Ensuring that life on the trail is not a trial

Family hiking trips - those do-it-yourself walking holidays - are a wonderful way to bond with your children, to discover personal strengths and weaknesses, to immerse yourself in nature and unwind … and to discover the natural beauty of South Africa. The bonus is that although hiking holidays require a lot of planning and preparation, they generally cost significantly less than conventional holidays and leave you with far richer memories.

We set off from the car park in high spirits, making the last final adjustments to our pack straps as we strode out on the three kilometre stretch of tar, before diverging at the U-turn in the road to follow the first of many well-worn footpaths into the Drakensberg wilderness.

It was a little after 2 pm on an overcast winter afternoon, and my teenage boys set a cracking pace up to Sherman's cave, our first overnight stop in the Cathedral Peak area - and I quickly realised that I had underestimated their strength when distributing the loads. Here I was a 40-something pack horse with 18 kg on her back, breathing raspishly and labouring on tired legs behind lithe youth with about 13 kg each. Who, out of courtesy (and in fear of the severe safety lectures), waited periodically for me to catch up.

The warm waters of the Indian Ocean, sunny sands and mild winters turn the KwaZulu-Natal coastline into a scene of migration between May and July. Many flock to the welcoming waters and hospitable beaches … and we're not just talking people.

Infrastructure Spend Spearheads Growth in KZN

KwaZulu-Natal has the second largest economy in South Africa, and is of growing strategic economic importance to both South and Southern Africa.

Economic activity is concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Richards Bay, with the coastal belts utilised for sugar cane plantations, subtropical fruit and vegetables.

The province has a rich endowment of natural resources, well-developed first-world infrastructure and advantageous coastal location  - and offers a highly competitive advantage in capital intensive manufacturing, transport, storage and communications, and finance as well as business services. It is also well positioned in agriculture, forestry and fishing, agricultural resource-intensive manufacturing sectors; and in the tourism and accommodation sectors.

2010 and Beyond

Having lost the chance to host the 2006 World Cup to Germany by one vote, winning the bid to host the 2010 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup on 15 May 2004 was a huge boost to national pride, and an achievement South Africa is justifiable euphoric about.

"The difference about hosting the World Cup is South Africa is that the local level of enthusiasm for the event is without precedence," said Jamie Byrom, head of MATCH, the company appointed by FIFA to deliver accommodation and ticketing solutions for 2010.

Once banned from all FIFA activities, South Africa is now responsible for hosting the world's premier soccer event - which, according to revised estimates by consulting firm, Grant Thorton, should contribute at least R51,1-billion to national Goss Domestic Product (GDP) between now and 2010.