We were impressed by driving conditions in South Africa and found that it was an easy and enjoyable way to travel, even over long distances. Driving is on the left, which makes it convenient for drivers from the UK.

We'd been warned that there were quite a few instances of roadworks to encounter and although we did see several excavations and bollards on our journeys, we were only held up once by traffic lights ('robots' in S Africa) and that was on the hill-top road between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek where there seems to be quite a bit of road-widening taking place (Dec 2009).

Overall, we were impressed by the quality of the roads we encountered (around Cape Town, and then on to Port Elizabeth via Franschhoek and Swellendam). Most take the form of 'two-lane black-tops', usually with wide hard shoulders. Initially we thought the latter a bit of a luxury, then we realised that it's polite to pull over onto the hard shoulder to let overtaking cars pass by.

Speed limits out of towns are generally 120 kph (75 mph) which means that you have to keep a careful eye not only on overtaking cars coming the other way, but also on your mirror for the 4x4s pounding up behind you. A disconcerting aspect of driving on these roads is that closing speeds can be upwards of 240 kph (150 mph) without any central divider. We didn't see any accidents on our holiday, but I imagine that if collisions occur, they could be horrendous.

Petrol is cheap (about 60p/litre), so driving is a relatively minor part of your holiday costs. Also, at petrol stations there are staff there to fill up your car, clean windscreens and check oil, which is something that you don't see in the UK too often. We weren't sure whether to tip or not initially, but we gathered later that it's usual to hand over R3-4 for the privilege.

Something we saw quite a lot of was people trying sell you items (shopping bags, flowers, you name it) whilst we were queueing at traffic lights. We didn't have any problems with this (we always kept our doors shut whilst driving), but it's an extra hazard to negotiate, especially if you're turning right at a junction.

Another issue is that in towns of any size, parking (either by the side of the road or in designated car parks) leads you to encounter characters who appear from nowhere to help you to negotiate your vehicle into a space and then offer 'to look after your car' whilst you're away. Some of these 'helpers' seem to be official (wearing high-visibility vests etc), whilst others seem to be punters trying to earn a daily wage. Anyway, it seems it's the done thing to give these guys R3-4 when you get back to your car (for obvious reasons). The only place where we could park without being hassled for money was in Franschhoek where there were notices street-side advising drivers not to hand over money "to prevent our citizens becoming beggars" (sic).

Regarding hire cars, make sure that you establish with your car rental company precisely what they mean by their 'Group A', 'Group B' categorisations etc before you leave the UK (or wherever). We thought that we'd rented a 'Ford Focus equivalent' for the 18 days we were away, only to be given a Toyota Yaris on arrival at Cape Town airport. Nothing wrong with a Yaris, of course, but it wasn't as big a car as we thought we'd rented. We ended up covering over 1200 miles, so you might want to make sure that you get a car that's going be comfortable enough for your needs.

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