Wednesday 6/4/2008- Wednesday 6/11/2008
The rest of our day was dedicated to touring the famous Cape Town Winelands. We went to 2 different wineries: Groot Constantania and Asara, with a side stop at Katie rear ending a trailer…oops. It was just like out of National Lampoons, where the gentleman was apologizing for breaking so quickly in the rain, and he hoped that we could still enjoy our holiday. Luckily, Katie took out full insurance on the car, so we were all good to go.
We stopped in Stellenbosch for lunch and had some very good gourmet pizzas at Col Cacchio. The day flew by and before we knew it all the wineries were closed and the sun was setting. We booked accommodation at a lakeside cottage just outside of Stellenbosch town. The cottage was beautiful. Katie and I both thought it would be a great place to spend a week or two. We dropped off our stuff and then headed out to Moyo restaurant for dinner at Spier winery. The restaurant was very good, though a bit Disneyland-esque at times. The served traditional African food and had traditional African dance which felt authentic, but a bit hokey at the same time. We did have a great time, though and were glad that we gave it a try. We then drove home and went to bed after a card game of hearts.
The next morning we decided to head on to Franschhoek wine region. After a delicious breakfast at our cottage, we were sad we couldn’t stay longer. Our first stop before wine tasting was to the Cheetah Outreach center at Spier Wine Estate. This program was dedicated to raising awareness about cheetahs. We had the opportunity to see some films about cheetahs and then pet one….they seriously smelled. Dermot was a bit nervous, but they had a good system set up and we all safely were able to pet a cheetah.
Back to business, the first winery we visited was Waterford. This winery came highly recommended by our friends Stephanie and Lance, as well as two other locals…they were known for the wine and chocolate pairing tastings, so Katie was very happy to go here first. The estate was beautiful and the wines with the chocolate pairings were very unique and tasty. We then continued on to the Ernie Els winery. It was probably our least favorite as the tastings were the most expensive, but the entirely lined brick road was impressive…. But then again, we just stayed in a township where the brick lined road could have built a few houses…alas, the estate was very nice, though.
We started to get hungry and decided to stop at Reuben’s for lunch. Reuben had quite a success story of rags to riches, and we were very glad to have made our lunch reservation, which we were three hours late for… oops!
We then decided to get back on the road and head straight to Hermanus which was our next intended place of rest. We had some sundowners at Gecko Bar on the water and then found accommodation at 45 Marine St. The apartment was right on the water, once again we were spoiled with a beautiful place to stay. We decided to stay in for dinner and made an American favorite: Grilled Cheese and tomato soup. We watched some movies after dinner and then headed to bed.
The next morning we went for a walk along the cliffs on Hermanus to do some whale watching. The whales had just started their migration from Antarctica, so there were only 3 or 4 whales in the bay. We did manage to see a few fins, but were not lucky enough to see any breaching. The town whale crier told us that we’d have more luck later in the year...
Back on the Garden Route, we stopped for lunch at Birkenhead Brewery in Stanford. They had a cool old Irish setter at the brewery and once again the estate had a beautiful backdrop. We had some fish and chips, sampled their brews and then got back on the road. We made it to Mossel Bay just in time for the sunset. Our accommodation tonight would be one of our most interesting. Someone had taken an old train and parked it on the beach and turned it into a hotel. Our room was a train car. It had working bathrooms and everything. It was a bit cramped, but fun. We decided to head out to the movies since there was not a whole lot else to do in Mossel Bay. The only movie that was playing that we could kind of agree on was Maid of Honor. It was just as cheesy and predictable as we though it would be, but it was nice to see a movie and have some popcorn. After the movie we headed back home and caught some Zs in our train cars.
We had a sparse continental breakfast that was provided on the train the next morning. We then made a stop at the post office tree in town. A tree which sat right by the water had acted as a post office for the last 400 years. Sailors would place a letter in a boot tied to the tree for other sailors to pick up and deliver if they were heading in that direction. Most South Africans refer to this tree as the oldest post office in the world. It’s still in use today, though now you put you mail in a boot shaped post box and do not rely on other sailors to deliver your goods.
From Mossel Bay, we hit the road to our next place of rest, Jeffery’s Bay, or J’Bay. Dermot was very excited to get back in the water and have a go at some of the best waves in South Africa. After a few ‘road closed’ signs, we decided to stop in Plett Bay for lunch. Plett Bay was supposed to be the ‘holiday’ spot for Jo’burgers, but with the rain, we decided to grab a quick bite at Miguel’s and get back on the road.
