Five Continents in Four Months
I feel I have been living a very blessed life recently and have managed to visit FIVE continents in the space of FOUR months! It all started with the trip to the Americas over Christmas and New Years, then the trip back to New Zealand (Australasia/Oceania) which also included a couple of days in Singapore (Asia) and back to Dublin (Europe) for just over a week before heading over to my fifth continent: Africa! Yes, I was in South Africa in fact. As you may have noticed, Johnny has been travelling with work a lot recently and had spent three out of five months down in Cape Town from September to January. So, when he was asked to go for the fourth month in March and he said that he wasn’t prepared to spend his first wedding anniversary away from his wife (altogether now: “Awwwwwww!”), his company agreed to fly me down.
To make the most of the trip I arrived just before our wedding anniversary and used the Easter holidays, making my trip just over two weeks. We spent our wedding anniversary in the romantic setting of the Cape Winelands then while Johnny worked I spent the first week exploring Cape Town. Johnny took most of the second week off work so we got the opportunity to drive along the coast, checking out the Garden Route and Oudtshoorn before heading up to Addo Elephant National Park for a few days on safari. It was an incredible trip and I can honestly say that I think South Africa is one of the most beautiful countries in the world (second to New Zealand of course!). Click on the links below to read about our trip and see some photos!
Cape Winelands
After a full day of resting up and getting over the long flight on Friday, Johnny and I headed off on the morning of our first wedding anniversary up to Franschhoek, one of the gorgeous little towns in what is called the ‘Cape Winelands’ region, about an hours drive out of Cape Town. One of the first things that struck me about this little town is how picturesque it is! Nestled in amongst vineyards and rolling mountains, it has a ‘quaint’ feeling to it, from the French-style buildings and shops to the farmers market we encountered. The second thing that struck me was how incredibly beautiful our suite in our hotel was – that Johnny certainly knows how to spoil his wife! :-)
So after a leisurely lunch outside in the hotel café, Johnny and I decided it was time to explore the region and some of the vineyards. Of course neither of us wanted to drive and miss out on tasting the wines the region is famous for so we decided to take The Wine Bus, a tour in a 4-wheel drive jeep that said it took you to 3-4 vineyards and showed you some of the sights along the way. Well show us the sights it did but unfortunately, due to the vineyards closing early on the weekends, we only made it to one vineyard. It was a bit disappointing but we were given a discount for the tour to make up for it. We topped off our anniversary with dinner in Dieu Donne – a lovely vineyard up on the hill overlooking the valley of Franschhoek. The setting was incredibly romantic and as the Dieu Donne restaurant was celebrating it’s 1st Birthday they had Mauritian Dancers to entertain us before and during the meal.
On Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast then headed towards the nearby town of Stellenbosch via Boschendal Vineyard where we had a cellar tour and did a wine tasting of their very yummy wines outside in the garden. In Stellenbosch we checked out the university town which was surprisingly quiet even though it was a Sunday, grabbed some lunch and then headed out to another vineyard – Somerbosch. I tasted a few wines (Johnny was driving) before heading on to Spier, the vineyard that Johnny had booked us in for dinner at.
Spier is so much more than a vineyard too! It has gorgeous gardens for walking through, a wine-tasting room, a nice picnic area by a lake, an “Eagle Encounter” area, a hotel, two restaurants and a Cheetah Outreach Programme. So after doing the wine tasting we headed over to the Cheetah Outreach Programme where I got to pat two 6 month old cheetahs! Scary as they are quite big at 6 months but cool! After the excitement of that and checking out the other adult cheetahs we headed over to Moyo Restaurant where we had a cocktail before dinner. Moyo Restaurant is very impressive, boasting a full African-style buffet dinner, the restaurant is laid out with all sorts of different dining areas – there are tables under a marquee, tables under the trees, and then there are tables IN the trees! We chose to dine in the trees, up in a tree-hut with intimate dining spaces. There was entertainment too – singers that went from table to table singing a song for the individual diners, and a face-painter who gave patrons a tribal-style design on their face. The tree-huts are lined with candles and lanterns and if you get cold there are always blankets on each chair to wrap around you. What a brilliant experience and a great way to finish off our weekend in the Cape Winelands.
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Cape Town
While Johnny worked during the week on the first day, I checked out Cape Town. We were staying in Camps Bay, a picture-perfect suburb right on the beach. Camps Bay is also very safe so I spent a lot of time wandering around it, enjoying the many restaurants and cafes that line the beach-front and chilling out on the beach or beside our pool at the apartment. Of course I saw a bit more of Cape Town though!
