a big male with a huge cock hanging down between his hind legs, walking in front of us like it was the most natural thing. I imagine they are used to the people and cars driving around and they are not that bothered.

The “big” chap then proceeded to move to the bush and began chomping away on the shrubs and trees. It almost made me hungry looking at the big fella eating the nice, green, luscious leaves, all the while two younger males began fighting down the road.

I quickly reversed to check out what was going on and discovered that the two young ones stuck their horns together and were fighting pretty ferociously.

Not only that, they were making the elephant sounds, pushing and shoving and kicking up a lot of fuss. After a few minutes they decided to take the fight out of the bush right onto the road, blocking it in each direction.

I moved a little forward, turned the car sideways and had wide screen access to the two young elephants having the fight of their life. All of this in the slowly pissing rain, missed by lots of tourists that thought it would be a better idea to rush back to the hotel bar.

A little later, once I passed the last elephant I drove up to a plateau, which was covered in grassland. Here, dozens of zebras and antelopes were enjoying the shower, munching on the freshly watered green grass and leaves. It was absolutely fascinating to see them so up close and most of them did not even bat an eyelid.

We arrived at Addo National Park around 130PM and by this time it was getting close to 6PM so we had to leave as our accommodation was outside the park. If you book a tent inside the park you can stay and come and go as you like, but otherwise you need to leave by 6PM.

Staying at the Elephant’s Footprint Lodge

That actually worked out perfectly because they served dinner at the Elephant’s Footprint Lodge at 7PM, so we had time to settle in and take some pictures of the pool, the special outdoor safari style shower and the other amenities of the hotel.

Read my detailed review of the Elephant’s Footprint Guesthouse here

Since I was exhausted from all the driving the day before and checking out all the elephants I decided to post a few pictures on my Instagram account (@galjanos1984) and then head to bed shortly after 9PM.

Driving From Colchester to Jeffrey’s Bay

The next morning I drove to the Colchester garage to fill up for the third time. Most garages are very clean with lots of helpers, a toilet and shops as well as some fast food restaurants at the larger establishments.

The previous morning I decided to fill up at the Colesberg Shell Ultra City, which is basically a massive petrol station along N1. There are dozens of Ultra Cities in South Africa and if you are not pressed for fuel I would recommend driving on until you reach the next Shell Ultra City petrol station.

Read: my review of the Colesberg Shell Ultra City Petrol Station

My destination for the day was the Tsitsikamma National Park where I wanted to track along the coast to the waterfall following the Big Mouth Trail. This is one of the most iconic parts of the Tsitsikamma National Park, which forms part of the Garden Route in South Africa.

After filling up at Colchester I put the pedal to the metal and drove all the way to Jeffrey’s Bay to check out the waves recommended by Lonely Planet. I must say it was a pretty pointless detour and in general I was very disappointed with the offerings of the Lonely Planet South Africa guidebook.

It was a bit shallow and kept saying this place is boring to visit, that place has nothing to offer and so on and so forth. My question is this: why not spend a bit more time writing about the interesting places instead of wasting ink and paper on what not to visit and which are the most boring places in South Africa?

Visiting the Big Tree

Anyhow, after Jeffrey’s Bay I decided to not stop until the Big Tree, which is one of the last old growth trees in the East Cape! Unbelievably the colonizers cut down all the other indigenous trees, leaving only a few patches the size of a larger handkerchief!

This tree was real big, and I think it is worth a visit. The entrance cost is only 40 rand for foreigners and the walk to the tree takes about 40 minutes return on a board walk.

If you have more time you can carry on walking on the trail to the yellow wood and wetland forest but I decided to turn around at the Big Tree and carry on to the Big Mouth Trail in the Tsitsikamma National Park.

The drive from Colchester to The Big Mouth took about three hours, so we arrived there around 12. We were both very hungry so we started looking for food but there was hardly anything to eat so we just relied on some leftover biltong, the packed breakfast from the hotel and some chocolate we bought in the shop inside Tsitsikamma National Park.

Hiking The Big Mouth Trail

The Big Mouth Trail is a relatively long and difficult trail, walking along the rugged South African coast. It starts at the main camping site and goes along the coastline, following the base of a cliff. It leads through some narrow trails in the forest as well as a lot of massive boulders and steep rock climbs.

We set out on the trail around 1230PM, walking at a steady pace but even at this rate it took us about four hours return. Unfortunately the water was a bit too cold to go in, even though I tried my best!

