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…)

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 Kathryn Fourie

This week has been one of epic proportions for me. I packed my entire life into my car and left Durban on Monday. Life is funny that way, get pelted with lemons and instead of making lemonade you pick up those lemons and throw them back even harder at that devious little gnome called fate who tossed them at you in the first place. In this case, I hit him square between the eyes with a solid yellow fruit, and when he fell off the branch who did I see standing behind the tree? Why, obviously, who else but Kingsley Holgate. (more…)

By Dianne Bayley

I am of an age now where it suddenly occurs to me that other people are younger than me. No, really - it’s a problem feeling like you’re still 18 and then realising your friend’s kids are older than that. (more…)

By Jacqui Thompson
With a groan I slap off the alarm clock. What am I doing? It’s a Sunday morning and I should be sleeping – late. Do I really want to do this? It’s already light outside and the air vibrates with bird calls. Obviously they are happy to be up at this hour. A quick shot of coffee enables me to grudgingly admire the pearly pink early morning light. I head off to the rendezvous point to meet Bill Harrop and his team of expert balloonists. (more…)

by Jacqui Thompson

I’m in Tsitsikamma.

Even the name of the area compliments the adventure activity; tsipping, sorry, zipping through the tree tops of an ancient forest on a lacy web of cables. (more…)

By Bridget Hilton-Barber

Sabie is the undisputed Outdoor Adventure Capital of the Lowveld. There’s an amazing choice of things to do. You can experience the adrenaline rush of the world’s highest cable gorge swing with a 68-metre freefall. Yihaa! You can go rock climbing, abseiling, spelunking, river-rafting, bungee jumping, quad biking, canoeing or tubing. (more…)