The Ten Day Challenge – Day Five

So I took a little sabbatical from the challenge this weekend, but here we are with day five – six places. I’ve been lucky enough to live in a few different places over the years (Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Dublin and now Johannesburg), and to visit a few others. My favourite place in the world has to be the Drakensberg. But I thought I’d dedicate this post to places I haven’t had the chance to visit…yet.

I’m a patriotic kinda gal, so a lot of places on my bucket list of destinations are actually South African. I should just make the effort to go, I know, but life gets in the way sometimes. There are way more than six, but I think these are at the top of the list at the moment:

1. I’m not a huge fan of Cape Town, but I’ve always wanted to explore the West Coast. In particular, Yzerfontein seems really beautiful to me. I love the wild, desolate stretches of beach and the little communities you find in that part of the country. As luck would have it, I’m off to a festival in Darling in October, which is not far from Yzerfontein, so maybe this one will be ticked off the list by the end of the year.

2. I’ve also always wanted to visit the Tsitsikamma National Park. It combines an amazing forest environment alongside one of the world’s biggest Marine Protected Areas, and it just seems magical to me. I don’t know if I’m athletic enough to brave the Otter Trail, but I would love to visit all the same.

3. Another place I’m hoping to get to sooner rather than later is Clarens. A few friends have been and it looks like the perfect winter destination – mountains, fireplaces and small-town cosiness (not in a Deliverance kind of way though!). Bring it on.

4. I saw photos not so long ago from a friend’s trip to Mumbo Island in Lake Malawi and it instantly shot to the top of the list of places I have to go. Until I saw the prices, then it dropped down a few spots hehe. But the pristine beaches and isolated tropical island getaway vibe just really appeal to me, as does the fact that the camp is entirely off the grid, making it a super eco-friendly destination. Love.

5. When they initially announced that SA was going to host the soccer world cup, a few friends and I decided that we were going to find a holiday destination where we could avoid the soccer madness. I was tasked with finding somewhere that didn’t display a huge interest in soccer, but was still somewhere you’d actually want to visit. Enter Samoa.
Unfortunately, we forgot the crucial step of budgeting and actually saving for our trip to Samoa, so we had to stick it out at home, but ever since then, I’ve wanted to go to Samoa. It looks so beautiful, and with an incredible culture and history to go with the scenery, it’s a must visit destination.

6. Last but most definitely not least is Seattle. This one is less about the scenery, and more about the fact that the whole Seattle sound was kind of a defining era in my life – bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam were life altering for me, and so a visit to Seattle would be very meaningful I think.