Why road trips are so addictive

Posted on 1 November 2012

Travel is like reading a whole shelf of books at once. You absorb places and people in a way sentences can’t get to you. And if I can get my camera wedged in somewhere between my eye and the chaos of packing, feasting, mountain pass climbing and night time navigating, then I’m happy. This is the reason I normally travel with very few light lenses. It’s easier to have a camera in one hand with a 50mm while hanging on the side of a boat/train/helicopter/beer with the other. The great thing about roadtrips is how much you can take with you. Surfboards, film cameras, books, girlfriends, wines, spare blitz and entire containers of braai snacks if you feel the need. Being in a bakkie also means that if you land somewhere you really don’t feel comfortable (or safe) spending the night then you can roll away in your 2.8liter diesel-powered traveling case on dusty off-road continentals.

When Europcar asked me to do a few road trips for them as a way of launching, and trying out, their new Road Tripper Facebook app, I considered the options.

I’d like to show new visitors the highlights of Cape Town in a typical introduction to the city. The Cape holy trinity of mountain, sea and wine. I also wanted to show one of my favorite East Coast routes all wrapped in big round trip which I’d call #DrivingEast. It includes Franschhoek (check out: 10 quirky things to do in Franschhoek), the beautiful Theirwaterskloof pass to Grabouw (highly under-marketed) and the Elgin Valley, which is like a slice of heaven. On #DrivingEast we’ll also go through Bot River and Hemel en Aarde wine valley and somehow squeeze in parts of Hermanus and Betty’s Bay for a surf on the way home. These are some of my favorite parts of the Western Cape and each destination is less than two hours drive from my city apartment. The last trip I’m planning is a venture along Route 62. Oudtshoorn is known for ostritsch feathers and caves and the rest of the route has highlights like brandy and rocks which is basically scraping the barrel of tourist attractions. But you don’t go there for that. You go to see what people are up to outside the container of city life. To see what life is like on a different clock. These small-town South African breaks are about unravelling whole different worlds of characters and encounters and that’s really what you get addicted to. In a few days away with bakkie and co-driver you can gather enough adventure stories and memories to load the pages of a few books, nevermind a couple of blog posts.

Europcar have allowed me to share a quick screengrab of the new Road Tripper Facebook app, which will be launching soon.

The app is designed to help travellers find interesting places along the roads of South Africa and then share them. It’s a free app that lets you personalise your own road trip by creating a route that can include your of favourite sights, roadside cafes and places to stay. You give your trip a name and then add your favourite pictures, stories and memories. You will be able to save it, print it out and take with you and when you’re back, share your trip with friends and family or browse themed routes from other travellers and travel bloggers (like me) to get ideas for your next big adventure. Here’s a sneak peak at what it is going to look like:

 

You can follow my adventure on twitter at @EuropcarSA or @guy_with_camera and I’ll also be posting photos and some more posts of the trips here on the Getaway Blog.

Some pictures from my recent roadtrip adventures:

I’ll be doing a series of these road trips as a way of launching the new Europcar Facebook app with Getaway Magazine. The app helps you plan and browse cool road trips around South Africa. You can check a map of my full trip ‘#DrivingEast’ out on on the Europcar App page.






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