If you’ve been following my Instagram or Facebook then you’ll know that I spent two weeks in South Africa last November/December (only a couple of months ago, but it feels like longer!) This is my top three in South Africa – lots more detail to follow! You can see previous posts from my Top Three series here.

Top Three in South Africa

 

Top three smells

Jacaranda in Jo’burg

There is something about the smell of jacaranda blossoms that evokes Spring in the Southern Hemisphere to me, as the first time I smelt them was in November in Sydney. However in South Africa our driver and guide said that they remind people of sitting exams…. I know which I prefer. You can read more about our day in Johannesburg here.

 

Garden route

There is a certain smell that is unique to the Garden Route (the inland piece). I couldn’t quite place what was causing it – a combination of different plants, maybe even some of their famous botanicals, such as Rooibos. But now it evokes a sense of foreignness and excitement that will forever be tied up in my country number 59 – South Africa.

 

The sea!

Let’s jump for joy! This was at the Southern most point of Africa – Cape Agulhas, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean and the jump shot is dedicated to @catslater2! . #jumpingwomen #southernmostpointofafrica #visitsouthafrica #southafricatrip #travelsouthafrica #southafrica??❤️ #southernmosttipofafrica #bottomofafrica #capeagulhas @visitsouthafrica @visitsouthafrica_uk

A post shared by Katie Hughes ?✈️? (@whatskatiedoing) on Nov 23, 2017 at 11:04pm PST

I do love to be beside the seaside! We spent several days of our trip on the coast, whether it was chasing waves in Wilderness, eating seafood at Plettenberg, wading with penguins at Boulders beach or drinking cocktails at Camps bay. So really you couldn’t get away from the sea… or the wind. Cape Town is known for being windy and we were sand blasted on the Cape of Good Hope.

 

Top three tastes

Steak

Already enjoying the delights of Stellenbosch with dinner at the Fat Butcher – seriously good steak with some great local wine and they even suggested a gin, so I was in heaven!! ???? . ❓do you get excited to try the local produce when you travel❓ . This was the signature Grosvenor steak – a fillet with chocolate, chilli and beer sauce, served with sweet potato chips – and boy it was good, although the chilli was a touch on the hot side for me! ??? . #steakdinner @fatbutcher_sa #fatbutcherstellebosch #stellenboschsteak #stellenboschfoodies #stellenboschtravel #southafricatrip #southafrica??❤️ #travelsouthafrica #visitsouthafrica #travellingsisterstakeonSA

A post shared by Katie Hughes ?✈️? (@whatskatiedoing) on Nov 24, 2017 at 11:11pm PST

You can’t go to South Africa and not eat steak (well I guess maybe if you are vegan?). The South African’s love their meat and alongside some great seafood we had several steaks. the best was in Stellenbosch, but I also tried Ostrich in Wilderness.

 

Wine

Again you can’t go to South Africa, especially the wine regions like Stellenbosch and not try the wine. Well we tried a lot of wine (for elimination purposes obviously – they all passed our test). They make great wine of all styles in South Africa, so we took full advantage of the very reasonable prices to try and bring some back.

 

Gin

Yesterday was all about the gin with a little ‘tequila’ thrown in too! – check out my stories for the low down on that – from our visit to @hopeonhopkins distillery in Cape Town! . @manicsara and I were delighted to try some of the limited edition gins that Lucy makes that you just can’t get your hands on in the UK! . #gintime #southafricangin #hopeonhopkinsgin #gin #ginspiration #❤️gin #ginlush #gintasting #gintime #ginstagram #ginforthewin #ginformation #ginoclock #gintastic #gintonic #ginandtonic #whynotgin #gintoapp #ginclubwithareadingproblem #ginmagazine #agavespirit

A post shared by Katie Hughes ?✈️? (@whatskatiedoing) on Nov 30, 2017 at 12:14am PST

Well you know me, I wasn’t going go to South Africa without trying the gin. This is a fairly new market and expanding rapidly. They make some great gins such as Hope on Hopkins, Triple Three and heaps more that I will write a separate post about.

 

Top three achievements

Hiking table mountain

The sweet smell of success – we made it to the top of Table Mountain!! ? . @manicsara and I decided to take the ‘easy route’ up Plattenklip gorge, however this is not easy!! (Everything is relative!) when they say 2-3 hours it really takes that long (unless you are part mountain goat! We saw some people running it – that doesn’t seem normal!) so my peak for the day is making it up 1,000m under my own steam, even if the pit was the effort, sweat and strain making it up! . #thepeakandpitcollective #thetopoftablemountain #tablemountaincapetown #visitsouthafrica #southafricatrip #travelsouthafrica #southafrica??❤️ #tablemountainnationalpark #capetown #❤️Capetown #whataview #viewfromthetop

A post shared by Katie Hughes ?✈️? (@whatskatiedoing) on Nov 28, 2017 at 12:15am PST

We thought we were doing the easy route… well it still took us 3 hours. So the sense of achievement when we got to the top was high!

 

Being surrounded by lions when on safari

Yay it’s nearly the weekend!! ❓Are you partying or relaxing like these lions❓! ??? I’m going to do a bit of both and catch up with my family. . It was amazing to be so near this pride (we were sitting on a vehicle so the lions didn’t really see us as food! Also it was too hot for them to do much more than snooze!) . #safari #southafricasafari #africaonfoot #lions #lionpride? #gamedrive #visitsouthafrica #travelsouthafrica?? #travellingsisterstakeonsa #southafrica?? #safariholidays #viewinglions #relax #afternoonsnooze

A post shared by Katie Hughes ?✈️? (@whatskatiedoing) on Dec 8, 2017 at 4:14am PST

I didn’t get any (good) photos of when our safari vehicle was surrounded by lions in the dark one evening. But you can see from the above that we also managed to get very near this pride. Safari was amazing – we saw so many animals, big and small.

 

Sleeping in a tree house

This was one of the draws for staying at Africa on Foot for me. We only did one night in the tree house, but it was much cooler than staying in our rooms as we felt the breeze. However I still didn’t sleep great – must have been imagining being watched by wild animals….