Blue Sky Cafe

 So, you want to come to South Africa, but NOT to watch football.

And everybody tells you – you’ve got 2 choices – Kruger Park or Cape Town.

WRONG.

Kruger, for all its magnificent wildness, also comes with the niggling fear of mosquitos and malaria.

And Cape Town, for all its sophistication and beauty is, well, like staying in Europe.

So what do you do now, cancel the African trip and go to Malaga?

No.  There’s a great solution for adventurous travellers .

Go to Cape Town. See the City. Do a Wine Route. Do another wine route, this time with a different dedicated driver. Then, expand your horizons. Route 62 takes you through the southern end of the Karroo, ending up in Oudsthoorn and George/Knysna.

Now here is the secret.  You are at the beginning of the Garden Route, and the start of the Eastern Cape Province – where the Real Africa begins. If you take it slow, there are days of fun, beauty and learning ahead of you.  

You can leap off the highest commercial Bungee jump in the world (or preferably watch your mates doing it),  do a canopy tour, sliding 30m above the ground,  in an indigenous forest in the Tsitsikamma; take surfing lessons on the perfect waves  in Jeffreys Bay,  go on a respectful, enlightening township tour in Port Elizabeth,  all the time getting closer to your final destination – Addo.

Make sure that you’ve set aside at least 2 days for Addo, and preferably more. Home to the big 5 (in fact the Big 7 if you include the marine reserve in Algoa Bay), there are enough attractions to keep everyone interested. Home to more than 500 elephants, the Park offers some of the best elephant viewing on the planet. And, if you want to experience these magnificent animals close up, there are opportunities to ride them, or walk with and feed them. Many operations offer guided tours around the game areas, where you are guaranteed to see all the wildlife you can imagine. Or maybe, you would like to take a self-drive through the Addo Park, relaxing at a watering hole, while a herd of elephants use up all your digital camera storage space. There are places where you can get guided tours of reptiles, raptors, cheetahs and crocodiles.

Oh, and did I mention that we’ve banished all malaria carrying mosquitos?

And while you are there, why not stay at Rosedale Organic Farm Bed and Breakfast www.rosedalebnb.co.za, where you will be given a warm welcome, comfortable and secure lodgings, and experience our ‘can-do’ attitude.