First thing in the morning we
drive into Cape Town and head to the bus carpark right beside the V&A
Waterfront. Amazingly we can park here free for as long as we want. And we have
a guard. Now it’s tourist time! As usual we start on the hop on/hop off bus to
give us a good overview and so that John has a chance to look around properly.
I always get that chance as passenger! Spend all morning driving this magic
city, lunch at the waterfront, then out to Table Mountain to join the huge
queue to get on the cable car. Unfortunately, it is school holidays this week
so the queue is ginormous (later we discover the wait was 6 hours with a total
of 5600 people going up in one day! Holy moly!!) We give it a miss! After a big
day we head back to our campground – we cannot camp in the city or we will get
wheel clamped. In the morning we return to our parking spot. A walking tour
through the brightly painted Bo Kaap area before another attempt on Table Mountain.
This time we jump the queue. At the top the misty tablecloth is in place. We
wait, finally deciding to descend. About a metre down the view is magical. Love
that the interior floor of the cable car slowly rotates allowing everyone a
great view. Back at the truck we drive
up Signal Hill for more stunning views, before heading out of this amazing city.
We can see why South Africans flock here to live.
Back on the road again we head
towards Paarl and find a great little campspot at Black Pearl Wineries. Wake to
a cold grey day and head through the old Dutch city of Paarl and on through
more wine growing regions surrounded by lovely jagged mountains. Pass through
the lovely town of Franschhoek (also famous for its wines), up a magic pass and
back down to the coast at Hermanus. This seaside towns’ claim to fame is the
whales that swim close by. And golly they are so close they are practically
surfing into the beach. We wander the waterfront getting lots of glimpses,
although very few decent photos. Sadly, they don’t breech here – maybe it’s too
shallow. John drags me away and we follow the coastline of Walker Bay all the
way to the fishing port town of Gansbaii where there is a municipal campground
right on the beach. A great chance to walk to the local pub for seafood.
We head off on another glorious
day exploring more coastline. Eventually drive through the 2 towns of
Struisbaai and L’Agulhas to get to the Southernmost point of Africa at Cape Agulhas.
As magic as the beaches are we head
inland through Swellendam, the third oldest town in Africa, where we find rows
of lovely old Dutch buildings. After lunch we head on to Barrydale to follow
Route 62, with a detour through the stunning Seweweekspoort Pass. Finally, at
Calitzdorp we head out to the hot pools for the night. The water looks a bit
murky but the temperature is perfect. Another long soak in the morning before
we head off again. A must do of course is to visit one of the towns
distilleries before we return to route 62.
Before long we head through the stunning Swartberg Pass, climbing up
from the lush valley up a huge mountain and through yet another red rock
canyon. It’s a pretty narrow road and we get a few glares from oncoming
traffic, even though we are under the weight limit of 7 ton. Then on to the old
town of Prince Albert and eventually back down the equally stunning
Meiringspoort Pass on the main sealed road.
Sunday morning, we head to Hope
Church in George and are relieved to discover the service is in English not
Afrikans. Then back along the coast stopping at the glorious Wilderness Beach
for lunch, before heading to catch up with Susan & Brian in Knysna. We met
them in the Central Kalahari Desert driving an Isuzu Camper like ours. A lovely
afternoon and evening chatting and dinner out on the waterfront. After a long
breakfast we reluctantly leave. It would have been lovely to stay longer but we
are on our final countdown now and still have more new friends to pop in and
see.
We head off, following the route
suggested by Brian. We follow more
lovely coastline and do a few magic drives off the main road. The first to
Natures Valley, then to the lookout over Bloukrans Bridge, and finally Storm
Rivers National Park.
In the morning we head back to
the main road and on to Humansdorf, and then out to Cape St Francis. There is a
cute little fishing port here where huge boats head out to catch chuka (or
squid as we know it) and export it worldwide. We eventually leave the coast at the
large city of Port Elizabeth. From here we head inland to Addo National Park.
John is rather “animaled” out but I have convinced him we should visit, the
sweetener being that entry will be free with our Wildcard. It is a huge park
but we still manage to spy loads of elephants. They are smaller and pinker (due
to the reddish dirt they have been rolling in!) There is a great animal hide
where we can sit and watch them drinking a mere few metres away.
Early the next morning we head
into yet another National Park (poor John!). This time Mountain Zebra National
Park. Lots of zebras which are actually quite different with a pouch under
their necks and brown patches on their noses. As a bonus we spy a cheetah who
is too lazy to bother doing too much.
John drags me away and we continue northwards, finally stopping at Onze Rust
Camping in Colesburg for the night. The town is full of quaint old Guesthouses
as it is roughly halfway between Cape Town & Joberg.
Our next destination is Kimberly,
and rather than take the longer main road we take the direct route over back
roads. Some gravel and some potholed, but it is a pretty drive with lots of
farming and a scattering of scruffy old towns all with large settlement areas.
Then back to the main road and into the city of Kimberly. Our destination is
the largest hand dug hole in the world - the De Beers Diamond Mine site. There is an excellent mining museum, a walk
down a mine shaft, a chance to wander through a street of restored buildings relocated
from all over town and of course the huge hole itself. Before we leave town, we
hunt down a few of the lovely old
mansions here. Then later that evening we stop at the campground at Christiana
where the owners let us stay free beside the boat ramp on the lovely Vaal
River.
Today we continue north east to
Parys where we stay with Lorna & Searle who we met at Augrabies & Kgalagadi
National Parks. They have a lovely sprawling home on a huge block of land. Its
great chatting and finding out so much about life here in South Africa. We head
off by midday back to Joberg.
It is Saturday, so driving into
the city is pretty easy and the motorway system here is excellent. By 3pm we
reach Peter’s lovely home on a secure golf estate in Joberg. We met Peter &
Carrin in the Kgalagadi in Botswana and spend a lovely afternoon & evening
with a group of their friends. Amazingly we discover they too met Searle &
Lorna in the National Park and are meeting them in a few days. And the next
afternoon Julie & Terry, who we met with Peter & Carrin when in the Kgalagadi
Park, pop in unannounced. What an incredibly small world. While here John gets
a chance to visit an exclusive private collection of gorgeous vehicles (well so
I heard – I opted out fortunately as he was there for hours drooling!)
Our time is running out and we
need to sort out all our stuff, pack bags and finally head to the airport on
Wednesday for that long long flight home. In 6 months, we have clocked up well
over 30,000 kms and toured Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana & South
Africa. We are really looking forward to seeing the family soon, especially the
grandkids, Sammy, Toby, Emmie, Mia, Luna, Brooklyn and Brammy.
No comments:
Post a Comment