is it safe....

Fear is in the eye of the beholder Tatjana :)

A lot of people tour around South Africa and the vast majority will have no problems at all. While the statistics and media reports paint a bleak picture of crime in South Africa, the reality is that it is still very unlikely that you will have any problems.

You can also minimise your exposure to risk by avoiding arrival into urban areas after dark and carefully choosing where you pitch the tent (if camping). The biggest concern is petty theft and therefore belongings need to be secured when you leave the bikes anywhere, but if you're two then it's easy because someone can mind the bikes.

I've traveled and worked all over the southern Africa region since 2001 and my only direct experience of crime was having my camera stolen whilst I was swimming on the Wild Coast last year. Before we left the area we spoke with the community leaders about the incident. Three days later my camera was found and put in the post to me. That's my experience. I know others who have far more negative experiences but ultimately, once you use common sense, there is little else you can do about it.

The only practical point that might be worth considering is that any route from SA into Botswana is going to involve pretty long hot stretches of landscape (esp in the summer), so I'd choose a route carefully.

Good luck!

Great advice lazycyclist!!! What a great experience on the Wild Coast!!! I am a South African and have also never experience any of the "horror stories" - not to say it doesn't happen, but one must just be sensible!

Big news in Cape Town today - an American tourist who was visiting a popular beach at St James, decided to stand on a railway track to video it. He was knocked down and killed by a passenger train which he did not hear approaching. Terribly tragic!!! But entirely avoidable and a rather silly thing to do! Certainly more tourists come to grief in South Africa through freak accidents, acts of nature, etc. than through serious crime.

Excactly... the key phrase is sensable. I would not suggest doing this alone. You will be a bigger target.
People should be more realistic... crime is not under control in this country. Townships are the worst of all, if you can avoid driving into or even close to a township you should be ok.

Still, its not something i would do, considering ive been mugged once at gunpoint, while another dude held a knive to my stomach, and the 3rd idiot was busy shocking the crap out of my buddy with a stungun.

oh yes... one more thing, botswana you wont have any issues...
but like i said, watch out for townships in south-africa... not a good place to hang around at.

An Irish granny, Dervla Murphy(?), did it. Read her books.

Cheers for reassuring mails. i suppose the thing is with travelling that you realize the world is actually mostly a lot friendlier than what your parents and newspapers tell you! Ive never really had any bad experiences travelling in unadvisable places. But i have read dervla murphy and as far as i remember she gets lost in a swamp chasing some armed bandit gang....Very reassuring!

I toured SA for 1 month last summer(winter there) with my girlfriend and only problems we had were in Cape Town where street kids tried to rob us twice. We just left in a hurry since it was very busy and there was lots of security around. There´s lots of these phony attempts. In the "countryside" like Wild Coast we didn´t have any problems, although I´m sure there´s lots of crime there too. My South African friend told us especially not to travel to Wild Coast, because he thought that Transkei is the worst place in the world. Apparently he had never been there though :D

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<hr>. My South African friend told us especially not to travel to Wild Coast, because he thought that Transkei is the worst place in the world. Apparently he had never been there though :D<hr></blockquote>
Yep. I've met lots of South Africans who strongly recommend the Wild Coast ("see it while it's still wild")...