Once we got back to the car it was already past 430PM, so we still had some time before sunset. Instead of driving on the toll road we set our destination as Knysna, avoiding tolls but the stupid Google Maps sent us on a road which was closed off! Anyway, that was not going to stop me so I did what the locals seemed to be doing and drove around the road block and carried on driving down the road as if nothing happened.

The Abandoned Road

It turned out it was the old road before they built the N2 but when the new bridge was built they closed this one off instead of maintaining it for the locals. I imagine the government wants people to pay the toll instead of bypassing for free, hence the closure.

Otherwise there was absolutely nothing wrong with the road except for some fallen rocks and cracks here and there. We met a local guy halfway up the road who said he uses it regularly, so we just carried on driving toward Knysna.

When we got to the junction of the N2 it turned out that it was still a toll road at that point so we carried on driving toward Nature’s Valley, which is a beautiful village on the coast with white sand and green hills at the mouth of the river.

I watched the sun set here then I decided to just drive straight to Knysna and check into the Senator Boutique Guest House for the night. It is a nice guesthouse with two levels, overlooking the bay in Knysna, providing some pretty views during sunset and sunrise.

Once we checked in we asked the receptionist to recommend a place to eat but unfortunately she recommended a chain restaurant so we ignored it and went looking for a place on our own. We found a restaurant called Bazala in the city center, just opposite the place the receptionist was recommending.

I often wonder why receptionists tend to recommend boring chains instead of some nice local, privately owned restaurants? This wasn’t my first experience checking into a place and having to look for a restaurant myself because the staff had no idea where to go.

Read my full review of the Senator Boutique Hotel

The Bazala Restaurant in Knysna

The restaurant we picked was very nice with freshly prepared food on the river bank, overlooking the sailing boats. I was so hungry by the time we got there that I ordered too much food, which of course I could not finish in the end…

I got their special beef and egg hotpot and some coconut and rice side dish. The rice was not very tasty but the beef and egg was phenomenal, just perfectly spiced and a nice size portion.

The car park here was a bit different from other places – a couple of guys were sitting at the entrance telling drivers where to park. They then looked after the car and expected a small fee at the exit. You should be careful because there are people that try to scam you out of money, asking for 50 or even 100 rand to look after your car.

These are blatant cheaters as normall 1-5 or maximum 10 rand is perfectly sufficient. At the time of my visit 1 British Pound equalled 16 rand, so giving 50 rand to one guy that badgered me the following day would have been a complete rip off.

I pretty much slept like a log in the hotel and it was a bit difficult to get up the next morning as I was so tired. Anyway, I had breakfast which Phelisa prepared freshly in front of my eyes then I drove on to the Wilderness National Park, which was about an hour’s drive away from Knysna.

Visiting The Wilderness National Park

The drive here was pretty straightforward along the N2 road until a roundabout that took us down to the valley where the Kingfisher Trail began. It was another park with an entrance fee, at this time it cost 135 rand per person! There is a separate fee for foreigners and locals, ie foreigners pay about three times what the locals pay.

This trail takes you along the river in an old growth forest which is plenty of mosquitos in the summer!

Tip: make sure you take plenty of insect repellent!

Something I regret is that I did not know it was possible to rent a canoe for almost the entire length of the journey. If you come from the direction of Wilderness, I heard there is a small shop that rents the canoes out for the whole day.

Anyhow, the walk was a lot of fun, going though the forest full of various birds and monkeys. About halfway up the trail there was also a pontoon crossing which was a lot of fun pulling ourselves across the river!

The pontoon basically connects the two sides of the river through a rope: you jump on the pontoon from the dock and then pull yourself over. The alternative is to walk a little further up and cross over the river through some rocks but I would say the pontoon is much more fun.

The best is that on the other side of the river there were a few big trees and at the top of them were several monkey chomping away on some nuts and seeds.

The trail starts to climb up the hillside from here and turns into a boardwalk for about two thirds of the way. I would recommend leaving early in the day, possibly at the time of opening because otherwise it will get very busy with other tourists on their way to the waterfall.

The waterfall is about 35-40 minutes from the pontoon, providing an amazing photo opportunity standing on the rocks.

Jumping Into The Lake

There were about 20-25 other tourists here, all standing on the rocks, taking photos. I decided to walk over to the other side of the small pond underneath the waterfall, in an effort to jump into the water.

The problem was I could not scale the last big rock so we had to walk back to another location, facing the waterfall. We got down to our swimming trunks and proceeded to jump into the water but again it was on the cold side so we were about to turn around when two Danish students jumped in without hesitation.

