Caped Crusadors

(Carys)

I'm not going to lie, didn't have a great night sleep. Woke up quite a lot because there was an awful buzzing sound in my ear. I think it was a mosquito. Anyway, I managed to sleep in the end, and when I woke up and got dressed, we had breakfast, which made up for the  lack of sleep. Was very happy to receive my first pancake breakfast on the holiday.

We packed up and left the lovely guest house - it almost felt like  we hadn't been there at all. After driving through mmore terrible townships and pretty looking lakes, we arrived in the big city - Cape Town. My first impression of it was good. It reminded me of London a bit, a bustly, big city full of food, shops and tall buildings.


We said farewell to our faithful hire car, Zola, and left her at the Avis  drop off station. We strolled back through some markets to our Holiday Inn. After bringing the bags up, settling in a bit and deciding our plans for the day, we walked to the  office of  the  City Sightseeing Bus Tour. We decided to take the blue bus tour  around the coastal part of town. We sat in the top part of the bus, and the wind was cold on our faces and we whizzed around the city. We learnt a lot about the city history from the audio guide.

We ignored most of the stops such as the botanical gardens, winery, and a bird sanctuary; but decided to stop off at  a lovely little beach called Hout Bay. Here we ate some burgers, calamari and chips, walked on the beach and even saw some seals in the port!

Once the bus returned we  drove round some rocky beaches and got off outside the aquarium where we got on a boat for a tour of the harbour. It was lovely to see all the boats and shops, and even some more seals resting in hung up tires.

After getting of the boat and hopping back onto our hop-on-hop-off bus, we drove through the busier part of Cape Town and back to the starting point. We decided to have a quick drink in a nice restaurant called Thirty-Ate and then walked back to our hotel.

We changed into some nicer clothes, and went out in search of a restaurant to eat food in. We were hoping for a curry, but found some great food right on our doorstgep, instead! There was a street market full of different foods and drinks from various cultures.

I caught sight of a stall selling  'Macaroni-And-Cheese Balls' and desperately wanted one. For my first one, I had a bacon one, and later ate a lasagne one. They were one of the best things I've ever tasted! I also ate a tasty white oreo donut for my dessert, and once everyone else had found some food, we were all set for dinner.


We enjoyed the street music and the fairy lights and chatter in the street market for a while, but came back to our hotel for another drink at around 20;00. We came up to our room and went to bed, having full stomachs and having had a fantastic day!

(Lloyd)

Where to start, very much an action packed day, if not lots of Kapows and Kapazz, enough to put some sort of comic feature together.  Started in slightly less active fashion, no run today, a gentle stroll around the Stellenbosch botanic gardens.  The largest bonsai collection in Africa don't you know, which is obviously the reason we came.  Bit of Japanese influence they also love their comics out there, anime, manga, kawii etc  Need to add Japan to the list of next destinations.  It's forever growing.

Anyway, I digress, back to our lovely little calm oasis for some breakfast, before a deep breath and launch into Cape Town.  Must admit to being ready for a bit of crime fighting as we navigated the mean streets of Cape Town, but perhaps the bad press and stereotypes had influenced my thinking unnecessarily. Traffic was fine even in and around the town centre, did a few loops of some back streets while family dropped bags off in Holiday Inn Express.  Then over to Avis to say goodbye to Zola and stroll through town back to our hotel for check in an check wifi time.

bonsai

road trip end

goodbye faithful friend (the car)

Planning for the next few  days ensued. Looked at the internet and settled on buying a 2 day pass with Cape Town City Sightseeing.  https://www.citysightseeing.co.za/cape-town/products/cape-town-open-top-bus-tours  What a good decision, even if I do say so myself.  Perched ourselves up top of a double decker, plugged in some ear phones and learnt a lot, and saw a lot.  Table Mountain can't be avoided but will feature more tomorrow, but plenty of info about the history of the area, the Khoeikhoi tribes that were indiginous, how they were done over by the Dutch, how the Dutch were done over by the Brits, how everybody does everyone else over... humans eh, always seeking the upper hand.... history written by the victors said Churchill, so most of South African history pretty modern.

top deck travel

university of cape town

The bus took us out onto the coastal peninsula where we saw townships, fishing villages, beach resorts, and all over looked by Table Mountain.  Weather changed from hot sun to clouds and mist at various stages of the afternoon, the micro climate is very ummm changeable.  We transferred from the bat bus into the bat boat for a while, to take a seal trip around the harbour.  Don't think we'll bother with Fisherman's Wharf (San Francisco) again now.  Back into the city, Chrissi found us a funky jazz bar hangout type place (no sign of Anchorman and his jazz flute), and then we enjoyed a bit of African street food and gin with a bit of guitar music and smiley faces.  Final bit of reflection in our hotel on what has been a truly super day.

