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Published: August 12th 2007
We started ringing around a few stay options while on the fantastic InterCape bus from Windhoek - best bus we've taken so far on our travels - hostess delivering coffee and looooads of leg room. We were surprised at how full accommodation was in Cape Town but apparently this is quite common. Defintely not a place to roll right up and check-in. Eventually we found a lucky double opening in Cat & Moose Backpackers , a popular and well run hostel at the end of the not-so-long Long Street, downtown Capetown. We used this as our base for the next 10days. Cape Town truely has a draw, our initial week turned into a week and a half.
Long Street seems to be the backpacker epi-centre here and has many cool and reasonably priced cafes and bars some of which we worked our way through over the coming days. Moreover, Long Street leads into Kloof Street with more upmarket shops and restaurants. From the Guinness at the Irish bar to the posh Italian food at 95 Keerom (first time where the head chef comes out to explain and introduce the specials of the day to us!) to more homey Italian at
the top of Kloof Street to the lip-smacking burger at Royale, Indian curry,.... the food tasting options are just endless. The list does not stop.... and for us 2 foodies, we were in foodie heaven....Mm Mmmm.
Zula was also a cool hang out with live music every night. A few days after arriving we experienced the Long Street carnival which was kicking with live and DJ music from about 4pm onwards....meant to start earlier it was an unlucky year for everyone with the afternoon's activities rained out and temperatures dropping to about 15 degrees. That didn't prevent the girls heading out in their party gear and dancing on the streets though... Nice!
Out of Long street, we made many a visit to 2 other locations - V&A waterfront and the Apple centre. Understandable for the former, since big servings of sushi and sashimi can be had at Willoughby & Co, it's the gateway to
Robben Island, near the well developed Aquarium and the place where San finally invested in new hiking pants and boots (both about 5 years old and wearing thin at parts). The other location was so frequently visited because as all new and reliable technlogy goes, Richy's
ipod decided to do a wonky on him and blatently refuse to charge - what cheek especially after its extortionate price tag! You'll also be pleased to know Richy's IPOD sarga was finally solved here after much trial and error - one word of advice NEVER BUY AN IPOD! And that's advice from the guy in the Apple shop! Not sure who was more relieved, him or his tag along travel partner.
Special mention must be made for Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were incarcerated for almost 3 decades. Ex-prisoner's work as tour guides and take people round the island and into the prison. The incredible strength and courage it takes to do this job is mind-blowing. Having never faced such hurt and pain, I cannot comprehend it. Our guide around the island made it clear that he would never stay overnight on the island as he hated it so much and I watched our guide at the prison bite back his feelings when I ignorantly used the word 'riots' rather than 'demonstrations' in my explanation to another tourist why youths were locked up in the late 70's (he was one of the
youths.)
When asked how long he stayed there, he said 'oh, just 5 years'. I could see the strength of reconciliation but it does not lessen the pain. A book definitely worth reading along the trip (or anytime actually) is 'A long walk to freedom' by Nelson Mandela - we both ripped through this 4" block in less than a week.
A trip to Cape Town would not be complete without a climb to the top of Table Mountain that dominates the city's backdrop. We cheated a bit and got the cable car up and down and then walked the last section back to Long Street. The view from the top is breathtaking and we spent many hours up there watching the cloud spill off the top, walking the cliff top paths and looking at the very different plants and animals. We should have brought our jackets, hot as a frying pan at the bottom, bone-chilling cold at the top! We could feel our fingers thawing on the ride back down.
One of the days we travelled to quiet, quaint Simonstown on the False Bay side of the Cape Pennisula and walked to the nearby Boulders Beach to see
the many penguins that hang around. Once outside the city area, the train travelled on tracks that hugged the spectacular coastline. It was refreshing to look out onto crashing waves, deep blue sea and smell the familiar saltiness in the air. Another great trip that we did was a full day wine tour with
Ferdinand's Tours and, unlike Aussie wine tours, the wine flowed freely from 10.30am to 5pm during our stops at the wineries. We were impressed with SimonSig, a family run winery close to Stellenbosh and invested in 3 bottles. Many of the restaurants in South Africa are cool with people bringing along their own wine for a very reasonable corkage charge.
Cape Town is a truly beautiful city and we throughly enjoyed our stay. We'd heard stories about how dangerous South Africa could be but did not experience anything untoward and Cape Town surpassed our expectations significantly. But not once did we let our guard down though!
However, after 10 days we were ready to kick-off our 2 week Baz Bus booking to take us via the Garden route back to Johannesburg. Baz Bus is a hop-on hop-off minibus service that picks you up and drops
you at the door of an extensive list of participating hostels. It is a hassle free way to safely get from A to B, reach some of the more remote parts of SA and a great way to meet people, many of who you bump into time and time again on the route. However, it does not come cheap being pitched around car hire costs. A car becomes cheaper with 2 or more people and gives you ultimate freedom. However, you need to drive, pay for fuel and don't get to meet as many people on the move - plus its less environmentally friendly 😊 - say the pair that are using enough aircraft fuel to last a lifetime...😞
First stop on the Garden route was Hermanus, a 3 hour journey from Cape Town. We stayed at the Hermanus backpackers and took some great walks along the cliff edge on the southern edge of town. Rich bought himself a fishing rod and reel and snapped the rod on the 3rd cast! I guess home caught seafood was not the order of the day....
