Week 1

Well, here is the first weekly installment. Please excuse the wordiness, my original intent of this blog has since changed to become a journal to save on duplicate writing. Read as much as you like, or just skip through.

The last leg from Amsterdam was brutal, 11 hours in a jam packed 777 where we were like proverbial sardines in a can. 3 more meals, 3 more movies (6 and 6 in less than 24hrs) arrived in Cape Town @ 10:30pm. The tour I had prearranged for the next two weeks is a called a Self-Drive. I told the organizer we had 2 weeks to drive from Cape Town to Durban (1600kms) and they chose the destinations and accommodations along the way. All we do is drive and show up. How easy is that!

Our first 3 days were in Cape Town, which is very British/Dutch, staying at a lovely English style Guest House/BB. First day we hopped on a topless tour bus to see the city and go up to Table Mountain for a gondola ride to the top. It was a magnificent view from up there; to the west, the city below on the Atlantic, and beyond, Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years; to the south, Cape of Good Hope; and to the east, False Bay on the Indian Ocean. The west coast suburbs south of the city have some pretty high end sandy beach front strips with exclusive condos and houses, primarily vacation property for well to doers from Johannesburg and Europe. Prices range from $200K to $1M, about ¼ what we’d pay at home. By our standards, cost of living is quite cheap. We’re on day 7 now, and our dinner bill has not yet been over $30 including wine, although gas prices are about the same.

On our last day in Cape Town we did a full day guided tour to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and its diverse habitats. We visited a Jackass Penguin colony and stopped on the road side by a wind surfing spot to see a family of baboons sitting on top several of the surfer’s cars. Although they look like a friendly species, they are quite vicious and will grab your pack or purse to scavenge for sweets and fruit. Down at the Cape Point we stopped for a photo op and hiked up the rocky cliff 800 feet above sea level to the Cape of Good Hope. Another breathtaking view, where the volatile Atlantic and Indian oceans meet.

To end the day our guide had brought along bikes for those of us who wanted to cycle 15kms back to the park entrance. Given there was a 30kn wind, hot and lots of hills, I (being the smart one), opted to stick to the air cond bus, whereas Roy (who would pay for it later), took off with two others. Only one girl made it to the end, but a great effort by Roy who packed it in only 2 or 3 kms short due to the fact that the up hill head wind was too great!

To round off our last night, we went to this fabulous restaurant called Mama Africa’s that was highly recommended to me by a young SA guy working in Sport Check in Langley while Christmas shopping ! It was an African themed rustic restaurant bar on eclectic Long Street, whose entertainment rocked the place. The lead singer had a very unusual tenor voice and mesmerized us with shimmy shakes that rivaled the best Hula dancers and the ability isolate chest muscles to go with the beat of the music. An art form that Roy really wants me to learn!

Next morning our VW Polo (Golf with a trunk) arrived at the guest house for us to start our road journey. We haven’t far to go this day, only 100 kms north east to Franschhoek, which is wine country settled by the 200 French Huguenots who fled to SA in the 17th century to escape religious persecution. With them they brought seedlings and planted Africa’s first vineyard. Well, by the time we got there my nerves were frazzled from Roy’s left side driving. This is Australia all over again – every time a car in the opposite lane comes towards us, he pushes partway over onto the shoulder. It’s really distracting and annoying to say the least going down the highway with a yellow line in front of me! Mind you on highways the paved shoulders are quite wide and are intended to drive on to let people pass.

It was the hottest day so far, a good 40 degrees, and within 1 ½ hours of getting to Franschhoek where we had lunch and one wine tasting, Roy crashed and burned. We checked into our cottage at 2, he slept until 6:30, had the runs and felt over fatigued and chilled. So we determined that he had succumbed to sun stroke brought on by yesterday’s bike ride in the blazing sun and wind and today’s extreme heat. So here we are in the most amazing wine valley where tasting costs a mere $2.50 per person, and Roy’s down and out.

Each of the wineries has their own guest accommodations; we were booked at the Chamonix Winery which has six 1 or 2 bedroom cottages and a fine dining French restaurant. The little 5 block village strip has many high-end West Van style boutiques, sidewalk restaurants, artisans and of course, diamond stores galore, all catering to the wealthy tourist. Not Roy’s scene at all, but given his current state, I was able to stroll and window shop at my leisure!

