I was up at 6am after probably what was one of the the best nights sleep of my life. You don't realise how much you miss a proper bed until you've been without one for 3 weeks!
I spend the next 1.5 hours whale watching from the balcony, cuppa and camera in hand thoroughly content. The sun was out and although it was windy, it was that kind of sea salt, misty air that I absolutely love. I get the same feeling early mornings in Brighton when i'm back home (minus the whales), the kind of air that hits with you its freshness and wakes you up instantaneously. Went down for breakfast and was pleased to find that I was the only one silly enough to rise and shine as early as I had so had the breakfast room to myself. Ordered eggs and bacon and sat on the balcony with my feet in the swimming pool watching a mother and baby Southern Right Whale play along the shoreline. Within the hour I was fed, caffeinated, fully dressed (layers upon layers) and out of the door walking to the edge of the cliff literally beneath my balcony. I then spend a good 4 hours following the mother & baby whale along the coastline watching her teach the baby to fin slap the water and swim upside down with her belly out of the water. It was really so amazing to watch her do something and then almost immediately watch a much smaller carbon copy of her try the exact same thing (sometimes not quite getting it right). I managed to catch a number of shots with my 600 lens (thank god for this lens on this holiday) that i'm really quite proud of. On the very last corner before I reached a dead end on the cliff line I managed to finally catch a breach. These whales had been teasing me all morning and breaching all over the place, but only when my head (and camera) was pointing in the completely opposite direction. These creatures truly amaze me with how graceful they are in the water considering their utter size and weight. I headed back to the room just after lunch as the weather was closing in and continued to watch the whales until the sun set and called it a night. What a way to end a trip of a lifetime. I woke up stupidly early (nothing new there) and lolled about for a few hours watching things on tv and lying in a bed (it’s all very exciting). Deb and I walked down to the waterfront where we met Kate and chose somewhere in the glorious sun for breakfast. The first thing we did on our walk was to find somewhere with a view of table mountain and it was clear!!!
After breakfast we headed straight to the Hop on Hop Off and jumped on. The tour took us through the main town and through the financial district and BoKamp which is a tiny little townlet of brightly painted houses. The guide explained the reason for the brightly colours that as slaves were required to wear such dull and drab colours, they painted their homes with as much colour as possible to make up for it! Upon boarding the bus we were told there was a potential 2.5 hour wait to get up table mountain so we were expecting a lot of hanging around. But as far as places to wait, there could be worse views! Brilliantly we had queued and got to the top of the mountain within just an hour and spent the next 2 just wandering round the top staring at the most incredible views. The occasional group of clouds rolled in which was fantastic as we were above the cloud so got the most wonderful view of Cape Town amongst cotton wool. I knew it would be a fantastic vista but I really hadn’t prepared myself for quite how wonderful it was. We were trying to decide on which view was better, Table Mountain or Drakensburg and I think that from a height and view of the landscape Drakensburg won hands down. However Table Mountain has this ability to frame the view from each and every angle, it really is quite something. We had our last glass of wine together up the top of the mountain and then headed back down to rejoin the bus and continue the tour back. Deb and Kate got off at Camps Bay and I continued on so we said our goodbyes and had a long distanced waving session as the bus drove off. I’m going to miss those ladies. I hurried back my hostel once arriving back at the Waterfront, ordered my Uber and headed off on my 2.5 trip to De Kelders (by Gansbaii) for 2 nights for Cage diving and a bit of luxury. Sadly half way through the journey the tour rang to say that the diving had been cancelled due to the up coming weather and I have to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so disappointed about anything. Sharks have been a fascination for me since I was very little and this was one of the best parts of the trip. Still, I’m sure I will get to do it at some point in the next few years. I arrived at Sea Star Cliff, was introduced to my room for the next 2 nights and quite honestly have absolutely no desire to venture out whatsoever! My bed (and bath) overlook my private balcony and view straight into the Atlantic Ocean. Within minutes I could see whales jumping and playing in the surf. I settled down that evening in a comfy chair, cup of tea and my camera just watching the whales do their thing reminding myself that although I had some disappointment today I really am an incredibly lucky girl I awoke at 5:30 to the sound of rain pounding on the tent roof, happy last day camping to me! The usual trudge to the bathroom wearing every single layer possible, trudge back, get dressed, pack up, put the bags on the truck, empty the tent and take the tent down happened but with slightly more glee as this was the last time and we had a very small spring in our step. I may or may not have kicked the tent bag at the end!
