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Plettenberg Bay: This is the life?
Posted by Squiffy on October 20th, 2008
Lovely sea views were the theme of our stay in Plettenberg Bay, known simply as ‘Plet’ by the locals. Lunch at the Look Out cafe was followed later that afternoon by sundowner cocktails, on a roof top bar over-looking the sea. Both were very enjoyable, although, as usual for us, the latter was not incident free :o)
Unfortunately, when delivering our drinks, the cocktail waiter misjudged the table and poured my Woo Woo into my lap, then in typical African style smiled uncomfortably and backed away. When I realised he was going to completely ignore the situation, I politely asked if he could bring me a cloth and perhaps top up my drink – cocktails are a treat for us after all. The others agreed this was a fair request and the waiter disappeared for a few minutes. When he returned with my drink, it was at exactly the same level as when he’d left and obviously so, much to our amusement. Still no mention of the situation, so I glady drank was left. Cheers.
The beach house we were staying at, 6km outside of Plet, had such a lovely location by the sea that we decided to cook at home and take in the views. By the time of the supermarket shop, Helen and I were slightly tipsy. I wanted to buy a small bottle of olive oil to go with our bread and salad, but there were only big bottles left. In our squiffy state we somehow managed to persuade the shop manager to open a big bottle and pour some into a disposable container which he then gave us for free. Success. These things would never happen at home. Would they?
In the morning we took a short stroll along the rugged beach, where Dave and Helen fell in love with a sausage dog.
Sea views, deserted beaches, spacious houses, whale viewing, not to mention cheap cocktails… is this the life we’re after?
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Knysna: Bez around the lagoon
Posted by daveb on October 17th, 2008
Kynsna is pronounced ‘Nighz-nah’. Glad we got that sorted; I still can’t pronounce it properly, so don’t feel too bad. Chatting to the locals as we travel South Africa, it’s plain to see that different people look for different things in life. When asked what the next town is like, we envitably get “Ooh, it used to be nice, but it’s really changed now. It’s so busy now…”
For the record–and according to me–Knysna is a nice seaside town not unlike Dartmouth in the UK. It has a nice waterfront area with shops and cafes facing onto a lagoon (Dartmouth is on the mouth of the River Dart, obviously) with a headland to the Indian Ocean. We stayed in the loft of a most fabulous bed and breakfast, the Idle Monkey, complete with thatch roof and two of the most enormous beds we’d ever seen.
We really wanted to get on the water to have a tour of the lagoon. The local boat tour company told us that there weren’t enough punters to justify taking out one of their tubs and so we were left to forage around to find our own ride. After bouncing around a few freshly made contacts and maritime engineers, we were put in touch with a small company (I only wish I could remember the name of it) who said that they would bring a motorboat to us within the hour.
Excited about cruising up and down the lagoon in our motor-yacht, we eagerly awaited it’s arrival. After a thirty minute wait we could hardly contain ourselves. Imagine our smirks as a four-seater (at a push) “rubber duck” rib boat splashed around into view and into the harbour! It wasn’t quite the yacht that we had imagined, but actually was an awful lot of fun and probably a better introduction to the lagoon than an organised cruise would have provided. Cheekily we putt-putted into the private residential moorings behind the harbour to check out some of the million-pound yachts aimlessly bobbing up-and-down outside their owners’ holiday homes. I bet that most of these boats rarely get used — a crime, if ever there was one!
After a couple of hours of bezzing around we returned to shore and the boat owners had another surprise for us: A free ride on a powerboat capable of warp speeds. We went out for a thrilling blast around the lagoon — video under the gallery below.
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Fixed: Technical gallery error
Posted by daveb on October 16th, 2008
Hi folks, there appears to be a technical gallery error at the moment (read: I’ve probably just pushed the wrong button and destroyed the last fifteen months of galleries from the site. Oh poo, oh poo, oh poo.)