The following day Rich headed off at 6.30am to Gaansbaai, the
centre for Great White shark cage diving in South Africa, if not the world. Day 1 was a disappointment during this unceratin time between the seasons and dispite spending 5 hours in a 7mm wetsuit no sharks came. The company,
Shark Diving Unlimited, were good enough to issue a voucher for a free future trip and this I used the following day with more success. We had a 3.5m female around the boat on and off for over an hour. Despite the visibility being only 2m I managed to get several shots of this amazing creature near the cage. Check out the shots - not very professional and in poor viz water, but they give a feel for it. Truly an exilerating experience. I will return in June/July 2008 when the water is warmer, visability much better and fewer tourists.
We left for Wilderness the following day and arrived mid afternoon. Wilderness is second home of the rich from Cape Town and an area rich also in natural beauty. Initally only intending to stay 2 days we extended to 4 days as it was so much fun and there was so much to do. The accommodation was called Fairy Knowes backpackers
and it was the best place we stayed during our stay in South Africa. Accommodation was in a chilled out, well-run, listed building overlooking the Touw river. Crisp white linen, a beautiful decor and friendly owners (Monica and team) made the place a joy. Evenings were spent in good fellow backpackers company (cheers Matt, Tom, Rach, Pim et al.)
Day 1 we went kloofing (canyoning) with
Eden Adventures. This was a blast and involved a half hour trek with 5mm wetsuit and trainers through the forest to a river from where we slipped into the water and spent the next 5 hours moving downstream swimming, climbing over rocks, sliding down water shoots and jumping from great heights into rock pools below. It may be dark amber-brown with foam floating on top at some parts, but the water is so pure that you could drink it as you floated along! San enjoyed many a gulp along the way!
Day 2 was spent horse riding with Amanda and a group of 5 of us. They were the best behaved and condition trek horses we've been on and we spent several hours walking, trotting and cantering through some beautiful highland forest and
savana. Only 1 of the horses did not behave and had a mind of its own, at one point walking off into a clump of trees 😊
Day 3 was spent trekking on foot on the 'Great Kingfisher' trail to a waterfall some 4km upstream. We swum in the pools, saw beautiful forest flora and San experienced 1st hand the fauna when a huge eel swum past her feet while she soaked in a rock pool. Richy told me to not move and insisted that the eel would not take a nibble at my toes but when he was asked to demonstrate he refused. I'd rather scare that eel than miss a toe for the entertainment of others! On the way back we bumped into amazingly coloured crickets, praying mantis' and rock hyraxes.
Day 4 - a rainy day - we chilled out reading on the porch waiting for the Baz bus that arrived around 5pm.
After a compulsory ovenight in Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth we moved on early morning to Cintsa. This chilled out location at the mouth of a river was a bit tired and had seen better days. We had some nice walks
along the beach between the showers and nice meals and pool in the bar in the evening. After 2 days here we moved on to Port St. Johns. Another relaxed place again at the mouth of a river. This place was the first place that began to represent the true rual South Africa with predominently black inhabitants. We took a walk to the light house on the headland and into town and chatted over a beer with some of the local guys near the beach. After only a few nights here we headed off via an overnight stop in Durban to Northern Drakensberg, a stunning highland area between Durban and Johannesburg. We stayed at
Amphitheatre Backpackers - incredible setting and relaxed surroundings - thanks to Adrian, Google the dog, and Silo the cat for a great stay. The day after arriving we took the most incredible day hike to the top of the Amphitheatre, a sheer sided plateau section of the 300km long Drakensberg mountain range. Perfect weather, perfect crowd and excellent guiding by Gareth. The view from the top of the plateau was spectacular. We witnessed a waterfall with the second highest free drop in the world - over 1000metres
and all arrived back tired and satisfied.
Our final stop was Gemini Backpackers in Johannesburg. Here we did a spot of shopping, faffed around with ABN bank who initially refused to give me my replacement ATM card despite all the proof of identity under the sun (One word of advice AVOID BANKING WITH ABN-AMRO - THEY ARE SHIT!!!), went out for a great evening with Brad whom we met in Drakensberg and visited the Apathheid museum - a sobering experience of the past 60 years of oppression and a closure of the story we witnessed at Robben Island, district six museum and in Mandela's book.
28th we fly out to meet Neil and Sunny for the sevens rugby tourny in Hong Kong.
Noodles at last!!!!
New itinerary is:
28th March - Jo'burg to Hong Kong
4th April - Hong Kong to Sri Lanka
17th April - Sri Lanka to Kerala, India
~28th May - Delhi to Nepal
mid August - Beijing to Hong Kong
Arrive home end September.
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miss ya!
looking good sweeties! Happy belated birthday to San as well. Hope you had a good time and it must have been special spending it in some exotic location. *muacks!!! and hugs!* stay safe and glad to see smiles in every photo. cannot wait to hear the stories!