Blog - Travelling to Southern Africa

Cape Town’s dining scene has taken a thrilling new turn—quite literally. Introducing Bus Cuisine, an innovative, high-end dining experience that combines South Africa’s rich culinary heritage with breathtaking, ever-changing views of the iconic Atlantic Seaboard.

A dining experience like no other

Marked 100 years on the 25th October 2023 since the first tourists entered Kruger National Park by rail. The rich history of Kruger Shalati began in 1886 with the discovery of gold in the Selati River basin, drawing a surge of fortune seekers to the Murchison Range, southeast of Tzaneen.

In 1893, plans were approved for a railway line, which was completed by 1894, connecting Komatipoort to Newington (now in the Sabie Sand Game Reserve)

Namibia, a land of stark contrasts and breathtaking landscapes, hosts one of nature's most mesmerizing wonders – the Etosha Pan. Spread across 4,800 square kilometers in the heart of the Etosha National Park, this vast salt pan is a testament to the raw beauty and diversity of Namibia's natural treasures.

Etosha Pan, translated as the "Great White Place,"

Namibia is a land known for its unspoiled desert beauty, and no where is this more apparent than at Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei is a brilliant white salt and clay pan nestled in the midst of the huge red sand dunes of the Namib-Naukluft National Park in central Namibia.

The area’s over 300-meter-high dunes are among the tallest in the world

The Okavango Delta emanates in the highlands of Angola, where the mighty Okavango River begins as just a trickle before gradually becoming the third largest river in southern Africa that flows for over 1,600km to reach inland Botswana.

Around 60,000 years ago, the river deposited its water into Lake Makgadikgadi, a paleolake believed to have covered over 100,000km² of Botswana’s interior.

South Africa has nine World Heritage Sites proclaimed by UNESCO, made up of 5 cultural, 3 natural and one mixed (cultural and natural) heritage sites.

The nine Heritage Sites are:

1.Robben Island 1999 (Western Cape). Most famous for the incarceration of political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected President of South Africa, who was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in jail.

The Blyde River Canyon with its subtropical climate high rainfall and lush foliage makes the Blyde River Canyon the largest “Green” canyon in the world.

The Blyde River Canyon is the third deepest canyon in the work after the Grand Canyon (USA) and the Fish River Canyon (Namibia) and both these are desert Canyons.

The Blyde River Canyon has some of the highest and precipitous cliffs of any canyon on earth and is 26km long.

The Victoria Falls is one of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world. The Local people call it "Mosi-oa-Tunya", the smoke that thunders.

Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Statistically speaking, it is the largest waterfall in the world. This recognition comes from combining the height and width together to create the largest single sheet of flowing water in the world.

For a fairly small country compared to other countries around the World. South Africais the 24th-largest country in the world. It is about the same size as Colombia, twice the size of France, three times as big as Japan, four times the size of Italy and five times the size of the United Kingdom.

But we have a lot to be proud of. Here are some facts to make you want to come and experience magic South Africa.

South Africa occupies the most southern tip of Africa with its long coastline stretching more than 3 000 km from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then north to the border of subtropical Mozambique on the Indian Ocean.

South Africa has more than 290 conservation parks. It is home to almost 300 mammal species, about 860 bird species and 8 000 plant species.

For 2019, Statistics South Africa estimates the mid-year population at 58,78 million. Approximately 51,2% (approximately 30 million) of the population is female. The black African population is in the majority (47,4 million) and constitutes approximately 81% of the total South African population.

The white population is estimated at 4,7 million, the coloured population at 5,2 million and the Indian/Asian population at 1,5 million.

To celebrate Womens Day in South Africa on the 9th August these amazing women need to be praized.

The MAMBAS describe themselves as sisters, mothers, future mothers-in-law, and teachers. Their mission is to "make the Greater Kruger National Park the most difficult, undesirable and risky area to poach," and to "develop a proud, sympathetic and patriotic community on their borders, making the people allies to the park.

South Africa has many products that is synonymous with the country. However, one such product is growing in popularity on the international front: biltong.

Biltong is dried cured meat and for many outsiders considered the same as what the American call "jerky". It’s not the same! In the world of cured meats, biltong is purely South Africa and processed in a completely different fashion and can be made from the wide array of local game animals and not just beef.

Mandela Day has been celebrated each year on July 18th, Nelson Mandela’s birthday.

This day was officially declared as Mandela Day by the United Nations, as a global call to action for people to celebrate the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world. On this day you are invited to do 67 minutes of service, a movement in which one is asked to donate one minute for every year he spent as a public figure, as a gesture of solidarity to a shared humanity.

Although experts disagree on which products are safe, they all agree that we should be slathering on some type of product when you can’t avoid the sun.

But it gets tricky when it comes to figuring out which to pick. With ever more products available, and with contradictory reports on safety, navigating the sunscreen aisle can be tricky.