In this part, I will take you to a journey along the Garden Route in South Africa. After our Namibia-trip, we rented a car and drove from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, all along this famous route. Here are my memories of this fantastic trip.
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| The Protea, national flower of South Africa |
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We arrived in Cape Town by bus and were amazed by the first glimpse: Cape Town welcomed us with beautiful weather and warm temperatures. "Welcome to the Mother City, welcome home!", our guide said. One can only speculate why it is called like this, there are several explanations. But thinking now, "Welcome home" was quite a good description of our family trip. We would soon meet our relatives that had emigrated to South Africa years ago and so it was kind of a "Back to the roots"-trip for us. "Welcome home" describes very well the feeling that I had the next 3 weeks in South Africa - a very warm, welcoming feeling that I would never forget a feeling of being home for away from home.
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| First glimpse of Cape Town |
If you expect an African city like it is often described in books (chaotic, loud, smelly, with run down buildings), Cape Town may disappoint you. We were surprised how western it is, how well organized. Off course there is criminality and there are a lot of problems, but we experienced Cape Town as a very eclectic, colorful, cool and fun city with great shops and cafés, interesting museums and a big variety of activities. We sadly stayed only 3 days, but I'm sure there would be sooo much more to see and do!
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| At the famous waterfront |
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| The famous Table Mountain in the background, most of the time with a "tablecloth" on it |
I especially loved the neighborhood of Bo-Kaap with its cobble-stoned streets and colorful houses. Back in the 1930ies, slaves who had been liberated lived here.
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| Colorful houses of the Bo-Kaap neighborhood |
I already wrote that "Welcome home" seemed to me to be the central theme of this trip. Another good example for that: When we returned to our hotel after a full day of discoveries, our relatives (that we would only meet some hours later) had left us a bowl of fruits with a little note in the hotel room. Even if we just barely knew them, we felt to be part of it all. What a fantastic experience!
If you do the Garden Route, there are several things that you just cannot miss. For example Boulders Bay Penguin Colony near Simonstown. In this beautiful landscape at sea, just some minutes away from the cute little town of Simonstown, you can visit a colony of around 2000 little penguins that live there. Those animals seem to be very used to tourists, but it's still very nice to see them sitting on the big rocks, enjoying the sun and having what seems to be a siesta.
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| The penguins of Boulders Bay |
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| The cute little town of Simonstown |
Another thing that you just cannot miss is the Cape of Good Hope - or just "The Cape" as it is known by sailors. Even if its not the most southern point in Africa (which is a common belief), it is a very nice place to visit and has a fascinating history.
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| The lighthouse of "The Cape" |
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| Cape Aghulas in front, the true most southern point of Africa |
One evening, we had the chance to experience something which is really South African at the moment - the "load shedding". Because of neglecting the urgently needed maintenance work on power plants, there is a huge shortage of electricity in South Africa. "Load Shedding" is a way to deal with it - and to prevent a nationwide blackout. It means a planned shutdown of electricity for several hours in certain areas of the country. For us it meant no electricity for 2 or 3 hours and to improvise. Whereas for us this wasn't a big problem and we enjoyed the "digital detox" for some hours, imagine the people in South Africa and how much influence "load shedding" has for their everyday lives! I really hope a solution can be found very soon!
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| Experiencing "Load Shedding" - light improvisation with our phones |
A highlight in Cape Town was our visit to "Signal Hill", the second most famous hill in this city after Table Mountain. To visit Table Mountain you have to be quite lucky. Most of the time it wears its "Table Cloth" (which means the hill is wrapped in clouds) and so the view isn't good. If the weather is bad, the cable car is even closed. This very day was just perfect and you can imagine how many people wanted to go up there. When we saw the huge queue of cars waiting for a parking lot next to Table Mountain, we decided to visit the "little brother" - Signal Hill. This was a great decision - there were not many people and the view was amazing too!
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| Signal Hill - Cape Town to our feet |
Another wonderful thing was the visit in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garens. A huge area (about 52 T km2) with wonderful flowers and trees and a great Tree Canopy Walkway - a bridge that takes you along the treetops and offers you a new perspective. We loved it!
