About South Africa
Cape Town
Johannesburg
Ndebele Tribe
Cultural Tourism
Zulu Cultural Villages
The Magic Drums of Venda
Owl House
Townships
Transfrontier Park
Wetlands
South Africa is a land of colourful people and diverse cultures. Let the journey begin…

Archaeological

The Limpopo Province is home to Mapungubwe, one of the richest archaeological sites in Africa. It was probably a Shona capital, inhabited between 1200 and 1650, trading in gold and ivory with the Islamic areas of the East African coast, India and China's Song Dynasty.

Battlefields

More specifically, those relating to the Anglo-Boer War at the turn of the 20th Century. There's a certain poignancy to wandering about the fields of engagement in places like Kimberley's Magersfontein (Northern Cape), Weenen (KwaZulu Natal), the concentration camp cemetery near Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg) and Clarens' Surrender Hill (Free State).

Cape Dutch

The pitched thatched roof, the white-washed walls, the fancy gables and the shuttered windows - you'll recognise the classic Cape Dutch building style all over the Western Cape province. In homes and, most famously, the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, the tradition lives on.

Diamonds

Just look along the Orange River of South Africa, and you'll see the Diamond Route. From the Diamond Rush era of Kimberley to present-day claims in the Northern Cape to the madcap Atlantic Ocean diving operations off Port Nolloth and Hondeklip Bay, the search for the 'forever stones' has never really ceased.

Earth Sciences

Places like Barberton (Mpumalanga) and the Mapungubwe area house rock formations date back billions of years. The Magaliesberg (Gauteng and Northwest Province) is said to be the oldest mountain range on earth. As you wander through the Golden Gate Highlands National Park (Free State), you encounter sandstone cliffs volcanically 'baked' into position over millions of years.

Festivals

South Africa's many festivals are a grand window into the many talents of the Rainbow Nation. Arts festivals, Afrikaans music and performance festivals, national choral festivals, Garden Route festivals, cherry festivals, rock and folk music festivals and even a whale festival happen all over the country at various times of the year.

Gold

Gold Reef City in Johannesburg is an interesting way to trip back in time for a day, to an era when gold fever was rife in South Africa.

Handcrafts

All provinces of South Africa have specific handcraft routes: tribal designs, Afro-French wirework, wood carvings, world-class pottery and bronze casting, stained glass, basket weaving, clay and stone sculpting, paper from elephant dung and even artistic ornaments made from waste.

Indigenous People

The world's biggest outdoor art exhibition lies deep in the Cederberg Mountains (Western Cape), the site of hundreds of San Bushman cave paintings.

Jazz Routes

Afro-jazz, trad-jazz, blues-jazz, scat music and experimental sounds are to be found in the townships, late night inner-city clubs and suburban malls of South Africa.

Karoo

This is a road warrior's delight: sweeping landscapes which look harsh to the eye at midday but give back golden light in the evenings, little towns where time is on hold, donkey carts in the middle of nowhere and old settlements where front doors remain unlocked - these are all part of the charm of this stark, arid land.

Literature

Thomas Pringle, Rider Haggard and Olive Schreiner , Wilbur Smith, JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Athol Fugard, Credo Mutwa, Sol Plaatjie, NP van Wyk Louw, Andre Brink, Etienne Leroux, C.Louis Leipoldt, Can Themba, Breyten Breytenbach, Alan Paton, Eugene Marais and Herman Charles Bosman all wrote from these shores.

Mission Stations

At the birth of the 18th Century, missionaries began streaming to South Africa. They came from all over Europe: the Moravians, the Berlin Missionary Society, the Rhenish and many others. Mamre, Elim, Wupperthal and Ebenhaezer in the Western Cape are some of the 'Mission Route' stopovers of great interest.

New Age

Rustler's Valley in the Eastern Free State has an avid international and local following for its music festivals and 'spiritually-based' way of life. Modern-day hippies just love the place.

Outsider Art

Helen Martins' Owl House in Nieu Bethesda (Eastern Cape) is the hallmark of South African outsider art. In places like Lydenburg (Mpumalanga) you'll come also across artworks of massive scale that were built purely for the joy of making the road traveller pull over and make enquiries.

Palaeontology

The Cradle of Humankind outside Johannesburg is the richest hominid site in the world. It is home to Mrs Ples and Little Foot. From the Golden Gate Park (Free State), dinosaurs once walked all the way to Russia for the season. Their eggs are still being found - fossilised but intact.

Queen and Country

Take a stroll with one of the world-class battlefield storytellers up Islandlwana Mountain near Dundee in KwaZulu Natal and you'll come down a different person.

Railways

Steam travel is alive and well in South Africa. You'll find old locos in operation all over the country, taking tourists on scenic routes along the Cape coast and through the Free State.

Struggle Tourism

Soweto's Heritage Trail is a stark reminder of the events of June 16, 1976. It has just been revamped, and includes the Hector Petersen Square dedicated to the first student to die in the student uprising.

Township Tours

Soweto is the landmark, the place the world wants to visit. Its tours are well documented, but South Africa has other excellent township trails, like Intabazwe outside Harrismith in the Eastern Free State.

Utterly Spiritual

The Fertility Cave near Clarens in the Eastern Free State has been a place of worship for more than 800 years; every Easter more than three million worshippers gather at Moria Mountain in Limpopo Province.

Villages

Cultural villages where you can experience the history and modern-day habits of various tribes have blossomed throughout South Africa. The Basotho Cultural Village in Qwa Qwa (Eastern Free State) offers excellent music; Shakaland in KwaZulu Natal is colourful; the Shangana Cultural Village in Mpumalanga is a craft and dining trip of note; Lesedi Cultural Village outside Johannesburg and the South Ndebele Open-Air Museum outside Middelburg (Mpumalanga) are all worth the time.

Winelands

The Western Cape is awash with winelands. South African wine is very highly rated, and the experience of visiting these superb estates is special. Their settings and architecture and basic welcoming style make the various Cape wine routes one of the country's must-do's for the first-time visitor.

Yellow is the colour

Namaqualand in the Northern Cape comes alive every Spring season. From the desert come fields of daisies, so bright they hurt the eye.

Zulu

They fought in the Roman way. They conquered all tribes in their path. Their kings were feted in London high society. Very little harks of South Africa more than pure mention of the word: Zulu…

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