We piled on the bus and drove the 2 hours to Cape Town along the beautiful Hermanus coastal route watching whales slowly swim and play in the surf. We stopped off at Betty’s Bay where a large colony of penguins lived and we spent half an hour watching them go about their day, flopping and bouncing their way from their underground nests to the water for a swim. We arrived in Cape Town about 10:30, a full 8,000km's behind us, said goodbye to Tsepo and Mr Goodman, thanked them for everything and then me, Deb and Kate put our bags in the hostel lock up and headed to the waterfront for a wander and a coffee. What a place! I can now completely understand why so many people rave about the waterfront, it’s beautiful, full of lovely restaurants and shops with a really wonderful feel to the place. We wandered about for an hour or so, keeping an eye on Table Mountain and the fog that was continuing to linger at the top and decided that we would go and visit Kirstenbosch Gardens in the afternoon. Our Uber driver turned into a bit of a tour guide and explained a lot about Cape Town and it’s history on the drive to the Gardens which took about 20 minutes. We had lunch at the Tea Room, I had a wonderful chicken salad all home grown within the grounds themselves and then we spent the next 2 hours aimlessly wandering the grounds enjoying the plants and the wonderful views of the mountains and downtown Cape Town. A shower and rest was called for so we went back to the hostel, checked in and spent the next few hours chilling in our private rooms before we ventured back to the waterfront for dinner and a few drinks. We found a wonderful restaurant on the harbour front surrounded by fire heaters and fairy lights, had the most amazing dinner of Moules Frites and Waffles for dessert and 3 or 4 cocktails and settled the bill at £20 per person!!! We left the campsite at about 0730 after one of the worst nights sleep of the entire trip. Just before bed Kate and I had been brushing our teeth in the little cabins bathroom and the biggest spider I have ever seen wandered in front of the sink. He was so large that you could see each and every one of his 8 eyes staring at you. We both screamed, ran outside and after a good 10 minutes of discussion (outside in the dark) we decided to just give the spider the bathroom for the night and got into our sleeping bags zipping ourselves right up to the eyeballs and underneath a mosquito net. The next morning Fred (yes we named him that) was still there so I left him to it and waited until we got to the campsite before ablutions and teeth cleaning.
We stopped off at Cage Agulhas, the southern most tip of Africa where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meets. We sat down and watched the two oceans and the Indian side really did seem calmer than the Atlantic, but maybe it was just out imaginations! Next stop was Wine Tasting! Our first vineyard we stopped at was a place called Spookfontein where we had a lovely lunch overlooking the most beautiful scenery. I treated myself to a steak and a lovely glass of Pinot Noir. We then chose which of the wines to try and they were all lovely. We then headed off to Newton Johnson literally next door where we tried another group of wines and stood outside looking at the landscape. My favourite wine was from this vineyard and was the Felicité Rosé and apparently they export to the UK! Our third and final vineyard took us to Summaridge where we tried a number of reds and a couple of rosés. After this vineyard everyone was half asleep so we made our way to Hermanus. We dropped two people off at a hotel by the bay as we stood on the side of the road looking out into the very shallow waters we were amazed to see about 8 baby Southern Right Whales playing about together, flapping their fins around and smacking their tales against the surface of the water. We watched them for about 20 minutes and then set off to the campsite to set up the last tent of the trip (yay!). We headed off to dinner together, our last one of the trip and went to a lovely Fish restaurant where both Kate and I ordered the Cape Crayfish in lemon and garlic butter with salad, it was absolutely beautiful! By 9pm we were all absolutely exhausted so headed off back to the campsite for hopefully a good nights sleep! Well, today is my birthday - A full 35 years young!
