It has been 8 years since I did my last roadtrip in South Africa, driving from Cape Town through my other hometowns of George and Port Elizabeth to Durban, through the Drakensberg to Bloemfontein and back to Cape Town. I remember seeing lot on that trip of 2056 miles and parts of South Africa I’d never seen before. It was one of my more memorable trips and I was keen when planning a trip to the States to plan a similar epic roadtrip, with the goal of experiencing what the South West has to offer.
I rented a hybrid Jeep Cherokee in Denver and over 2 weeks I drove a distance of 1,973 miles for the direct route to each accommodation, luckily able to tag-team the driving with my husband.
By the end of the trip the total time driving was 66 hours over a total distance of 3029.6 miles which included getting to points of interest from each accommodation. To put in mildly I was slightly shocked at the final tally. Since living in Ireland my perspective of a long drive has changed: it takes only 2.5 hours to drive from Dublin to Galway – east to west of the country. In comparison in South Africa long drives are much more common, similar to the States where driving 7 hours to a holiday destination is no big deal and is just part of the trip.
most memorable takeaways from the roadtrip:
- Spending time with friends I’d otherwise not have the opportunity to see in person
- Seeing the Grand Canyon which was incredible
- Enjoying the 104°F heat in Arizona, recharging my batteries before returning to the cold of Ireland
- The temperature change between the 4 States was pretty surprising within a 2 week period: as high as 104°F and as cold as 26°F
- Driving on the right side of the road for the first time, which was insanely confusing for the first couple drives and took constant concentration for the first while
- Going on a LOT of beautiful hikes everywhere I went
Shells Adventures 