That evening the heat of the day brought on an amazing thunder storm. Roy was still feeling bagged and didn’t want to stray too far from the loo, so we didn’t go out for dinner. Good thing, because the storm would have wreaked havoc on outside dining anyways whereas we were able to sit out on our little front porch and witness the lightening show under shelter. It only lasted about an hour or so, but several things happened as a result; the fragrance from the surrounding vineyards was amazing, the temperature went down, the humidity up and the mosquitoes came out! Hopefully they weren’t the malaria variety, because I did succumb to a couple of bites despite having repellent on. Guess it’s a wait and see deal now.

Next day, next stop southeastward bound to Mossel Bay, a 350km drive. Leaving the valley was very scenic and the first 50 km had a diverse geography – up onto mountain tops, down into fruit and farming belts, through scrub and plains, sheep farms and foothills. The highlight of the trip though, was off in the far distance we could see smoke and wondered what that was all about.

About an hour later, at a town called Riverdale, we realized we were heading right towards it and could see on the right where the field had been burning and noticed that the fire had jumped the 2 lane road. I was busy taking pictures of the flames on the left, when all of a sudden we find ourselves driving blindly in thick smoke and I look to Roy’s side to see flames 6 feet high on the shoulder beside him. Obviously the fire hadn’t jumped the road, it was in the middle of jumping, and now there were flames on both sides of us! We’re in thick smoke, lost sght of the car ahead of us, didn’t know what we were heading for and certainly couldn’t turn around either. All Roy could do was keep going and fortunately, maybe 200 feet later, we broke through to see the car in front of us, and a road block for oncoming traffic! Hey what about us going east? Where was our roadblock! The car could have blown up in there! Anyways, it was a rather tense 4 or 5 minutes to say the least, Roy’s biggest fear was us succumbing to smoke inhalation.

Pressing onwards, with the new car now smelling like it had been bought in a fire sale (reminded me of Shimmeron’s early days), we arrived at the lodge in Mossel Bay. It was a beautiful setting, and again, primarily a vacation spot that also caters to tourists. One thing we have noticed in our week here, we have yet to run across any North Americans - everyone is either from the UK or Eastern Europe!

Not much else happens in Mossel Bay, it has SA’s only north facing beach, the museum houses a full size replica of the of the Portuguese ship than landed 500 years ago and most excitably (at least for Roy) there’s an outfit called Shark Africa that offers the excitement of a shark cage dive – with Great Whites. He was eager to check it out, although somewhat reluctant because even though the top of the cage is practically at sea level lowered between the pontoons of a catamaran, the water below was 1100 meters deep and thoughts of the cable breaking that suspend the cage was going through his mind! As it turned out, the only available space was the next day at 2, which meant we wouldn’t get to our next destination until dark. Roy wasn’t keen on driving at night, so he passed on the shark dive.

Next day’s destination turned out to be only 100km away, the town of Kynsna, named after the vessel sailed here by the son of King George III. It is about 500 kms east of Cape Town, surrounded by a 17km long lagoon which is protected from the sea by two sandstone cliffs called the Knysna Heads. This is where we are at present for 2 nights, staying in a 1 bedroom condo in the heart of the quays (more shops & eateries) overlooking the canal waterway. As you can see from the pictures, we haven’t been roughing it by any means! I guess that’s yet to come.
We went to a dive shop at the Knysna Heads, but the dive circumstances didn’t thrill us. It was a wreck dive, give or take 2 meter visibility, Great Whites (which apparently don’t bother you) and a huge current. Nope, we’ll pass, save the diving for Zanzibar. But on the way there we did see a golf course and Roy eagerly decided to make a tee time.

Today is our first full overcast day – although pleasantly warm. Forecast is rain along the south eastern coast, the direction in which we are heading. Roy went off to play golf, so once again I have the opportunity to do touristy things around the Quays and surrounding area.

Next stop tomorrow – Tsitsikamma Reserve and a canopy ride/zip ride through the forest!

Til next week, KnR