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| Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens |
We left Capetown behind and continued our route to a very famous destination - Stellenbosch, the area which is known for its wineproduction and a MUST for every winelover. Stellenbosch is a cute little town itself with a lot of cafés, restaurants and shops and therefore worth a visit itself. But off course we wanted to see all the vineyards and do what we had to do - a winetasting! So we jumped into the "Vinehopper", a hop on-hop off-bus that brought us to 6 vineyards. At every place we had the choice to get out and do a tasting or just continuing the route. This was a great experience and we were all happy that we didn't have to drive ourselves! :-)
Our next stop was Mossel Bay, another town on the Garden Route. We liked this town quite a lot, enjoyed a drink at the beach and observed the surfers, took a swim in one of the natural pools and climbed up the little lighthouse-hill which was full of dassies, some funny animals which reminded me a bit of our Swiss marmots.
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| Is it a marmot? No! It's a dassie! |
One of the nicest spots we discovered along the Garden Route was the beach of Wilderness. This was just the perfect beach and we were almost a bit jealous of the people that have houses there!
We drove further down the Garden Route and enjoyed the fantastic views that surprised us every now and then when we drove around the corner.
We did a stop at the Knysna Elephant Park, a wonderful park which is home to orphaned elephants. At the entrance, everyone of us got a pot of food - not for ourselves but for our soon-to-be four-legged, tall friends. A guide took us out to the fields and already when the elephants heard the sound of the vehicle, they came closer. Lunchtime!!
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| Yummy lunch for the elephants |
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| With these temperatures, a mud-bath is the only option! |
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| Making new friends is always easier when sharing food |
We really enjoyed our elephant-encounter and were fascinated by the "gentle giants" as they are often called. Even if it was not totally "into the wild" and the elephants not totally free, we had a good feeling and left smiling.
Our next overnight stop was Knysna, another great place to be. We especially loved the lagoon, the beautiful houses and the waterfront with its lively atmosphere.
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| Knysna lagoon |
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| Our house for one night - could be worse, ey? :-) |
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| Knysna Waterfront |
The next day was one of my favourites so far. We visited "Monkeyland" and "Birds of eden" in Plettenberg Bay. For me as a big monkey fan, especially the first one was awesome. But also in "Birds of eden" I had to confess that birds are not as boring as I had thought before!
"Monkeyland" is home for monkeys that had been kept in zoos or private housholds and that are now getting prepared for their release into the wild. We did a tour with a fantastic guide, walked through the forest and were amazed how close we could come and how much we saw. Here I let the pictures talk. And sorry for the huge amount of photos, monkeys have been the hardest to sort out for me so far! :-)
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| I put this in my "Can I take it home?"-category, you too? |
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| The grumpy old man and secret boss of the park |
Next to "Monkeyland" is another park called "Birds of eden", home of some of the most wonderful and colorful birds on this planet. We were impressed by the diversity and beauty of those animals!
After this day full of impressions, we were happy to arrive in Stormsrivier, our hometown for the next two days. And we were lucky to have probably picked the most beautiful Air BnB in the area! We were welcomed very warmly by George and Carmen, our hosts. George gave us a tour around his huge garden, explained us the plants and gave us some freshly picked fruits to eat. Then he showed us the house - a cottage that he had built all by himself. I fell in love with this house immediately - isn't it the most perfect hideaway?
I think we could have stayed in our beautiful cottage for the rest of the day, but off course we wanted to see the little town of Stormsrivier too. Well... There is not much to see actually. Some restaurants, a grocery store, that's about it when you walk down the main street. But it has a very special charm and we liked it immediately. And when we found "Marilyn's 60's diner" the older and the younger of the family were very happy!
The next day we had time to explore the Tsitsikamma National Park. Somehow the landscape made me think of Canada, don't you think so?
We did a little hike and enjoyed the suspension bridges, the beautiful nature and the little, hidden beach that we found. a beach just for the four of us, it was fantastic! After a swim we were refreshed and ready to continue our adventure. The next day we would continue to Port Elizabeth, the end of the Garden Route, and fly from there to Durban. From there, the 3rd (and unfortunately the last) part of our African adventure would start.