Whenever we are exploring new cities, Johnny and I like to get on the hop-on-hop-off bus tours that many cities have and that is exactly what I did in Cape Town. Their City Sightseeing Bus Tour comprises of two loops of approximately two hours each. I bought myself a two-day pass and took off on the “Blue Loop” first. The Blue Loop runs from the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Waterfront out through some of the suburbs to Hout Bay on the coast and back into town via the coast. Halfway through the journey I decided to hop off at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to check them out. Having only an hour to wander through them before the last bus I only saw a little bit but it was enough to appreciate how well laid out and impressive the gardens are with their various types of African plants and flowers. The next bus stopped for 10 minutes in Hout Bay before continuing along the coast and dropping me back off at Camps Bay.
While I was there it just so happened that Johnny’s boss Barry was visiting so, having a day free after his meetings, he joined me on the other loop of the bus tour (the “Red Loop”) which focuses mainly on the sights in and around town before heading up the base of Table Mountain and then back around via the coast. As it was a scorcher of a day, Barry and I decided to hop off at Table Mountain and catch the cable car up it to see the sights. We managed a short walk around the top, a spot of lunch and of course some time appreciating the views that went for miles before heading back down, finishing off the bus loop and saying goodbye to Barry as he headed out to the airport. I then checked out the V&A Waterfront with its many shops and restaurants before Johnny joined me after work and we went on a Champagne Sunset Cruise. Free champagne, and amazing views of Cape Town as the sun set in brilliant hues while out on the water – bliss!
I couldn’t go to Cape Town without checking out the shopping so I headed out to the mall beside Johnny’s work, Canal Walk, – one that claims to be the biggest shopping mall in the Southern Hemisphere! It certainly was big and I only got to see about a quarter of it before meeting Johnny and heading back to the V&A Waterfront for some more shopping.
And while we were in this beautiful city Johnny introduced me to some of the friends that he has made on his many travels down there. We had dinner and drinks on Adrian and Aisling’s balcony overlooking the Soccer Stadium currently being built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Adrian and Aisling are an Irish couple who have been living in South Africa for a couple of years and Johnny met Adrian through Vodacom. We had dinner at the Waterfront with Henry & Connie, a lovely couple who we met through my Dad who worked with Connie’s brother in Auckland. We also enjoyed a delicious braai (a South African BBQ) and other tasty treats at the home of Guillaume and Rietta with their three sweet young children. The friendliness and great laid back attitude of South African people we met really endeared me to them all and reminded me of home.
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Township Tour & Robben Island
Given South Africa’s turbulent history, both Johnny and I felt we would like to get a better idea of it while we were down there so on the second weekend we were in Cape Town we decided to take a tour to some of the townships and Robben Island.
An early morning pick-up had us arriving at the District Six Museum just as it opened. District Six was one of the many areas that the Government deemed a ‘white’ area and forcibly removed blacks from their homes in 1966 to make room for this white area. Although the homes belonging to blacks were knocked down, most of this area was not developed on and as the museum was right beside it we got a good view of the desolation left behind after a very lively community was evacuated.
Next stop was the ‘township’ of Langa. Townships are areas where a community with makeshift homes of tin and rough wood have been set up by mostly unemployed people. Although the South African Government is attempting to help out the townships by building houses for those that qualify and various other schemes to get the unemployed working, the townships are still very poverty-stricken and the conditions of where many of the townspeople live are very bad. In Langa we visited a community centre where young kids are taught to perform a cute ‘Gumboots Dance’ in an effort to get them off the streets and help them earn a bit of money for their families, and adults are taught the art of pottery-making so they can sell their wares at local markets. We also met the town ‘Herbalist’ a man who is chosen for the job by his deceased ancestors and who learns his trade through a series of dreams and visions from these ancestors. Various dried meats, herbs, bones and other items hang from his ceiling in his dark ‘clinic’ and he uses these to create ‘medicines’ for the many ailments the townspeople come to him with.
Moving on we drove through a couple of other townships before getting to the largest one in Cape Town, Khayelitsha. Khayelitsha is huge with roughly one million people living in it. Here we visited a B&B set up by an enterprising woman who is attempting to make a lot of change in the township community whilst running a lovely looking B&B (still don’t know if I am brave enough to stay in it though!). Across the road was a bar – what they call a ‘shabeen’ – where whilst enjoying a beer, Johnny got challenged to a game of pool by one of the townspeople. This guy was obviously a bit of a pool shark, playing with Johnny for a while by setting up the pool balls so they blocked they pockets and then purposefully missing the black ball when he got down to it. However it appeared he was a little too confident as Johnny took this opportunity to sink his last three balls followed by the black to win the game! The stunned look on the guy’s face and the shouts of surprise and cheers (one guy kept repeating “I’m proud of you Johnny!” over and over) that came from the few onlookers that had wandered in from the start of the game said it all – they did not expect Johnny to win! Having bet the guy a beer Johnny decided that it wouldn’t be fair to make him buy one so Johnny bought him one instead. After meeting some cute kids who entertained us by folding their ears in on themselves we headed out of the township and down to the now overly-affluent looking V&A Waterfront to catch a spot of lunch before our boat out to Robben Island.
