Brand South Africa Blog

More from the banks of the Orange River. This is a truly wonderful place. But windy that day, which interfered with the audio. Our host was Johan De Waal of Richtersveld Tours. Pictures of where he took us, and who we met, follow.

Also shower with a view.

Rudy Maxa is one of America’s top travel journalists. Today he was on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, a popular call-in show on Washington’s WAMU radio station. He is just back from South Africa, where he was shooting two half-hour segments for Rudy Maxa’s World, to be broadcast next year on PBS, the public television network. Click below to hear him talk about his trip and how he thinks he is going to end up making three shows instead of two because the wealth of the material. There was one problem. He and his crew, not (by his own admission) thinking straight after a long flight, got caught in an ATM scam. That didn’t alter their view of the country one bit: “The fact that I’m telling you all of us would go back in a heartbeat tells you what a gorgeous country that is.”

 

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Associated Press writer Claire Nullis heads from Cape Town to the Port Elizabeth the back way on a drive she finds evocative of the old Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles. “It winds through scenic spa towns, vineyards and fruit farms, breathtaking mountains and floral feasts—not to mention the self-proclaimed Ostrich Capital of the World.”

Paul Van Roekel met this ostrich while cycling round South Africa. For the rest of his excellent pictures from the trip, go here.

A recommendation.

Whatever you think of his views on other issues, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute is right about South Africa in this item as he flees Washington for the tranquility of a sunset in the bush and reminds himself to shake the scorpions from his sneakers in the morning.  Welcome back, Mike.  But aren’t they rhinos with an “h”?

Based on a survey of 30 000 readers, Conde Nast Traveller has named Bushman’s Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Retreat the best resort in Africa. The Twelve Apostles Gotel and Spa was named the number two hotel.

Yet more options for seeing SA by luxury train.