Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa using the Road Trip mobile app

Send us Fan Mail Episode 6 of a series on the Kruger National Park Gold prospectors, illegal immigrants, and we leave Tropical Africa as we cross the Tropic of Capricorn. We explore Masorini, the Letaba area, we meet Piet Grobler, and say thank you to Eileen Orpen who to this day is still the largest donor of land to the Kruger Park. Want to travel to the Kruger National Park? Touch Africa Safaris...

Send us Fan Mail The founders of the South African Air Force, traitors and rebels, battlefields and graves, heroes and villains, churches and statues - this road encompasses them all. There's even a memorial to the animals of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. The Road Trip SA app is available for download Do you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris Support the show The Road Trip SA app is...

Send us Fan Mail This is a unique route to travel. It is special because so many elements of our history can be explored while driving this highway. It stretches from Maputo - actually Komatipoort which is the South African border - right through to the border with Botswana. You can visit San rock art, there is is an interesting link with Jan van Riebeeck, there are Voortrekker sites, you can visi...

Send us Fan Mail Our first big-group coach-tour and safari post-covid. Clients from a USA-based tour operator eventually made it to South Africa - many of them originally booked for 2020! Part 1 we covered the journey and impressions from Cape Town to St. Lucia - this episode we go through eSwatini, Kruger and get to the Victoria Falls. Some of the stories and challenges we faced being the first b...

Send us Fan Mail Our first big-group coach-tour and safari post-covid. Clients from a USA-based tour operator eventually made it to South Africa - many of them originally booked for 2020! Some of the stories and challenges we faced being the first big group - 80 pax / 2 coaches - in the post-Covid South African tourist landscape. All the spots mentioned in this podcast are listed on the Road Trip...

Send us Fan Mail Our first tour and safari post-covid. Clients from the USA wanted to see Cape Town, go shark-cage-diving in Gansbaai, and see wildlife. We put together a 9-day itinerary for them. All the spots mentioned in this podcast are listed on the Road Trip SA app. Do you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris is an inbound tour operator, and we designed as well as guided this h...

Send us Fan Mail The last piece of the N3 highway into Durban. Howick - the capture site of Nelson Mandela and home of Inkamyamba, the legendary snake of the Howick waterfall. Pietermaritzburg is steeped in Voortrekker history, and has quite a few other surprises waiting for the traveller who is prepared to spend some time exploring. All the spots mentioned in this podcast are listed on the Road T...

Send us Fan Mail The N3 of 589km connects Johannesburg and Durban - respectively South Africa's largest and third largest cities, and probably our busiest highway. Leaving the busy Witwatersrand behind you, the first town is Heidelberg - once proudly a capital city, then miles of flat maize-covered farmland. Some fascinating Anglo-Boer War history reveals itself around Balfour - "Hendsop...

Send us Fan Mail "The Battle of Ellis Park' and "The Battle of Fordsburg" - long forgotten incidents in Johannesburg - but who knows about them? Some stories of what we do to build the Road Trip SA app - and some of the fun we have doing it! Some fun stories of building the app - and just some memories of touring with groups around this great country! This is a recording of a r...

Send us Fan Mail Driving in South Africa is getting to be expensive - but you can save on diesel because garages charge different prices. The PitStops app shows you the local prices - so you save every time you fill up. Partnered with PitStops is Road Trip SA - a fun app with thousands of monuments, memorials, statues, museums and general POI's listed - to make your travelling more fun. This...

Send us Fan Mail Pietersburg / Polokwane is the largest city north of the Witwatersrand complex, and with a bit of effort you can discover some little hidden gems. A detour to the East is worthwhile - the mountains around Tzaneen, the realm of Modjadji - the "Rain Queen" - Duiwelskloof, Magoebaskloof - all names steeped in mystery - as befits the mist covered mountain peaks and their sec...

Send us Fan Mail The largest meteorite impact crater in the world lies just South of Johannesburg, the Vredefort Dome. In this episode we explore Parys on the edge of the dome, go through the surprising towns of Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark, and skirt around Johannesburg and Pretoria.  Once we cross the line of the Magaliesberg, we are on the "Springbok Flats" - a magnificently fertile...