We woke up in the cabin and I opened my card from mum and dad then got serenaded by Deb and Kate who then gave me their own card which was sweet. We had breakfast and headed off to an Ostrich Farm 15 minutes away. We were introduced to two of the resident ostrich’s Lady Gaga and Suzy the Stripper who we fed and managed to stroke.... these birds were huge! The tour lady gave us a detailed overview on the life of an ostrich in a farm and how an ostrich egg volume is equivalent to 26 normal eggs from a chicken. We proved how strong they were by standing on them and they didn’t give way, even though we were all a little dubious considering how much weight we had all put on during this trip!! We had a potter about the farm on a tractor and fed the ostrich’s and learned why the Males are black and white (they lay on the eggs at night) and the Females are brown (they lay on the eggs during the day and so are very well camouflaged). It was an interesting hour actually! We then continued our way to Swellendam through more changes in landscape to mountains, gorges and huge rivers. It was a beautiful drive and reminded me a lot of the Scottish highlands actually. We arrived at our campsite and upgraded again for £20 where we were taken to this tiny little hut where no doors or windows fit properly so was very much open to the elements (and the creepy crawlies). But it had its own shower and hot water so that was all that mattered to us! We met up with the rest of the group and donned our life jackets and helmets ready for some rafting. We were two to a raft and Kate and I chose our positions, me at the front as “rock spotter” and Kate at the back for “steerer”. We set off with the rest of the group and soon got our rhythm except for the odd confusion between my left and right we made it through the two main rapids and ended up back at the camp site. All in all it was a good day with a lot of laughs. It ended with a lovely slap up meal of ribs and steak and salad and then I had Happy Birthday sung to me by the group and was presented with a cake which was very unexpected and very sweet of Tsepo and Mr Goodman. We left the campsite and our warm beds at 7:30. Unfortunately all the water to the entire site had been lost the night before and wasn’t back on that morning so we hadn’t managed to have a shower after our hiking and sweating.
We shortly stopped off at the worlds tallest bungee bridge. At 260m this bridge is huge! We stood and looked over the edge and all of us had this look on our faces that suggested none of us would even dream throw ourselves off it, not for all the money in the world!! We drove past a few large towns and what’s really interesting is that you have huge shanty towns with tin huts and wooden sheds (all with satellite disks however) right next to huge expensive houses. They are right next door. We stopped off in a lovely little harbour town called Knysna which reminded me a lot of Brighton Marina. Lots of expensive yachts moored up and a few restaurants and shops dotted about. We had a wander round the shops, did a spot of retail therapy, had a coffee then back on the bus! In the afternoon we arrived deep into the mountains at the Cango Caves where we started the tour and went deep into the biggest “showcave” in Africa. We were told that the stalactites were at least 1.5million years old and people had been sheltering in the caves for at least 80,000 years before the caves were officially discovered by a farmer. We had a walk around 6 chambers and were told the history and geological information relating to these stalactites and stalagmites. It was quite interesting but the actual structures were beautiful. We didn’t do the “adventure tour” thankfully as this involved squeezing through tiny tunnels about 25cm wide. We were told that about 3 years ago a visitor (American shock horror) got stuck in one of the tunnels and subsequently got the rest of her group stuck in a tiny tunnel for 11 HOURS until she was lubricated out! How utterly humiliating! We got to the campsite and decided to upgrade again, mainly for a hot shower. For £23 we upgraded to a lovely chalet and I was given the double bed as a treat for my birthday. We awoke after about 9.5 hours sleep to beautiful blue sky and not a cloud anywhere. I feel like a new woman!! We pottered down to the campsite where the others had been camping for breakfast at 8 and had French Toast and bacon - it’s amazing what these guys can do on a gas stove!
