South Africa is our favourite destination for both wildlife viewing and for natural landscapes. We had lived in Durban, South Africa from 2008 to 2012. During those five year we covered all major national parks, and visited all major cities.
Over the past few years, we have been travelling back to South
Africa mainly to watch wildlife. This year (2025) we travelled South Africa extensively, covering Durban, Graskop, Kruger NP, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, Namaqua National Park and finally the whale capital of the world, Hermanus.
In Durban, we love to stay on the Umhlanga promenade, with magnificent views of the Indian Ocean. Winter months in Durban are dry and the temperature perfect. We saw lots of Dolphins swimming just near the shore. The Umgeni Bird Park is a nice place to visit, with some exotic birds and bird shows. At the north end of Umhlanga promenade, there is a lovely forest walk, with lovely bird watching experience.
From Durban, we did a 2 days drop to St. Lucia estuary and Hluehlue Umflozi national park. Both these places have a lots of birdlife / animals. Hluehlue is especially famous for a lot of Rhino sightings.
From Durban, we flew to Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit). We hired a car and first drove to Graskop. There are some very nice places to see around Graskop, including Blyde River Canyon, Gods Window and if one is interested in adventure sports, there is a “big swing” at Graskop Gorge Lift Co.
From Graskop we drove to Kruger NP. We stayed at Olifant rest camp for 3 days, and then at Lower Sabie Rest camp for another 3 days. We love both Olifant and Lower Sabie camps, since the views of the river with its wildlife from both the camp are fantastic.
Kruger NP is extremely well organised with good roads, and very nice camps with high quality restaurants.
From Kruger NP, we drove to Nelspruit Airport and flew to Cape Town. We hired a car at Cape Town Airport. Key places we visited in and around Cape Town are Cape of Good Hope, Chapman’s Peak, Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden and Boulder’s beach to see the Penguins’ colony.
From Cape Town, we drop to Namaqua National Park. We stayed 3 nights at Hondeklip Bay, which is about an hour and a half drive to Skilpad National Park (maximum concentration of wildflowers). Wildflowers typically bloom towards the end of August and early September. We enjoyed seeing wildflowers on route to Hondeklip Bay and also at the Skilpad NP.
After enjoying the wildflowers views, we drove to Hermanus via Cape Town. Hermanus is the whale capital of the world, with great views of the whales from the shore itself. There is a 3 kms cliff walk, which starts from Gearing’s point and ends at Grotto Beach. There are multiple places one can stop and sit on benches and watch for whales. We loved to sit at Siever’s Punt, with quite amazing sightings of whales every day. We also took a boat ride and watched whales breaching up close.
We love visiting South Africa, especially during July / August, since the weather is quite awesome.
My Travels - by Sivamani 