South Africa

We first went to SA in 1999 and then went again most years until 2014: partly because SWMBO had relatives there - descendants of a great-uncle who emigrated for the sake of his health and then begat five daughters(!); partly because her father was deputy High Commissioner in the 1950s and she spent a lot of her childhood there.

We based ourselves in Cape Town but travelled about quite a lot. We loved the Garden Route - along the south coast - and although we've never been to the Kruger National Park we saw all the 'big 5' animals at various safari parks in the Cape, notably Shamwari and Addo.

Relatives now sadly died but we'll probably go again at some point. We never felt threatened, but the crime rate is horrendous and you have to be judicious about where you go. The government seems to be even more incompetent than before, not helped by successive droughts, and there have been a lot of power cuts recently.

Best times to go are Oct/Nov and March/April, but the Cape is fairly temperate. Much hotter inland.

Daughter is going on an organised trip in July/August. She wants to go a few days early as she has some people she wants to see who she met at an international youth event in Jerusalem last year. She is only 15 so we thought we might fly with her to Joburg and have a holiday ourselves. I think the friends live in Joburg and we have people we could stay with for a few days.

I have heard of the Garden route. Starts in Cape Town, but where is the other end? Is it George? How long should one take to drive it?

It depends how long you have or how far you want to drive. We always liked to finish in Cape Town: so you can fly to either Port Elizabeth or George and hire a car from there, or drive from PE to George and fly to Cape Town. You'd need at least a week to drive all the way as you'd want to stop and see things.

The N2 from George to CT isn't all that interesting apart from the view from Sir Lowry's Pass - although you can divert from it and go via Montagu, Robertson, Worcester, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch. The last two are where a lot of the best Cape wine comes from.

We've never been to Jo'burg - not sure how safe it is - although we once flew there and drove south to the coast via Cathedral Peak.

Inevitably you'll see the 'tourist areas' rather than what some call the 'real South Africa'.  Al's choice of Namibia or Botswana would probably be more 'African', although I haven't been to either.

Gaborone is about a half day’s drive from Jo’burg. The border crossing was easy. Interesting place. Stayed in a large resort hotel which felt a little incongruous.

We lived in Namibia for a number of years and still have lots of friends there and in SA that we keep in touch with. Jo'burg has always been dangerous and the last time I was there, Sandton 2009 or so, downtown Jo'burg was a complete no-go area. Even the more affluent suburbs suffered from relatively high rates of burglary, muggings and car jacking. I doubt it's improved much given the incompetence and corruption of officials.

I stayed in the Sandton Hilton several times in 2007/8; you used to be able to walk a few hundred yards down the street to a good restaurant but I gather that even that short walk subsequently became perilous.

My friend lent me his Toyota Hilux for a drive south to his second home in Clarens (lovely town). He stuck his TomTom satnav on the dash and programmed in the destination for me and off I went. Unfortunately the sat nav was inadvertently set to “Shortest route”... straight through Jo’burg CBD...! Not clever. At least the pickup truck was more inconspicuous than a shiny rental car might have been...