Readers' choice: 7 most popular African travel posts of 2017

​By Roxanne Reid
I’ve written more than 50 posts on this blog in 2017, covering travels to places as varied as South Africa's West Coast, Karoo, Garden Route and Namaqualand, as well as Namibia, Botswana and Kenya. I thought it would be fun to look back and find which of them went down best with you, the readers. Here's the readers' choice of 7 most popular African travel posts of 2017.

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1. 5 things I hate about the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know how much I love the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. But there are a few things I don’t love about it – think corrugated roads and visitors who misbehave and flout the rules, for instance. This provocatively titled post was a hit, even though some people rained scorn on me for daring to criticise a single thing about a place that they also love. Perhaps they missed the true heartbeat of the piece and the love that glows from my final point.

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2. 8 best things to do on safari in Botswana

Second on the readers’ choice list of 7 most popular African travel posts of 2017 was about Botswana – a classic safari destination where every day brings something different. I picked 8 of the best experiences and explained why they're so memorable – from gliding along the Okavango Delta in a mokoro (dug-out canoe) or going on a sunset cruise on the Chobe River to quad biking on the Makgadikgadi salt pans or experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of the bush on a guided walk.

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3. 17 things to do in Tulbagh, Cape Winelands

Tulbagh is just a 90-minute drive from Cape Town, a place of mountains, vineyards and historic Cape Dutch buildings. We stayed for a few days to winkle out some of a wealth of things to do in the area. Discover my top picks, from restaurants and wine tastings to olive and chocolate tastings, from art and heritage buildings to outdoor activities like hiking and horse riding.

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4. Soar in a hot air balloon over Sossusvlei in Namibia

I’m thrilled this post made the cut in the readers’ choice 7 most popular African travel posts of 2017 because taking to the skies in a hot air balloon over Sossusvlei in Namibia remains one of the top highlights of my travels – ever. To see the sun rise over the dunes and paint the underside of clouds pink, to feel the chill desert air and hear the whoosh of the gas burners above your head, this is to feel fully alive. The views of red dunes and fairy circles, of oryx and springbok, are magnificent, the whole experience like being inside a dream. Champagne breakfast on the dunes afterwards adds to the romance.

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5.Highlights of Kenya’s Maasai Mara

If you love wildlife and safari as much as I do, Kenya’s classic safari destination of the Maasai Mara will be on your to-do list. With its endless tree-dotted plains and its superb big cat sightings, it’s a place for dreams to come true even if you don’t go during the height of the annual wildebeest migration. Highlights include a mini migration, a hot air balloon ride over the winding Mara River, and a feast of lion, leopard and cheetah sightings – including the cutest cubs.
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6. Top 5 favourite national Parks in South Africa

About 70% of our travel plans include a stop at a wildlife or safari destination, that’s how keen we are. Since we live in South Africa, with a wealth of national parks only a day or two’s road trip away, they’ve become our go-to places when no cross-border travels are on the horizon. We’ve visited every national park in South Africa at least once, some more than 30 times. So which are the ones that draw us back again and again?

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7. Kolmanskop: why to visit Namibia’s ghost town

There’s something hauntingly sad about ruined buildings, and none more so than those of Kolmanskop in Southern Namibia. Once, diamonds were so abundant here you could grab them off the ground in fat fistfuls. Then a bigger and better diamond field was discovered, and the once-grand town where 1300 people lived was abandoned to the wind and sand. Discover why, if you ever travel to Lüderitz in Namibia, you should explore the Kolmanskop ghost town in the desert.

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Which one of these is your favourite? Use the comments below to let me know why.

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