10 Awesome Facts about South Africa

Thanks to the crazy amounts of snow we’ve had this winter, there is one place we can’t get out of our minds…. South Africa! We spent December exploring this beautiful country, and plan on returning as soon as possible.

If you are planning a trip there, check out our last BLOG about our travel experience.

Here are our 10 favorite facts about South Africa:

1. There is no one capitol city of South Africa- it has three!  Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.

2. No shoes, no shirt, no problem. I’ve never seen more shoeless, shirtless people in airports, restaurants, and other public establishments. Watching a barefoot mom picking up her husband at the terminal was quite refreshing!

3. There are 11 official and 26 unofficial languages in South Africa. About 30% of the people speak English, followed by Zulu, and Africans. Africans is the newest official language brought to Africa by the Dutch.

1. Traffic lights are called “robots” the “Robot Ahead” signs made us a bit nervous the first time we saw one.

2. Time as we know it does not exist in Cape Town. When someone says “I’ll do that just now” it means it will happen between two minutes and two weeks. When someone says “I’ll do that now” it means it will happen in two or three days. “Now Now” or “Now Now Now” means “now” as we know it.

3. Beware of the black flag! A black flag with a shark on it means the spotter has seen sharks in the area. South Africa is home to the worlds largest breeding area for Great Whites- it’s the only place in the world they are known to breech!

4. Never mind the sharks- Hippos kill more people each year than lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes, sharks, and rhinos combined!!

5. Cape Town’s Table Mountain is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Table Mountain is believed to be 6x older than the Himalayas! Keep an eye out for the “table cloth” which rolls over the mountain on a regular basis. You can watch the cloud cover the top like a cloth before your very eyes. It happens very fast!

6. Penguins in Africa!? African Penguins are one species that has adapted to warmer climates. Visit Boulders Beach for an up-close and personal experience with them!

7. The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of 6 major floral kingdoms in the world. This is the smallest but most diverse floral kingdoms with over 8000 species!