Woke to quite heavy clouds and Cameron saying it could rain later. But in true S. African fashion, by 11am the sun had come out and we were about to board the catamaran again – this time to go to the Featherbed Nature Reserve on the eastern head of the ‘lagoon’.
Our guide John, an ambitious 27 year old who works for 6 months and then studies for 6 months – working towards an economics degree. His wife is in Germany as a travel agent and he is leaving in a couple of days to go to Kiel to continue his studies. An interesting young man who has travelled well – in fact, one of the other tourists who works for DHL said he was just the kind of person they look to recruit for international management.
From the jetty at the Nature Reserve we boarded a 4×4 to make a slow ascent to the hillcrest, with useful commentary on the fynbos and history of the Reserve which is in a huge sand dune, only stabilised by the dense vegetation. A Mr J. B. Smith discovered a living fossil – the coelacanth that had thought to be extinct for 80m years – in the lagoon and wrote a book called ‘Old Four Legs’ and then used the proceeds from the book to start buying up parcels of land on the reserve in order to preserve it. (I might have got two pieces of information muddled up there so I need to do some research!) There are about 80 native bird species and a plethora of local flora. Many years ago a non-indigenous azalea was brought in as part of the vegetation, but they are slowly (they have to be aware of keeping the dune stabilised) replacing it with the indigenous plants.
At the top, our driver chucked us out and we made the slow descent through the forest, admiring some stunning views of the heads from a variety of different viewpoints. We finally arrived at the sea’s edge and some caves which were refreshingly cool after the searing heat. A flat walk along the cliff edge back to a delicious buffet of local produce – calamari, white fish in curry sauce, tuna carpaccio, lamb curry, roast beef, greek salad, green salad, lentils, roast potatoes, ratatouille – a feast. Then mavla, chocolate brownie, fruit salad, water melon, milk tart, ice cream… Surely we won’t need to eat tonight! Just spotted the Knysna Lourie bird as we were eating, so another bit of wildlife ticked off our list.
Interesting to talk with an Irish couple who’ve been coming to South Africa for over 30 years. They’d been to the Phantom Lodge, when it still existed, and were sad to here it was no more. They recommended us to visit the Simola Golf course for the views and Sunday lunch (but that’ll have to be for another time now). So once off the boat – which John, our guide ably piloted back (under the tuition of the ‘real’ captain) – we headed up to the complex which is still being expanded. Very much based on the Portugese complexes it certainly has stunning views of the ‘lagoon’, excellent facilities (including a spa – perhaps there’s future employment for me?) and apparently is quite a challenging Jack Nicklaus signature course. John’s hoping to ‘sneak’ back here with his mates for their golf holiday – over my dead body I say. Not sure what the locals think about the amount of water that must be consumed in keeping the course up to scratch – must be a hard job for the greenkeepers.
I took a walk down to beach before sunset and the beach was scattered with people and camera capturing the waves crashing over Castle Rock and the imminent dramatic sunset. Typically it was the one time I’d left my camera behind charging up, so I did the best I could on my camera’s phone.
An informal meal at the Nauticus beach restaurant – pizzas and shared Greek salad. As we were leaving the couple next to us started talking to us and we ended up having a delightfully friendly end to the evening, enjoying another beer and sharing S. African experiences. Interestingly Sean is here – semi on holiday – while writing a book on business strategy for government while Sandy can fully indulge in relaxing away from her job in immigration at Gatwick. They’re self-catering, which Sally feels has the downside of having to shop – which she feels she does enough in England – rushing to Sainsbury’s after work etc., whereas Sean enjoys the novelty of the different food in the shops – I’m with Sean on that one.
Am feeling rather embarrassed now to think that we’ve exchanged emails/blog address with them and my 10,000 (to date) chatty words are in direct contrast to the 40,000 words he’s working on so seriously and earnestly!
At this point perhaps I ought to make some kind of disclaimer that the ‘facts’ in this blog are mostly from memory and the anecdotal commentary of our guides not to be taken seriously in any research project!!