A Road Trip To Clarens: Adventures Through South Africa's Scenic Routes

There we were, barrelling down another dual lane road riddled with potholes somewhere in Gauteng, Mpumalanga or the Free State, feeling both lost and found all at the same time.

It was exhilarating. We woke up that morning keen to hit the road but not the potholes.

All three of us had not been out of Johannesburg for a combined total of 26 years and we were all sick of our city and all the people, places and things that were weighing us down.

This is why, the three of us humans - plus a cat-sized dog named Ginger - were on our way to Clarens, albeit an hour later than planned as one of us needed to collect a camera and extra clothes, and another lost his wallet, twice. And then another needed batteries for his film camera.

Like any reasonable South African smartphone users, we chose our favourite GPS apps to get to our destination: Google Maps and Waze. How were we to know these would both drag us wildly off course - under the pretence of getting us there via the shortest route, to avoid traffic or who the heck knows what.