SOUTH AFRICA

                                  

                        
          

Tuesday 17^th of January/ Wednesday 18^th of January

Leave from Luxembourg’s Findel at around 11:00 with Turkish Airline to Istanbul. Arrive at around 06:00 o’clock there and spend some horrible 9 hours on the airport, sleeping, reading, walking and eating to wait for the connection flight. (Turkish Airlines had cancelled our original flight; there was no other option to get to Cape Town…).

Arrive in Cape Town rather deadbeat and sweaty. Spend a first night at villa Allegro with Mike and Pat, our trip organizer, and recover from the trip’s hardship!   http://www.traveltosouthafrica.info/

Thursday 19^th of January

Breakfast at villa Allegro and plan the first Peninsula tour with Mike. Before leaving we see our first exotic bird, right in their garden, a thick knee bird or “deckkopp”…

Start at Muizenberg, an old seaside (bath) town with colourful Victorian seafront chalets at the beach. After a stroll on the beach and collecting some first shells we had on to Kalk Bay, another seaside town with a little harbour, little shops and galleries and pleasant restaurants. We stroll to the lighthouse and see some seals that lie on the quay to watch the women clean the catch of the day, hoping like the cormorants to snatch some pieces away… one seal tries to sneak into the hall for some fish scraps but they chase it away…the seal shows some impressing yellow teeth….

We drive on to the Penguin’s Boulder beach to see some South African penguins. The boulders are very nice and the penguins funny and cute. There is a little trail along the boulders and we continue on it, Mike picking us up at the end.

After this we enter Cape Point’s national park. Again we find a lovely trail all to the point (Diaz’s Point) and around to the Cape of Good Hope. We fix a time and head off. The coast is wonderfully wild and rough and the walls drop off for hundreds of meters into the ocean. On the way we see our first Dassis, an animal that looks like a giant hamster, and some black Zanures, a kind of lizard living between the rocks. After this coastal path we meet Mike again who shows us the sad rests of a stranded whale. We continue our exploring trip to Hout Bay along the Chapman’s Peak drive, a winding road cutting through the mountains along the coast. The cliffs are covered by some mist and spray from the sea which creates a beautiful light and sight. We find a little cave, climb into it and finish our day’s trip at Camps Bay in a little seafront restaurant. Back to Melkbosstrand.

Friday 20^th of January

Wake at 5:30 to drive to the Silvermine mountains for some climbing. We meet Justin Lawson, ( http://www.montaguclimbing.com ) our guide, who shows us the way to the crack. After some scrambling we see the routes, the rock looks very nice and grippy and we enjoy some very nice climbs. (some 6a/6b etc). We return dirty, tired but very happy to Melkbosstrand and enjoy dinner with them.

Saturday 21^st of January

Get to Milnerton flea market, with a hard wind, being just next to the shore. A very nice atmosphere at the place…buy some “magical oil”, a wonder treatment for any ointment!! Continue to the Woodstock area, which looks like the place “to be” in a few years. Many shops are sort of “projects”, simple people developing an idea and turn it into a business, very creative!

Go to the biscuit mill, an old mill built of red bricks, restored into a market and food hall combined with arts and crafts, concerts etc…

Run to the waterfront to catch the ferry to “Robben Island”.

This place is a prison and it got famous through Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment here. Mandela’s tiny cell doesn’t look like a place where you want to be for years on end… We suffer the guided tour and the bus tour, too many tourists, but the little penguin colony is very cute. Take the ferry back to CT; meet Mike and Pat for a wonderful evening at the “Gold”, a restaurant with various African dishes, live dance and live singing. Splendid entertainment and delicious food. 

Sunday 22nd of January

Leave direction Langebaan Nature reserve with Mike and Pat. On the way stop at Beulah Delifarm and get some nice croissants. These farms are typical, we saw them all over South Africa, places to stop and eat or buy homemade food. We get into West Coast Nature Reserve for a swim and a sunbathing rest (we all get “roasted”) and drive on to the sea. There are some large boulders, big waves thunder down on them, filling the air with a white mist. The landscape is beautiful and we enjoy the atmosphere. In plus Mike surprises us with a tasty white wine that we enjoy with our picnic.

On our way back we visit a San project, the San tribe being rather poor and without any privileges but at the same time one of the ancient ethnic tribes in South Africa (from the Hunters and Gatherers period). ¡khwattu is a little reserve where we take a coffee and visit their tiny museum. Their language is very strange, with some funny clicking and snatching sounds between the words. The Dutch called them “Hottentots” the wild ones! Very unrespectful! They make nice jewellery out of eggshell pieces from ostrich eggs.