I decided to follow them as I was not going to leave without taking a good shot of the waterfall, swimming in the lake underneath it.

So I took a deep breath and jumped in as well – it was freezing cold and I wanted to scream but I decided against it as all the other tourists were watching. I began swimming towards the waterfall and the current kept pushing me away so I swam harder and finally reached it!

All the effort to get there actually warmed me up so I decided to stay a little longer in the water but then it felt like my limbs were going numb so I got out.

Meeting Friends From London

On the way out of the pond my friend slipped and split his skin open and two guys at the waterfall offered some plaster and wipes to clean up the wound. It turned out they knew two of our best friends and that one of them was a rabbi at West London Synagogue.

He even knew my current and previous rabbis, which was quite funny especially so that we met in the Wilderness National Park in South Africa of all places!

We ended up walking and talking all the way back to the head of the trail and also had lunch together in Wilderness. After lunch we hopped in the car and drove all the way to Caledon where I took this amazing picture of the sunset and then filled up the car and drove to Cape Town for the night.

The drive between Caledon and Cape Town was pretty dull in the dark especially after Somerset West when the road turned into a motorway. Once we came down the hills that surround Cape Town the motorway widened out to three lanes each side and it was straight as an arrow with public lighting at the center.

I thought it was a huge waste of public resources to have lights at the center of the road, when there are millions of people living in shanty towns with no access to public lighting or electricity for that matter. Cars have good lights and they can use them on the motorway too (unsurprisingly) so I would say it is completely wasteful to light up the motorway.

Anyhow, it looked quite fascinating how a sea of light surrounded us, but it was also slightly disturbing that for miles shantytowns lined the motorway, displaying the huge rift between rich and poor in the country.

Checking-in to the StayEasy Hotel

We got to the StayEasy Hotel on Castle Street around 9PM and we were so tired we just ended up having a shower and going to bed. The next day I got up nice and early and went for a walk in town while my friend attended a conference which he came here to visit.

I walked out of the hotel and went down to Company’s Gardens which is in the center of town. The walk there took me across the historic district and some squares, taking about 20 minutes. Once inside the park I visited the National Library of South Africa which has a nice reading room, then walked along the main avenue inside the park to the statue of two boys on a chariot.

Related: Read my review of the StayEast Hotel Here

The weather was amazing with the sun shining at full blast, so I was glad to have applied my sun cream. I also had a baseball cap and my sunglasses on, which I would recommend to anyone walking around Cape Town. The most important thing to carry around with you while walking in Cape Town is a large bottle of drinking water because most taps will be turned off due to the on-going drought.

I carried a 1.5 liter bottle which pretty much ran out by lunchtime so I had to buy another bottle later. Once they have extra supply I will definitely buy a Water-to-Go bottle because it saves the environment and has a special filter that makes the water taste cleaner and removes the chlorine from it.

Walking Up to Table Mountain

Anyway, I decided to walk all the way to the bottom of the park and then carry on up the suburban streets to the base of the cable car on Table Mountain. The walk takes about one hour from the southern entrance of the park through some very pretty and rich suburbs.

Some of the houses here were in the art deco style, others in much more modern cubist fashion. Once you get to the top of Monroe Street, you will see the water company’s plant with a gate – walk past this gate and ignore the “Do Not Enter” sign, the walking trail starts here and will take you through a nice bush, providing amazing views of the city and port.

If you start walking late morning, I can guarantee the sun will beam down on you at full power so make sure you have plenty of water. The walk from the water plant to the cable car base camp takes about 20 minutes on a dirt track, which I thought was quite interesting and quite, devoid of tourists.

Unfortunately by the time I got to the cable car it was past 12 and the queue was formidable so I decided to forget about it.

The V&A Waterfront

Instead of sticking around, I hopped on the local bus and went down to the V&A Waterfront which is a shopping center full of South African restaurants. The actual private restaurants are inside and old warehouse in front of the Nobel Peace Prize winners’ statues, just next to the Waterfront.

I picked the beef stew with maize as a side order – I thought it was a bit blend but it filled me up fine. There are also a couple of fresh juice sellers where I bought myself half a liter of freshly squeezed orange, apple and grape juice. It was delicious with the meat and maize. I would say if you want affordable local food then you should not miss this place.