township

Hout bay

not llandudno but near to llandudno

free harbour tour

seal the deal

table mountain ... a teaser

out after dark

                                                                   

Leaving the Garden untended

(Lloyd)

So the Garden Route (diverse vegetation, lagoons, lakes etc) only features as a small part of our trip, running from Storms River (west of Jeffreys Bay) to Mossel Bay.  And today we left Mossel Bay so that signifies the end of that little jaunt, perhaps we could and should have ventured onto one of the hikes or foresty bits, but time kind of gets in the way.  May well be something to come back to (after Vietnam, South America and 1-2 other places)

Carys and I did a little 4 miler down to the Point to start our day, getting twitchy as I hear of people getting their marathon vests.  Got a bit of catch up to do next week.

Today was a drive to  Stellenbosch (on the outskirts of Cape Town) so a lot of time was spent with the pedal to the metal.  Broke the journey up in Swellendam, a quaint little town, its early roots tracing back to the Dutch East Indies company.   Less spice and more sugar for us today, cookies, cakes and chocolate the diet of the ardent traveller.

Onwards we went through rolling hills and into wine country, very Mediterranean in feel, not unlike some of our time spent in south of France/north of Spain in our pre blog road trips.  Started to get a bit busy as we approached Cape Town, a sense of what we might encounter tomorrow, but today we are holed up in a little piece of paradise called Stellenbosch.  Chrissi managed a bit of wine tasting, the rest of us will indulge on some other local produce from the balcony of our beautiful guesthouse, mountain peaks and sunshine all around us.

 

 

(Carys) Only a short one today as we didn't do loads -


Woke up quite early and went for a very difficult 4 mile run with dad, that included a lot of unwanted hills. It wasn't too hot, but warmer than I'd have preferred. After a quick shower we packed up and set off away from Mossel Bay.

Around half way through our drive we stopped a stylishly designed deli and café, where I enjoyed a delicious white hot chocolate and butter scone with jam and cream.

We left as soon as we finished to get to our next accommodation. In Stellanbosch, after another two hour drive, we visited a Wine Museum where mum tasted some wines from the area, and bought a couple. We then drove to our lovely little guest  home where we'd be staying for the next night.

We went for a walk past the botanical gardens and university to the mall where we bought lots of food and drink for the evening. As we strolled back to the room I realised I felt like I was in Southern France. It also felt like that when we had an awesome meal of cheese, bread, wine (for the parents),  crackers etc on our balcony.

Calculated Risks

(Lloyd)

Started the day with a run. Not an obvious route, headed down to the Point at the edge of town, and started to climb up the footpath towards the lighthouse. Was soon skirting the cliff face and a run turned into a scramble turned into a few pauses to get a sense of direction as I was heading into remote territory. Saw the backs of some holiday homes so headed towards them and was soon back in suburbia albeit with a few peculiar mammals running across my path. Stumbled across the rugby club, did a lap of the pitch and then down back into town.  After all that was disappointed to only clock 7 miles so will need to find another 3 tomorrow.

fell running

rock hyrax sunning itself

A bit of cool down in the pool, the sun came out, and we took a drive back into town with a beachy afternoon in mind.  Took a stroll back up some of the climb I had run earlier and then a nice chic little coffee shop for sustenance.  Afternoon on the beach reading a book, Prisoners of Geography, bit of geopolitics always good for travelling with, identifying the next places to visit and immerse ourselves in.  Stumbled across a bit of natural adrenalin entertainment to end the day, a 500m natural pool cut into the rocks that the waves came crashing over.  Not a big swimming in the sea kind of person but this seemed too good to miss.

beach afternoon

natural pool

I know we are not in central Africa but I thought I'd pay a visit to Savanna now ...

simple food 

simple drink

(Carys) Very relaxing morning to begin the day, reading etc.Was disheartened by a large shower of rain, expecting it to ruin our beachy plans, but soon passed and the day was back on track.

Went for a lovely little walk around the lighthouse, hungry, but in good spirits. Saw some beauttiful views thought it was slippy and rocky getting up.

We searched around the find a place to have a proper breakfast, tbough it was 1 o clock by the time we got there, so more of a lunch. I had a breakfast croissant with jam, and bacon and eggs on the side. I found it much nicer than I expected, and enjoyed the style of the cafe also.