Today we saw some ostriches, a “buntebock”, springbock turtle and from a big distance some zebras.

Monday 23rd of January

Get up and leave with
 Mike’s car to Cape Town for our kayak tour. Traffic in CT is terrible; it takes 2 hours to get us there.

We’ve hired a guide from “Kaskasi Kayaks” (http://kayak.co.za/guided-trips/trip_booking/) to take us out into the Granger Bay. There is a very thick mist over the sea and our guide doubts that we can make the trip. We start to paddle and are very lucky: the mist begins to lift, the sky clears up a bit and we paddle out into the sea. Close to the coast is an old shipwreck and next to it lives a group of dolphins. We are happy to see them; they come close to the kayaks, play around, race the boats and spend some time with us. We even meet some penguins, but these are very shy and quickly dip off into the deep. We paddle through a sailing boat harbour where we meet a seal, fast asleep on the rocks. Return to the little bay, paddle in rather high waves and get back to the shore.

After the kayak we treat ourselves to a delicious breakfast at the Newport bakery and decide to stay in town (we were thinking of hiking the Table Mountain, but fog and mist have returned, so the hike is postponed...). We recuperate Gaston’s cap (Kaskasi company is very nice and helps us...) and start exploring the town. We leave the car and start our walk at Green point’s park, walk past the giant football stadium and go all the way to the V&A Waterfront. We get to the main shopping street, Long Street, through Bree Street to take some pictures at Bo-Kaap (some nicely restored houses, very colourful), shop some souvenirs at Greenmarket and African market, have a drink and take a cab back to our own car. Traffic is very dense; it takes a long time to get back to Melkbosstrand where we go for dinner to a rather windy and chilly beach…

Tuesday 24th of January

Today we visit Ct’s oldest township, Khayelitsha, 2,2 million of people living there. Our local guide Loiso shows us around. There are 3 different kinds of townships: formal, semi-formal and informal. The last one is very primitive; people live in shacks, with tin roofs, built from containers. No private water supply, only public toilets. Up on a hill we can overlook K, quite impressing. We have a look at local craft shops where people sell whatever they produce: leather bags from recycled leather, typical African jewellery made of beads etc. After that we drive to the local radio station, where the staff is busy collecting the latest news (local and some international) to broadcast them on the area. We continue our visit; have coffee in Siki’s coffee shop, installed in a simple garage. See K’s railway station and the market around it. Have a muffin at the Spinach King, where everything is prepared with spinach. We lunch at a very special place, 

Herman’s Village house, a simple restaurant, built with container pieces and a bit of anything the owner could find. This man worked in a hotel but came back to the township to open his own business. We get good vegetarian food that we eat in the African way, with our fingers. Some homemade ginger beer to go with it…The use of the toilet is a bit of an adventure, no flush toilet, no water, just a simple container…

After lunch we finish our visit at the local arts and crafts shop, where people are very creative to produce little souvenirs from almost anything. We buy a lot of souvenirs to support these people’s efforts!

Back to Melkbosstrand, dinner and preparing our leave for the day after.

Wednesday 25^th of January

Up at 5:30 and off to the airport to catch our flight to Durban. At Durban get our hired car (First Car) and start our drive to Saint Lucia. After some searching we find “Saint Lucia Wetlands Guesthouse”. On our arrival they tell us St Lucia was cut off from electricity all night, due to some heavy thunderstorms. 

It is raining and we wonder about our boat trip. At 16:15 we meet our guide at the bridge and she tells us, she is not sure if we can make the trip in this bad weather conditions. Nevertheless, we get on the boat and head off. Immediately we meet our first hippo family in the water. We are told that hippos are very territorial and basically stick with their family to the same area. Hippos are easily scared and have a very quick temper: there is a lot of roughing around and fighting between them to the point that many babies get literally “squashed” between the quarrelling adults. Their tusks can get the frightening length of 60 cm (!!) and whenever these beasts feel threatened, they attack! They are known to have bitten whole chunks out of boats! They swim at 10 km/h, run on the bottom of the lake at 20 km/h and run on land at 45 km/h. That turns them into the most dangerous animals in Africa!! In St Lucia town they are sometimes roaming the streets at night!

When we come back to the village the current is cut off again and no shower possible. We have a simple pasta dinner at a pizzeria (no oven working) and drive back through a pitch dark village. In the middle of the night electricity is back again so we can happily enjoy our shower in the morning, have breakfast and leave.

