From East London to Cape Town. 1 000km drive with 6 campsite stops along the way.
We are Michael and acacia and this is our van Yeti. After 2 months self converting the van we hit the road. Making our way from our home town , East London down the garden route towards Cape Town as we had a wedding and flights to catch.
Our first stop was at the worlds biggest pineapple in Bathhurst , you can buy fresh pineapples and take a tour up to the top overlooking surrounding pineapple farms. We made our way to the Bathhurst Agricultural show. This is a annual even with horse shows , sheep sheering , food stalls and product stores with local food produce, hand crafted goodies and of course farming gear such as tractors , gumboots and building materials. Luckily Michael purchased himself some gumboots , they soon came in handy , as we were leaving the muddy car parks our friends , Awesome Roadtrip , got stuck in the mud! This was quite something pushing a 5ton van out the mud! That evening we camped in Willows Park , alongside the Kowie river in Port Alfred.
Awesome Roadtrip YouTube channel –
The next day we made our way towards Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) , not without a stop at Nanaga, this is an epic farm stall with the best pies!! we camped on the wild side which is a lot more outdoorsy along the beach. We stayed here since we needed to catch a quick flight to Cape Town in order to sort our visas. Cape Town was short and sweet with a lot of paper work as we applied for our shengen visa for Europe.
When we were back with the van we drove to Jefferies Bay. This is a well known town in South African for great surfing. Michael had a surf at Supertubs , the iconic break of J-Bay. His first surf in 4 months since we’ve been in the mountains busy building the van. We camped along the beach in the Jefferies Bay caravan park. This campsite is very open but the sunsets over the sea are very pretty.
Making our way down the garden route with 3 national parks in mind we stopped in Natures Valley to find our friends. Camping at Natures Valley rest camp, tucked in the forest along the river. You can paddle all the way to the beach , or take a walk.
Ebb & Flow campsite in Wilderness was our second National Park. This campsite runs along the river , tucked in the valley. There are loads of hiking trails around, one can paddle up the river or of course take a swim. Our camp-spot had a private little beach perfect for swimming.
After a long and expensive day on the road , 1 new tyre wheels , we made it to Bontebok National park
Bontebok National park has a campsite tucked deep into the nature reserve. You camp inside the park , it feels very safe, secluded and at one with nature. You can hike, run and walk around the park on trails or the roads. The campsites are quite private from one another.
This was our last stop before arriving in Cape Town. Join us next week to explore some epic spots in Stellenbosch , the outskirts of Cape Town.
Thanks for sticking around for the ride , subscribe to see next Sundays adventure 🙂