We were in Olhao, Potugal trying to decide where to spend the winter and we started researching “great places for digitnal nomads in the winter” and lo and behold South Africa kept popping up… So, we went a little deeper nd searched for “best places to live as a digital nomad in South Africa.”  Two places rose to the top, the ubiquitious Cape Town and… of all places.. Sabie.

Sabie is a forestry town situated on the banks of the Sabie River in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The name Sabie is derived from the Tsonga word “Ulusaba” which means “fearful river” because the river was once teeming with dangerous Nile crocodiles!  Sabie is located 360 kilometres east of Johannesburg and 64 kilometres west of the popular Kruger National Park. It is known for its scenery and beautiful waterfalls, and is a popular tourist destination.  Its main industry is forestry. The plantations surrounding Sabie form one of the world’s largest man-made forests. There are many attractions in and around the town itself. Of these the most popular is the Lone Creek Falls about 10 km (6 mi) outside of town. There are many other waterfalls in the area, such as the Bridal Veil, Maria Shire, Horseshoe, Forest Falls, and the Sabie River falls situated within the town itself.

 

Cape Town or Sabie?  Cape Town had wonderful reviews… but we are “off the beaten path” people.  We read blog after blog and 90% of the people wrote about Cape Town… however…  the 10% who wrote about Sabie seemed to be so much more real and passionate.  We started looking for AirBnbs in Sabie…

When we found Trudie it was another confirmation that we were headed in the right direction.  Trudie is a world traveler herself, a free spirit and a lover of humans.  Her vibe was overwhelming and although we were scared to travel to somewhere so far away and foreign we were continually able to put our fears aside because we said, “At least we will have Mama Trudie…”

We were still really nervous to make such a big move but we decided to take a leap of faith.  As we checked out of our AirBnb in Olhao, loaded our stuff up and ade our way to South Africa doubts were still swirling in our heads.  We were early for our train and so we diecided to stop at a local bar by the train station and have a drink.  We were soon approached by a regular who started chatting us up and found out we were headed to South Africa.  His face lit up as he told us he was from there and that we were so fortunate to be going to his homeland!  We sat for the next hour and heard tales of South Africa and how wonderful it was and smiles danced across our faces!  Another confirmation!  Phew!

We are so excited now that we chose Sabie!  It is an absolutely beautiful place!  In every direction you look you see beautiful mountains set over rolling green hills covered wiith colorful flowers and always a fine mist cvovering the tops of the mountains.  It’s like Ireland combined with New Zealand…

Our house…

We’re living in an AirBnb hosted by our new friend Trudie!  She’s absolutely incredible and her house is awesome too!  She calls it the Big Treehouse and indeed it feels like that!   She has amazing gardens and two friendly Border Collies for us to love on!  However, the best part is the massive deck in the back overlooking the mountains!

 

The downtown is small, with two grocery stores and a handful of restaurants and pubs but it’s got everything you need and the rural atmosphere adds to the charm.  Everyhere you look natural beauty abounds and there are waterfalls everywhere!

We visited some of the local shops and restaurants and Trudie knows everyone in town!  One strange thing for us was that you need to pay a parking guard to make sure no one breaks into your car.  It’s only a few Rand but it’s simply a “rule of thumb” here which frankly to me feels like the old stories of buying protection form the mafia.

We were also able to visit a local nursery which was beautiful!  The family running it had built it themselves and had such a cool operation going!

On the way back we stopped at some of the roadside caves which you can hike into.  The caves were pretty cool but honestly the neatest thing was looking out of them and seeing the gorgeous African panarama…

Let’s talk about race…

Wow… this is complicated….  I started writing this section of the blog article and I realized it needs it’s own Blog to do it justice.  You can read it here…