In previous years when South African’s decided to go on a trek through the country it was something of a shot in the dark, as there were many unknown factors and uncertainties associated with the trip. From not knowing if there was accommodation in a specific area, driving for miles without a petrol station in sight and getting completely lost. These days however with the advent of GPS, satellite tracking and in-car navigation things are a lot easier.

Besides these in-car gadgets there are some very useful websites that can make the planning of your trip that much easier. So before you set off, give these sites a look and see exactly what you have in-store on the road ahead.

Travelmath ( www.travelmath.com/driving-distance )

This site is good to start off with as its relatively simple and to the point. You get 2 fields where you enter where you are going from and to. In the dropdown box you then specify if you want to calculate the driving distance, the flying distance or some various other options. That’s essentially all you need enter, you will then be presented with a map of the country you are going to be traveling in and the desired route.

In the example I used, I entered in Johannesburg and Cape Town and was presented with this image.

And the travel distance the site produces is: 1398km. As you can see from the image you can then zoom-in at various parts of the map to see the bigger picture and names of certain areas that you will be passing on your route. As I said this is quite a simplified site and good for just getting a general idea of the route you will be going.

The Automobile Association of South Africa

The AA ( http://www.aa.co.za )

The AA has a nice advisory section on their site, listing things like toll road fees and fuel price fluctuation etc. The most useful section however is their ‘Road condition report‘  which is quite an intensive listing on the state of various roads and any additional notes and hazards that could be occurring.

My biggest gripe with this section is that in order to access it, you first need to register on the AA site. This is free but it still takes time and you need to authorize your account via email etc which is added hassle that I don’t think needs to be there.

My second biggest gripe is that instead of displaying the details in a web-based format that can provide links between the various sections, it simply opens a PDF document in a new window and all the information is listed in one massive form. You can still click on ‘Johannesburg’ and it will take you to that section but I feel like with such a massive amount of information, it needs to be completely sectioned off and linked.

On to the good stuff. The document is very thorough and detailed, with every major highway listed. If there is nothing wrong with a particular road and all is going swimmingly, then it will still list it and simply display: “The road is in fair to good condition”. However, if the road is not in working order, for whatever reason, then it will be listed and the listing is quite comprehensive indeed. From: “Potholes in the road”, “Strong wind experienced”, “Animals on the road” to “Lane closures do to construction”.

It is a very useful site and can save you a lot of time by giving it a quick read through before a long trip or even a short trip.

There is a lot more information to be found on the AA site, so take a look around and see what useful information you can find.

Part 2 coming soon!