The Homeless People of Cape Town

From here I made my way back to the hotel on foot, which was about 30 minutes away. I came across a couple of homeless people who asked me for some change and I decided to give them some instead of having a confrontation. Most of the homeless are completely harmless and all they want is a few coins: when you consider 5 rand is like 30 pence it really is a no brainer – just give them a coin and move on.

On the way back to the hotel I saw a bunch of people getting their photo taken so I stopped to watch. It turned out it was the South African EY team celebrating something so I took a photo of them too which they found quite funny and gave me a thumbs up!

The Kosher Shop in Cape Town

After a comfortable walk along the shady side of the pavement I got back to the hotel between 3-4PM and proceeded to crashing out on the bed for a while.

My friend arrived back in the hotel a couple of hours later and I felt like washed shit as I spent the afternoon sleeping in an almost coma state. We set off to Signal Hill around 6PM to catch a glimpse of the sunset then drove around Sea Point looking for somewhere to eat.

Before dinner we popped into the local Spar to get some more sun cream and water and while walking around the shop we discovered it had the largest kosher selection in Cape Town – if not the whole of South Africa! In the end I not only bought sun cream but also stocked up on some kosher Kit Kat and a couple of other chocolate bars.

The restaurant we picked was the Craft Burger Bar on the main street, just up the road from the Spar. I must say it was a little bit underwhelming, my burger was almost empty and it was pretty tasteless. What I liked most was the Grapetiser with red grapes – now if that was my favourite part of the dinner that tells a lot about the quality of the burger!

All the driving around Cape Town made me feel like a local which was quite amazing given that I had only spent less than a day there by that point!

Visiting The Botanical Gardens in Kirstenbosch

The next morning I headed off to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which is about 13 kilometers from the city center. The traffic out was OK but on the way back it was pretty bad even late in the evening.

The Botanical Garden cost 65 rand to enter plus another 5 rand for a map. My plan was to climb up to Table Mountain using the trail that starts out from the back of the Botanical Gardens. The garden itself was very pretty with hundreds of trees and flower species with Table Mountain serving as the perfect background to the entire place.

My favourite part of the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden was the canopy walk that took me up to the tree tops, providing even better views over the mountains and the botanical gardens.

There was also an exhibit of five dinosaurs in the form of five metal statues, explaining what animals roamed around here hundreds of millions of years ago. Another nice place within the botanics was the area where they cultivate various proteas, the national symbol of South Africa.

Hiking On The Smuts Trail

The actual trail up to Table Mountain begins at Smuts Track, taking you up to the Skeleton Gorge and past MacLears Beacon. The hike takes about three hours each way to complete (on paper). In reality, it took me all day to complete the return journey, leaving the car at 848AM and arriving back at 730PM!

It was a pretty difficult path, climbing over rocks, up ladders and through some arid areas under direct sunlight with no shade whatsoever once I was out of the forest. So I would say only go this way if you feel fit enough!

I saw some people walking past with just a can of Red Bull – I thought they were absolutely mad doing it, especially that it was several hours of hard trekking in the summer heat of Cape Town!

For me it was a pretty big challenge, especially after the long walk the previous day and the two other trails during the week! It was scorching hot and climbing up the steep hill was very difficult so I just took it easy and walked nice and slow.

I was not in a big rush anyway and I wanted to enjoy the scenery, the bird songs and other wildlife. I even ended up seeing an animal with a twisted antler, but I don’t have a clue what they call it.

By the time I got up to the top it was past 2PM and there was not a single cloud anywhere in sight! I really enjoyed the heat and I was glad I had applied my suntan lotion!

Lunch On Top of Cape Town

After the MacLears Beacon mountaintop it was another 50 minutes walking to the cable car. Instead of walking there directly I trekked along the other side of the hill to take some nice photos of Cape Town. Following that I walked to the cable car where there is a restaurant – by that point I was so hungry my eyes nearly popped out!

Unfortunately the restaurant was pretty terrible, especially the meat! I should have just got the vegetables and maybe a cake or something as the meat was just awfully chewy and I could hardly actually cut it! And it came in at nearly 250 rands, which was a complete rip off. Normally that is how much we paid for two in any other place.

The biggest task of the day for me was still ahead of me: I had to decide whether to walk back to the car or take the cable car down and get an uber back to the botanical gardens in Kirstenbosch.

In the end the length of the queue at the cable car put me off it completely so I ended up walking all the way back to the botanical gardens. Fortunately most people walk only one way so on the way back it was far quieter. I only started meeting people at the top of Skeleton Gorge, so I imagine they were the slow ones going down and I caught up with them.

