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Your next move will depend on how much you like outdoors compared to cities. Port Elizabeth is a fairly small city by most standards and it’s around 80 Kms from Oyster Bay, so most places you’d want to visit in area can be reached from both locations. Whichever way, make sure you visit Addo Elephant park and Shamwari game reserve for a bit of a safari and big five.
From Port Elizabeth, I would fly up to Jo’burg and head out of country, or if your time/budget allows, jump on a plane to Durban and work your way up to Jo’burg. As much as I loved Durban many years ago, I personally would not spend any more time there. Do your own research about Durban. Beautiful beaches, hot waters and hot weather almost all year long, but… I would rather go up north for some scuba diving in Sodwana. Enough on that, from Durban I would rent a car and travel up to Jo’burg, with a 3-5 day stop in Drakensberg.
I spent a couple of days in Drakensberg with a friend once and on first morning I went for a walk before sunrise. When I got back to camp a couple of hours later, my friend had woken up and was standing at side of tent and waved for me to be quiet. He was busy taking photographs of a couple of guinifowl and was amazed that we were so close to “nature”. I was amazed that he would be impressed by something so small. During my first walk I had sat on top of a little hill to watch sunrise and had a deer walking around a couple of meters from me. I had also watched a falcon gracefully flying around between hills, seen quite a few rabbits and “dassies” (don’t know their English name) and monkeys and I had had a swim in a natural pool below a fair-sized waterfall. If you like waterfalls and little mountain streams, Drakensberg is a must!! The world’s second highest waterfall can be found in Drakensberg The Drakensberg is about halfway between Johannesburg and Durban. Very roughly, it’s about 350KMs in either direction.
This is just one possible trip if you’re coming to visit South Africa. As I mentioned, there are many other beautiful and interesting places to visit in our country. If your main objective is a safari and seeing big five, then look into Kruger National Park and surrounding game reserves. If you want to go scuba diving there is absolutely NO choice, go to Sodwana bay.
Dirk Wessels is a keen traveller and outdoor enthusiast and is also the web designer for Oyster Bay Lodge. You may freely use this article on condition that you keep an active link to African holiday desitination