Savouring South Africa


Advertisement
South Africa's flag
Africa » South Africa
May 6th 2010
Published: May 7th 2010
Edit Blog Post

And so onto Cape Town, what a city. It is really stunning. A beautiful setting, wrapped on all sides by mountains and coast line, dominated by Table Mountain, eclectic shops and boutiques, delicious restaurants and funky bars, local red wines, and energetic chatty cape-tonian taxi drivers who cannot help but point out all the local tourist sites. It is just a buzzing vibrant city, and the perfect place for the two weary travelers to chill for a few days, enjoy a few lattes and glasses of pinotage and remind themselves that, whilst they are maintaining an excellent charade as penniless chilled out backpackers complete with an unshaven beard and tiny wardrobe, they are actually impatient Londoners who prefer a glass of Moet to a warm beer. And the Moet was about to flow!!

Finally, A Little Taste of Luxury



So here is the story. Before we left last summer, we were given a fantastic present - a voucher for 2 nights in a posh hotel to use at our leisure. And it was after 50 nights (I kid you not) in a tent, the Westin 5 star hotel overlooking Cape Town harbor was the chosen destination of opulent luxury.
Finally Dee gets to enjoy some Luxury!Finally Dee gets to enjoy some Luxury!Finally Dee gets to enjoy some Luxury!

No wonder she's smiling so much
To maximise every second, two very smelly travelers, complete with sleeping bags and their tent arrived into the huge lobby of the Westin at 1.30pm to go through the check-in formalities in time for the 2pm check-in. Perfect.

But alas no, there were no rooms available, so we had to wait. And wait. And wait. Typical. Our well thought out plan had come to nothing. We waited in the lobby for nearly 3 hours. There was a large cruise ship parked in the bay apparently which was not planning to sail until 6pm, and most of the guests were staying in the hotel and thus not checking out until closer to the departure time. Up steps Dee “The forceful abrupt and impatient Londoner” who had not been seen for a few months. Hotel manager was summoned. Words were exchanged. One key word was suggested and confirmed. UPGRADE. Oh yes!

So we ended up in a suite on the 19th floor overlooking Table Mountain, free use of spa centre, free bar and canapés on the 20th floor every evening. The Moet flowed every evening at 5pm. We strolled around the hotel with big fat smiles for the whole 2
Fancy Bumping into Will in the Irish PubFancy Bumping into Will in the Irish PubFancy Bumping into Will in the Irish Pub

In Cape Town of All Places...
days. Awesome. A special thank you goes out to Heidi, James, Andrew, James, Colin, Jude and Kate for the ingenious gift.

Imagine Bumping into a Few Friends in Cape Town - yep we did…



And although it felt a bit strange, we got in a cab from our plush 5 star hotel to Long St, centre of all things backpacker to meet up with a friend of Niall’s from school, Will, who happened to be on holiday in the Cape. We did so with wholehearted excitement and a planned 1 or 2 drinks may have turned into 10 or 11… But sure a great night out was had by all of us in “Kennedy’s Irish Pub” a fitting tribute to the Kennedy’s in our lives.

Then next morning, after some time in the Westin sauna to sweat out the hangover, Dee happened to bump into Peter one of her colleagues from work. As you do, when you are in Cape Town for a couple of days! Anyways a catch-up over a couple of drinks later in the week (once the original hangover had subsided) was most thoroughly enjoyed by Dee & Niall. It is not often you
The Thrill of a Police ChaseThe Thrill of a Police ChaseThe Thrill of a Police Chase

Dee & Vanessa making the most of it... Bad Boys Bad Boys What you gonna do....
bump into someone you know half way around the planet now is it?!?!?

And finally - after all the bumping into people we knew was over - the main tour party arrived Ma and Da McCarthy (aka Vanessa and Charley). So good to see them and enjoy an increased tour party again. Over the next few days the Cape wine continued to flow, plenty sushi was eaten, we climbed the Table, and walked the streets of Cape Town.

A Little Unplanned Excitement



The only disturbance to our Cape euphoria was on our last day. We collected our rental car which was to drive us across South Africa and after packing it up to leave, unfortunately a smash and run thief nicked our two backpacks out of the boot. Our poor bags, having been through thick and thin with us, were gone. Thankfully there was little of major value or attachment in them, except that poor Dee had a whole new wardrobe brought out to her from Ireland (Pennies to be exact) to replenish her dilapidated outfits. Most of it was never even worn… At least Dee and Vanessa had the thrills of a high speed police ride
Ma & Da Sampling Some WineMa & Da Sampling Some WineMa & Da Sampling Some Wine

Some of the best South Africa has to offer
across Cape Town as the local law came to inspect the break in.