After settling on an area of the small part of the beach, w lay on the grass by the sand and read for hours. I also went for a paddle amidst the hundreds of small fish in the rockpools, which was a bit of fun. On our way out, had a quick swim in a not-so-secret but hidden away part of the beach. It had sharp rocks to hide behind when large waves crashed forward, an a few stone planks to jump off. Then returned for a bit of a swim in our own pool, had a shower and ended the day on our lovely balcony.

wakey wakey

lighthouse walk at the point, stone age remanants

full stomach, happy Bryn

me and the kids taking on the waves

Following the Germans

(Lloyd)
The soundtrack of our trip a bit of a throwback, really tried to find something on the radio over the last few days but the music stations are appalling out here.  They make Capital appear a rich cultural experience in comparison, and my hatred of Capital radio is well documented.  Everywhere we go our hosts tell us about a German family that stayed the day before and were disappointed with the weather or were heading in the wrong direction.  We, on the other hand, the welsh germans, were getting all the luck, we bid them auf wiedershen pet/butt


(Carys)


After a night of large thunderstorms and lightning - dad woke me up to enjoy the unusual weather- we had a lovely breakfast in our B&B and I chose continental instead of cooked, to have something different for a change. After another brief storm of rain and thunder, we set off on the four hour journey, the longest car journey of our travels.

An hour or so into the drive, we took a detour to Monkeyland! It was incredible, being able to roam amongst the monkeys and apes in natural habitat. Even before we entered the forest, there were monkeys just jumping about. Overall our tour guide said we saw 9 species out of the 11 species that live there. My favourites were the Cappucion monkeys - the mothers often had tiny babies on their backs. There was also a horrific moment with an eight legged beast, which crawled onto mine and mum's chairs and backs!  I freaked out but not as much as i  could have done.  But i had the shivers all day after that!  Once we left the enclosure and had a quick snack, we were back on the road.

We drove through many mountains and beautiful lagoons which were lovely to see on our long, otherwise boring, drive. We arrived at Mossel Bay and our home for the next two days. It had bunkbeds each for me and Bryn, a double bed, a kitchen, bathroom, living room and even our own pool with lilos! We relaxed there for a while and in the early leaving left to find some food.

We struggled to find a nice takeaway on Easter Monday, but managed to find a nice chippy, It was late by then and we were tired and hungry, so we enjoyed it ever so more after we returned to our room after a quick round of getting lost.

Right before bed Bryn decided to have a quick 'nighttime swim' and dove into our pool. He said it was freezing but it couldn't have been too bad!

(Lloyd)

Jeffrey's Bay was beautiful, our welsh hosts (pure chance) looked after us and gave us a hearty breakfast and a bit of Afrikan politics.  We were soon on our way, filling up Zola (who has been a pretty good budd so far) and getting on the highway and heading west toward Cape Town.  Soon we were in the Tsitsikamma national park and taking in breathtaking mountains, gorges, forests, the works.  Our stopping point today was Monkey land, the best wifi we have had in days, and a few monkeys too.  Most of them not African though which seemed a bit pointless, apart from the cheeky Vervets.  Best bit of wildlife sighted in the cafe though as Chrissi and Carys became the entertainment for fellow diners who had been watching them for a number of minutes as a massive rain spider had been crawling up their backs.

On we went west, making a schoolboy error at the toll. I thought the toll lady was trying to sell me a dodgy heater (strange as it was 25 degrees) but it later became clear she was pointing to the meter in our car which meant we didn't have to pay.  I'd already thrust 50 rand into her hand and sped off by the time I realised she was in fact trying to be helpful.

The sleepy lagoon side town of Knsysna would have been a nice stopping off point but wanted to get some miles under the belt and got into Mossel Bay around mid afternoon.  We have a lovely compartment with our own pool and ocean view so all good, although the town a little more industrial than I had imagined.  Took a drive down to the boardwalk for dusk, eventually found some fish and chips, and eventually (after getting lost on the way back to our appartment) settled down in our cosy home away from home to eat them.

I say cosy, that was until lights out, when it felt like an episode of Police Academy, as we had to shut a thousand locks, bring down bars over all external windows and cocoon ourselves away from the outside world. The love a bit of security down here.

Bryn being helpful (notable moment)

Driving and Learning

Monkeying

Lady Indiana Jones

Knysna

Township

Very lucky

Mossel Bay

Bank Holiday chipper

al fresco chipper

Police Academy 

Elephunk - Where is the love?