We pulled into Island Jive Guesthouse and were very excited to find our double rooms in earshot of the ocean. Yet again, we were lucky to find amazing accommodations for amazingly cheap prices. While Dermot went to surf “Kitchen Windows,” Katie, Julie and Andrew checked out the town. Sadly, it was only around 3:00pm, and this place was a ghost town. We ended up finding a diner with some barely edible snacks for lunch, before heading back to rest before our big night out at Walskipper’s.
Luckily, the beachside restaurant was open year round, and we were happy to find the restaurant about 5 kms outside of town smack dab on the beach. The servers are barefoot, the tables are all picnic tables and the wine is served in tin mugs. It was heaven. We all got seafood—namely their specialty, calamari. Katie and Dermot split an absolutely huge plate of seafood, and somehow we had room for dessert. Walskipper’s was an awesome treat and highly recommended.
The next morning, Katie woke up…turned her head and made an exclamation not suitable to be repeated….as she saw a spider about the size of her hand, extended…. Needless to say, that got her up nice and early. After rounding up the troops, we headed into town for open surfshops (wahoo!) and grabbed breakfast at Sunflower Café. We quickly stopped into Supertubes surf break, where Billabong will be holding their annual tournament in one short month.
We were all excited to continue heading northeast to our three day game safari! Roger, of Amakhala Game Reserve, was able to offer us a great discount for his lodge, including all of our meals and game drives for two nights and three days. We passed through Port Elizabeth and stopped for lunch at a local farm, based on Roger’s recommendation. After a few meat pies, we were fueled up and ready to see some wild animals.
We checked into Carnavron Dale, our lodge for the next three days. We were excited to get out of the Tiida, as the previous days of rain had given it a certain…odor. We were blessed with incredible weather for our game drives, and we felt like it was the luck of Julie’s sister who birthed two twin boys while we were on our game drive! Congrats Karen and Jason!
We arrived at the Amakhala game reserve 1 hour early, so we decided to head back to a farm stand we passed earlier for lunch. On the drive to the safari, we already spotted some antelope and zebra. We are very excited to actually get inside the reserve. After arriving at the reserve, Roger showed us our accommodations and then we dropped our bags off and jumped in the Land Rover for our first game drive. Our guides for our stay were Riaan and his wife Julie. They were a newlywed couple who had just started their own safari tented camp accommodation. On our first drive, we saw many types of antelope (our version of deer), zebras, kingfisher birds, white rhinoceros, a freshly killed springbok (type of antelope), warthog, giraffe, water buffalo and finally a jackal. It was incredible.
After the sun set, we headed back to our lodge for dinner at 7pm with Roger where we learned very much about South African history, African history as well as US history, such as Roger told us that Virginia has voted Republican since 1948. We are pretty sure Roger knew more about our American history than we did ourselves. After a lovely dinner we headed back to the lodge, played some cards. Julie reluctantly agreed to play hearts, which she almost won. We then headed to bed and snuggled into our electric blankets. The temperature had dropped to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit…happy winter!
We rose at 7:00 a.m. the next morning and went on our first game drive at 8:00 a.m. The entire valley was filled with a thick, dewy fog, so we headed to the high ground to warm up with rusks and coffee. Rusks are dehydrated bread sticks that look like biscotti. They are best compliment to tea/coffee, and we even got the homemade recipe from Annemarie, Roger’s wife. They were invented by the early travelers to keep from going bad over several days.
The view of the foggy valley was awesome. We then saw white-tailed wildebeest, antelope and we drove over to the western part of the reserve for a game walk. Riaan got out his rifle and filled it with a round of bullets—crazy! We walked in single file to try and get up close and personal with the giraffes. It was really cool, yet scary to be walking amongst the wild animals, but definitely an awesome experience.
At around 11:30, we headed back to the lodge for a big brunch. We rested for an hour and then started our second game drive at around 1:30pm, which Riaan hoped that he wouldn’t be ‘bothering us’ to start it earlier…got to love the hospitality! We attempted to find lions, but unfortunately they did not cooperate with our efforts. They must have hid themselves in the dense bush and refused to be seen…but we did find somewhat fresh lion tracks… We gave up after a couple of hours and then went in search of elephants.
