This trip is designed for persons to visit the very popular Bedford Garden Festival, which is only held for one weekend per year. The festival’s aim is for visitors to experience world renowned country gardens, as well as pretty town and township gardens, to enjoy scrumptious food and wines, and visit the craft stalls. The festival is during spring time, so the scenery all along the route will be very colourful.
Day 1: Wednesday 23 October
Guest will be picked up from their homes, and transferred to OR Tambo airport. Time for the pickup, transfer and flight will be confirmed closer to the date. Depart on domestic departing around 11h00, from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. On arrival your host will be waiting for you. We depart from the airport on a 2 hour drive to the Addo Elephant Park. A convenience and lunch stop will be made on route.
We will check into the well-appointed chalets at Addo National Park for the first 2 nights of the tour. Around 16h00 we will do a first afternoon game drive in this wonderful park. Dinners and breakfasts at Addo will be prepared by your host.
Day 2: Thursday 24 October
Today we will do game drives into the park to view the variety of animals, and especially the elephants. We will set aside some time as well for a bit of relaxation, where guest can view the water hole form their chalets. Enjoy the beauty of this park.
Day 3: Friday 25 October
After a last drive through the park it will be time to move on again. We travel from Addo towards the town of Cradock. This is where we will check into our Guesthouse which will be our base for the 3 nights. We are staying here as quality accommodation in Bedford itself is very limited.
After enjoying lunch in town, we also visit the town’s museum (if open) Dinner at Tuishuise Hotel.
Day 4 and 5: Saturday/Sunday 26/27 October
Over the next two days we will travel towards Bedford- 50 km away. The Bedford Garden festival has more than 40 gardens that are open to the public. Some of these gardens are on farms in the outlying areas of Bedford. So we will follow various routes to get too many of the prize winning gardens. We also visit the town Country Fair, where you can meander through craft stalls and sock up on local pantry fillers. We will learn more about heritage roses at the SA Rosarium and see an amazing butterfly collection. Returning to Tuishuise for dinner and overnight
Day 6: Monday 28 October
The journey home starts today, and we follow the N10 route via Middelburg, Noupoort, Colesberg and Springfontein. Being typical Karoo areas the landscape continuously changes from high mountain ranges and passes to open plains areas. After enjoying lunch in Colesberg we also visit the Gariep Dam before the last part of the drive towards Bloemfontein. Arrive in the mid afternoon for the last evening at the Diaz Guesthouse. Relax in the gardens before dinner.
Day 7: Tuesday 29 October
Our last day will be all along the N1 route to Johannesburg, which is a good double carriageway. We travel via Venterburg and Kroonstad towards Johannesburg. Guests will be dropped off at their home in the mid afternoon.
