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Published: September 9th 2023
Me
HermanusDear All
So after a wonderful start in Cape Town, on the Saturday after my arrival in the country, my South African road trip began! I picked up my hire car at Cape Town airport, and bade goodbye to this beautiful city - the plan was to spend the next 15 days driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg, quite an epic journey and adventure I must admit! The first part of this country-long road trip would be spending a few days along the beautiful Western Cape coastline dubbed "The Garden Route", between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.
As I began my wheeled adventure, I noted that South African roads seemed quite orderly and straightforward thus far. You have to watch out for a few drivers, mainly the minibus drivers who stop and start everywhere, sometimes drive really fast, and do not seem to know the concept of indicating or using mirrors, and some wildlife, particularly ground birds, but road conditions and signage were pretty good! My rental car was a white Suzuki Celerio, and a little different to my previous rentals mainly because it was manual. There was nothing automatic about it such as keys or windows, and so
it was pretty much back to basics! I also had to constantly remind myself initially to drive on the left. I know this is funny for me being from England of course, but since I don't have a car back home, and since I have only rented cars in countries which drive on the right, driving on the left was oddly quite a new and different experience for me!
My first stop on this adventure was one of the wine estates of the Stellenbosch region. There were so many to choose from, and I decided upon the Vergelegen Wine Estate nestled amongst the wonderfully named Hottentots Holland Mountains to the east of Cape Town. This estate is noted in the Lonely Planet for its country house feel and superb mountain location, and I learned upon arrival that our beloved (and sorely missed) Queen visited in 1995. I chose well, and could easily have spent the full day there! I arrived just in time for a fascinating two-hour Wine Cellar tour in the hills overlooking the large estate, with glorious views over vineyards, reservoirs, mountains, and far beyond onto Cape Town and Table Mountain themselves. The tour taught me lots
about the wine-making process, from grape to bottle, with a lovely group of South African tourists, including a couple who used to live in Croydon! I then had a delicious lunch of beefburger and chips overlooking a field of cows and the gorgeous mountains, and a walk through the vast estate with its numerous buildings dating back to its foundation in 1700. I really enjoyed my wine tour, and came to appreciate the many glasses of wine I enjoyed in South Africa just that little bit more as a result!
I then drove to nearby Franschhoek, so named after French Huguenot settlers who began to arrive to escape persecution of protestants back in France in the late 17th century. It is mostly down to these people that the region became wine-growing, and South African vintages accompany many an upmarket dinner around the world, as they brought their vines and winemaking with them to a region that was perfect for grape-growing. In town, I visited the informative Huguenot Museum and Memorial, again surrounded by starkly beautiful mountains, for an insight into what drove these people away from their homeland, and how their lives changed and developed as they settled in
this Western Cape region.
My final drive for the day was on to Hermanus, my base for the first two nights of this road trip. The sun set and darkness set in around 6pm, and I arrived around 6.30pm. It started to rain around 6pm just as I was approaching the busy suburban roads of the town, and it was also the time the town experienced loadshedding on this day for two hours - thus there were no working street lights. It was not fun driving in the dark with rain and no lighting in South Africa, and I decided that I would always aim to arrive at my destination in future before the 6pm sundown. Upon arrival, my accommodation was actually a lovely cottage owned by an elderly couple who lived next-door, and I was welcomed by one of their churchgoing friends, also called Alex, and around my age. We had a good chat in the dark on matters of faith and our personal relationships with God, and I felt this was a really nice introduction to Hermanus. I slept well that night in the cosy cottage.
The next day was my full day in Hermanus, and
My Rental Car
A white Suzuki Celerio, travel buddy for my South African Road Trip! it was amazing! I drove to the town's New Harbour, and took an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable 2.5 hour whale watching tour from there. After a bumpy ride on the waves, we approached the whale hang-out area on the opposite side of the bay from Hermanus, and began our spotting of numerous Southern Right Whales - one had already breached in the far distance before I had got my camera ready, though I don't think it would have been a good photo as it was too far away. Still, I proceeded to take some great shots of groups of them playing around in the water, along with a number of head, flipper and dorsal-fin shots, as well as two tail shots! We also spotted a school of bottlenose dolphins frolicking around the whale action, as well as a number of seals out for the show too! It was seriously the place to be for marine mammals, and I was very much enjoying watching all the action!
After arriving back in the harbour after another bumpy ride back again, I took a beautiful walk along Hermanus's stunning coastal path into town and back, spotting cute-looking rodents in the undergrowth called
Dassie Rats, and also Wild Chickens. I was initially a bit concerned as I was hiking this path alone, which is generally a big no-no in South Africa, but after seeing a number of armed guards along the path, as well as a number of other walkers like myself, I felt at ease. It was still a good reminder to myself that I need to be careful around here as a white tourist, as not only did the need for armed guards on this tourist trail bring it home to me, so did following my satnav's directions from my accommodation to the New Harbour through a local African township. While driving through an African area wouldn't normally register as an issue with me in other parts of Africa that I've been to, and I've done this uncountable times before, the great racial divide that exists in South Africa tells me that as a white traveller I need to be extra careful to avoid putting myself in precarious positions such as this, and will in future endeavour to check that my satnav is taking me through a safe-sounding and safe-looking area. There were places later in my journey in Port Elizabeth
Vergelegen Wine
Vergelegen Wine Estate and Durban that I was told to avoid, which had an impact on the routes I took and the places I visited. I would highly recommend anyone reading this not to just follow their sat-nav instructions if driving in South Africa, but to also check exactly what kinds of areas and streets the route is going through.
On my drive back I stopped off at the local mall for provisions and a takeaway Steers meal for dinner, knowing that there'd be loadshedding from 6pm to 8.30pm that evening and thus making plans accordingly, such as when to have dinner, when to charge my devices, and when to check my email etc. I found a very helpful South African website which states the loadshedding times of the places I'm staying in, and found this to be extremely handy for my planning later on in my trip. They seem to happen around three times a day, for two to three hours at a time. I can't imagine how this must affect local people who need to get ready for work in the morning, and who are probably less flexible than I was on this trip when it comes to mealtimes due
to simply living their ordinary lives. A number of places, including accommodations I stayed in, have gotten round the problem by either having their own onsite generators, or using battery-powered lighting when needed. Despite the problems associated with loadshedding, I also came to appreciate it at times to be honest, as the non-access to electricity, including the Internet, allowed me to do other things during these times, including simply switching off from the Internet and media as a whole, and having some lovely downtime on my travels - it is so so good to detox from western media once in a while, or more often even!
I really enjoyed Hermanus and the start of this South African road trip, and as I went to sleep that night, I felt really excited to explore more of this amazing country. The next day I was moving on, and heading to a place called Knysna, further east along the Garden Route, with a couple of stops also on the way.
I will of course write up about this in my next one. So until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now!
Alex
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John Miranda
John & Miranda
Hermanus
Sad to hear of the decline of the Baz Bus - we met so many fellow low budget travellers on the various legs around the Rainbow Nation. Interesting that the temporary "load shedding" measures we encountered in 2006 remain - always remember the one during the 2006 World Cup Final and we listened to the rest of the match on a car radio!!