Best drives: Gardening leave

If you were to name some attractions which would tempt you to visit South Africa what might they be? Beautiful Cape Town and spectacular Table Mountain would be high on the list of course. So would a safari to the legendary Kruger National Park in search of the Big Five.

But there are plenty of other places in South Africa which, while not as well-known, are certainly worth visiting.

The Garden Route is one of them. Think of it as a blend of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road with some of Noosa Heads in Queensland but all stirred in a uniquely South African pot.

If you like driving – and if you’re reading motoring.com.au we’ll assume you’re not actively opposed to it – then the Garden Route will suit you perfectly, because having your own transport helps considerably in getting around and taking in what the Garden Route offers.

For two adults with luggage travelling through both city and country, this compact SUV proved just right for the job. The only real abnormality in more than a week and 1300km of driving was the propensity of the media screen language to switch randomly from English to Italian. This has got to be something to do with the Renegade actually being a Fiat 500X under the skin and built in Italy. Homesick?

Anyway, if you haven’t got a friendly car company to arm-twist then don’t worry, the Australian dollar-Rand exchange rate makes South Africa a very affordable place for Australians to visit, so renting a small car for week will only cost a couple of hundred bucks.

Now zoom your map in to Mossel Bay. If you’re coming to the Garden Route from Cape Town – as most people do – this is the official start-point. If you are coming the other direction from East London, then the start point is less defined. Some tourism guides say its Storms River, others Plettenberg Bay.

If you are at Jeffreys Bay – you know, where Aussie surfing champion Mick Fanning had his close encounter with the white pointer – then you are without doubt too far east. All up, the Garden Route is a bit more than 200km long and sits astride the N2 national highway, a well-maintained road that varies in width from two to four lanes.

While the South African road toll is horribly high, based on our experience driving standards in South Africa are reasonable. If there weren’t multiple lanes then slow traffic pulled over into the breakdown lane to let faster vehicles through. Flick your hazard lights on the way past to say ‘thankyou’ and you’ll often receive a flash of the headlights to say ‘you’re welcome’.

Keeping up with the traffic in the Renegade wasn’t a challenge, although the throttle had to be pinned sometimes during those brief opportunities to pass. A 9.7L/100km fuel consumption average was a half decent result considering that.

Foot traffic was a lot more common on the highway in South Africa than in Australia. In the morning and evening we found lots of people congregated at busy intersections waiting for maxi-taxis or holding out Rand notes to signal they were looking for a ride and were happy to pay. This is not at all unusual.

You can comfortably get from Cape Town to the Garden Route in one day going along the N2, which is the most direct route and takes about five hours. Alternatively, you can swing south and come by the coast through Hermanus, or circle north through Worcester.

Knysna is holiday central and sits around a panoramic natural lagoon with high cliffs guarding the entrance to the sea. Behind the town, rugged forests soar high up mountainsides. Million dollar gobsmacking views are everywhere in South Africa, but even by those standards this area is really something special.

South Africans are really into adventure sports on water, land and in the air. If you didn’t know that before you get to Knysna you’ll be in no doubt within five minutes of arriving. Whether you want to pedal, paddle, hike in the national parks, surf or simply plonk down on a beautiful white sand beach there are plentiful choices available.

Being a holiday area, accommodation choices are abundant and hugely varied in price and quality. The same goes for food and beverages. Don’t forget South African wines are spectacularly good … if you like a tipple.

If you really want to go upmarket then check out Thesen Islands in the centre of the Knysna Lagoon. You could be in Melbourne’s Brighton or Sydney’s Double Bay because the place is awash with the beautiful people reclining at outdoor cafes sipping lattes, nibbling on smashed avocado and speaking importantly into smartphones.

It’s a scene repeated over and over in South Africa; affluent first world cheek by jowl with struggling third world.

Which brings us to the inevitable question of security. South Africa has an appalling reputation for crime and there is no doubt it is still an issue which is emphasised by the constant presence of private security guards in shopping precincts and hotels and by the fortress-like walls and electrified fences surrounding many private homes.

But the message from the locals is: common sense is a sufficient safeguard. So don’t flash around jewellery, mobile telephones, and handbags, don’t venture into townships uninvited or unguided and, when the sun goes down, don’t assume you can just wander anywhere. In this regard there has been a lot of street name changes in recent years so don’t rely on satellite navigation and smartphone mapping to always be accurate.

As far as your car is concerned, ensure you have off-street overnight parking and, when parking in public carparks, tip the attendant a few Rand to keep an extra-close eye over your vehicle.

In fact, interacting with living breathing workers rather than machines is big in South Africa in a way younger generations of Australian would find alien (and remind older ones of the way things used to be). For instance there is no self-service at petrol stations - instead a team of two fill the fuel tank and wash the windows (yes, tip required).

There are also big gangs of road workers who manually whipper snip roadside weeds, sweep up and patch holes. Aussie OH&S warriors would be horrified by the lack of warning signs and stop-go lights – in South Africa, it’s just an orange flag being waved, often without much enthusiasm.

The drive into both is very different but equally stunning. You climb up and over a mountain ridge to reach Brenton, with commanding views from the top. By contrast, the road runs within metres of the Indian Ocean shore for several kilometres into Buffels Bay. Beautiful beaches greet you in both places. It’s the same glorious story in renowned surf locations like Herold’s Bay and Victoria Bay near George.

For something completely different, turn inland from George and climb up over the spectacular Outeniqua Mountains driving on the N9/12 to Herold and then back down the historic Montagu Pass, which was completed in 1848 and is South Africa’s oldest unaltered pass.

Naturally, the views are spectacular. Above you are craggy, bleached peaks and below, tumbling waves crash onto a distant shore.

The driving experience is pretty cool too, with lots of smooth, meaty corners to munch on. This is the part of the Garden Route which is most like the Great Ocean Road. The Renegade stayed composed through all this, even though sporty bitumen wasn’t really its natural territory. But the baby Jeep showed a natural compliance and co-operative nature that kept it headed in the right direction.

In fact the thing about the Garden Route is it’s pretty cool in just about any direction you look or drive. The sights are spectacular and the experiences different enough from what we have here in Australia to make it enjoyable, confronting and thought provoking all at the same time.

It’s certainly worth adding a South African holiday itinerary.