Normal service will resume once I’ve finished kicking myself and figured out where the galleries are hiding…
UPDATE: Phew! Fixed–UNIX directory permissions, for those ‘in the know’. Less than five minutes too, you see I still haven’t lost it… (i.e. please can I have my old job back? ;-)
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Gansbaai: Shark diving
Posted by daveb on October 16th, 2008
Gansbaai is home to shark alley, visited great white sharks migrating between the two oceans. What better way to observe these marvelous/misunderstood/monstrous beasts (delete as necessary) than to lower ourselves into the confines of an underwater metal cage and bait them to charge at us with jaws agape. The water temperature was between 10-12 degree which, if you’re a diver, you’ll know is really
cold. So cold in fact, that it was very uncomfortable after just a few minutes. Worse too, was that the underwater visibility was less than 1.5 metres, our skippers worst in memory, so we had to pin our faces against the front of the cage to stand any chance of seeing the action. You can imagine the exhillaration of going from murky, murky, murky water to BIG OPEN-MOUTHED SHARK LUNGING TOWARDS MY FACE AT LESS THAN A METRE.
Temperature and visibility aside, we had a fabulous day out on the boat and were lucky to see so many sharks. We had an underwater camera with us, but haven’t yet developed the film so we’ll post another gallery when we do so. With visibility as it was, I’m not expecting any award-winning photos! Hope you enjoy the above-water shots below.
(Note to eco-warriors, you know who you are! There is a concern that the technique of ‘chumming’, pouring fish slurry into the water to attract the sharks, teaches them to associate humans with/as food. We were assured that the sharks that pass through these waters are migrating and so were never around long enough to make the link. In addition, we were assured that only fish parts were in the ‘chum’, in the past there have been suggestions that animal parts have been used — as far as we were told, this is not true. We don’t know exactly who or what to believe.)
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Hermanus: Whale watching from ashore
Posted by daveb on October 15th, 2008
Hermanus is billed to have the best land-based whale watching in the world and we certainly don’t disagree. In the space of about two hours, I reckon that I saw about twelve whales. Apologies for the somewhat blurry photos, it was kind of hard to photograph the whales from distance with such little warning!
(Oh, almost forgot, Hermanus town is nice too.)
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Stellenbosch: Whiff of peach with a hint of oak
Posted by Squiffy on October 14th, 2008
A trip to Stellenbosch is not complete without a drive along the wine route and visit to a least a couple of wine cellars to taste their wares. So on Sunday morning, after a late breakfast, we hopped in the car and drove out into the countryside. Unfortunately, JC le Roux, my favourite South African sparkling wine producer, is shut on the Holy day so instead we took the advice of our guidebook and visited Blaauwklippen, established in the 17th Century and housed in beautiful buildings.
Following our trip through the Champagne region of France, Dave and I have some experience of tastings at these often pompous wine houses, and were prepared for the glass swirling, sniffing, gargling and spitting that is involved. Despite that, we were still amused by the cellar master’s tasting notes, our favourite being ‘hints of pencil shavings with the delicate flavour of peas and asparagus’. Really? Does that make for a good wine?
We had fun taking part in blind tastings, trying to guess the grape variety or match the wine to the tasting notes. Even better was turning the tables on our friendly host, testing his ability to identify his wines. He proved to be a real pro, identifying them from their smell alone.
At Tokara, Helen and I were more intersted in their house chocolate than their grape juice, much to the amusement of the trainee cellar assistant.
From Stellenbosch we drove onto Franschhoek for a pancake lunch, then up and over the mountains to Hermanus. We took advantage of the roof top jacuzzi at our homely B&B, but the blustery cold winds meant only a short dip. We’re now safely tucked up inside, huddled around their log fire and drinking wine from the local area. A lovely end to the day.
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Boulders Beach: P-p-p-pick-up a Penguin
Posted by daveb on October 13th, 2008
P-p-p-pick-up a Penguin. Actually don’t, you’d get arrested. The point I’m trying to make is that you could, if you really wanted to, pick-up a penguin at Boulders Beach near Simonstown as they live on the rocks next to the ocean and you can walk quite freely in amongst them. They’re really not phased by humans at all!
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Nordhoek: Beach by horseback
Posted by daveb on October 10th, 2008
This is a guest post by H.
