Out of Africa 2 Cape Town & Western Cape

Our last blog ended with us descending Table Mountain and ending up with very sore legs that persisted for a few days.    Before we left Cape Town we also visited the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens,  an awesome spread of beautiful  plantings on the lower slopes of Table Mountain,  with the mountain itself as a backdrop.  The spring flowers were beautiful,  especially the hedges of Bird of Paradise in orange and yellow. We also visited the V and A Waterfront, an upmarket shopping mall on part of the old harbour. We thought about going to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned,   but the grey, stormy weather and rough seas put paid to that idea.

We also visited Green Market Square, an area that used to be a handmade craft market,  but is now just immigrant Nigerian and Somali traders selling the ususal tourist junk.

Leaving Cape Town the next day we drove along the coast via the stunning  Chapman's Peak Drive that clings to the ciffs as it winds its way along the coast to Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Point Lighthouse. We took the funicular railway most of the way up to the lighthouse. The wind was very cold and blowing a gale,  interspersed with showers of horizontal rain. The area is wildly beautiful with heathlands,  craggy rocks and peaks,  and pounding surf on the shore. 

Cape of Good Hope

We also stopped at The  Boulders, an African Penguin Sanctuary where we watched the release of some rehabilitated penguins back into the wild.

We spent the next few days making our way north up the spectacular west coast of South Africa.  It is an area of numerous mountain ranges, often marching right to the shore in steep cliffs and crevasses, interspersed with white sand beaches. We stayed with lovely people we contacted through airbnb.   After many stops at beautiful places on the coast including Hermanus, Mossel Bay and the very unaptly named suburb of Wilderness, we ended up in Knysna (pronounced Nys nah). This is a beautiful tranquil bay with magnificent rock cliffs forming the heads either side of a narrow channel to the ocean. We stayed here three days and visited the awesome Storms River Mouth to the north where we hiked to the river mouth and up a very steep climb to a lookout.

Knysna

Storms Bay

We also took a cruise to Knysna Heads and hiked down through the Featherbed Reserve to a tasty lunch at a Featherbed Restaurant looking out at the lagoons and the heads.

We drove back to Cape Town via the inland route to Outdshoorn.  We did the tourist thing and visited the Cango Caves and an Ostrich farm.  Bill took a ride on an Ostrich, but it was so quick, there is no photographic evidence. Did you know that Ostrich is the second toughest leather in the world (after Kangaroo)? We crossed many mountain ranges interspersed with fertile valleys and endless green and well managed farms.  We became connoisseurs of mountain passes  and river valleys through the ranges.   The highway engineering here is truly amazing with excellent quality roads twisting and climbing through rocky gorges and divides.  The roads of all types from expressways to gravel are of excellent quality and all in good repair.

We made our way back to Cape Town through the wine regions and pretty towns of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch.   We sampled some wine in the Robertson area, had an excellent lunch in Franschhoek, and did a walking tour of the museums and heritage Cape Architecture in Stellenbosch.

Stellenbosch

Afrikaans is spoken  widely here,  although most people speak excellent English as well. We were occasionally flummoxed by town street signs with English on one side and a different Afrikaans name on the other.  And a grocery store aisle with signs for versnaperings,  grondboontijes,  verromers,  skyties,  sjampanje,  langlewe sap,  stroopdrank and doos wyn had me worried about what we were going to eat.    But food is very  cheap here in restaurants and supermarkets,  and there are lots of ready to eat meals in the supermarkets so we have eaten well.

Most of all,  the South Africans we met have been wonderful.  We can't fault their kindness,  generosity and helpfulness. They are true tourist ambassadors for their country and have willingly offered food and drink,  rides,  use of a car,  help with washing our (very dirty) rental car--we can't resist a gravel road:  nothing was too hard.   Their only failing is they can't help showing their disappointment that you didn't spend your entire South African vacation in their part of the country that is obviously the best possible place to be.

We have returned our little rental VW Polo to Cape Town and embarked on the Shosholoza Meyl train from Cape Town to Johannesburg.  Our cramped sleeper cabin with purple leatherette upholstry looks like something out of the 1950's but it is running to time so far. Look out for our next installment.

Train travel is tiring