Home is where the heart is

It's now two weeks since we got back from holiday and we are still totally smitten with South Africa.

So much so, we've today booked to go back again next September!

This is a huge deal for us, who vowed never to visit the same place twice; that's how much we loved it.

We aren't doing the same trip (that would be a bit much) though we are revisiting a few of the same places to catch up with new friends and see the things we missed this time round.

Our travel agent had an escorted tour on their website which sounded great, except we prefer to drive ourselves and stay at a couple of different places. However, they've tailor made a self drive trip for us which incorporates all the places we wanted to visit.

Next year's trip starts in Johannesburg. We have 2 nights there before we move onto Mpumalanga. After a night there, we drive into Swaziland for an overnight stay and then drive back into South Africa for 2 nights in St Lucia.
I'm particularly looking forward to this already as we are staying on an estuary that is home to 800 hippos (and 1000 crocodiles)!
From here we drive to Durban and spend a night there before flying to Port Elizabeth.

There are two main roads for the Garden route, the N2 (which is more coastal) and Route 62 which is more of a backroad through the countryside. We did a little bit of each this year, but have decided for next years trip that we will do the whole of Route 62.

So instead of staying in Port Elizabeth again, we are going to drive straight to Oudtshoorn and have a couple of nights there again, at the same hotel. This means we can book Roeland again to take us on another day out, this time to Die Hel!
This is a more treacherous road than the Swartberg Mountain pass that we did with him this year, but is part of the same range.

We have a night in Paarl on a wine estate (which looks fab) before we spend 3 nights in Cape Town. We aim to visit Robben Island as we ran out of time this year and also want to spend a little time in Pringle Bay, which is where we left our hearts hope to live when we retire. We will also visit our 'family' at the Cape Town supporters club too.

Our final night/day is in Hermanus and this time we will go whale watching rather than shark diving!

We've purposely not booked onto any game reserves, as we felt we saw enough wildlife this year; we will still see quite a bit next year though just from where we are staying and visiting.
The weather really suited us as well this time of year, so it makes sense to stick to the same time; we know what to expect.

It seems a lifetime away, but just like this year's holiday, it will be here before we know it. I just wish I could click my heels and go now there's no place like home!