Let the Road Trip Begin and Go On and On



So a day later the four of us set off from Cape Town for Stellenbosch in search of some wine that needed drinking. Lovely little town in a beautiful setting and several vineyards were explored and sampled. They bring you four glasses, half a dozen wines to sample and a strange bucket shaped object called a spittoon though we never worked out what that was for. In one of the vineyards they have a legend in which a man had to invent a goblet that two people can drink from at the same time. Well as it was there, and we had had a few glasses already, it was only right that Ma and Da proved it worked.

From here we took off south, via the southernmost tip of Africa, and onto the Garden Route, eating and drinking all the way, stopping at various towns and beaches, and lighting the brai (South African for barbeque) every night. A proper road trip. One of the places that we stopped for a few days was Plettenberg
A Pair of Kalahari LionsA Pair of Kalahari LionsA Pair of Kalahari Lions

Lounging about at Addo National Park
Bay where we were lucky enough to see a few whales. In fact we were lucky enough, if that is the right term, to see 2 of the largest mammals in the world having a bit of a cuddle shall we say. Or at least that was until a boat load of tourists interrupted.

Then onto Addo National Park for a little safari. We only had 2 days there so we were fingers crossed it would be long enough to see some animals. And man, did we see some animals. It was great. We saw a huge Kalahari lioness, an elephant washing himself, a rhino, more elephants, buffalos, more lions and even more elephants. But the highlight was probably the smallest animals that we saw in the park. Dung Beatles. These lads are just great craic. They start off digging around in a big pile of elephant pooh. Then when they have found the perfect morsel to take away with them, 2 of them roll it off through the dessert. So for 2 days we kept finding these lads rolling their little ball around. Great fun.


And Just a Few More Friends



After Addo, we had
A Nice Night Out with some New FriendsA Nice Night Out with some New FriendsA Nice Night Out with some New Friends

Vanessa, Roger, Rosemary, Charley, Niall and Dee enjoying some dinner
a little drive to visit an old friend of Vanessa’s who was living just north of Durban. Now it may be worth pointing out here that South Africa is a pretty big country, so despite having been driving across it for a week already, we still had 1,000km to go and a day to do it in. A very early start, a four person shift pattern and non-stop relentless driving got us there in just over 13 hours. Well done team McCarthy.

And then a few days relaxing with our wonderful hosts, Roger and Rosemary, they were old friends to some and became new friends for the rest of us. Roger is a Dub who moved to the southern hemisphere 40 years ago, and Rosemary is his ever patient partner. They live near Howick, not far from the site were Nelson Mandela was captured, at the foot of the Drackensberg Mountains. It really is beautiful here. Roger describes the landscape as just like Wicklow except a little bigger. Again the wine flowed, we ate delicious food and had a fantastic few days.

In fact one of our last night’s of wine drinking ended up with Charley and Niall
An Awesome Foursome Yet AgainAn Awesome Foursome Yet AgainAn Awesome Foursome Yet Again

Dee, Niall, Vanessa and Charley enjoying some more nice food
forcing the cork into the bottle and then drinking the results out of a tea pot. After nearly 3 weeks sampling the best of wine, it was nice to see our tastes had become so refined!

And it was with heavy hearts that we bade farewell to Ma and Da McCarthy as we headed for Johannesburg to catch our flight to India. Actually, they ended up being left behind completely as we flew to Mumbai with their stay ending up being a little longer than originally planned thanks to an Icelandic volcanic eruption….

Africa “Kwa heri Tutaonana”



And now we are saying goodbye to a continent we have come to love over the last 5 months, a continent we have travelled through and lived in. Not only were our eyes truly opened by what we saw in the slums in Kibera but we were lucky enough to witness the splendid Serengeti Migration and Victoria Falls. We spent over 50 nights living in our tent, visited 8 different countries, used 8 different currencies and crossed 7 borders. We ate ugali, nyama choma, sukuma wiki, tilapia, kachumbari, chapatti, eland steak and kudu loin. We drank tusker, club, serengeti,
Dee & Niall Crossing the Two OceansDee & Niall Crossing the Two OceansDee & Niall Crossing the Two Oceans

One foot in the Indian and one in the Atlantic
safari, kilimanjaro, windhoek, and castle to name just a few; we sampled wines from every corner of South Africa. We saw the continents biggest animals and the smallest animals. We visited schools, doctors, pharmacists, museums and many many banks. We saw the Indian Ocean, then the Atlantic and then the Indian again. We travelled by small bus, by big bus, by train, by car, by jeep, by foot, by boat, by car and by plane. And so to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa, and all the many friends we have met, new and old, along the way, we say “Slan go foil” or “Kwa heri Tutaonana” or “Bye for now”; Africa - we will be back someday soon.


Advertisement



7th May 2010

What a great blog update
Dee, Niall - so glad the gift card came in use and opened the door to an upgrade. Fantastic! So sorry to hear about your backpacks getting pinched. Cannot believe it! Hopefully the trip through SA on safari and sampling wines did something to help you get over the loss. Can't wait to read the next installation on India. Take care you two!

Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 10; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0805s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb