Category: South Africa Trip

Clear blue skies and no wind – ideal for Table Mountain trip. Saw Dave Fenton again at his flat in Tokai for coffee, the splendid view and more tips on fine dining at our next ports of call.

Arrived at Table Mountain and groaned as we saw how far away we would have to park. Arrived near ticket office with intention of dropping off John and going off to park the car. But a friendly warden, Sebastian, recognised John as a ‘nice guy’ and offered us a disabled parking slot and fast tracked us to the ticket office!!

Smooth ride up in cable car which rotates so everyone gets a chance to see the views on the way up – stunning – and none of those scary bumps over the pylons you get on ski-ing cable cars – although we did come to a sudden stop with a ‘power outage’ for a few seconds and the ‘driver’ cheerily kept making sure we were all OK.

Impressive walk across the top of the mountain – colourful flora, lots of lizards and – I’m running out of adjectives – phenomenally clear views over Cape Town and along the coast right down to Cape Point where we’d been on Tuesday.

Stopped for petrol and a swarm of guys set to and washed and dried the car in the time it took us to fill up and pay!

A bit of panic when we thought John had lost his phone so phoned Dan (having had to charge my phone from John’s whizzy mobile charger) to arrange to bar it,, but a few miles down the road it must have dislodged from its hiding place in the car, so panic over.

Long drive to Montagu and our next B & B at Montagu Vines. The ‘bird tree’ was full of ibis – 6 varieties apparently – quite a sight. No-one knows why they settle there particularly. Then over the bridge which collapsed last November in flash floods which effectively had cut off our B & B for 3 days and ruined the vines.

Richard offered welcome carafe of the white house wine on the terrace.

In the garden of Jessica’s restaurant for a delicious meal of tiger prawns/salmon crab cakes, Karoo lamb/trio of lamb ostrich and kudu (antelope) – all exquisitely served with delicious understated sauces.

Breakfast served by Frances and Richard. Frances insisted that nothing was too much trouble as ‘you’re on holiday and you must be spoiled’. This included yet another carwash as part of the service!!

About 150 mile drive on the R62 (the inland counterpart to the Garden Route, which runs closer to the coast) hardly inhabited by cars. Landscape now more arid in the Karoo valley – but still with curvaceous mountains on either side.

Friends and the Rough Guide insisted we stopped at Ronnie’s Sex Shop – a small café in the middle of nowhere. Ronnie’s shop had not been busy until ‘someone’ mysteriously added ‘sex’ to the handpainted sign, since when it’s become almost obligatory to add an item of underwear, a peaked cap or your business card to his extensive display. I didn’t feel inclined to leave him my new Fantasy thong (see relevance of this comment later). Eponymous Ronnie with long white plait revels modestly in his success and welcomes all visitors.

A detour up a dirt track to Warmwaterberg a pleasantly quiet hot springs spa where we swam in the natural hot spring pool and cooled off in the cooler one.

Tramezzini (like panini but made with a flat soft focaccia type bread) on the terrace of the spa accompanied by one of the many peacocks on the spa estate, refreshed us for the last leg towards Oudtshoorn. Ostriches abound in the scrub. Long drive up a dirt track to our accommodation on De Zeekoe Farm (think of sea cow i.e. hippo – which used to live in the nearby river) – a working ostrich farm. Absolutely delightful setting and superbly appointed rooms overlooking the valley. A dip in the pool, before a sparkly aperitif on the terrace watching the sun set. As the farm is 9K out of town, they serve a dinner – no choice, but delicious – tapenade Greek salad, beetroot soup, beautifully tender ostrich steaks served with a range of vegetables, then a trio of vanilla ice cream, strawberry mousse in a biscuit basket and lemon meringue pie,

 

Wednesday 28^th January

Clear blue skies but quite a strong wind – so Table Mountain and Robben Island are off the agenda.

Visited Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens which are part of South Africa’s UNESCO World Heritage site – the first garden to achieve this status. The site is huge (528 hectares with 22,000 indigenous plants) and slopes up towards Table Mountain, so we took the tour in a golf buggy (appropriately) to see as much as possible in a short time. Stunning although not as colourful as in spring we understand. Also a panoramic view of Cape Town and beyond,

A light bite before we go on the family trail.

We are greeted at Jean’s (a cousin twice removed?) by her lifesize bronze sculpture of an African elephant! Her son Anton showed us round her galleries, the garden and exhibition area at the bottom of her garden. She specialises in celebrating the fuller female form in quirky ways (a la Beryl Cook) – absolutely amazing – she really pushes the limits and says she looks for the centre of gravity in a pose and then offsets it to give it the feeling of movement . She is very creative and skilled, with a dedicated team who work together to produce the final bronze castings. She has done commissions such as a 3 metre statue of Nelson Mandela which is at the entrance to the prison he spent the last two years before release, and an Angolan peace sculpture which is 9 metres high. A resin copy of Nelson is in her exhibition area. She researches her subjects thoroughly, so obviously met Nelson and lived with elephants for a while before doing the sculpture that first greeted us.

Anton does her marketing and promotional work and has just set up a gallery of her work in London near Tate Modern – Sussex Street. He also runs an activity company organising adrenalin adventures. He and his brother trained as priests, but Anton has since changed direction, while Dieter still practises in America.