We headed back up to the cabin, got ourselves ready and headed off for our Waterfall trek and the “Otter Trail”. The terrain was tough let’s just say that, climbing over huge boulders, over rock faces and across rocks in the sea, at one point I very nearly ended up dangled head first over a cliff but luckily found my footing and held on for dear life! 1.5 hours later we made it to a beautiful clearing where a huge waterfall met with the Indian Ocean. The water fell about 100m cascading into a pool by our feet with the spray soaking us but it was such a beautiful sight. After many photos and just generally sitting and watching for a while we decided to brave it and head back the way we came. We arrived back at the cabin about an hour later and headed straight for the restaurant at the end of the campsite right at the end of the island. We had a lovely salad and a bottle of wine then continued on for another 45 minutes to 2 suspension bridges that ran over the water inlet into a gorge. It was very pretty and just nice to watch kayakers paddle their way into the gorge. We then slowly meandered back to the cabin, of course popping into the shop for more wine, fridge magnets and ice cream and spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening sat on the balcony, chatting, drinking wine and watching whales on the horizon slowly pass by. Utterly beautiful place and one of my favourites. What.A.Night.......
I must have got about 2 hours sleep last night what with Hyenas cackling nearby, a massive freight train passing every few hours and the freezing cold (-3 last night). I had worn 5 layers last night to prepare for the cold but those layers and my season 4 sleeping bag didn’t make any difference. I woke up shivering for a 0530 game drive and didn’t start warming up until about 10am. I have to admit when we started the early game drive i was thinking that no animal in their right mind would be out in this cold, and for the first hour I was right. The sun then started to rise and it started to warm up and our hopes increased. We were very lucky indeed as we rounded a corner in our safari truck we came upon a family of 8 elephants, 3 babies and 5 adults of varying ages. We spent a good hour with them and we were so close that had we been allowed, we would have been able to touch them. The truck driver would pull right up close to the elephants and sit talking to them and he explained that because most of the elephants had been born in the park they didn’t know danger and were very used to trucks and vehicles driving past. Our tour guide also referred to the huge deer like animals called the Kudo as the Kudashions as they always pose for photos! We headed back to the campsite for breakfast and then packed up and headed to Tsitiskamma National Park where we were staying for the next two nights. The drive took about 3 hours but it was fascinating watching the landscape turn from National Park to mountainous and tree covered. We had officially entered the Garden Route. We stopped for lunch in Jefferies Bay, the famous coastal town where the infamous surfing competition takes place and managed to find a lovely restaurant with seats outside to have seafood pasta and cocktails. With the sun out it really now felt like we were on holiday!! As it had been so cold the other night, Kate, Deb and myself agreed that we would see how much an upgrade to a cabin would be....... for £45 we could get the best cabin available with a bath AND a shower, hot running water and a balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean... absolutely beautiful and utterly heaven. I haven’t had such a good nights sleep since I’ve been here! The journey took us about 4 hours to get from Cintsa to Addo. We drove through mountain landscapes and went up and down high altitudes.
We stopped off in a large town called Grahamstown to grab some lunch and this was the first place that I have really felt unsafe since I arrived in South Africa. The amount of rubbish and litter as you drive into these towns is unbelievable. The government don’t seem to do regular refuse collections and so you will literally drive past mountains of rubbish piled up on the sides of roads and down alleyways. There were a lot of beggars who literally enveloped the bus the minute we turned up. We stuck together as we walked around the supermarket but were very aware that we were being followed and there were people keeping an eye on us. We quickly boarded the truck and were off. Thankfully! We arrived in Addo about 3 o’clock and took ourselves off for a game drive in the truck, it had started raining and Addo had actually cancelled the night drive that some people were booked on as heh had said seeing any animals in rain would be a miracle as they all hide. During our own game drive we spotted an elephant chomping away at a bush in the distance but that was about it. We have another drive tomorrow morning so hopefully will see more then! We put our tents up in the rain - on the most depressing things to do in life I’ve now learned and us three girls headed straight to the restaurant and ordered a lovely bottle of rosé for £1.30, don’t mind if I do! We then sat and chatted whilst we watched the sunset, headed back for dinner and then braced ourselves for the night to come! |