Readers’ Mail and Gallery
Send us your thoughts and best shots
Like most families with young children, we often struggle to get assembled for even the most mundane of family outings. It was a bit of a curious decision then, to throw our belongings into storage and take our three young daughters on a camping road trip around South Africa.
Given that two from our party of five had never before slept under canvas, we had a fairly steep and immediate learning curve. Things improved as we headed up the Garden Route though, with the world-class South African National Parks, and the kids revelled in identifying the abundant birdlife. The Wild Coast would prove to be one of the highlights of our trip, providing some hair-raising drives that tested Mum and Dadʼs ability to suppress expletives.
From Zululand, we headed westwards and enjoyed the near-perfect child-friendly campground of South Africaʼs newest national park, Mokala.
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park didnʼt disappoint either. On this leg more than any other, we seemed to draw a few comments of surprise that weʼd venture into this part of the world with such a young party. In reality though, the children were unfazed by the weather, the sleeping conditions or the often-dwindling food supplies, as they maintained an unwavering level of energy and enthusiasm.
The Orange River and the big night-time skies of the Northern Cape provided a fitting bookend to our journey.
Over five months we managed to stitch together some of South Africaʼs finest sights with a few of its most beautiful driving routes. And by placing ourselves in some less-thantypical situations, we were served an invaluable lesson on just how resilient and creative these youngsters can be.