Cape Town, Stellenbosch and along the Garden Route

It all happened a long time ago now, but the final few chapters of the blog need to be finished. The last weeks of the trip were amongst the most memorable of our time away so we must do them justice with a decent blog entry. Apologies if the details are a bit lacking.

We moved on from Johannesburg to Cape Town on 20th November and picked up a hire car on arrival at the airport so that we could meet up with our friends from the Kruger trip, Roger and Pam, in Muizenberg. We were able to stay in Roger’s son’s self catering studio. It worked out to be very reasonable and was a really nice little place. It was good to spend some time outside the main city too and get to know one of the prettier suburbs.

Graham’s parents were due to join us on the 24th, so we made sure we checked out some of the attractions before they arrived in order to be good tour guides and make the most of our time together. First job on the list was climbing Table Mountain. We walked up the Platteklip Gorge route, which is pretty much an unrelentingly vertical 40 minute climb up steep rocky steps. We realised within a few minutes that we would definitely be taking David and Sylvia up in the cable car. It was really tough with no escape from the sun, but worth it. A much better sense of achievement than the cable car, but the view is pretty much the same however you get yourself up there. Only to be attempted if you’re a bit obsessive about climbing up steep bits of rock.

The mountainous scenery around Cape Town really is stunning. The soft ‘cloth’ of cloud that billows up unexpectedly, even on a clear day on the Table top, is very special. We also enjoyed driving back down to the south of the city via Chapman Peak drive. You have to pay a small toll, but the views are stunning. Certainly a rival to the great ocean road in Australia, even if it’s all over a bit more quickly.

We tried out the Constantia vineyards with Pam. I’m not sure she was quite prepared for Graham’s approach i.e. as many wineries and as many wines at each as is humanly possible. We were fairly legless by the time we’d done the rounds, but not so much that we failed to appreciate the historical gorgeousness of the Constantia wineries. Very distinctive Cape Dutch architecture and lovely, tasteful restaurants and grounds for walking. Splendid.

In the city, we found ourselves back at the V&A Waterfront time and again. It is very tourist-oriented and not the best value for food, but such a welcoming and buzzing place in the middle of the city. All in all, Cape Town is perhaps the one place we’d both really recommend for a short holiday from the UK. It has the most amazing climate, scenery and coastline, is incredibly good value for money and has a really cosmopolitan atmosphere. The food and wine are fantastic and super-cheap by UK standards. We would gladly go back there.

Once David and Sylvia arrived, we transferred to the Green Market hotel in the city centre with them for five days of non-stop action. We have spent the last few months maybe doing a few touristy things, then having a couple of quiet days to conserve funds and energy. But we packed in the activities with David and Sylvia and had an absolute blast together. It was lovely to be in a decent hotel for a few days too and we took every opportunity to browse the market on our doorstep in Green Market Square. I sent Sylvia home with kikoys for everybody for Christmas.

The weather was scorching, but we still managed to pick the windiest day of the week to go to Cape Point national park. The Cape of Good Hope is not the most sheltered of places, we can all testify to that. But we managed to stay upright in the gale force blasts and thoroughly enjoyed walking along the rugged cliff top paths. The penguins at Boulder’s beach were a big hit too and we managed to avoid being molested by pesky baboons.

We did the Table on an absolutely perfect day and retraced our steps round some of the Constantia vineyards. We also set aside one day to visit Stellenbosch. We managed to squeeze in a couple of wineries, but spent most of our time at the Spier Cheetah Park. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be introduced to the cheetah cubs or the splendid fully grown specimens. In the end I went for both. While the cubs were gorgeous, it was actually far more of a thrill being allowed to get so close to the adult male cheetah, and a lot cheaper! He let us stroke his back and all the time purred like an old lawnmower. Highlight of my day! Unfortunately, the wine wasn’t up to much.

We found some much better wines to try at Rust en Vrede and David bought a nice bottle to be enjoyed on Christmas day. We also had a quick look around Stellenbosch town, which was incredibly pretty. Graham and I made up our minds we would go back there for our last few days in South Africa if we could manage it. Turns out there are lots of good cheap places to stay and even better cafes and restaurants to choose from. Must be the large student population there, but we had some lovely cheap meals at incredibly tasteful places when we went back.

Before we said goodbye to Graham’s mum and dad, we had a final crazy day in the city incorporating a thrilling catamaran trip from the V&A Waterfront. We managed not to get too soaked. We were really sad to wave goodbye at the airport. I knew I was missing my folks too, but didn’t realise just how much until I had to say goodbye to David and Sylvia.

The only approach was to drink through the sadness. Graham was raring to hit the wineries we had spotted on our scouting trip to Stellenbosch and we took up residence in the town for a few days. We also went to Franschoek, which was absolutely gorgeous but very posh. I was incredibly impressed with the wines we tried. The beautiful buildings and stunning scenery all made for a wonderful few days.

After that, we headed further away from Cape Town down the garden route, which seemed to be a big main road and not all that scenic at first. But the prettiness of Knysna and Plettenberg Bay soon revealed itself and we indulged in more lovely food and wine and beautiful coastal scenery.

We topped off the up-close-and-personal-with-the-animals experience with a trip to the Knysna elephant sanctuary. After a brief introduction, you are driven out into the park to find some hungry elephants waiting for apples and oranges and elephant nuts. After feeding them, you are allowed to pat and stroke the elephants and have your photos taken. It was an utterly magical experience to be so close to such amazing creatures. The young ones were utterly gorgeous. We could have stayed all day, and did indeed wait under the trees with the keepers, as several tour groups came and went. Each time the elephants behaved differently and we learned new things about them. A real privilege.

We caught the second day of the Rugby 7s at George before heading back to Cape Town. It poured with rain but we had a fantastic time. I have never seen 7s ‘live’ before and loved the pace and all the running and the international standard of thigh on display. Wales did quite well, so Graham was happy too. We found out the teams were staying at a nice hotel in the village where we happened to be staying. We tried to crash the after-party, but didn’t get far. Mind you, we did see French team members stumbling drunkenly into the car park for a crafty wee, which was quite funny. The next morning, we sat in a little café and watched the Wales lads out for an early morning shopping trip. Reckon there were a few proud mums in Cardiff who got giant carved giraffes for Christmas this year.

All in all, visiting Cape Town and the surrounding countryside was a fantastic segment of the trip, not least because we were able to share it with Graham’s mum and dad. They looked after us really well and reminded us of all the good reasons to be coming home in a couple of months’ time.

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