Zimbabwean capital; via Plumtree and Bulawayo.

Eastern Highlands border city; Bvumba mountains and Leopard Rock nearby.

Return.

Return.

Kalahari cattle-country town; cheetah conservation and San culture.

Luxury tented camp on Chief's Island in the Moremi Game Reserve.

One of the world's largest salt-pan systems; habituated meerkat colonies.

Botswana's second city.

Return.

The base for the trip, in the southeast corner of Botswana.

The old Witbank, a coal city on the N4 and the last stop before the Lowveld.

A community-owned Big Five reserve on Kruger's southwestern boundary; game drives and San rock art in the koppies.

A warm lagoon cut off from the Indian Ocean by a single line of dunes.

Whale sharks and manta rays year-round, snorkelled and dived straight off the beach.

A cable ferry across the Incomati, then deep sand between the river and the surf.

Highveld grassland and waterfalls, with a canopy tour on cable spans over the gorge.

Glass blown entirely from recycled bottles, in what was then Swaziland.

Tin-roofed Victorian houses and pavement cafes in the old inner city.

A dam in a gap in the Magaliesberg, and a morning with the elephants on its shore.

Rhino, giraffe and a cheetah visit, twenty minutes south of Gaborone.

The flight up from Gaborone, and the gateway to the Okavango.

A lagoon camp deep in the Delta, where mopane woodland meets permanent water.

Hand-dug diamond mine crater and open-air mining museum.

French Huguenot wine village.

Return.

Trip origin.

South Western Townships; Vilakazi Street (Mandela House) and the Hector Pieterson Memorial.

Museum tracing the rise and dismantling of apartheid; visitors enter through segregated doors.

The world's largest green canyon — the Three Rondavels and Bourke's Luck Potholes on the Panorama Route.

Private reserve near Hoedspruit known for hand-raised orphaned lion, cheetah and rhino that walk with guests.

Orphaned hippo raised by a couple on the Blyde River who lived tame among them for over two decades.

Private lodge founded around a rescued herd of Zimbabwean elephant; elephant-back safaris at the time.

Recycled-glass studio near the Oshoek border — animal figurines hand-blown from old bottles.

Eswatini's oldest protected area, in the Ezulwini Valley; zebra and antelope grazing between the rest camp huts.

Hand-made millefiori candle workshop in the Malkerns Valley.

Dive camp in the dune forest at Sodwana Bay, on Africa's southernmost coral reefs inside a UNESCO wetland park.

Golden Mile beachfront and Indian Ocean surf city.

Leafy southern suburb below Devil's Peak.

Star-shaped Dutch East India Company fort of 1666 — the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa.

Rotating cable car to the 1,085 m summit plateau.

Former prison island; Nelson Mandela's cell in B Section. Ferry from the V&A Waterfront.

Botanical garden on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain; fynbos and protea collections.

South Africa's oldest wine estate, granted in 1685; Cape Dutch manor house and cellar.

Granite-boulder coves sheltering a colony of African penguins.

Southwestern tip of the peninsula in Table Mountain National Park; old lighthouse above the cliffs.

Cape Dutch university town at the heart of the Winelands.

Boutique winery and restaurant on the Franschhoek Pass with valley views.

Trip origin.

Namibian capital; German colonial architecture.

German-flavoured seaside town between the Namib dunes and the Atlantic.

Shipwreck-strewn coast; Cape Cross holds one of the largest Cape fur seal colonies.

Base town on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.

The world's largest sheet of falling water; UNESCO World Heritage site.

'Flight of Angels' — aerial loop over the Falls and Batoka Gorge.

Sunset boat trip on the Upper Zambezi above the Falls — hippo and elephant.

Zimbabwean side of the Falls; the rainforest walk and Victoria Falls Bridge.

Chobe riverfront — Africa's largest elephant concentration; game drives and river cruises.

Inland delta of the Okavango River; mokoro and game viewing.

Safari gateway town to the Delta.

Return via the Trans-Kalahari Highway.

Return.