Read Quirky South Africa Part 1, about padstals, and Quirky South Africa Part 2, about Bethulie and the Gariep Dam.
I was talking to some South African friends about my visit to the Garden Route recently, and one of them said: “Maybe this is a dumb question. But what is the Garden Route, exactly?” And I realized that even though I’ve been there multiple times I did not exactly know.
This post is not part of my Hidden Joburg series, which I started last year (and will eventually return to). But it should be. St. Alban’s Anglican Mission Church in Ferreirasdorp would have been a perfect addition to the Hidden Joburg book and I don’t know why it was left out. This church is so hidden, you can’t even see it on Google Street view.
As described in my previous post, my mom and I took a road trip from Joburg to the Garden Route and back. Along the way we stopped over in Bethulie for a journey through South African history and a drive around the Gariep Dam, among other things.
I can’t remember the exact moment when I became aware of veldskoens, a.k.a. vellies. These leather foot coverings – somewhere between a shoe and a boot – have always been prolific in rural South Africa, lining the shelves of padstals (farm stalls), small clothing shops, and famers’ co-ops. I would often see them and think: Those are nice shoes. I should buy a pair.
Namibia is a giant desert, famous for its towering sand dunes. If you’re familiar with African travel then you’ve probably heard of the Sossusvlei dunes – which have become dune celebrities, thanks to Instagram – and maybe Walvis Bay’s Dune 7, the tallest dune in Namibia. But how about Namibia’s Koichab dunes…ever heard of those?