Robben Island is an island just off the coast of Cape Town that is most famous for it’s maximum security prison which housed many political prisoners from 1961 – 1991. We caught a ferry out there and were taken on a bus tour of the island before having a tour of the (no longer active) prison. Our tour was taken by an ex-political prisoner who was fascinating to listen to as he spoke from first-hand experience about the prison. We saw the dorms, the individual cells (including Nelson Mandela’s) and many other areas of the prison whilst getting an idea of what it must have been like to be there and how unfair it was for many of these prisoners to be locked up here just for expressing their beliefs. A great tour and definitely highly recommended by us!
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Cape Point & the Cape of Good Hope
On the Sunday Johnny and I jumped in the car and drove along the coast a little bit then down to Cape Point & the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-easterly point of Africa and a beautiful national park. As time was limited we took the funicular train up to the top of Cape Point with it’s lighthouse and took in the views before strolling down and driving out to the Cape of Good Hope.
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Travelling to PE & Oudtshoorn
After Johnny had finished up his work in South Africa (for now!) we decided to make the most of the time we had off and headed along the Coast in the direction of Port Elizabeth (P.E.). As P.E. is approximately 800kms away we broke the trip in half and booked ourselves into a really nice hotel in Mossel Bay on the first day. Not before making the long and difficult (very bad roads!) trip down to the Southernmost tip of Africa for the obligatory photo that is!
After picking up a feed of KFC (in our defense there was hardly any restaurant open in Mossel Bay) and lounging about in our gorgeous hotel eating it that night, we got up very very early the next morning. We had to be in Oudtshoorn by 6.15am and that was a good hours drive away up over the mountains.
Why did we have to be in Oudtshoorn so early? Why to go Hot Air Ballooning of course! For a wedding anniversary present I had arranged a flight in a Hot Air Balloon for both Johnny and I while we were in South Africa. We turned up just in time to see them inflating the balloon and to meet our fellow passengers: a sweet South African couple who had just gotten married and were enjoying their honeymoon. We told them that we were celebrating our first wedding anniversary then found out that we were married on the same day – just a year apart! What a great coincidence and it made taking the flight with them even better.
Before long the balloon was inflated and it was time to get in the basket and go up, up and away! Well, we went up, up and… ummmm… down… then up… and seemed to just hover about 500m above the spot that we took up from! There appeared to be hardly any wind that day so our pilot would fire the gas to rise then let us float down a little bit in a desperate attempt to catch some sort of breeze. However the four of us didn’t seem too fussed by our lack of horizontal movement as the view from being up so high and the pretty sunrise was enough to keep us ooooohing and ahhhhing for a while before we started moving again. Apart from the sound of the gas firing every now and then, it was incredibly peaceful being so far up and floating gently in the breeze. We didn’t move very far but watching the town of Oudtshoorn slowly wake up and appreciating the beauty of the region from such a high viewpoint was amazing. We flew over a police academy where they were all filing out of the barracks for their morning drills and almost landed in their shooting range before just making it over the fence and into the airfield. Half an hour later, the guys in the vehicle following us had deflated the balloon and we transported it back to its storage area before heading for breakfast with the pilot and our new friends Annette & Johann.
After breakfast Johnny and I headed just out of Oudtshoorn (via some ostrich farms) to experience the adventure of the Cango Caves. These caves are amazing, having been untouched for hundreds of thousands of years they have formed amazing mineral formations. Choosing to do the adventure tour we got the opportunity to explore many of the caves with their many stalactites and stalagmites by squeezing through tight passageways or crawling through little holes in the 95% humidity that the caves have year-round. One of the gaps that had to be squeezed through was only 27cms tall and was nicknamed “The Postbox”! Unfortunately at this point my touch of claustrophobia got the better of me so I chose not to go up “Devils Chimney” and through “The Postbox”, instead I took the easy way around and enjoyed taking photos of Johnny squeezing himself through the gap. In my defense I managed to do a lot of the other passageways and gaps without freaking out!
After making it out of the Cango Caves alive we again hit the road, leaving Oudtshoorn and heading back down to the Coast where we travelled along the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth. The Garden Route is a long stretch of road running along the coast and through many little towns and boasting beautiful views. Unfortunately, due to the early start and the long drive that we had that day, we didn’t get the opportunity to take in many of these views but saw a few from inside the car.
