Fishing boats in the picturesque West Coast town of Paternoster (Image: South African Tourism)

For those who want to see small towns and real people across South Africa, get off the toll roads and delve into the wonders of those spiderweb roads on your map.

South Africa’s heartland offers the real gems of this country: The small towns and villages just off the beaten track that take you back to a quieter, more peaceful time and offer spectacular scenery to view and people to meet.

Artists and other “creatives” flourish in the peace and quiet and beauty of these areas.

They also give travellers the opportunity to meet colourful local characters who still have the time to talk and settings that can leave you breathless.

WESTERN CAPE

Knysna

On the Garden Route in the Western Cape, the coastal town of Knysna offers incredible vistas of the lagoon and the ocean and a famous forest that shelters elusive elephants.

At the Knysna Heads, the ocean crashes through a narrow rocky outcrop to feed the waters of the lagoon - a nursery for all manner of sea life, such as the tiny Knysna seahorse. Knysna is rich in art galleries, fabulous coffee shops and excellent restaurants. Not to be missed is Knysna’s oyster festival, which celebrates the exotic food cultivated in the lagoon and harvested in the wild. (more…)

It’s a beautiful series of “villages” on the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa, starting with the Canals, the Village, Santarene and Port St Francis. It spends much of the year in serene peace and quiet – but the December holidays bring tens of thousands to its sunny shores.

Some say that nowhere in the whole of South Africa will you find a more pleasant sight than St Francis Bay. Leighton Hulett (of the Hulett Sugar family) started the town from a fishing camp of thatched rondavels, and friends who came to stay were so enchanted with the place that they asked to buy a piece of ground to build a place of their own.

The Canals and the Village feature mostly white, thatched homes, Santarene goes Mediterranean, with Spanish and Tuscan style homes. Port St Francis is the most recent property development and features marina flats and townhouses, as well as restaurants, shops and hotels nearby.

Now, one of the things St Francis is famous for is its surfing. While Cape St Francis, a few kilometres away, seems to offer “rougher” rides and bigger waves, only St Francis Bay can claim the joy of Bruce’s Beauties.

Back in the 1960s, film maker Bruce Brown was searching the world for the perfect wave. He found it at St Francis Bay, and named the waves “Bruce’s Beauties”.

It is said that Bruce Brown’s classic surf cult movie, The Endless Summer, launched many thousands of surfboards. The classic 1964 surf sensation opened up a whole new realm of surfing experience, and put surfing at St Francis on the map.

Situated midway between Port Elizabeth and Knysna, the picturesque holiday village of St Francis Bay lies nestled among green clad dunes that line the beautiful Bay of St Francis. Dolphins and whales play along the shoreline while the sounds of gulls echo lazily overhead.

The Kromme River, navigable for about 10 km, twists and winds its tranquil way down to a magnificent marina where the gracious white walled thatched homes are reflected in the quiet water of the canals.

With plenty of homes to rent within walking distance of the water, it’s a surfer’s paradise. Surf experts say it’s a hot, hollow wave that can be here today and gone tomorrow, requiring the right weather systems to pass through.

Bruce’s Beauties are listed as an A1, top class break - it cranks, it’s hollow, fast and - when big - pretty dangerous if you wipe in front of the rocks. While word of mouth sees surfers from everywhere rushing to Harbour Road for Bruce’s breaks, the area remains less crowded than Jeffrey’s Bay, a short drive from St Francis.

The world-famous Jeffrey’s Bay – just “J-Bay” to locals - offers surfing and beaches that excite travellers, surfers and groupies from around the globe. For those whose blood runs salty and who feel most at home on a board, Jeffrey’s is a “must-surf before you die” spot.

The Billabong Pro competition is held here in July every year, attracting both competitors and surf fanatics from as far afield as Australia and Hawaii. The world’s best surfers work their magic on the universally renowned waves during the R2.3 million (US $320 000) Billabong Pro, the fifth of 11 events on the 2008 ASP World Tour.

Supertubes, the venue for this year’s competition - the 24th edition of what has become Africa’s most prestigious and lucrative surfing tournament - is unanimously acknowledged as one of the planet’s top 10 high performance surf breaks.

If you’re in the Eastern Cape, stop by St Francis – and don’t forget to pop in at Cape St Francis, for the most exquisite sunsets on the beautiful, ragged rocks.