Send us Fan Mail "Die ver verlate vlaktes" - the beautiful and evocative line from the National Anthem of South Africa describes "The far and desolate plains" stretching from the Karoo to the areas around Bloemfontein. This area abounds with the history of the Voortrekkers, broken British promises, and the ghosts of the many Anglo-Boer War concentration camps dotted throughout...

Send us Fan Mail The N1 is the second longest National Road in South Africa - stretching 1940km from Cape Town to the border with Zimbabwe at Beit Bridge. The importance of this highway as a main arterial route is highlighted by the fact that more than half the podcasts somehow intersect with the N1 somewhere. We have referenced and spoken about spots on this highway on several other podcasts - bu...

Send us Fan Mail With Durban in the rear-view mirror we head North into Zululand. Crossing the Tugela river which was the border between the colony of Natal and the Zulu Kingdom, you drive through rolling hills covered with sugarcane, and steeped in history. Zulu vs Zulu / Zulu vs Voortrekker, / Zulu vs British / British vs Boer - lots of spots, lots of history and lots of cool stories. The Road T...

Send us Fan Mail Heading out of East London on the N2 takes you towards the old homeland territory of The Transkei. The bridge over the Kei river was once a border post, and is now a small rest stop and fuel station. Years ago you would have had to show your passport - but the Transkei was reincorporated into South Africa post the 1994 elections. This is rural Africa - rolling grassy hills, dotted...

Send us Fan Mail You leave the deeply forested and mountainous areas, and head into "Frontier" or "Settler" country. Port Elizabeth saw the arrival of the 1820 settlers, and the area between there and East London has a rich history of settlers - 5000 British immigrants arrived to settle and stabilise the area - torn by 100 years of unrest and warfare. The Road Trip SA app is av...

Send us Fan Mail The struggle against Apartheid lasted many years - and there are many sites around South Africa that commemorate this part of our history. There are however a few that stand out as really worthwhile places to visit in order to understand this period of our history. In this episode we chat about those - and then we move on to some just plain interesting, different, or plain fun sit...

Send us Fan Mail Frequently asked questions: what are the top spots to see, or visit? Difficult to answer, so we have broken it down into several categories. In this episode we cover: The Top 5 Natural Wonders South Africa's Top 10 Museums The Top 5 Monuments South Africa is an incredible destination, and in these episodes we will cover the "Top Spots" according to Road Trip, and ac...

Send us Fan Mail The "Garden Route" encompasses the area between George and Port Elizabeth. It is a natural wonderland of high mountain peaks, deep forested ravines, and incredible coastal scenery. The area has a rich history of gold miners, woodcutters, British adventurers, and colourful characters. It is worth getting off the N2 and taking some time to really explore this area. The per...

Send us Fan Mail This episode covers the first part of the N2, which is South Africa's longest numbered road. The N2 is 2255km long, and stretches from Cape Town to Ermelo. It starts in Mowbray near the historic Mostert's Mill, skirts the southern end of Cape Town International and then heads over Sir Lowry's Pass into the Overberg Region. The Overberg - wheat fields, bright yellow...

Send us Fan Mail The "Panorama Route" of Mpumalanga is an essential part of any road trip to the Eastern region of South Africa. There is magnificent scenery, some fascinating history, and fantastic geology to explore.  The worlds' oldest rocks, the very earliest life-forms, gold rush towns, a multitude of waterfalls, as well as breathtaking mountain roads await you here - if you ar...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 4 of a series on the Kruger National Park The Southern section of the park is the busiest and most developed part of the park. It hosts the headquarters of the park - Skukuza - and a wide variety of picnic sites and smaller camps. It has a huge network of roads, and offers a multitude of options for a world-class wildlife experience. The Road Trip SA app is available for d...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 3 of a series on the Kruger National Park. The Central Region of the Kruger National Park is a wildlife paradise. Big camps, small camps, bush camps, and private camps - still quiet because it is away from the main tourist areas - but still developed enough to have what you need. This region has some of the most wildlife-rich areas of Kruger. All the information in this ep...

Send us Fan Mail Part 2 of a series on the Kruger National Park. The area between Mopani Camp and the Olifants River has its' own charm. The Mopani gradually changes to mixed Mopani / Bush Willow vegetation. We chat about the camps, some of the best drives, a few of the historical spots ...... and a few of the adventures and unique sightings we have had. All the information in this episode is...