Touchdown in the Mother City Breakfast, packing and checking out was leisurely, and we hit the road with the aid of Berk, who knew how to find our next planned destination, Cape Point. Cape Point is the southernmost tip of the Table Mountain Peninsula - not the southernmost tip of Africa, or even where Indian and African oceans meet (as lots of tour blurb says) - but is where two ocean currents meet, and gives a spectacular viewpoint over the seascape and Cape of Good Hope. The drive ended up being fairly long, although we took in a number of sights [View Full Entry]

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Who’s stolen the Sun? We had great plans of relaxing outside our apartments, reading and letting the kids run about the garden but when we awoke it was to the sound of torrential rain, which sort of scuppered that idea. So instead after breakfast we went for a walk from the hotel to the wine estate and booked ourselves into a wine tasting session, kids too; they would be taste testing grape juices. The Spier estate has a lot to offer - we wandered around the craft market, played pooh-sticks with the (aggravatingly enthusiastic) estate river, winced as the kids played [View Full Entry]

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Him, his mate, and his mate’s mate Having checked out of the hotel nicely bundled up against the weather we emerged to find that today was actually quite warm and sunny. We shed a layer or two of clothing and spent the morning in Hermanus waiting for 2pm when our boat would be leaving the new harbour on a whale watching trip. On our way along the sea front we saw our little mammal friends on the rocks below again. There were three of them this time, and we spent quite a while watching them interact/boss each other around, although we [View Full Entry]

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Sunnier in Hermanus After a cold night we awoke to bluer skies and the sight, from our bedroom window, of a whale just offshore. Today Mark had got his dive with great white sharks booked so he prepared himself for a chilly trip on a boat and a probably even chillier dive. The sea is not warm at this time of year on this part of the coast. Mark left to wait at reception for his lift to Gansbaii from where the boat was departing only to reappear a few minutes later having been informed that the trip had been cancelled [View Full Entry]

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Ever onwards to Hermanus We awoke to a still cold cabin, despite the heating being on all night and it was the speediest we’d ever managed to get the kids dressed! After breakfast back at the main building we set of towards Hermanus. The weather on the journey started off cold (only 7 degrees C) and foggy and then brightened up to bright blue skies and around 15 degrees, before then alternating these lovely skies with downpours of rain throughout the following 5-hour journey. The scenery was absolutely spectacular, we’ve never seen such a big stretch of land in o [View Full Entry]

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Getting posted in Cango Caves Well it has to be said that when it comes to Lake Pleasant Living size isn’t everything. It may have provided us with the largest room but it probably was the worst food and only near the bottom of the top five best views. We left after breakfast and headed yet again along the N2. We passed through a place called Wilderness so named because the wife of some fella when she married him said she wanted to spend the first year of their marriage in a wilderness so he bought some land, put a hut [View Full Entry]

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Knysna’s Seafood Platters and Shopping Aaahh ... a nice slow morning today: gradually coming round when the kids piled into bed with us, wonderfully strong showers, brekkie (not as good as Hog Hollow though - we’re hoping we haven’t set the bar too high with that one), a bit of DVD watching and blogging. When eventually we were ready to go out, we drove into Knysna to find food and have a general bimble about. We left the Verso under the watchful eye of a car guard and walked further into town, the need for food asserting itself a bit more [View Full Entry]

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From Plett to Knysna After the tremendous downpour yesterday it was great to wake up this morning to brilliant sunshine. Breakfast was served outside on the terrace due to the excellent weather. Afterwards we packed up and headed off in search of whales. This part of the South African coast is renowned for its abundance of whales, mostly humpbacks and southern right whales. First we went in search of lookout points in Plettenberg Bay, the first one we came across was not good, just a road ending at the sea with no real aspect and nowhere to walk to even. Next [View Full Entry]

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Little Monkeys We woke up to a fantastic if slightly overcast view of a forest with mountains behind it. We eventually wandered off to breakfast which was definitely a contender for knocking our Jo’burg breakfasts off their throne. Hog Hollow is a fantastic place to stay, the main house is filled with African artefacts and wooden furniture all housed in orange, brown and black tones. Our room is in a separate building of three apartments all with a downstairs deck with hammock and comfy chairs and the fab view. It was very tempting to sit on the deck for the rest [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Kwa Madwala The bleep of Annabel’s wristwatch alarm heralded the start of a gruelling day of travelling: we rose and packed promptly and loaded our stuff into the game vehicle where it waited until we had finished breakfast and checked out. Manyatta rock camp was a beautiful place with friendly staff, and we were sad to leave when the transfer car arrived. Today was still not a money-back day though - armies of impala still bade farewell as we left the park and travelled to Nelspruit airport. Check-in and boarding were straightforward, and the flight on the SAA&rsq [View Full Entry]

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