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Addo Elephant National Park
After what seemed like an incredibly long car journey we finally reached Addo Elephant National Park and checked into the Main Rest Camp where we would be spending the next couple of nights in one of their cute little chalets. Although the rest camp is in the park, it is blocked off from the animals by big fences. However there is one watering hole that it overlooks and this is where we got our first glimpse of a herd of elephants after dinner.
The next day we drove into the park to explore and see a lot more wildlife. Addo Elephant National Park was declared an Elephant Sanctuary in 1931 when there were only 11 elephants left in the park but nowadays there are approximately 450 elephants roaming the 164,000 ha park along with buffalo, black rhinos, lions, hyenas, lots of various types of antelope, wild birds, tonnes of ostriches and warthogs, and one leopard. Visitors can drive their own cars around the roads of the park, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rarer animals or enjoying seeing the more common ones in their natural habitat. Over the two full days we spent driving around exploring the many roads of the park, we were lucky enough to see a lot of ostriches and warthogs, a few birds, two monkeys, a couple of buffalo, some zebras, lots of antelope species such as the Kudu, Bushbuck and Red Hartebeest, meerkats, some tortoises and hundreds of elephants but by far our most exciting sight were the lions and lioness that we encountered!
Our first viewing of these incredible creatures was after a frustrating morning driving around in search of them. We had heard that the best time to catch them out and about is early in the morning so we were the second car through the gates of the park when it opened at 6.30am on our second day. We had driven around for hours catching sight of only warthogs and ostriches and were just heading back to the rest camp for breakfast when a guy in our car waved us down and told us there was a lion and lioness just in the bushes further up ahead. We edged forward slowly and sure enough there was. We watched in awe as they came out of the bushes and crossed the road, taking the time to size up another car that had stopped just in front of us. We then followed the pair up the road until they disappeared into the bushes.
On a high from getting to see these animals we didn’t think it could get much better until that night when we went on an organised Night Safari Tour. As the park closes at 6pm this is the public’s only opportunity to see the park after dark and the tour began by showing us some of the animals that only come out after sunset. We watched a scrub hare freeze in the beam of the huge spotlight that our tour guide was holding and a few spring hares bound away kangaroo-style from the light that hurts their eyes. Our tour guide even taught us to listen out for the clicking of the cartilage-scarce knees of the Eland, another type of antelope that we hadn’t yet seen. Then, just as I was starting to think that perhaps we wouldn’t see any of the ‘Big Five’ on this tour, we came across two lions, strolling through the bush. Following them with our spotlight, we saw the first one walk straight past a large kudu but the second one saw him and froze. The poor kudu was frozen to the spot and just when the Tour Guide took pity on him and moved the spotlight away, the lions struck. The second lion scared the kudu with a loud growl and the kudu bolted, unfortunately straight into the first lion who was behind him waiting. The lions quickly broke the kudu’s neck and then proceeded to tuck into their feed for the day. Repulsed yet also fascinated, our tour bus edged forward to get a good view of the feeding lions and we took lots of photos. Apparently a lion kill is only seen about once a month on the tours so we were lucky to have gotten to see this one!
Some other highlights from our safari included sitting parked in the car for 45 minutes and watching a tortoise slowly make his way up to the road and across the road while meerkats, kudus and even a yellow mongoose passed him by; and a very scary encounter with a huge African elephant. Driving around we came across a herd of elephants crossing the road and unbeknownst to us, became stuck in between a female elephant and the alpha male of the herd. While watching the female eat only a few metres away from us we heard a trumpet and looked up to find the male heading straight for us. We quickly rolled up our windows and attempted to reverse out of there but there was a safari truck blocking our way and the tour guide indicated for us to remain where we were. Terrified for our lives (well, I was anyway, apparently Johnny was just worried whether or not elephant attack was included in our car insurance!), we froze in our car and couldn’t even bring ourselves to take photos while the elephant came right up to our car and began to sniff our tyres with its trunk. It stayed there in between us and the female elephant until she had finished eating and had moved off. At which point we breathed a sigh of relief and drove off as soon as the male elephant had turned his back on us. Catching up with the safari tour guide later on that day he told us that if we had continued to reverse the elephant could have gotten more annoyed and charged after us! Lucky we were blocked in!
After all the excitement of the Safari Park we spent Easter Saturday in Port Elizabeth checking out this beachy town and the ‘Summer Splash’ Festival that was on before going to Vigil Mass. The next day it was up bright and early as we drove all 800kms back to Cape Town before hopping on a flight back to Dublin (via London) that night!
