NEW CONTEST: What do you love more about your country? // NUEVO CONCURSO: ¿Qué es lo que más te gusta de tu país?

Ahh. I actually have been waiting for an opportunity like this all thanks to @belenguerra
& @worldgeography for this amazing contest.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into this.

Cliche photo of Cape Town because Cape Town is ALL that South Africa has to offer, duh.

So let’s start with what I love about South Africa:

South Africa is a really beautiful place. There’s so much natural beauty around. We’ve got the Drakensberg range, the Blyde river canyon, the waterfalls in Sabie, as well as our beaches which are pretty amazing too. And of course, how could I forget the Garden route, which runs alongside the coastline. If natural beauty is what you want, South Africa will not disappoint.

The Mac Mac falls, which is a part of the Blyde river canyon. Taken from my trip in March.

Umhlanga, Durban which is the East coast of South Africa. Taken from my trip in July.

South Africa is home to over 20 nature reserves, including the world-famous Kruger national park as well as the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Apart from wildlife, these parks have amazing scenery and are really beautiful places.

Photos taken from my trip to Pilanesberg Nature Reserve last year.

How multicultural it is and how tolerant we are towards each other. South Africa is home to so many cultures and people from all over the place, and we all coexist peacefully. Of course there are racist nutjobs, but there are so few of them that you can safely ignore them. Everyone is really supportive of each other and you’ll have the entire community wishing Muslims a happy Eid, Christians a happy Christmas/Easter, Jews a happy Yom Kippur, Hindus a happy Diwali… Everyone just gets along really nicely here and this is what I love the most about South Africa.
On a side note, our anthem is literally written in 4 languages (Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, and Zulu) to show how multicultural South Africa is.
Despite some of the craziness, life here is generally pretty peaceful.
Riding elephants around the place is a really fun way to travel and leads to some pretty amazing experiences. Seriously, I don’t understand what’s the hype around “cars” or whatever they call them, riding elephants is the way to go obviously.

Highway interchange in South Africa… We’ve got quite an advanced infrastructure to ensure maximum comfort for both elephants and humans. Ignore those photoshopped cars, some South Africans like to pretend we have cars to look “cool” or something.

But there are a lot of things which I don’t quite like about South Africa.

The crime here is pretty bad. It’s not AS bad as international media portrays it to be but it is still pretty bad. House robberies, vehicle hijackings, as well as stuff such as murders, rapes, etc. are fairly common. It is possible to minimize your chances of being a victim but it is something you have to be extremely careful about.
I don’t want to turn this political, but our government SUCKS. They’re extremely corrupt and good for nothing, and our politics are an absolute circus. But despite that there is some good work being done so it isn’t all that bad.
Elephants tend to be on the slow side, and cheetahs suck for doing long distance traveling. So traveling tends to be rather time consuming.
Overall, I love this country. It has its flaws but this place is my home and I wouldn’t enjoy living elsewhere, no matter how much I rant about how much I “hate” this place.

Thank you all...

Cc.-
@steemitblog
@steemcurator01
@steemcurator02
@stephenkendal