Thursday 26^th of January

Today we drive to Kosi Bay. On the way we are close to the border of several nature reserves. At one point, just close to the fence, we see our first giraffes. We turn back and take some pictures of these incredible beasts. Nobody else seems to be bothered about them, but we are totally enthusiastic!! These gentle giants eat happily from the top of the trees and move elegantly around, blending perfectly into the landscape. A short stop at the petrol station and the last part of our drive on gravel with plenty of potholes. We check in at “Utswayelo Kosi Mouth Camp” and organise our stay. First we drive to the lake/sea to relax a bit on the beach. The water is very shallow but with a seriously strong current, we walk across it and enjoy the sun. Return to the camp (we are staying in a luxurious tent) and plan boat trip and turtle watching for the next day. The tent is lovely, with an outdoor “walk in shower”… at night there are some insects, frogs and geckos on visit…

Friday 27^th  of January

Get up early and take a gravel road (+/- 1 hour) to our meeting point for the boat trip. The bracken water of Kosi Bay is very shallow and of a turquoise colour. See some hippos at a distance, drive up through some channels and side arms, see kingfishers and herons. In the estuary we see the old fish traps: this fish catching system is ancient, even Vasco da Gama writes about them. The basic idea is that the fish swim into those traps, built of wood, with the current, and cannot backtrack out them again. The fishermen spear them at the end.... We continue our boat trip; do some swimming/snorkelling seeing a lot of small fish under the mangroves.

Get back to the camp and late in the afternoon start our trip to the turtle hatching... To get to the place we have a ride through a pretty rough landscape, all cross country and bumpy roads. At the end we arrive at a long beach, get a little picnic and meet the local guide. We are told to walk behind the guide, the only torch holder, not to disturb any old turtles and hope to find a hatching nest. We walk for 2 hours; sunset has been beautiful and continue in the dark. It is a starry night, we can see the Milky Way... Just before giving up, our guide detects a nest where a single tiny turtle hatches and starts its long way to the ocean. The brave little fellow is struggling very hard, crawling over the dunes to the sea. We are allowed to take pictures and the guide is leading the baby turtle with some red light to the water. Many greedy crabs have their eye on the little creature but don’t dare to attack (with us being around). At the end the little guy gets safely to the water and we have a bumpy and hard ride back home.

Saturday 28^th of January

Leave Kosi bay early and drive to Tembe Elephant Park.

Arriving at the park’s entrance we have to leave our car and continue with a ranger. It is really hot (38 C°) and the air is heavy with rain. We get lunch and a rest and just about at the beginning of our first safari a terrible thunderstorm starts. There is some heavy rain and spectacular lightnings and we wonder if the safari is going to be cancelled. But the ranger tells us, you never know how the animals are going to behave, if they hide from the weather or stay out in the open. So off we are, with raingear, cameras and low expectations.

But we get our reward: we see our first Impalas, young and old, with a lovely brown colour and big ears. We cross some giraffes and see zebras from a big distance. And finally elephants approach. They start digging at a small waterhole to enlarge it. With their feet they splash around in the water, stomping the earth and making a big mess all around them. The water attracts more of them; they all try to squeeze into the waterhole, rolling topsy turvy around, pushing their friends around and having a good time. There are as many as 8 around, even a big tusker joining them. We stay for a long time, cannot get enough of this unique spectacle and leave at the end, loaded with many pictures. We get back at dusk, many mosquitoes around and a chilly air. We enjoy a nice dinner and watch some of the life singing and dancing provided by the lodge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_47p59nC5s

Sunday, 29^th of January

Get up at 5:00 and leave at 6:00 o’clock for the next safari. During the night I woke up and heard a lion’s roaring. And indeed we see fresh tracks in the sand…We are lucky to spot a Suni, the tiniest antelope, about 5 kg heavy, see a mongoose and Impalas on the way. A single giraffe at the beginning, later a bigger group, fairly close to the Landcruiser. See some colourful birds, Lilac-breasted roller, European bee-eater and hear their different songs. All very exotic. Meet many Nyalas on our way back. Get breakfast, a rest and in the afternoon another safari. One big tusker comes very close to the car. It makes a rumbling sound, almost like a growl, and the ranger is careful not to irritate the mighty beast. It is double impressing because after a mud bath it is all black and glistening in the sun…with the high green grass around it we shoot some amazing pictures.

