Driving to Cape Town

Jeff deGraffenried is a friend from Birmingham. He has just spent 6 months in Nairobi, Kenya, doing research for his dissertation. He spent a few days here in late September/early October on his way to Nairobi, and is spending 2 weeks on his way back to the U.S.

I have been wanting to drive down to Cape Town so that I can see more of this beautiful country. But it’s a very long drive (15 hours) and not so safe to do alone. So, I took the opportunity of Jeff being here to make the trip.

In a very early post, I mentioned that South Africa is not quite twice as big as Texas. So, for those of you who may have joined me late – or for those who didn’t remember! – keep in mind that this is a big country!

I’m going to write a few short posts about our trip. Sadly, I forgot to bring a camera! But Jeff had his. With hope, he will share them with me and I’ll upload some later.

We left on Thursday morning, April 5th. On the trip down, we took the N1 the whole way, stopping overnight in Philippolis (in the Free State province). It was about 7 hours the first day and 8 the second. We arrived in Cape Town before dark on Friday.

We took a different route on the way back. We went east along a coastal road from Cape Town as far as Hermanus (known for whale watching), then cut inland and north to pick up the N2 going east. At Riversdale, we again went north to pick up scenic Route 62, which we followed east until we came to the N12. Then we were basically on the N12 (through Kimberley) all the way back to Johannesburg. We stopped overnight on Tuesday, April 10th, outside of a tiny Karoo town called Britstown, and then drove the rest of the way on Wednesday.

Having spent six months in Kenya, Jeff was constantly amazed at the state of the roads in South Africa. And they really are quite good. Even the small, backcountry roads are decently tarred and signposted.

See http://www.sa-venues.com/maps/south-africa-national-roads.htm for a map of the major roads.

More details to come!