Road Trip, South Africa

Before we get too far removed from our time in South Africa I thought I’d share a few highlights from our time driving around the Western Cape. As is typical we opted for the budget rental car, which in this case meant a light blue Chevy Spark Lite. While it’s unlikely we’ll make it our next car, it served us well and is a bit of a natural deterrent to auto theft as I can’t image anyone giving it a second look.

Not just a Spark... a Spark Lite.

After our three nights staying in Cape Town we drove south to explore Cape Peninsula. The drive was amazing, winding above the Atlantic ocean along the western coast, and we really enjoyed our drive and walk around the nature reserve at the bottom of the cape. While we didn’t make it to technical southern tip of Africa, we did at least reach the “The most Southwestern Point”…whatever that means.

Like everyone else, we stood by the language we understood.

We spent a night in Simon’s Town, after which we visited the penguins and then headed up and east to the wine region. We ended up staying in Franschhoek by accident as a couple places we looked in the more well-known town of Stellenbosch were booked, but it ended up working out great. While we weren’t blown away by the wines, the scenery around the entire area is unbelievable and Franschhoek has a great small town feel. Fit my vision of what a town in Napa or Sonoma might have been like 30 years ago, with an even more spectacular backdrop. 

Nice views from Glenwood Winery, Franschhoek

During our time in foodie Franschhoek, we had one dinner out at a fantastic little place with a menu that changes nightly, and opted another night to cook some ostrich bolognaise in the indoor/outdoor kitchen at our guesthouse.

Jess, cooking al fresco

Jason enjoys his ostrich spag bol

Next we headed east along the scenic route 62, which provided as stunning as advertised. While our stay in Oudtshoorn proved only moderately interesting, we can now say we’ve visited the Ostrich Capital of the World and we did get to take a dip in the pool, with the owner’s dog, at our guesthouse.

This guy found us pretty curious, too.

Weather foiled our attempt at driving the scenic Swartberg pass the next morning but we made our own scenic detour and took the Spark Lite for a little semi off-roading on our way back west.

Our last two nights were spent in Montagu – “Where drying fruit is a way of life” - where we stayed at a fantastic little guesthouse at the back of a Brewery/Restaurant. While calling the town sleepy is perhaps an understatement, we really enjoyed the downtime and what felt like home cooking from the transplanted German chef. I did a nice 12km hike on the second day (Jess wasn’t feeling well), which offered some great views of the town and surrounding area and continued the training for Machu Picchu.

The road less traveled

On our last day we managed to squeeze some brandy tasting, which proved an interesting contrast to the wine tastings, and a stop a nearby botanical garden.  

Brandies with a savoury pairing

Our final night was spent in the travel lodge at Cape Town airport in anticipation of our 6:30am flight to Johannesburg and connection to our 12 hour voyage to Hong Kong. All in all we really liked Cape Town and the surrounding area which proved to be much more scenic than anticipated (and often reminiscent of California) as well as a whole lot safer than expected.  Check out the rest of the pictures here – where you can also see some of the entertaining road signs we encountered on our journey!

Chilly Willey

Along the False Bay coast line in South Africa, heading north from the Cape of Good Hope, there is a stretch of beach called Boulders, which is famous for its African penguin colony.  

Thanks to a good tip, we did not pay the R40 ($6) admission fee to hang with the penguins.  Rather we found the back way onto the beach, where we got up close and personal with the penguins.

Jason even gave one penguin a thumbs-up... 

... in obvious defiance of park rules. :-) 

Entertaining people the world over

In Cape Town, we spent 3 nights at a B&B called David's, run by David and his partner Hannes, who is the main guy we dealt with during our stay.  On the last morning, as he was running my credit card through, Hannes asked me, "Why do you have such a strange name, 'Willey'?  Really! How odd." After we had a nice chuckle over that, he proceeded to call ahead to another B&B on the Garden Route to let them know we might be coming to stay.  The one-sided conversation went something like: "Yes... yes, a very nice couple...  You won't forget the name: Willey.... that's right... yes, a big room for Big Willey."  

We gave B&B number two a pass, you might not be surprised to learn.

Anyway, we just posted a small album from our 3 days in & around Cape Town.  Our big activity from our stay in Cape Town was our hike up Table Mountain, but we also made it out to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners of apartheid were held.  It seemed good to go and visit, but unfortunately we didn't find the tour all that worthwhile - more entertainment than information, oddly enough!

Is Cape Town a Safe Town?

I have been a little anxious about visiting Cape Town, not because of the warnings in the guide books, but because one evening, after a few drinks, I was lectured at length by my South African friend, Natasha, on the mortal perils of visiting this dangerous city.  Essentially, the message went, I was risking life & limb if I decided to walk in, drive through, or think about Cape Town.  I was terrified. Keep in mind, we have lived in West Philadelphia.

You will be glad to know that we escaped unscathed, and while we practiced CONSTANT VIGILANCE, we never really felt in too much danger.  (However, after a wrong turn into a township around 10am one morning, I can understand why we were advised not to drive around at night without 100% certainty of where we were headed).  But on foot, we felt pretty secure, especially due to the presence of these: 

There was no one in here.

I'm pretty sure these "Mobile Crime Prevention Units" weren't around during the time Natasha lived in South Africa, or her opinion of the Cape Town's security would certainly be more positive.  Clearly they've made a difference! 

First Attempt at Strenuous Activity

After two weeks of easy going travel, being driven around to look at animals and chilling out on the beach, our arrival in Cape Town presented the first real opportunity for us to stretch our traveling legs. While we undertook a nice walk around the neighborhood where we stayed (Green Point/Sea Point) and the V&A Waterfront after our arrival. On day two we set out to conquer Table Mountain, the ever present landmark looming over Cape Town.

Table Mountain view from V&A Waterfront

Based on advice from a couple of people we decided to begin our hike/climb from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, southeast of the city center, via the Skeleton Gorge route. The mountain peak is 1087m and offered by far the most ambitious climb either of us had undertaken, which doesn't speak too proudly for our mountaineering - especially after meeting so many Kilimanjaro climbers in Tanzania.

Fair warning

The ascent took us a little over three hours, with a good number of photo breaks, and included some periods of seriously steep up hill walking, ladders and even some climbing up  and over rocks in part of the gorge. 

A little help on the way up

The views and scenery were unbelievable even on a somewhat hazy day, and the energy exerted made for a real sense of accomplishment when we finally reached the top where we enjoyed our lunch of leftover snacks from our safari lunches as we didn't bring any real food with us (whoops). 

Success!

Unfortunately the descent did not provide any relief to our now aching legs and feet. Most people take the cable car back down so we should get some points for walking back, even if the pace was slow and there was a lot of groaning. 

Carefully down

After almost another three hours we emerged back in the botanical gardens, although not exactly where we expected to. Thankfully we waited till the very end to get a little lost. We treated ourselves to a well deserved beer and cookies on the grass in the gardens while hoping the ascent for our Inca Trail hike in April will at least be a little more spread and also come with a real lunch.

We climbed all the way up there!