Off to South Africa 2018

The drive from Bloemfontein to Clarens brought us back to the Drakensbergs, this time along the western border of Lesotho.  We turned off and followed signs to the Queen Victoria lookout, which brought us here.  Certainly looks like her. This area doesn’t appear to be experiencing the drought that’s plaguing the south. As we left the Cape provinces and entered Free State, we noticed a decided decline in the state of the roads.  Potholes.  Lots of them. Clarens is a small resort town in the mountains near Golden Gate National Park, and it’s our last stop before heading home.   We drove out to the national park this afternoon - the mountains are gorgeous, and we saw several wildebeests and a herd of antelope (not close enough for photos, though, unfortunately).  There were some brief but intense showers this morning, resulting in a pond in the road. This time John decided to brave it - until the water came up to the door sill.  So we had to back up the h...

Unlike Stellenbosch or Cape Town or about anyplace else we’ve visited, Beaufort West is generally not considered a vacation destination.  Au contraire, it’s mostly a truckers’ stop between Cape Town and Johannesburg.  This is a typically sized truck - much larger than in the US. However, we discovered a great B&B the last time we were here, and it’s also located at the entrance to Karoo National Park, home to all kinds of wild critters, like these kudus. We saw a lot of mountain zebras, but we weren’t able to get a good picture.  Have you ever wondered why zebras are striped - and how that could possibly be an advantage in the wild?  Well, they blend in to shadows remarkably well.  So well that they’re hard to photograph. Karoo National Park is also home to five species of tortoise. This sign is important - when we finally found one, it was lumbering across the parking lot at the visitors center!  This fellow was about 30 inches long.

The South African wine industry has been around for well over 300 years - long enough to get it right - and Stellenbosch and nearby Franschhoek are the “Napa Valley.”  Or they would be if the Napa Valley were much older and surrounded by spectacular mountains. There’s a seemingly endless choice for wine tasting, so we opted to visit one per day.  We started with a visit to Franschhoek. We picked the winery - Graff - because of its setting on a hillside between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, assuming that the views would be worth the visit.  They were, and so were the gardens, water features, and artwork.  The wine was good, too. This is a newer winery.  The current owners (who added the buildings, gardens and artwork) purchased it in the early 2000’s and kept the original owner on as head vintner. Today we took a shorter trip to the Blaauwklippen Estate - just across the highway from our hotel.  This is one of the old wineries, dating back to 1682. And, agai...

Our next two days in Cape Town were spent touring the city.  We bought two-day tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus and set off to see the sights. Table Mountain is the iconic feature towering over the city.  We took the “red tour,” which includes a stop at the station for the tramway to the top.  While the view was crystal clear, high winds were preventing the tram from operating.  John’s been here several times, and each time it’s either been too windy or too foggy to see anything.  People were at the station waiting to see if the wind would die down enough for the tram to start up. However, even if the tram opens, there’s no guarantee it won’t have to close again before people can ride it back down - that means having to hike down the long, steep, knee-torquing trail. We also visited the V & A Waterfront (Victoria and Alfred - not Albert - Alfred was Queen Victoria’s son who dumped the first load of rock to build the original docks here).  John stayed ...

After a light rainfall the first evening, we’ve had spectacular weather here in Cape Town.  Perfect for sightseeing. We spent the first full day here with guide Cheryl Scott exploring the entire Cape - our tour lasted 9 hours.  First stop was the oldest winery in South Africa - Groot Constantia, which has been producing wine since 1685.  We walked around the grounds, and I tasted wines. Next we visited Simon’s Town, where we saw gemstones being polished in large tumblers. The best stop of the day was Boulders - home of the African penguins. While we were there we also saw a little dassie sitting in a tree - Ironically, these little critters’ closest relatives are elephants. I decided to climb up to the lighthouse at the southern end of the Cape of Good Hope- there’s a funicular that goes about two -thirds of the way up, but I walked all the way (and it was a hike).  At the upper funicular station the trail becomes steps. A friendly woman from Texas took my picture a...

We could have taken the main highway to Cape Town from Hermanus, but we had plenty of time and opted instead to take the scenic coastal road.   This took us right past the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden at Betty’s Bay, which had been recommended as a great stop.  The gardens are tucked between the ocean and coastal mountains, featuring the plant life that’s native to this inhospitable environment of sand, wind, and salt spray. There are many miles of trails, some of which we explored. After lunch at the garden restaurant, we continued along the Whale Coast route until it ended at the freeway at the outskirts of the Cape Town area.

Hermanus is an upscale beach resort town on the southern Atlantic coast (the Indian Ocean is east of here on the other side of Cape Agulhas). We’re staying at the Walker Bay Manor Guest House, which is in a great location with lovely public areas. However, our room is less than optimal - lots of street noise (we have to keep the windows open since it isn’t air conditioned), and a shower that’s barely big enough for me to fit into, much less John. But it’s located across the street from the Cliff Walk - so I opted for a morning walk along it. I walked as far as the mouth of the Mossel River, about a mile or so, and then back again. All along the paved pathway there were viewpoints with benches. There was a small sandy beach amid the rocky cliffs. Much to my delight, I came across Moby Dick’s final resting place - I didn’t recall from my multiple forced readings of that interminable novel that the great white whale ever dies, unlike crazy Captain Ahab and most of the rest of the crew of ...

Leaving Oudtshoorn, we took another drive through a gorgeous canyon and on south toward Hermanus, a coastal resort town, for a couple of nights’ stay.  Here in the southernmost part of the country we’re seeing evidence of the drought that’s contributing to Capetown’s water crisis (along with political corruption and gross mismanagement).  We saw farmland where crops weren’t even planted this year. When we reached the small town of Barrydale, we decided to stop for lunch.  John said to keep a lookout for someplace that looked interesting, and that’s exactly what we found - Diesel & Creme. This place is a hoot - And the food’s good, to boot.  Who knew that  watermelon, bacon and feta cheese salad could be so delicious. We anticipated arriving at Hermanus mid-afternoon, but we were delayed a couple of hours by road construction.