Ditch the N1

South Africans aren’t afraid to drive long distances. Ask the average Brit to quickly drive from London to Edinburgh – a distance of 650 km – and his eyes will pop out of his head. Johannesburg and Cape Town are 1 400 km apart, but many South Africans drive this distance along the N1 in one day. The back road through the Great Karoo, however, is 1 700 km long – equal to London to Rome – and you cannot complete it in a jiffy.