Just at the moment when we are going to return, a lioness crosses our path. She has a lovely walk, flicking a paw at each step. There is a lot of noise around, the forest animals alarm each other of her presence…At a huge waterhole we see many birds and a huge crocodile…On the way to the lodge meet our first zebras, this time really close. It has been a wonderful day.

Monday 30^th of January

Last safari at Tembe’s with some Gnus ,“Wildebeest”in Afrikaans, beautiful elephants again and some baboons at the lodge (naughty monkeys, stealing things..). We see the weavers’ nest, tiny straw “balls”, where they enter from the bottom. Big event of the safari: a large group of buffalos, grazing at an open clearing. And... 3 young male lions roaming around them!!! The lions don’t attack, too many cars around and too young. But it is a very special and we enjoy it a lot.

After some lunch we leave Tembe and drive to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi parks. It is a tiring 260km drive. But the landscape has changed by now; it is hilly and rather green. We enter the park at Memorial Gate, excited to do our first self driving in a park. Immediately on the road we meet a group of zebras and some baboons. We are astonished and had not expected the animals so close at the road. We check in at the “Hilltop Resort” and try to organise a ranger walk (safari). Unfortunately these walks are cancelled for 2 months. We do inscribe for a guided safari then, since it is so hot (38C°) that only the rangers know where to find the animals.

We’ve chosen wisely because right at the beginning of the safari we see our first rhino, very close to the street, not taking any notice of us…Some more zebras and a bigger rhino group, even with a baby among them.  Far away on the hills is a large group of elephants, a beautiful sight that gives the impression of just being cut out from “Out of Africa”….Impalas, Nyalas, and a warthog with its piglets. Right at the Memorial Gate that we entered a while before, a group of rhinos, amazing!! Return in the dark and see 2 bush babies rushing across the road…Dinner and rest.

Tuesday31st of January

Leave Hilltop Resort for another self drive through the park. We don’t see a lot, spot some buffalos and elephants at a big distance and are a bit disappointed. But right before leaving the park we see 2 lions sleeping on a tree!! Spectacular!!

After that we are facing a 400 km drive all the way to Howick. At the end we get lost a bit and are happy to arrive at “St Ives Lodge”.

The town is a bit of a ghost town, everything is closed. We dine of our poor picnic things and go to bed in low spirits.

Wednesday 1^st of February

Our expectations are rather vague for our climbing day. To our surprise, Gavin, our local guide, is extremely nice and helpful. (www.peakhigh.co.za). 

He guides us into a beautiful 2-pitches climb at Howick Falls, a fantastic setting and a good climb. After that we drive into a small nature reserve, Umgeni Nature Reserve, out of Howick for some single pitches. Already the approach to the crack is a lovely (but scrambling) walk.

At the end of the day we return to the car where a group of zebras stay in the car’s shade, they even rest their head on the car...

Get some food and enjoy some nice self catering for dinner.

Thursday 2^nd of February

At sunrise we get out to the park of the lodge where zebras, gnus and blessbocks gaze right at our door step !!What a treat!

At breakfast we get a very nice surprise: Gavin, our climbing guide, shows up and presents us with some of his company’s t-shirts!! How sweet, we treasure this unexpected souvenir…

We are off towards Underberg to find “Umzimkulu Lodge”, right at a river, outside of the town.

We have a date with a cycling guide, wondering if we are going to cycle in spite of the rain. Ken, our guide, is nice and provides us with 2 mountain bikes. The rain has stopped and we are off for a local tour. Ken tells us a lot about the area and South Africa in general. We see many birds, like falcons, herons, storks, wild geese and an incredible bird, a black widow that flies in an almost vertical position…The grey clouds are still threateningly hanging in the sky and heavy rains starts again just at our arrival. We have been lucky. It is much colder now, a drop to 17C° from 32C°…

Back at the lodge get a hot shower and a nice dinner.

Friday 3^rd of February

We wake up to a really chilly morning, 14-15 C°, foggy and misty. We wonder about our day’s excursion, the Sani-pass….At Sani-pass tours they show us a list with Luxembourg being a country to need a visa to go to Lesotho. ALL European countries enter without, and WE need a permit?? Weird… we take the risk and still go for the trip. The road to the kingdom of Lesotho is unpaved and very hard to drive. Only 4x4 cars drive there and it is still a challenge! Check out at the SA border, continue to “no man’s land” for 8 km and enter Lesotho … with NO problem at all. We get to a local village, with the typical “rondavels” (little round shaped huts without any window). 
Here the shepherds live a very basic life without ANY kind of luxuries….We taste some nice home made bread, baked in a pot over a simple coal fire in the hut. The people are Basotho and very shy but friendly. We buy a typical hat (for my collection) and watch outside the singing and dancing of the boys…only garment they are wrapped into is a very thick weaved blanket that serves as clothes, blanket, bed cover ..anything. –lunch at the highest pub in South Africa, 2800 m.

