Undoubtedly one of the best tours I have ever done was the Soweto Bicycle Tour. I rarely book things far in advance but on my southern hemisphere tour in 2010 – 2011, I knew I was flying into Johannesburg and I looked into staying in the famous township of Soweto. I arrived there and stayed Read more about Backpacking in South Africa: Soweto Bicycle Tour[…]
On a quiet morning while staying in the township of Soweto I walked from the backpackers hostel to Vilakazi Street. Soweto as a township is steeped in enough history as it is, but this was a special trip to the former house of a man who changed the world: Nelson Mandela. Nelson Read more about Mandela House: 8115 Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa[…]
As a traveller, an excellent way of getting a flavour for the real local culture and ways of a pace is to actually stay with someone who ordinarily lives there. Also known as a “homestay”. And so my South African adventure gave me a lot of various experiences, including the bonus of spending a night Read more about Homestay At Rachel’s: Ngculu Street, Orlando East, Soweto, South Africa *[…]
So to Durban in South Africa…
After a stop over in the city of Nelspruit – albeit to leave people off at hostels and hang around in a shopping centre car park, the final leg of my African experience of 2011 was upon me. I had been lucky to get to visit an Irish Pub in Nelspruit, O’Hara’s where a fresh Read more about Backpacking in South Africa: Nelspruit to Johannesburg Passing By…Belfast[…]
Mbabane! The capital city of….which country? You’ll ask me. Swaziland! And indeed another of those capital cities that I didn’t visit. I have a habit of missing capital cities. I haven’t been to Brasilia, Ottawa, Kabul, Sucre, Washington DC, Baghdad, Geneva, Cape Town, Mbabane and a few others from the countries I’ve visited. So Read more about Backpacking in Swaziland: Mbabane, Another Capital City Goes Abegging[…]
Having spent a few amazing days in Soweto and Johannesburg, I had made up my itinerary and rough plan for the rest of my time in southern Africa. In South Africa itself, I would make do with visiting just four cities (Durban, Soweto, Johannesburg and Pretoria) and I would cross into two of the other Read more about Herbert Goes Bananas: Road Trip Johannesburg to Pretoria Via Sterkfontein[…]
The thought of drinking Guinness or finding an Irish Pub in Africa never occurred to me. Luxuries like that seem a world away, and besides the culture of the local pubs I was in far outweight those experiences spent indoors in a bland Irish themed pub. I was in Shebeens in Soweto. I was in Read more about A Quick Stop Over, A Guinness And A Surprise Irish Pub in Nelspruit *[…]