Driving to Llandudno Beach

I still had a bit of time before sunset so I made my way to Llandudno, a rich beach town about 30 minutes from Kirstenbosch. It has two white sandy beaches and the sunset is truly spectacular from here.

When I got there I could still catch a glimpse of the sun and then I headed back to the hotel for the night. On the way to the hotel I wanted to stop off at the Kosher Spar again but it was already closed by then – I found it a bit strange that most supermarkets close around sunset.

The Wasteful Supermarket

Instead of the Spar I went to the nearby Woolworths Food Store and it was almost closing time there too. What really shocked me was the amount of food they were preparing to write off as past the “best before” date!

They had crates and crates full of perfectly good food and four people had no other job but to scan them in and pack them away for a charity. At least they give the food away instead of throwing it in the trash like they do in most of Europe, but still it made me a bit angry seeing all that food go to waste.

Obviously the store manager is doing a terrible job at forecasting how much food will be needed in store. And, why can’t they mark the food down and sell it cheaper when it gets closer to the sell-by date? I thought it was completely bonkers.

There were two other males in store with a trolley each, going around the shelves picking off food that just reached the “best before” date, which in fact is a completely pointless date.

Most of the fruits and vegetables they were throwing out were in perfectly good shape and many of the other perishables would have easily lasted another week. 

And this is happening in a country where 25% of people are jobless, millions live under the poverty line and starve every day!?

Driving To See The Penguins

By the time I got back to the hotel I was completely exhausted so I had a quick shower and went to bed. The next morning I wanted to drive down to Cape Point but first I stopped at Boulders National Park in Simon’s Town on the way. Boulders National Park is where you can check out the penguins for 75 rand.

I did not want to spend any more money on national park fees, so I walked along the beach a little more and managed to see the penguins from there for free. There is actually a boardwalk taking you to the local beach, where you can see some penguins having a good time.

I carried on driving to Cape Point which is another 25-30 minutes away from Simon’s Town. The problem is there was a huge queue to get in to the Cape Point National Park and a fee of 145 rand to pay.

Again, I decided I had enough of national parks charging various fees and I did not want to waste too much time on waiting there either. I needed to get out of Cape Town that night and start making my way back up to Johannesburg. So instead I drove to nearby Scarborough Beach, which is about 15 minutes away by car.

It was a stunning white sandy beach with some rocky sections and stunning vistas over the bay and the southern coast. For me this was the southernmost point I reached in Africa, but not the planet! I once visited New South Wales in Australia and I think I was a bit further south there when I visited a beach near Sydney.

By this time it was around 130PM so I put my hotel’s address in the GPS and started driving back. Thanks to the heavy traffic it took about half an hour longer to get back than usual, but the views were pretty amazing rolling down the hills as we approached Cape Town.

I quickly packed up my stuff, waited for my friend to arrive from the conference and we checked out at 5pm, heading up toward Leeu Gamka, a small town of South Africa’s wild frontiers past.

Driving to Leeu Gamka from Cape Town

The Boers founded Leeu Gamka back a couple of hundred years ago as they were making their way up north from Cape Town. They herded their cattle along this way and since there was a river here they decided to settle here. Later the railways opened up this region even further as the line connected Cape Town and Kimberly, the diamond mining town in South Africa.

Nowadays it can only be described as a small town along N1, where there is a school, a church, a small cemetery as well as a Shell Ultra City.

Accommodation options are rather scarce and we found only one motel on Booking.com called the Leeu Gamka Guesthouse B&B.

The hosts were Nico and his girlfriend Antsie, two Afrikaners that provided a super warm welcome. The drive here took about 4.5 hours but we stopped to eat at the Ultra City and a couple of other places so we ended up checking in past 10PM.

The guesthouse has a bar on site so we had a drink with the owners who told us about the history of the place and gave some instructions for things to do the next morning. They told us about three war heroes from the Anglo-Boer war, who are buried just outside the city limits.

You can see their photos below. One of them was Sergeant P. Fallon, who was shot by accident at Luttig in 1901 and the other two were J. Schultz and J Lynn, died in fighting during the Battle of Belmont in 1899.

Read: My full review of the Leeu Gamka Guesthouse B&B

My original plan was to sleep at Colesberg again on Saturday night but we made such good progress driving that instead I decided to carry on going until Ficksburg, which was just before the Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

The drive to Ficksburg from Leeu Gamka takes 9.5 hours, so I would not recommend to beginner drivers, instead you can just stay in Colesberg or Bloemfontein if you are not keen on driving this long.

