Most backpackers fly into Johannesburg and immediately flee to Cape Town. This route argues for the other direction: south through the Free State's sandstone country, along the wall of the Drakensberg, up the maddest road in southern Africa into Lesotho, and down to the subtropical coast to finish among the green hills of the Wild Coast. It's the South Africa of escarpments and rondavels rather than vineyards, and it's cheaper and rawer than the Garden Route.
Johannesburg: two nights, eyes open
Joburg rewards the curious. Stay in Maboneng or Melville (dorms R250-380), take a guided tour of Soweto — Vilakazi Street, the only street with two Nobel laureates' houses, and the Hector Pieterson Museum — and give the Apartheid Museum (about R150) three unhurried hours; the ticket randomly assigns you a race classification at the entrance and the point lands immediately. Use Uber everywhere, and let the city's energy, art and food scene surprise you.
Clarens and Golden Gate
Shuttle or coach south for about 3.5-4 hours to Clarens, an art-gallery village of sandstone cottages under orange cliffs, home to one of the country's best craft breweries (tasting flights about R120). It's the staging post for Golden Gate Highlands National Park, where late-afternoon light sets the Brandwag buttress glowing like embers — day entry about R100, and watch for baboons, eland and bearded vultures.
The Amphitheatre
An hour or two on, the Northern Drakensberg delivers the route's defining image: the Amphitheatre, a 5-kilometer basalt wall rising over a kilometer above the valley. Backpacker lodges near Bergville run guided day hikes (about R900 including park fees and transfers) up the Sentinel route to the top, where the Tugela Falls — by many measurements the world's tallest waterfall — drops 948 meters off the edge, and two chain ladders bolted to the cliff provide the adrenaline. In winter the falls can freeze at the lip; in summer you'll walk through cloud that forms below you. Hostel dorms in the foothills, R280-380, tend to come with fireplaces and a resident dog.
Underberg and the Sani Pass
Work south along the berg to Underberg and Himeville, base for the Sani Pass: a 4x4-only track hairpinning up to 2,876 meters and the Lesotho border. Day tours run about R1,200-1,500 including the border formalities — bring your passport, this is a real crossing — and end with a drink at the pub at the top, which markets itself as the highest in Africa and has the wind to prove it. Better yet, overnight in a Basotho village homestay or the backpackers just over the border: horse trekking with local guides, snow possible any month, blankets worn as coats, and a sky at night that makes city people go quiet.
Down to Durban
Buses and shuttles descend to Durban in about 2.5-3 hours. Durban is warm ocean, promenade skateboards and the country's great Indian food: eat bunny chow — a hollowed half-loaf filled with curry, from about R70 — where it was invented. A day is enough unless the surf is good; dorms R250-350.
The Wild Coast: Coffee Bay
The final leg is the point of the whole route. Coaches run down the N2 to Mthatha (about 5 hours), where backpacker shuttles cover the last 90 minutes of winding rural road to Coffee Bay — turquoise rondavels on green headlands, cattle on the beach, and a pace that has famously wrecked many onward itineraries. The walk to Hole in the Wall, a detached cliff island with a wave-carved arch the Xhosa call esiKhaleni, the place of thunder, takes about 3 hours along cliff paths with local guides for around R150-200. Village visits, drumming nights and pancakes at the hostels round out days that cost almost nothing; dorms run R220-320. The Wild Coast is poor, proud, and unbothered by mass tourism — travel with respect and cash.
Practical notes
Go March-May or September-November; Drakensberg summers bring afternoon lightning, winters bring ice on the high routes but crystal air. Budget R650-900 a day including tours. The hop-on backpacker bus network covers Joburg-Drakensberg-Durban-Coffee Bay, which stitches this exact route without a rental car. Carry your passport for Sani Pass, malaria-free the entire way, and leave slack days at the end — everyone stays longer at Coffee Bay than they planned.