We did not have much success, but did manage to find more giraffe and stopped for some snacks and wine with them. Right when we were about to give up on finding an elephant, we heard over the radio that an elephant was spotted in the park about 2 miles from where we were…. Riaan told us to ‘hold onto our hats’ as we barreled our way through the reserve (Indiana Jones-style) to find Stormin’ Norman, then reserve’s largest bull elephant. He was not to happy with our sudden appearance and quickly charged right next to our Range Rover. He got close enough to us to force Julie to nearly jump in Katie’s lap. We then followed him for a while until he decided we had followed him enough. He turned around, paused and gave us that look that says, “leave me alone!”, so we did and headed back to lodge with huge smiles on our face.
We again had a delicious dinner that Roger’s wife prepared for us. We had some more highly intellectual conversations with Roger who is one of the most well read individuals that we have ever met, and then returned home for some more card playing before retiring for the night.
It was hard to sleep as the wind howled its way through the reserve and just about shook the house. When we got ready for our last game viewing of the stay, we bundled up preparing for a bitter wind chill. To our surprise when we walked outside, the wind was actually warm and refreshing. Riaan said this happens very rarely, but the warm wind comes from the north….so odd, but makes sense since we’re in the southern hemisphere. We removed some layers and then went on a game walk with Riaan.
This entire day was spent on foot, looking at some of the finer details of the reserve. We saw many birds, plants, termites and other smaller game. The information Riaan provided as we walked made the experience very interesting. We attempted to take the Land Rover to Riann and Julie’s tented camp, but we got a flat on the way. We walked the remainder of the way to their camp. (www.haggartandbrand.com) They have done an incredible job of setting up a tented camp to be reminiscent of the old safari days. From the white, military style tents to the fire pit for nighttime meals, we were all planning our next visit. It was fun to see their place and what their plans for the future were. We then headed back to the lodge in Riaan’s spare 1959 Land Rover (an era which did not appreciate shocks or suspension), had brunch, said our goodbyes before heading into Port Elizabeth.
It only took an hour to get to Port Elizabeth and it then took us another hour to find the right accommodation. We settled on an Algoa B + B, newly remodeled and only 10-15 minutes from the airport. After checking in Katie drove Julie and Andrew to a spa to get some massages. Dermot got some work done on the internet while they were gone. After the massages, we all headed out to a restaurant called Mediterranean for dinner. They had a sushi special which we took advantage of and also ordered some other dishes. After dinner we decided to check out the Casino boardwalk complex. Most of the shops were closed, so we decided to check out the casino. Julie won some money thanks to her two new twin nephew’s birthday (#8) while playing roulette.
After the casino, and picking up our ‘guns’ from the coat check….we then headed to the arcade to play some skee ball. Andrew showed us the skills he had honed over the last few years of playing in a skeeball league in New York City. Katie and Julie then noticed that the cinema in the complex was showing Sex and the City, so we decided we would go see it. We had some desert and drinks at 34 degrees North before attending what ended up being a private screening of the movie (we were the only people in the theater). We didn’t get home from the movie until 1 a.m. but it was completely worth it to see the NYC ladies on the big screen…and oh, the tickets were all around US$3 each.
Dermot woke up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning so that he could tee off early in the morning. He played at the Humewood Country Club and was the first person to tee off at 7:20 a.m. The links course hosted the South African Open last year and was a great test of golf. The front 9 didn’t go so well, but the round was a lot of fun as he shot a 93. The round only took 2.5 hours and Dermot’s caddy played the last 3 holes with him. (They tied). Katie meanwhile dropped off Julie and Andrew at the airport so that they could make their flight to Cape Town and make their long journeys back home.
After dropping off our dear travel companions, Katie picked up Dermot at the golf course and after a quick stop for gas and food, we hit the road towards Durban. We passed Riaan, our guide from our safari, driving the Land Rover into town! We were glad to see that the flat had been fixed and he was back in business…after 11 hours of driving, with a couple of food and gas stops, we decided to stop in Port Shepstone (1 hours short of Durban). We saw about 4-5 accidents on the way, one of which involved 2 mangled cars and three body bags (scary)…. Needless to say, we drove nice and slow and were handsomely rewarded, as we stayed in an awesome Oceanside cabin at The Spot hostel. We fell asleep and woke up to the sound of crashing waves.