Year: 2006

Our next stop was Plettenberg Bay, where my parents had another friend we were able to visit (she lives in a beautiful spot and runs a horseback riding company called Equitrailing). She mentioned that we were right around the corner from an elephant sanctuary and a place called Monkeyland, and suggested we stop in and see them while in the area. We were definitely impressed with the elephants! It was a good way for us to see them up close (way closer than we would ever have expected to). We had lunch at Monkeyland (luckily, they weren’t quite as intimidating as the baboons at Cape Point!).

Then we were off to the Eastern Cape and stopped for the night in Grahamstown, a university town where we had dinner at a British pub called the Rat and Parrot. It was neat seeing that students in South Africa seem to like the same things as students in Canada (and we saw a large table of guys trying desperately to split up the bill properly with the correct change, etc.). A very familiar scene, for sure!

We got to stop along the way to see some beaches (there was a very nice beach area at Plettenberg Bay) but the weather wasn’t hot enough to compel us to jump in.

This drive totally caught me off guard – I really hadn’t known that the area would be so mountainous. The roads wound around and gave spectacular views and showed me what the phrase “hairpin turn” means. I was so glad that I wasn’t the one driving! And a little glad that it was dark when we were driving through the last part (we couldn’t see how steep things were, and possibly travelled more relaxed because of it). For some reason, I had expected this part of the country to be relatively flat and grassy).

We arrived in Sedgefield, which is a small town between George and Knysna. The next day, we headed back toward Oudtshoorn (sounds like ‘Oats Horn’) – this was the way we had come in the dark, and now we were really able to appreciate what we had driven through (or, what my dad had navigated us through!).

Our destination: the Cango Caves. My mom had been here when she was about 7 years old, and my grandmother still speaks of it as something you have to see when you’re in South Africa. The Cango Caves are Africa’s largest show caves and “one of the Seven Wonders of Southern Africa” (according to the brochure). Cullen and I decided to do the Adventure Tour, which was for “lean people only” (and they meant it – at one point, the opening that you are crawling/slithering through is only 27 cm wide)! I didn’t think I was claustrophobic (apparently, this is the way to find out) but I could feel myself panicking a bit. Well, Cullen was actually wondering what was happening to me because he could hear me wheezing a little (climbing through the narrow chimneys requires a “degree of fitness”). Anyway, with the help of Cullen and our guide I made it through safely. It was fun, but not a tour I would do on my own…

We really loved Cape Town but just didn’t have enough days to stay in the city for long enough. Our second destination in South Africa was Blouberg, which isn’t really all that far from Cape Town but got us moving up the coast toward my mom’s favourite place: Churchhaven.

Before making the drive there, we met two of my parents friends that had moved from Canada to South Africa and went for lunch with them in the wine region). The scenery was beautiful and we ate at a place called Deli Meerendal. What amazed me was that we continued seeing Table Mountain for the longest time – whichever way we drove, it seemed to be just a little off in the distance.

The drive to Churchhaven (near an area called Langabond) was exciting because we got to see ostriches in the wild (a first for Cullen and me, I think!). We didn’t fully know what to expect in Churchhaven – our parents had given us ample warning about how there would be no running water, no electricity, etc. If you hadn’t told me they didn’t have these things, I wouldn’t have known! The house was rustic but certainly not shockingly basic. We really liked it there (and were a little surprised that we were able to watch TV when we had breakfast in the morning – solar-powered battery for the TV!). And at night we were able to see way more stars than we would have been able to see in the city (my mom showed Cullen and me the Southern Cross).

The next day we headed south east, into the mountains and away from the Atlantic coast.

No, I haven’t started posting any of my pictures yet (it seems to take a long time). My brother Cullen has started posting his – you can take a look at his blog to see some of them from this trip.

I arrived in Cape Town early Monday morning (only about 10 minutes later than anticipated). Everything went very well on the way over (and I actually enjoyed having a lot of time to spare at the Frankfurt airport – after sitting so much on the plane it was great to walk around).

My arrival coincided with the first rainy morning this area had seen in weeks AND coincided with significant power outages. So the roads were slippery and the traffic lights (‘robots’) weren’t working and the 30 minute drive from the airport to the Nine Flowers guest house where my parents and Cullen were staying took more like 3 hours (Cullen was wondering where we had gotten to! Since I arrived before 6 am my parents had let him sleep in).

Jetlag wasn’t too bad, so we spent the day visiting the Cape Town waterfront (known as the ‘V and A’ for Victoria and Alfred). I got to see the clouds cover Table Mountain. We saw
Umoja (a South African dance/music troupe my parents had seen perform in Toronto) do a show for free (to promote their upcoming concerts here).

That first night, my parents took Cullen and me out to Khaya nyama for a dinner of wild game. I ate ostrich (it was really good!) and Cullen had a skewer of assorted vension (I’m not sure what exactly, but I think one of the meats was eland). After the great dinner, we went across the street to Mama Africa (and stayed until close – they had to keep flickering the lights to get us to leave).

Tuesday morning we tried to go up Table Mountain, but the cable car wasn’t running (due to the power shortages). We then tried to take the ferry to Robben Island but tickets for that day were sold out! So we got tickets for Wednesday.

What we ended up doing was driving around the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point (where you can see the currents of the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet). The drive took much longer than we expected, but
it was fantastic. We really liked the views along the way (and the penguins we saw on our way back). The baboons we met at Cape Point were also interesting (but more scary than the penguins, I must admit!).

On our way back to Cape Town we stopped and visited with my mom’s aunt and her daughter. Then we had a very late dinner in Cape Town and that was the end of my second day in the country.

Wednesday we did manage to get to Robben Island – the island itself was much larger than we expected it to be, and the experience was very interesting (I’m really glad we managed to see this).

So we didn’t make it up Table Mountain, but we did visit my mom’s cousin who lives directly below Table Mountain (you can literally see it from her back porch and her front door). It’s amazing to see all these places and things my mom has told us about for years! We also stopped in at one of her old schools, and got to see the outside of the house where her grandparents once lived.

Now we’re in Blouberg, just an hour or so outside of Cape Town. This afternoon we head into wine country and then to Churchhaven (to spend the night in an area my mom visited a lot when she was growing up and to visit with her friends that are still there). On Friday we expect to start our road trip along the Garden Route (along the coast, roughly from Port Elizabeth up to Durban).