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This really was one of the more incredible trips that Johnny and I have taken. All the amazing experiences, beautiful sights and friendly people added up to an impression of South Africa as one of the best countries in the world. Despite the crime we felt safe and secure almost all of the time and we really saw true, natural beauty at almost every turn. We will be back!
To make the most of the trip I arrived just before our wedding anniversary and used the Easter holidays, making my trip just over two weeks. We spent our wedding anniversary in the romantic setting of the Cape Winelands then while Johnny worked I spent the first week exploring Cape Town. Johnny took most of the second week off work so we got the opportunity to drive along the coast, checking out the Garden Route and Oudtshoorn before heading up to Addo Elephant National Park for a few days on safari. It was an incredible trip and I can honestly say that I think South Africa is one of the most beautiful countries in the world (second to New Zealand of course!). Click on the links below to read about our trip and see some photos!
Cape Winelands
After a full day of resting up and getting over the long flight on Friday, Johnny and I headed off on the morning of our first wedding anniversary up to Franschhoek, one of the gorgeous little towns in what is called the ‘Cape Winelands’ region, about an hours drive out of Cape Town. One of the first things that struck me about this little town is how picturesque it is! Nestled in amongst vineyards and rolling mountains, it has a ‘quaint’ feeling to it, from the French-style buildings and shops to the farmers market we encountered. The second thing that struck me was how incredibly beautiful our suite in our hotel was – that Johnny certainly knows how to spoil his wife! :-)
So after a leisurely lunch outside in the hotel café, Johnny and I decided it was time to explore the region and some of the vineyards. Of course neither of us wanted to drive and miss out on tasting the wines the region is famous for so we decided to take The Wine Bus, a tour in a 4-wheel drive jeep that said it took you to 3-4 vineyards and showed you some of the sights along the way. Well show us the sights it did but unfortunately, due to the vineyards closing early on the weekends, we only made it to one vineyard. It was a bit disappointing but we were given a discount for the tour to make up for it. We topped off our anniversary with dinner in Dieu Donne – a lovely vineyard up on the hill overlooking the valley of Franschhoek. The setting was incredibly romantic and as the Dieu Donne restaurant was celebrating it’s 1st Birthday they had Mauritian Dancers to entertain us before and during the meal.
On Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast then headed towards the nearby town of Stellenbosch via Boschendal Vineyard where we had a cellar tour and did a wine tasting of their very yummy wines outside in the garden. In Stellenbosch we checked out the university town which was surprisingly quiet even though it was a Sunday, grabbed some lunch and then headed out to another vineyard – Somerbosch. I tasted a few wines (Johnny was driving) before heading on to Spier, the vineyard that Johnny had booked us in for dinner at.
Spier is so much more than a vineyard too! It has gorgeous gardens for walking through, a wine-tasting room, a nice picnic area by a lake, an “Eagle Encounter” area, a hotel, two restaurants and a Cheetah Outreach Programme. So after doing the wine tasting we headed over to the Cheetah Outreach Programme where I got to pat two 6 month old cheetahs! Scary as they are quite big at 6 months but cool! After the excitement of that and checking out the other adult cheetahs we headed over to Moyo Restaurant where we had a cocktail before dinner. Moyo Restaurant is very impressive, boasting a full African-style buffet dinner, the restaurant is laid out with all sorts of different dining areas – there are tables under a marquee, tables under the trees, and then there are tables IN the trees! We chose to dine in the trees, up in a tree-hut with intimate dining spaces. There was entertainment too – singers that went from table to table singing a song for the individual diners, and a face-painter who gave patrons a tribal-style design on their face. The tree-huts are lined with candles and lanterns and if you get cold there are always blankets on each chair to wrap around you. What a brilliant experience and a great way to finish off our weekend in the Cape Winelands.
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Cape Town
While Johnny worked during the week on the first day, I checked out Cape Town. We were staying in Camps Bay, a picture-perfect suburb right on the beach. Camps Bay is also very safe so I spent a lot of time wandering around it, enjoying the many restaurants and cafes that line the beach-front and chilling out on the beach or beside our pool at the apartment. Of course I saw a bit more of Cape Town though!
Whenever we are exploring new cities, Johnny and I like to get on the hop-on-hop-off bus tours that many cities have and that is exactly what I did in Cape Town. Their City Sightseeing Bus Tour comprises of two loops of approximately two hours each. I bought myself a two-day pass and took off on the “Blue Loop” first. The Blue Loop runs from the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Waterfront out through some of the suburbs to Hout Bay on the coast and back into town via the coast. Halfway through the journey I decided to hop off at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to check them out. Having only an hour to wander through them before the last bus I only saw a little bit but it was enough to appreciate how well laid out and impressive the gardens are with their various types of African plants and flowers. The next bus stopped for 10 minutes in Hout Bay before continuing along the coast and dropping me back off at Camps Bay.