By Dianne Bayley

Rugged, intense and spectacular in its beauty,  it’s adventure heaven. And whatever your preference, South Africa has an activity to keep that adrenalin pumping. (more…)

By Nqobani Khumalo

Last year for my birthday I jumped off the Orlando Towers in Johannesburg’s most famous township, Soweto.  My birthday happened to fall very conveniently on a Saturday so I got a good friend of mine to accompany me. She had brought along a French colleague whom she was tasked with entertaining for the duration of his stay and he was over the moon that he was going to drive in an actual township! In Soweto, of all the famous townships in South Africa!
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By Florence Modikwe

I know I am late, but I also need to say this: HAPPY SPRING everyone!! (more…)

Jacqui Thompson

It was only lack of time that stopped us from waffling home via Karoo towns with intriguing names like Hondefontein, Tontelbos, Commissioner’s Pan, Pampoenpoort and Vlieëkraal. We were en route, or rather off route, from Cape Town to Johannesburg on our two motorbikes, and avoiding the madness of the N1.

We left tiny Fraserburg and set off into the vast space of the Great Karoo. Massive farms demarcated only by skinny barbed-wire fences and the occasional plaas name boards were home to dusty sheep nibbling on the sweet-scented Karoo bushes.

Again the semi desert vistas were spectacular and traveling the slow winding 181kms between Fraserburg and Loxton to the north east we passed only two vehicles. Both bakkies of course. The Karoo is not for sissies, but for real cars and real people. (more…)

By Kathryn Fourie

You know how in my previous blog I was talking about how awesome public transport is in Korea? Well, I did kind of forget to mention how utterly terrifying it is to travel by bus. I mean, I know we all talk about Joburg vs. Cape Town vs. Durban (actually Durban drivers are so chilled you barely know they’re driving), mad taxi drivers and what not…but Koreans are on another level. (more…)

By Kathryn Fourie

I have been in Korea for 32 days now. I can’t believe a month has whizzed by in flurry of lectures, accents, people, nations, bizarre and delicious food, so-so beer and extremely limited sleep. It all feels like a bit of a dream really. Korea is an incredible place, and coming here with no expectations (not for lack of trying, it’s just really hard to find out much about what its really like here!) was the best thing I could have possibly done, because I’ve allowed myself to be swept along with every new experience by the seat of my unwashed jean pant. (more…)

Abseiling next to the 60m Elands Falls at Waterval Boven, Mpumalanga (Image: Roc n Rope Adventures)

It’s only recently that abseiling has become an activity in its own right. Really it’s just the method climbers use to get off mountains - or special services forces use to descend deserted buildings into enemy territory in adventure movies - but it’s fun, and so it’s become available as an activity in its own right.

You can hang out high over Cape Town abseiling from Table Mountain. The “long drop” is 112m high - and about a kilometre above the city - making it the world’s highest commercial abseil.

There are three abseil routes on the spectacular western head at Knysna, further up the Cape east coast - including a really high, very exposed site hanging right out over the crashing waves.

Not far from Knysna, and also with fantastic views, you can do a combination abseiling and kloofing (canyoning) trip down the Storms River Gorge, which involves a 100m abseil into the gorge, a tubing trip down the river, a short walk out of the gorge and then a cycle back to the village.

You can abseil down buildings in Durban and Johannesburg, or even rapp jump if you like. Rapp jumping is abseiling with the ropes attached to your back instead of your front, so you go down facing the ground - and at a run, if you’re in a hurry.

To find out more about the above abseils, and a whole lot of others around the country, check out our list of abseil operators - most of whom offer plenty of adventure activities besides. (more…)

Ever since the German climbing magazine Rotpunkt published an article about Waterval Boven in 1993, foreign visitors have been flocking to this Mpumalanga town for some of the best sport climbing in the universe. The Restaurant (officially known as “The Restaurant at the end of the Universe crags”) offers more than 500 routes, and there are still numerous untouched rock faces in the area. (more…)

OK, not many places don’t have sky, but South Africa has lots of it - and very good quality it is, too …

In the hot interior we see thermals like you wouldn’t believe, and many paraglider and hang glider pilots have made record-breaking distance flights, particularly in the Northern Cape. (more…)

There’s no better way to experience South Africa’s wild places than with your boots on and your feet on the ground, one in front of the other, taking in the country’s fantastically scenic hiking trails. Here are some highlights.

The Otter Trail along the Tsitsikamma coast is probably the most popular hike in the country. Lush forests, rugged shorelines, mountain streams and waterfalls and fragrant fynbos make this a special one. It’s strenuous, with lots of ups and downs, but the distances aren’t too great. (more…)