Overland Tour - South Africa

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We crossed the Orange River into South Africa just before lunch on the 21st September. Our campsite, Fiddlers Rest, was just a short drive away on the banks of the river. It is a beautiful campsite with lush green grass and good facilities, unfortunately, with its proximity to the river, we were inundated with miggies and mozzies. The afternoon was spent relaxing and playing volleyball, Laura the former, Phil the latter.

After a brief technical hitch in the morning, the compressor wasn’t filling the airbags hence no brakes, we headed for Citrusdal stopping at Springbok to re-supply. It was a long day of driving but worth it in the end as we stayed at the Citrusdal Baths campsite. There are two large outdoor pools, one hot the other cold, and we all spent an hour or so relaxing and unwinding, occasionally taking a dip in the cold pool then hopping back into the hot bath to induce the ‘tingly feeling’ in the toes!

Dinner that night was T-Bone steaks for the carnivores and stuffed Butternut squash for Laura, the only veggie left on the truck. It was to be our last dinner around a campfire.

The next day we had a 3 hour journey to Stellenbosch where we pitched our tents in the grounds of the backpacker’s hostel. We spent 2 nights in Stellenbosch and rather overindulged in good coffee (Mugg & Bean) and good food (Bukhara India Restaurant). We had a good wander around town and caught up on a few emails.

Stellenbosch is the 2nd oldest town in SA and is a very picturesque university town surrounded by mountains which provided a stunning backdrop. There are some fine examples of the Cape Dutch architecture dotted around the town and the university buildings are pretty impressive too.

Most of our group went on a wine tour on the Sunday. We were driven from place to place in minibuses by wannabe Michael Schumachers, we needed a drink just to calm our nerves! It was a beautiful day and we stopped at Seidelberg, Fairview, Dieu Donne and Boschendal tasting wines and cheeses. Lunch was at Essence, a restaurant in Franschoek which is a quaint little town in the winelands with lovely art galleries and restaurants.

It rained quite hard on the Sunday night, the first rain of the trip, and most of us got a little wet as we had neglected to put the fly-sheets on our tents. There was a mad scramble just after midnight trying to put them on. That was our last night in a tent!!!

September 25th and we headed for our last stop of the trip, Cape Town. Our accommodation for the final night of the trip was at a backpacker’s hostel in Sea Point, fortunately we managed to snaffle a double room upgrade.
In the afternoon we caught a minibus taxi, which is an experience in itself, to the Waterfront and had a good wander around the shops before settling down with a G & T and enjoying an open air concert near-by. It was Heritage day and there seemed to be a number of festivities taking place.

Our last meal as a group was at a Quay Four, one of the older pub/restaurants in the Waterfront, and a great time was had by all. Email addresses were swapped and good-byes all round - The End!

…of overland touring, but we still had a few days to kill in South Africa. Phil’s folks picked us up from Sea Point on the 26th and it was back to civilisation for comfy beds, walls and hot showers! We spent 3 days with the folks relaxing and doing laundry - it’ll be quite a while before we get rid of the last of the dust from our trip!

It was great to spend some time with the folks and Steve, Michele and the kids joined us for an evening too, then it was off to London for a quick stop before heading off for the Maldives - we can’t wait…

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