Say what?! Yes, indeed… South Africa is BIG! With almost 58 million people and – coincidentally – 58 indigenous languages of which there are 11 official languages, more beautifully mixed ethnical groups than our surveys can keep up with, more wildlife species than leaves on an acacia tree and a proclaimed 535 000 kilometres of roads to drive…
It’s not surprising that our 1.2 million ㎢ country is so diverse.
With grasslands filling the horizon in Mpumalanga, snow-capped mountain peaks in the Drakensberg, palm-fringed beaches on the South Coast, endless lakes and rivers in the Garden Route, white sandy beaches in the Western Cape, more than 112 000 hectares wine farms in the country, more round huts than the eye can count in Transkei and stunning cultures scattered all over these vast lands with more beautiful skin colors than any face recognition app can detect…
It’s no wonder that Desmond Tutu called us the Rainbow Nation in 1994.
And we proudly wear that title as it’s a metaphor for all our people coming together after our failures of the past.
Here’s a little more perspective on the sheer size of the African continent:
We love to throw in a couple of eye-boggling facts; check these out!
- Drive from South Africa to Germany in just 175 h (13 466,3 km)
- But while you’re in South Africa, why not take a trip to Tanzania (4,418km) , Nambia (951km) or Botswana (931km)?
- Timbuktu? 123 h drive time and 8 974,2 km.
I personally know quite a few people that traveled to South Africa to experience the country, thinking they can do it in 3 weeks and ended up staying for 6 months and more. You can see a good amount of the country in 3 weeks I have to say.
I mean, some of our tours try to delve into the cultures and stunning destinations in a 3 week period, but honestly, you’ll need years to really see and truly experience most of it.
So don’t let ANY one company or person tell you that you can “see the country” in less than 2 or 3 weeks.
That really depends on HOW you do it.
We have so much to offer, it’s really hard to put that into any tour or road trip.
Our uniquely South African culture:
Imagine a big black steel cooking pot the size of a small car. Now imagine how sailing ships from all over the world passed our shores for hundreds of years with every traveller dropping a little bit of “spices” in the pot with vibrant stories, food recipes, family connections, DNA, habits and from their home cultures… and that’s all on top of our OWN indigenous cultures acting as the potatoes, rice and meat in the pot. Now add time, about 400 years, as a delicious sauce… and you have a dish so vibrant and diverse as nature and the earth Herself.
No chef can cook a Rainbow Dish like ours!