My Heart Belongs to you - Kwazulu Natal
South Africa, my beloved country with its diverse and breathtaking landscapes will always be close to my heart. Having eleven official languages tells you just what a diverse people we are as well.
We do have our problems like many countries today, but I will not dwell on that, and rather share some of the destinations we have visited over the past couple of years in our province, Kwazulu Natal.
My Hive friends will recognize many of these places, as we have not had many opportunities to travel ever since the awful Covid and other personal issues.
From majestic mountains to sandy and rocky beaches along the Indian Ocean, our province offers something for everyone.
Every time we decide to take a break, it's a pull in two directions - the mountains or the sea, and while my heart is torn between the two, the big wide ocean wins most of the time, as that's where both our hearts lie!
I will share some of the places we have visited on the South Coast of Kwazulu Natal.
We often used to visit the little coastal town of Scottburgh when our kids were small as it's only about a half an hour's drive from home.
A couple of years ago, we spent two awesome weekends with family and friends at the refurbished Blue Marlin Hotel's penthouse, which was turned into a spacious 5 bedroom self-catering unit by our holiday club. The views are amazing! A kite surfer in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean at Scottburgh Beach.
The South Coast is not only known for the annual Sardine Run, aka the biggest shoal on Earth; fishing, and surfing but also is a golfer's paradise, with many golf courses to choose from.
This is the Umdoni Golf Course in the little town of Pennington where we may still retire, although we've been postponing that date a couple of times already!
The best sunrises can be seen over the Indian Ocean, like this one at Glenmore Beach; I've chosen an image with the sun just starting to peep over the horizon.
The beautiful arches of the Umtamvuna River Bridge can be seen from the Caribbean Estates, another favourite destination, which is right on the border with the Eastern Cape.
A gorgeous sunset shows off the arch beautifully, a lovely memory of a holiday recently with our youngest son fishing from the jetty at the Umtamvuna River.
A 20-kilometer drive inland takes us to the Oribi Gorge, a massive canyon with breathtaking views that offer Wild Five Activities for adrenaline junkies. I did walk one of the suspension bridges, but not the one in the image further below.
The majestic Drakensberg Mountains is next on our itinerary
The Northern Drakensberg offers really impressive and majestic mountains and is kind of a halfway meeting place for us and our sons, but it can get very windy, so we prefer going to the Champagne Valley in the central Berg.
Photo taken from Alpine Heath where we stayed, and the other from the Royal National Park, both in the Northern berg.
Our favourite central Drakensberg destination is the Drakensberg Sun as there are some lovely walks here and we surprised the youngsters by almost making it to the Blue Grotto.
Game Parks
We do not often visit the game parks of which there are a number, and if you follow @joanstewart, you would have seen a couple of those, especially up in what was known as Zululand further north in Kwazulu Natal.
We used to take the kids up that way, but those photos are yellowed with age.
We visited the stunning Ithala Game Reserve high up inland near the town of Vryheid, a good couple of years ago when both our sons had fled the nest.
Our little rondavel was beautifully furnished and very cozy inside!
The most stunning sunset we've experienced was this one at Ithala.
I have to end with food from our region, and here is a serving of those little silvery delights from the ocean - Sardines which make their appearance in the thousands in the Sardine Run.
I hope you've enjoyed this taste of some of the beautiful places to visit here in the green hills of Kwazulu Natal!
Original Content by @lizelle
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Places treasured deep within the heart, our South Africa may have a massive hiccup at the moment, most the people are as warm and beautiful as the country we so love.
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True words Joan, when it comes to the push, the real grit and hearts of our people comes to the fore. Thank you for the tip💖
Always a pleasure to share our treasure with friends on Hive, have a wonderful day.
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Yoir place is amazing. Every beautiful place is found there! Wow!
It is a beautiful country, thank you @bluepark!
Wow, south Africa must be soooooooo beautiful. Your photos are outstanding and making me wanna go there!
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Thank you @akida, I'm glad you enjoyed it, we have a stunning country indeed!
What lovely landscape Lizzie! Often the news we hear about South Africa are on the negative side, it's great to see the positive side and it's beauty as well. And I didn't realise the biggest sardine run is in South Africa, I always thought it was somewhere in Spain or Portugal, learn something new everyday
I'm so glad you enjoyed it @livinguktaiwan, we always tend to focus on the bad things, but forget to look at the natural beauty around us; the grass is not always greener on the other side! Despite the problems, the people of our country do know how to band together during times of crisis.
The Sardine Run starts in the Cape waters with the fish swimming up the east coast to Kwazulu Natal where they move up to Mozambique. There have been occasions where the fish actually end up close to the shore. The people go crazy, scooping them up with buckets or whatever they can find. We've not been that fortunate, have only seen them being netted by fishing boats. It's quite a spectacle seeing the large dark patches in the ocean and the birds diving in to catch food ;)
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1654.
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I visited South Africa in my twenties and spend some time in Durban as I had a friend there, I travelled along the coast and into the Drakensberg Mountains, it is so stunning, such a beautiful country xxxx
I'm so glad you got to see our beautiful country @trucklife-family! The Drakensberg Mountains are simply stunning, I always feel so at peace with the world when we're there, a real tonic! Our coastline still has many unspoilt areas as well, I just love the sea breeze & the sound of the waves. Hubby's heart is at the sea, mine torn between the 2.
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