Hi, I’m H, Squiffy’s big little sister… as you may or may not know I joined DB and SQ on thier Escape the City tour around Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route (daveb: Sssh! Don’t tell where we’re going and spoil the surprise!)in South Africa. On my arrival we discussed the activities that we wanted to do and the sights we wanted to see over high tea at the Table Bay Hotel.
At the top of my list was horse riding on the beach… something I’ve always wanted to do. As SQ had located the telephone number of a riding school called Sleepy Hollow in Nordhoek, a small coastal town just south of Cape Town, I decided to call them. A lady answered and I gave her the date and time when I would be in the area and she informed me that she would be able to book me onto the sunset trail, which was perfect. She then asked if I had any experience. Much to the amusement of DB and SQ I informed her that “I have had my own horse for 8 years don’t-you-know” (!), as it was important to me that I didn’t end up on a follow the leader type tour as I’ve experienced on previous occassions.
On my arrival at Sleepy Hollow I was introduced to my guide and most importantly Havanna, my horse. We headed down to the long sandy beach which had mountains at either end and a ship wreck in the middle… the the perfect setting. As promised we had a canter along the beach in the shallow waves and although Havanna was spooked by seaweed I managed to stay on as he leapt sideways to dodge it! It was obviously a popular spot for riding as we passed five large chestnut coloured thoroughbreds out for their daily exercise. After a 2 hour ride we headed back to the ranch to untack before heading off to find food to cook back at the small farm where we were staying. I asked the guide to take some photos for me but although she was very polite and sociable, she was not the best photographer… hopefully from the pics you’ll get an idea of the setting though. I’ll leave it to the pros to tell you about the rest of our adventures but I’d just like to say a big thank you to you both for being so accommodating and allowing me to join you for part of your adventures.
daveb says: H, it was a real treat to backpack with you. You’d be most welcome to come again any time you please!
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Cape Town: The best place in the world?
Posted by daveb on October 9th, 2008
The other day, I wrote about my disappointing first impressions of Cape Town. Today, to an almost bi-polar degree, I’m really happy to report that I’ve completely, utterly, totally changed my mind.
To date, and seen with my own eyes, Cape Town is the best place on the planet. Let me qualify that: As we’re travelling, I’m keeping my eyes open for places to live once we’re done. We’ve seen many, many stunning places on our travels thus far but, save Switzerland, nowhere has struck me as a place to settle for a wee while. Throughout both Europe and Africa, we’ve seen some desperately beautiful places to visit for a day or two as a tourist, but honestly, the more I travel, the more I understand that–weather notwithstanding–the UK is a fabulous place to live. Yes, really!
For the first time in fourteen months, I reckon that–for me–I’ve seen a place better than the UK and it’s called Cape Town. (I know, I know, there’s that big, unfortunate question over safety in South Africa and I’m not completely comfortable with the apparent educational/racial divide. People I’ve spoken too are mostly hopeful for the future and feel that positive change continues to take place.)
Squiffy really likes Cape Town too but, being better travelled than I, tells me “if you like Cape Town, just wait ’til you see Sydney”.
(I can hardly wait.)
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Cape Peninsula NP: Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope
Posted by daveb on October 8th, 2008
A little way south of Cape Town is the Cape Peninsula National Park, home to the famous Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. The latter is often misquoted as being the southernmost point in Africa and where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Both statements are untrue.
As most of you know, I’m really into my views and vistas (all except the Microsoft kind, of course). The lookout from the Cape Point lighthouse surely must be one of the most beautiful views on the planet: Rugged cliffs reveal white sandy beaches in the foreground, with distant misty mountains and endless the blue ocean everywhere else. It’s quite unimaginably, jaw-droppingly beautiful here. Please go yourself and see what I mean.
Back down at the tourist cafe, we had a lot of fun photographing a cheeky baboon who had momentarily sneaked past the slingshot-wealding wildlife police to smash and grab from the bins and steal foodstuffs from unsuspecting tourist hands, before being pelted-back into the bush by humanity.
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