Bloganuary Day 14
Today’s Prompt: What is your preferred mode of travel?
I would definitely say the car! Road trips are my favourite.
When I was a kid, it seemed like we were always on the road during school holidays. My dad loved driving and loved visiting both his and my mum’s family. As a result, we would travel to Johannesburg from Pietermaritzburg where we lived, or to the farm or spend the day in Durban or drive to a small town called Harding in KZN. One year we even drove to Cape Town. It’s an 18 hour trip and I really don’t know how my dad coped with all our singing and chatter along the way. I was only 8 years old then and full of energy.
I had dreamed of taking my son on road trips too but it hasn’t quite worked out as planned. We did drive to East London in the Eastern Cape with my dad. That was a 6 or 8 hr trip and Alex sat like a trooper all the way there. He was only 5 or so when we drove down. He was so excited to get there that he didn’t even want to take a bathroom break until mother nature refused to take no for an answer.
The other trip I did take my son on was a trip to Johannesburg with my boyfriend at the time. He was about 10 at the time. We stopped at the smallest church in the Southern Africa at Van Reenan’s Pass. It is called The Landoff Oratory and you can read about it’s history here. It is gorgeous and is surrounded by the most beautiful landscape.
I think the things I love most about road trips is the quality time you get to spend with your travelling companions in the car, the scenery (South Africa is a beautiful country) and the journey.
Ooh the other little road trip that stands out in my mind was the drive from Trumbull, Connecticut to Weehawken, New Jersey and back. It was the end of September and the night time temperature dropped between trips so the trees were green on the way to NJ and on the way back, most had changed colour to the beautiful autumn shades of yellow and orange. It totally blew my mind!
I love flying as well. Most people think me strange but the take-off is my favourite part of the flight. I also love airports. I love that I am surrounded by such a mix of people nd cultures at any point in time and it’s always a vibe. I love flying because it takes me to such distant destinations which have different cultures to be experienced.
It has always been a dream of mine to let my son experience all the major forms of transport at least once. He has flown, taken a long distance bus trip to Port Elizabeth (once was enough!) and had a train ride to Inchanga although we need to do that trip again but in the steam engine. Next up is a cruise. My aim is for that to happen in the next year or two. We were supposed to tick that off last year but covid got in the way.
What’s your favourite way to travel? Let me know in the comments. I would also highly recommend follwing the bloganuary hashtag as I have read great posts on this topic.
Grounded African 
Weehawkin is not too far from where I live.
If you pass by again let me know, I’ll buy you lunch 🙂
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Thank you for the invitation. Getting back to America is definitely on my bucket list. I will let you know if I get there 🙂
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My favorite memories of road trips are also travelling with my family across my home island of Jamaica in the back of my dad’s pickup truck when I was young. I have also been to South Africa, and I do agree it is beautiful, and yes travelling through the countryside of CT during the Autumn with the changing of the leaves can be breathtaking.
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💯! Where about in South Africa were you? Was it just for a holiday?
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Yes, we were on a school trip with my son’s. First, we were in Johannesburg. We stopped in Soweto and toured some of the museums and visited Mandela’s homes. We went on a safari in the Pilanesberg National Park. Next, we visited Cape Town, went to the top of Table Mountain, went over to Robben Island and so much more. We really had a great time, so much history in your country.
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That’s awesome. Sounds like you went to a lot of the best places to visit. Glad you enjoyed it.
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When I see something interesting I like to stop, so traveling by car is best. I have gone by train and years ago, before PTSD I traveled by airplane several times. I have done a bus trip, too long. And I have been on the subway in Washington, DC. Traveling is fun. If you make it to America let me know, perhaps we could meet. I think it is important to have children experience travel and the different modes of travel so they have knowledge on how to use them.
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Oh yes, I forgot that I have also been on the subway in New York. Travelling is definitely fun. I will let you know if I ever reach there again. It would be great to meet you.
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I remember we had quite a few road trips during the 2 year period where we lived in NYC for my Dad’s post PhD studies – but I remember them mostly for the fact that we were quite restless during the long drives, and we always frustrated my parents by only agreeing to eat jusk food burgers along the way. There was a local chain in the north eastern US called “Roy Rogers” I particularly liked because they would allow you to add the sauces and veggies to the burger yourself, and I could always add way too much pickles and ketchup.
As a grown up I do appreciate road trips a lot more, and I also love flying and airports. I’d love to visit South Africa one day too.
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Lol. Yip. We would always ask for junk food but my mum always packed what we called “padkos” (an Afrikaans word that literally means road/trip food) so we very seldom got lucky and had fast food.
Should you ever find yourself on the east coast of South Africa, look me up. Perhaps we will get a chance to meet. 😊
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I smiled reading your blog because road trips are MY favourites, too! So glad you did it a lot with your family and went on a road trip (or is it yet to come?) with your son. This is really beautiful. I love airports too! We can be weird about that together xx
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Awesome! He had I have been on the 2 I mentioned in the post.
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