Howick

Howick sits at 1,050 metres above sea level, about 88km from Durban on the N3 highway. The Umgeni River cuts through the town and drops 95 metres over Howick Falls before continuing toward the coast. The falls were known to the local Zulu population as kwaNogqaza, meaning place of the tall one. The town grew up around the falls in the mid-1800s and was formally established as a municipality in the early twentieth century. Today it's a functional service town for the surrounding Midlands region, with a character that's part colonial history, part outdoor lifestyle.

The Mandela capture site sits on the R103 just outside town. On 5 August 1962, armed apartheid police stopped a car on that road and arrested Mandela, who had been evading capture for 17 months while disguised as a chauffeur. In 2012, artist Marco Cianfanelli erected a sculpture of 50 steel poles at the site: at a specific viewing angle, the columns resolve into a portrait of Mandela's face. The visitor centre tells the story clearly and without theatre. It's one of the more affecting sites in South Africa.

Howick Falls themselves are easily accessible from town and surrounded by small parks and viewpoints. The Karkloof area, a short drive from town, is well-known for canopy tours through indigenous forest and some of the best birding in the Midlands. The Midlands Meander starts effectively in Howick and runs northwest from here, giving you immediate access to craft breweries, cheese farms, art studios, and trout dams.

The town itself is unremarkable in the best sense: practical, well-supplied, and useful. There's an airport of sorts, schools, supermarkets, and a Saturday market. The falls are the centrepiece, but Howick earns its place as a base rather than a destination in its own right.