Drivings to Ficksburg from Leeu Gamka

But if you decide to drive, the vistas will definitely compensate for the effort: the rolling rugged hills, luscious green hills and rivers were so pretty – I have never seen anything like that before. I slightly resembled the Scottish Highlands, but knowing that we were driving just north of the Lesotho border made it feel a lot more special.

The only thing that took me by surprise is that Google Maps messed up again and for a 90 kilometer section is took us down a dirty road, which was slightly concerning as it was just after a massive storm, so there were plenty of puddles to contend with.

In the end we arrived in Ficksburg just before 8PM, in time to have dinner at the restaurant at the Imperani Guest House, just two blocks away from the Green Acorn Guesthouse where we stayed.

I had their special, which was oxtail stew with rice, green beans and pumpkin sides. It was so delicious, like my grandmother’s pumpkins, I honestly have not tasted anything like that in at least two decades!

Staying at the Green Acorn Guest House

We booked the Green Acorn Guesthouse on Booking.com with our Genius discount at 684 rand for the night which I thought was quite a good deal especially that it included breakfast. The breakfast was super delicious and made fresh to order, including beef sausages, eggs and some other vegetables.

As we were there chatting away one guest overheard that I was Hungarian and so she told me she was the grandchild of Hungarian immigrants who came over to Ficksburg from Kormend in 1949.

It was so fascinating to meet someone like that – turns out her granny died just two years ago and she did not know she and her entire family could claim Hungarian citizenship, which she will investigate now as she only has a South African passport at the moment.

Read: My review of the Green Acorn Guesthouse in Ficksburg, South Africa

We left the Green Acorn Guesthouse around 9AM and headed up the road to the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, which is about 1 hour 20 minutes away following the R26 road.

What The South African Road Markings Mean

Before I go any further I thought it would be a good idea to explain what the different numbers refer to in the road markings. The N roads are high quality national roads, with hard shoulders and lanes to overtake slow traffic. The speed limit is 120 km/hour on these so you can make good progress.

The R roads are regional roads and the limit tends to be between 100-120 km/hour. These are also good quality roads with good road markings and signage along the way. Then you have the S roads which can be paved on unpaved as I learned on the drive to Ficksburg.

The limit on these is between 60-80 km/hour and they are also good roads but can be riddled with potholes so it is best to drive carefully on them.

The South African roads were very good quality in general and I made really good progress on most of them, especially at night when the traffic was less busy.

Some sections of the N roads have been turned into motorways and these function as toll roads, so my advice would be to take cash with you wherever you go and hide the toll road transponder if you don’t want it to be charged by accident.

Also, if you use a transponder provided by the rental company you might find that they will charge an administration fee every time you cross a toll station, which can all add up. Instead just pay by cash and you can forget about the rest afterward.

Visiting The Golden Gate Highlands National Park

The Golden Gate Highlands National Park is a stunning region with rugged mountains and Scottish Highland scenery, dotted with sandstone cliffs and overhangs. The region was the home for the Khoisan people who were cave dwellers, leaving many paintings behind from millennia ago.

These people were driven away by the colonizing settlers, especially the Voortrekkers. According to the Sanparks website, many Voortrekkers trekked through this land when it was still savage and raw. I really enjoyed walking around here as it was a sunny day with some cooling breeze.

The entrance fee was a bit hefty at 192 rands per person but I wanted to see the place so I paid up. The shorter trails all start at the ticket office, and we climbed up to the Mushroom rock, which took a little more than an hour and a half to complete.

The views were pretty spectacular from the top and standing under the cliffs I could imagine what it might have been like taking a break there as a hunter gatherer or as a Vortrekker, seeing these monumental rocks for the first time.

Unfortunately soon it was time to leave and head to the airport, but not before we stopped at the vulture look-out point. It is a pity but we arrived there just after the birds had lunch so they were hiding away somewhere digesting the food.

It was a bit raw to see the two dead animals placed there as feed for the birds, but I guess that’s what it involves to protect these dying species.

From the vulture lookout I put the pedal to the metal and started driving up towards Tambo airport but as I was so exhausted I started dozing off! So instead of having an accident I pulled over and we both had a short snooze before moving on to drive another three hours on the N3 towards Johannesburg. 

Fortunately I returned the car without a scratch we caught the flight back to London on time, bringing this South African adventure to a happy ending!