We can forget multimedia footage at the moment, even in our urban accommodation the wifi not coping with those kind of uploads.


(Carys)

Picking up where I left of yesterday, with eating, one of my favorite things. We ate a meal of sausage, steak, potato salad, homemade bread and for dessert - pancakes. All of which were utterly delicious and unexpected. I quite enjoyed having my meal already picked for me. After that we enjoyed traditional African singing and dancing from the people who worked at Addo Palace. It was a great way to get into the spirit of the culture, and end the night. We went to be shortly after.

Yet another full night of sleep, and a quick shower in the morning before breakfast; scrambled eggs with bacon, toast and sausage. Again, all quite tasty. We set off early, and were waved goodbye with more African singing. We led the track back to the main road and drove for about half an hour when we reached Addo National Elephant Park. We decided because our tour wasn't till later, to have a little explore in our car  and try to spot some animals.

We firstly sighted a Black-backed Jackal, looking a lot like small travelling alone the grassy land. We also saw a Kudu, dung beetle,warthog, zebras and elephants as we drove along. We then returned for our guided tour, and spotted many of these animals once again, but closer-up. The zebras were breathtakingly beautiful, as were the Eland and Red Hartebeast - two types of lovely deer.

Then we saw the main attraction - elephants. Loads of them gathered around a waterhole. We saw them all over the place, more than we'd seen earlier. They were so large; so peaceful. They'd trod carefully around the place. I was a little disappointed to not see any lions but enjoyed myself thoroughly anyway.

We then left the lovely park and drove fro about an hour and a half.  Along the drive, we saw a large township called Motherwell. It was quite sad to see the amount of poverty these people suffer with and I wrote a bit about it. That may appear in a later blog. We theen reacheed Jeffreyds Bay and checked in at our B&B. The room wass gorgeous, but not as gorgeous as the viewq. nbWe were high up, and had aclear view of the ocean - known as one of the best sufring beaches in the world.

We drove to a mall and ordered a selection of pizzas - that turned out to be square - to takeaway from a shop called Nina's. We also bought a few snacky things in a small supermarket to bring back as well. We returned to our room and ate the pizzas and other food as we looked over the beautiful view oin the balcony. The food was great, and soon after we went to bed.

sausages

dancing and singing

daybreak in the misty mountains

bath time

super imposed ranger, not

(Lloyd)

Beautiful start to the day, gorillas in the mist type scenery, no gorillas, or even baboons today.  But quite a lot of elephants.  Bumped and grooved in the style of the black eyed peas back to the main highway and found our way to Addo Elephant Park.  The clue is in the title I guess; a last nod to our hosts at the Addo Bush Palace, a chance to really get away from it all (apart from the Premier League) well worth doing if you have the means to get out of Port Elizabeth.  Very much looked after, as Carys mentioned above; apparently they mainly get Germans, and now the welsh germans (eh Tom?)


The drive to the park not too arduous, a few zebras to keep us occupied, and seemed to be racing a freight train for a good chunk of the route.  The park itself massive, we made our first error of the trip by paying park entrance fee and the tour. So in effect doubling up, and not having time to make the most of it.  One or the other with the time we had would have been the sensible choice.  The self drive stuff was fun but being the driver meant keeping more of an eye on fellow excited drivers stopping suddenly, reversing etc And trying not to make any similar sudden movements myself.

The ranger tour much better, wasn't Biggins, but you can't have it all.  Good look around the park, on and off road, and elephants everywhere, mingling in with us at water holes.  Real wisdom in those eyes, reckon they could tell a tale or two, mainly about idiot drivers I would imagine.  Seriously though, were magnificent beasts, and the camera clicks were going ten to the dozen.

Needed to get on the road to our next port of call, taking an unexpected trip through the township of Motherwell. Suddenly the guilt of moaning about making first world mistakes on paying double of the elephants kicked in. The deprivation, the squalor, and a slight sense of panic were all feelings as we drove through, pleased that most of the traffic lights were on green, Such a country of contrasts, from beautiful animals, landscapes, to millions with nothing in a matter of moments.  Sense the elephants probably in a better state of health and housing.

Reflection continued all the way to Jeffreys Bay, which is the first built up (albeit coastal) part of South Africa we have arrived at that is not all gated communities and people hanging around at major junctions. In fact this could be the east coast of Australia.

build them up in black and white (swans reference)

where you going?

oh coming to say hello?

poverty