While I was there it just so happened that Johnny’s boss Barry was visiting so, having a day free after his meetings, he joined me on the other loop of the bus tour (the “Red Loop”) which focuses mainly on the sights in and around town before heading up the base of Table Mountain and then back around via the coast. As it was a scorcher of a day, Barry and I decided to hop off at Table Mountain and catch the cable car up it to see the sights. We managed a short walk around the top, a spot of lunch and of course some time appreciating the views that went for miles before heading back down, finishing off the bus loop and saying goodbye to Barry as he headed out to the airport. I then checked out the V&A Waterfront with its many shops and restaurants before Johnny joined me after work and we went on a Champagne Sunset Cruise. Free champagne, and amazing views of Cape Town as the sun set in brilliant hues while out on the water – bliss!
I couldn’t go to Cape Town without checking out the shopping so I headed out to the mall beside Johnny’s work, Canal Walk, – one that claims to be the biggest shopping mall in the Southern Hemisphere! It certainly was big and I only got to see about a quarter of it before meeting Johnny and heading back to the V&A Waterfront for some more shopping.
And while we were in this beautiful city Johnny introduced me to some of the friends that he has made on his many travels down there. We had dinner and drinks on Adrian and Aisling’s balcony overlooking the Soccer Stadium currently being built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Adrian and Aisling are an Irish couple who have been living in South Africa for a couple of years and Johnny met Adrian through Vodacom. We had dinner at the Waterfront with Henry & Connie, a lovely couple who we met through my Dad who worked with Connie’s brother in Auckland. We also enjoyed a delicious braai (a South African BBQ) and other tasty treats at the home of Guillaume and Rietta with their three sweet young children. The friendliness and great laid back attitude of South African people we met really endeared me to them all and reminded me of home.
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Township Tour & Robben Island
Given South Africa’s turbulent history, both Johnny and I felt we would like to get a better idea of it while we were down there so on the second weekend we were in Cape Town we decided to take a tour to some of the townships and Robben Island.
An early morning pick-up had us arriving at the District Six Museum just as it opened. District Six was one of the many areas that the Government deemed a ‘white’ area and forcibly removed blacks from their homes in 1966 to make room for this white area. Although the homes belonging to blacks were knocked down, most of this area was not developed on and as the museum was right beside it we got a good view of the desolation left behind after a very lively community was evacuated.
Next stop was the ‘township’ of Langa. Townships are areas where a community with makeshift homes of tin and rough wood have been set up by mostly unemployed people. Although the South African Government is attempting to help out the townships by building houses for those that qualify and various other schemes to get the unemployed working, the townships are still very poverty-stricken and the conditions of where many of the townspeople live are very bad. In Langa we visited a community centre where young kids are taught to perform a cute ‘Gumboots Dance’ in an effort to get them off the streets and help them earn a bit of money for their families, and adults are taught the art of pottery-making so they can sell their wares at local markets. We also met the town ‘Herbalist’ a man who is chosen for the job by his deceased ancestors and who learns his trade through a series of dreams and visions from these ancestors. Various dried meats, herbs, bones and other items hang from his ceiling in his dark ‘clinic’ and he uses these to create ‘medicines’ for the many ailments the townspeople come to him with.
Moving on we drove through a couple of other townships before getting to the largest one in Cape Town, Khayelitsha. Khayelitsha is huge with roughly one million people living in it. Here we visited a B&B set up by an enterprising woman who is attempting to make a lot of change in the township community whilst running a lovely looking B&B (still don’t know if I am brave enough to stay in it though!). Across the road was a bar – what they call a ‘shabeen’ – where whilst enjoying a beer, Johnny got challenged to a game of pool by one of the townspeople. This guy was obviously a bit of a pool shark, playing with Johnny for a while by setting up the pool balls so they blocked they pockets and then purposefully missing the black ball when he got down to it. However it appeared he was a little too confident as Johnny took this opportunity to sink his last three balls followed by the black to win the game! The stunned look on the guy’s face and the shouts of surprise and cheers (one guy kept repeating “I’m proud of you Johnny!” over and over) that came from the few onlookers that had wandered in from the start of the game said it all – they did not expect Johnny to win! Having bet the guy a beer Johnny decided that it wouldn’t be fair to make him buy one so Johnny bought him one instead. After meeting some cute kids who entertained us by folding their ears in on themselves we headed out of the township and down to the now overly-affluent looking V&A Waterfront to catch a spot of lunch before our boat out to Robben Island.