We covered quite a lot of family history – I’ve been able to fill a few gaps – and exchanged family news. But most exciting – Jean is going to contact more relatives and try to arrange a get-together when we return to Cape Town for the weekend of 14/15^th.

We got on really easily and also met her husband Mike who is in charge of the foundry, which was the first in South Africa.

Relaxing for a while before we prepare to meet up with Dave Fenton (retired GP from Southwell) who has a place out here. We’re going to Buitenverwachting Vineyard restaurant which is supposed to be ‘fine dining’.

Tuesday 27^th January

Woke up to rain! John is known for inducing rain wherever he goes! Tunisia, Trinidad, Durban….

Planned our day with Gerry whose encyclopaedic knowledge was useful and his suggestions helpful.

Destination Cape Point – the most southernly tip of the continent. Via Kalk Bay – a seaside town of antique shops, galleries, good quality hippie/ethnic boutiques. Didn’t stop at Fish Hoek but unfortunately a blip in navigation skills took us round a very unprepossessing ‘Wimpy’ estate before finding the scenic hairpin bend route across the peninsula and down into the Table Mountain National Park where you are frequently reminded that baboons are dangerous – quite disappointed though, not to see any.

Stunning views at Cape Point – rocky outcrops and crashing surf. I walked up – John took the funicular. Busy but not annoyingly so.

On the way back, an article in a magazine I’d picked up at the B & B suggested a detour to Bordjiesrif for coastal landscape and a sea-fed lagoon guaranteed to be deserted… and amazingly it was. Bonus sight was a family of ostrichs, a flock of terns and something resembling a sandpiper.

Further along the road a troop of baboons were occupying the road unperturbed by the locals who’ve seen it all before and just want to drive through and by us tourists who want to take snaps. Alpha male very evident…

In all the excitement we’d forgotten to have no. 2 of 21 gourmet lunches that John had been looking forward to! so popped into Simon’s Town Golf Club. The snack pack of biltong was no substitute, so we made do with a drink entertained by an interesting guy who we suspected might have owned the club.

Then to Boulders Beach for the Penguin colony. Hundreds of South African Jackass penguins just starting their breeding season, so we witnessed the start of the next generation of these cute birds who make an amazingly loud braying noise as part of their courtship.

Bonus sight was a ‘dassie’ – a guinea pig sized animal which is the closest living relative of the elephant.

Then back to freshen up, and off to Wasabi in Constantia for sushi and steak and langoustines.

Sunday 25^th/Monday 26^th

A very pleasant drive kindly ‘chauffered’ by Will and Di to Heathrow. After a smooth flight with British Airways on a 747–400 – 6005 miles, 11 hours 40 minutes and 4 hours’ sleep away – we’re here and it’s hot.

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We sat next to Barbara and David Gay who live in Gloucester and have 3 daughters one of whom is married to a S. African – so B & D have visited 4 times, but daughter and son-in-law now live in London so the visit is purely to chill out for a week away from their busy jobs in banking and IT. Now here’s the coincidence….

Another daughter Laura, is married to Tim Palperry and lives in West Bridgford. Tim’s father is a friend of Tim and Hilary Pearson who used to live two doors away from us on Cottams Close. They say you’re only a few steps away from being related – well nearly.

 

Expected our rental car to be a VW Polo but somehow ended up with a huge Toyota Corolla. Plenty of space for luggage then… having packed so economically carefully!!

 

Now here’s a riddle – how come we have a picture of Avis breakdown truck with a replacement car, but we still end up using the Corolla!?

The road was jam packed all the way from the airport to Cape Town, so a lot of ‘riding the clutch’ as we crawled along. Then suddenly the car stopped and wouldn’t restart. Panic. A bunch of workers jammed into the back of an open van leapt out and with huge smiles and cheering, pushed us to the hard shoulder where we scratched our heads, read the manual and tried repeatedly to start the car.

No joy – so phoned Avis who came out within 20 minutes with a replacement car. In the meantime a couple of Traffic Services (sort of minor cops I guess, but they still had guns) had stopped and checked us out – all very friendly and sympathetic.

Cheery Avis guy arrived and checked the driver was pushing the clutch down to start the car – it was necessary to disable some security device. Then the guy twigged that the driver was sitting quite a long way back in his seat (whoops, gave the identity of the driver away!) and queried if he was able to push the clutch fully to the floor. Bit banter about short legs and the mystery of the unstartable car was solved. Boy we were embarrassed.

 

Arrived in Constantia at lovely B & B owned by Gerry and Denise. Houseboy said the room wasn’t quite ready for us, so Gerry welcomed us and we went for a snack at Melissa’s in the village.

A very welcome shower refreshed us and then we were off to Hout Bay and Campbell Peak Drive. The latter was still closed (a friend of John’s army friend Ian, Tim (none of the above Tims!) had told us it was closed in Nov and apparently the work permit to do the work to retaining the falling rocks has still not been issued – the wheels of gov’t run slowly here) so then to Mariner’s Wharf for a seafood snack overlooking the beach.

Roger the waitron ( such a sensible unisex word!) was interesting on language – something like 11 official ones in S.Africa.

Back to B & B for aperitifs on our private patio before Peddlars on the bend for 3 course wine/gourmet meal– prawns/calamari, venison, crepes suzette.…