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 visiting his and my mum’s families. As a result, we would travel to Johannesburg from Pietermaritzburg, where we lived, or to the farm, 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 eight 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. My son was about ten years old. We stopped at the smallest church in Southern Africa at Van Reenen’s Pass. It is called The Landoff Oratory, and you can read about its 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 nighttime 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 and cultures at any point in time, and it’s always a vibe. I love flying because it takes me to such distant destinations that have different cultures to experience.
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 