Robben Island is an island just off the coast of Cape Town that is most famous for it’s maximum security prison which housed many political prisoners from 1961 – 1991. We caught a ferry out there and were taken on a bus tour of the island before having a tour of the (no longer active) prison. Our tour was taken by an ex-political prisoner who was fascinating to listen to as he spoke from first-hand experience about the prison. We saw the dorms, the individual cells (including Nelson Mandela’s) and many other areas of the prison whilst getting an idea of what it must have been like to be there and how unfair it was for many of these prisoners to be locked up here just for expressing their beliefs. A great tour and definitely highly recommended by us!
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Cape Point & the Cape of Good Hope
On the Sunday Johnny and I jumped in the car and drove along the coast a little bit then down to Cape Point & the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-easterly point of Africa and a beautiful national park. As time was limited we took the funicular train up to the top of Cape Point with it’s lighthouse and took in the views before strolling down and driving out to the Cape of Good Hope.
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Travelling to PE & Oudtshoorn
After Johnny had finished up his work in South Africa (for now!) we decided to make the most of the time we had off and headed along the Coast in the direction of Port Elizabeth (P.E.). As P.E. is approximately 800kms away we broke the trip in half and booked ourselves into a really nice hotel in Mossel Bay on the first day. Not before making the long and difficult (very bad roads!) trip down to the Southernmost tip of Africa for the obligatory photo that is!
After picking up a feed of KFC (in our defense there was hardly any restaurant open in Mossel Bay) and lounging about in our gorgeous hotel eating it that night, we got up very very early the next morning. We had to be in Oudtshoorn by 6.15am and that was a good hours drive away up over the mountains.
Why did we have to be in Oudtshoorn so early? Why to go Hot Air Ballooning of course! For a wedding anniversary present I had arranged a flight in a Hot Air Balloon for both Johnny and I while we were in South Africa. We turned up just in time to see them inflating the balloon and to meet our fellow passengers: a sweet South African couple who had just gotten married and were enjoying their honeymoon. We told them that we were celebrating our first wedding anniversary then found out that we were married on the same day – just a year apart! What a great coincidence and it made taking the flight with them even better.
Before long the balloon was inflated and it was time to get in the basket and go up, up and away! Well, we went up, up and… ummmm… down… then up… and seemed to just hover about 500m above the spot that we took up from! There appeared to be hardly any wind that day so our pilot would fire the gas to rise then let us float down a little bit in a desperate attempt to catch some sort of breeze. However the four of us didn’t seem too fussed by our lack of horizontal movement as the view from being up so high and the pretty sunrise was enough to keep us ooooohing and ahhhhing for a while before we started moving again. Apart from the sound of the gas firing every now and then, it was incredibly peaceful being so far up and floating gently in the breeze. We didn’t move very far but watching the town of Oudtshoorn slowly wake up and appreciating the beauty of the region from such a high viewpoint was amazing. We flew over a police academy where they were all filing out of the barracks for their morning drills and almost landed in their shooting range before just making it over the fence and into the airfield. Half an hour later, the guys in the vehicle following us had deflated the balloon and we transported it back to its storage area before heading for breakfast with the pilot and our new friends Annette & Johann.
After breakfast Johnny and I headed just out of Oudtshoorn (via some ostrich farms) to experience the adventure of the Cango Caves. These caves are amazing, having been untouched for hundreds of thousands of years they have formed amazing mineral formations. Choosing to do the adventure tour we got the opportunity to explore many of the caves with their many stalactites and stalagmites by squeezing through tight passageways or crawling through little holes in the 95% humidity that the caves have year-round. One of the gaps that had to be squeezed through was only 27cms tall and was nicknamed “The Postbox”! Unfortunately at this point my touch of claustrophobia got the better of me so I chose not to go up “Devils Chimney” and through “The Postbox”, instead I took the easy way around and enjoyed taking photos of Johnny squeezing himself through the gap. In my defense I managed to do a lot of the other passageways and gaps without freaking out!
After making it out of the Cango Caves alive we again hit the road, leaving Oudtshoorn and heading back down to the Coast where we travelled along the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth. The Garden Route is a long stretch of road running along the coast and through many little towns and boasting beautiful views. Unfortunately, due to the early start and the long drive that we had that day, we didn’t get the opportunity to take in many of these views but saw a few from inside the car.
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Addo Elephant National Park
After what seemed like an incredibly long car journey we finally reached Addo Elephant National Park and checked into the Main Rest Camp where we would be spending the next couple of nights in one of their cute little chalets. Although the rest camp is in the park, it is blocked off from the animals by big fences. However there is one watering hole that it overlooks and this is where we got our first glimpse of a herd of elephants after dinner.