Drive back and stroll through Underberg to buy some souvenirs. During the day we had met a very nice German couple, experienced in South African travelling, and meet them right at the place where we decide to have dinner. We dine together and spend a wonderful evening.

Saturday 4^th of February

Get up early to set off for Durban airport and car return. The GPS is not very reliable, so we better leave early to be sure to find the way and catch the flight on time. Mike and Pat await us at the airport and we have many a story to tell….

Sunday 5^th of February

Get up at Mike’s and exercise with Pat. Drive to Milnerton’s to buy some more of the “magical oil”, which had some good effects…

Drive to the “Lion’s trail”, a busy track on a hill next  to Table Mountain…

The track is nice, with some ladders and chains and beautiful “silvertrees”, but very busy, it is a popular walk for tourists and we don’t like to stay too long at the top, with so many people around having a party time…After the  little trekking we visit Signal hill, the place where a canon was fired to warn that a big trading ship had sailed into CT harbour… Drive into the centre, stroll through “Company’s garden”, where a wedding party is marching through it…Green market is closed (Sunday) but find some arts and crafts shops open for more souvenirs. Get a cold beer at the beer-house and a nice dinner at the Thai restaurant.

Monday 6^th of February

Get up at 6:oo to drive through CT’s horrible traffic. Arrive on the spot at 9:00, at the Bike’s café in Loop Street. Our guide takes the bikes (street bikes!!) and the van to start our peninsula tour. Kalk Bay, False Bay and a stop at Simon’s town, with some beautiful Victorian houses and a lovely Fisher man’s town atmosphere…Go to boulder’s bay, this time some penguins extremely close to the path…From there start the cycling, the man in the van following us. A very hard wind blows and it is really hard to keep the bikes on the road. We enter Cape Point National Park and cycle all the way to the Cape of Good Hope….it is indeed a bit special to arrive at such a destination on the bike…After that drive to Cape Point Vineyards and have our first vine tasting on a “domaine”…Rounding off the day, we drive Chapman’s Peak, through Hout Bay back to CT and take the car back to Melkbosstrand. We are tired from the ride and the windy day.

Tuesday 7^th of February

Take the car to CT to visit “Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden”. We meet our friendly guide, John Dunwoody, who shows us around in one of the world’s biggest botanical gardens. We see beautiful trees, flowers, bushes and listen to the guide’s interesting explanations. The rarest plant to see is the “cycad”, a plant that dates back to the age of dinosaurs!! The sky is covered so we decide against the Table Mountain hike. We drive back to Melkbosstrand instead and spend a lovely late afternoon on the beach with a long walk and collecting many shells. Go to the “heart” for a nice snack and back to Mike’s.

Wednesday 8^th of February

After a delicious breakfast we drive to CT and to the Table Mountain’s parking. The weather is perfect and we decide to do the “Indian Venster” trail, a path which is a bit more challenging than the simple Plattenklip trail.

The single trail is winding up, rather steep, with high steps which make it a bit strenuous. After a while it changes from trail to “scrambling”, little climbing passages and rocky sections. It leads around the mountain and brings us right to the cable cabin. The top is crowded with tourists so we don’t stay too long…We take the cabin to go down and drive back. We treat ourselves to a nice cheese board to celebrate our ascent. Enjoy a last dinner at Mike’s…

Thursday 9^th of February.

Stellenbosch

Get up leisurely, pack and head off towards “Stellenbosch” to see the vineyards. Arriving in Stellenbosch town we have a stroll seeing nice Victorian houses and some posh galleries. Drive to the most famous domaine, “Graff”, very chic and expensive. Continue to “Boschendaal”, a farm built in the Dutch style, with farmhouse and gardens. Go to “Babylonstoren”, a place with gardens, farm and hothouse. Enjoy a lovely lunch at its terrace and leave. There are traffic jams, we skip “Franschhoek” and drive immediately to the airport.

Get our flight to Istanbul, spend many hours there waiting for our connection flight to Luxembourg.

Arrive at 16:15 on the 10^th of February.