The next day we drove into the park to explore and see a lot more wildlife. Addo Elephant National Park was declared an Elephant Sanctuary in 1931 when there were only 11 elephants left in the park but nowadays there are approximately 450 elephants roaming the 164,000 ha park along with buffalo, black rhinos, lions, hyenas, lots of various types of antelope, wild birds, tonnes of ostriches and warthogs, and one leopard. Visitors can drive their own cars around the roads of the park, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rarer animals or enjoying seeing the more common ones in their natural habitat. Over the two full days we spent driving around exploring the many roads of the park, we were lucky enough to see a lot of ostriches and warthogs, a few birds, two monkeys, a couple of buffalo, some zebras, lots of antelope species such as the Kudu, Bushbuck and Red Hartebeest, meerkats, some tortoises and hundreds of elephants but by far our most exciting sight were the lions and lioness that we encountered!
Our first viewing of these incredible creatures was after a frustrating morning driving around in search of them. We had heard that the best time to catch them out and about is early in the morning so we were the second car through the gates of the park when it opened at 6.30am on our second day. We had driven around for hours catching sight of only warthogs and ostriches and were just heading back to the rest camp for breakfast when a guy in our car waved us down and told us there was a lion and lioness just in the bushes further up ahead. We edged forward slowly and sure enough there was. We watched in awe as they came out of the bushes and crossed the road, taking the time to size up another car that had stopped just in front of us. We then followed the pair up the road until they disappeared into the bushes.
On a high from getting to see these animals we didn’t think it could get much better until that night when we went on an organised Night Safari Tour. As the park closes at 6pm this is the public’s only opportunity to see the park after dark and the tour began by showing us some of the animals that only come out after sunset. We watched a scrub hare freeze in the beam of the huge spotlight that our tour guide was holding and a few spring hares bound away kangaroo-style from the light that hurts their eyes. Our tour guide even taught us to listen out for the clicking of the cartilage-scarce knees of the Eland, another type of antelope that we hadn’t yet seen. Then, just as I was starting to think that perhaps we wouldn’t see any of the ‘Big Five’ on this tour, we came across two lions, strolling through the bush. Following them with our spotlight, we saw the first one walk straight past a large kudu but the second one saw him and froze. The poor kudu was frozen to the spot and just when the Tour Guide took pity on him and moved the spotlight away, the lions struck. The second lion scared the kudu with a loud growl and the kudu bolted, unfortunately straight into the first lion who was behind him waiting. The lions quickly broke the kudu’s neck and then proceeded to tuck into their feed for the day. Repulsed yet also fascinated, our tour bus edged forward to get a good view of the feeding lions and we took lots of photos. Apparently a lion kill is only seen about once a month on the tours so we were lucky to have gotten to see this one!
Some other highlights from our safari included sitting parked in the car for 45 minutes and watching a tortoise slowly make his way up to the road and across the road while meerkats, kudus and even a yellow mongoose passed him by; and a very scary encounter with a huge African elephant. Driving around we came across a herd of elephants crossing the road and unbeknownst to us, became stuck in between a female elephant and the alpha male of the herd. While watching the female eat only a few metres away from us we heard a trumpet and looked up to find the male heading straight for us. We quickly rolled up our windows and attempted to reverse out of there but there was a safari truck blocking our way and the tour guide indicated for us to remain where we were. Terrified for our lives (well, I was anyway, apparently Johnny was just worried whether or not elephant attack was included in our car insurance!), we froze in our car and couldn’t even bring ourselves to take photos while the elephant came right up to our car and began to sniff our tyres with its trunk. It stayed there in between us and the female elephant until she had finished eating and had moved off. At which point we breathed a sigh of relief and drove off as soon as the male elephant had turned his back on us. Catching up with the safari tour guide later on that day he told us that if we had continued to reverse the elephant could have gotten more annoyed and charged after us! Lucky we were blocked in!
After all the excitement of the Safari Park we spent Easter Saturday in Port Elizabeth checking out this beachy town and the ‘Summer Splash’ Festival that was on before going to Vigil Mass. The next day it was up bright and early as we drove all 800kms back to Cape Town before hopping on a flight back to Dublin (via London) that night!
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This really was one of the more incredible trips that Johnny and I have taken. All the amazing experiences, beautiful sights and friendly people added up to an impression of South Africa as one of the best countries in the world. Despite the crime we felt safe and secure almost all of the time and we really saw true, natural beauty at almost every turn. We will be back!
..:: Bex ::.. at
11:09 pm
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