Low-key day today. Spent the morning at our guest house catching up trip diary and sorting pictures since this really been the first chance to do this. Drove to a farm for lunch, poked around the countryside then back home. A longish drive tomorrow, 5 or 6 hours so am glad for a day off.
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Up early to take a walk to the Waenhuiskrans Grotto after which the town is named. Arniston is the name of an English ship that shipwrecked in the bay and the town has come to be known by that name in English, but Waenhuiskrans is the Afrikaans name which means a cave big enough to shelter a wagon. More then you ever cared to know, which perfectly describes our visit to the cave. An endless walk through the sand dunes under hot sun to reach a hollowed out grotto in the side of a seaside cliff that can only be reached at low tide. The description is as tiresome as the experience. (more…) -
Good breakfast at the Arniston Inn. Inn makes it sound a little grander than it is as it can only take 1 family at a time; very comfortable and large bed-sit area and an upstairs lounge with a door opening on to large veranda. Our hosts, Devina and Ron are a funny, quirky and charming couple; he a retired architect and Devina, who runs the inn, which is an old, original Arniston structure is, I think, very artistic. Invited us for pre-dinner drinks.
We drove to the town of Elim, which was founded in the late 1820’s by Moravian Dutch who were fleeing religious persecution. The town’s houses are largely unchanged externally, all square, whitewashed and thatched. The decedents of the Moravians still are, for the most part, the inhabitants of the town which is only a couple of streets in size, but wonderful to see the tiny, perfect little thatched houses still unchanged after 175 years. Incidentally, wherever we have travelled so far, from Franschhoek to our current location, there are a surprisingly large number of houses with thatched roofs, including the Arniston Inn. This was a skill that was brought over by the Moravian Dutch and it has clearly spread throughout the region as all the many thatched houses will show.
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Dinner last night at the French Connection in Franschhoek; perfectly serviceable, but after Bon Vivant it was always going to suffer by comparison. We were actually supposed to have dinner at Jordons Winery and Restaurant, another one of the top rated restaurants in SA and headed up by George Jardine, one of SA’s top chefs. Fortunately we called ahead to confirm our reservation since it’s a 25k drive from La Dauphine to Stellenbosch only to be told that our reservation was for the previous evening. I was completely gutted to hear that I had messed up the reservation, yes it was my fault, particularly since I had struggled with their on-line reservation form about two weeks previous, before we had left home. At that time, I had thrown my self-control to the winds and wrote them a scathing email about their less than useless web site (anyone struggling with this web site is welcome to be equally as cutting if you write to me, goose and gander). They replied very graciously and we arranged for dinner, but clearly I had gotten my dates wrong so I am doubly upset; my mistake cost them a reservation and us a very good dinner and the circumstances surrounding it are cringe-inducing. (more…) -
Picked up our car yesterday at the Cape Town airport, nice little grey VW Polo. Loaded up and headed for our first stop for the night, La Dauphine outside of Franschhoek which we drove to via Stellenbosch, both of which are in vineyard country about an hour north of Cape Town.
Stopped for lunch at a very modern, architecturally-interesting vineyard halfway up a mountain outside of Stellenbosch called Tokara. An over-the-top menu to accompany the wines and spectacular views. Not to go into too much detail, but my starter was a Smoked Trout Alaska, which was a nice piece of smoked trout covered with a layer of baked meringue, on top of which was a scoop of smoked salmon ice-cream and some salmon roe and surrounded with various splashes of infused herbal oils, fruit purees and sauces. I should have taken a picture of that as well as the views but too tired.
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Flight to Frankfurt uneventful and managed to catnap periodically. Arrived in Frankfurt at noon. I had booked a day room at the Airport Hilton to get a shower and some sleep before our next flight at 22:00. We were required to checkout at 18:00 but the thought of 160 Euros for 6 hours was a little much so I decided to use my Hilton points to book the room. Seemingly you can’t book a day room on points but must take it for the night, so not a problem for us if Hilton wanted to tie up a room for 24 hours when we only needed it for 6. (more…) -
Wednesday evening and finally under way. In the Air Canada lounge with a glass of red wine and waiting to go to the gate. Usual last day scrambles, packing and re-packing; every time I lock my bag discover something that I forgot to include or did I really pack x? Finally unpacked everything and re-packed item by item making sure that they were on my mental list (my self-awareness tells me there’s a hint of OCD there!). (more…) -
Because I’m trying for some saleable shots, the emphasis on photography, while always present on any of our trips, has taken the first chair position on this trip. We will be spending our first ten days driving from the Cape Town Airport along the Garden Route and ending up in Knysna.From there we take a plane to White River and then on to Inyati, our first safari camp, in Sabi Sands. Then by small private plane to Tswalu, on the edge of the Kalahari in the Western Cape and finally back to Cape Town for our last 5 days. In all we will be away for 4 weeks, and prospectively that does not seem as if it will be enough.
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Adventure begins next Wednesday, Feb 15. While we have certainly spent more time planning this trip than any of our previous ones, this is the first time that I have felt ready to begin documenting it.
First got the idea for the trip last spring, a surprisingly long time ago it now seems, when one of my colleagues returned from a mixed business/pleasure trip to South Africa and I saw some of her fabulous close-up shots of big cats and at the same time, one of Virginia’s colleagues returned from South Africa with equally excited reviews. We have traveled extensively through all reaches of Asia and the Pacific Rim as well as Europe and Asia will always have a siren call for me, but we have been thinking about an African adventure for a number of years and the tipping point was the animal photos (and the wine reviews!). Since that time we have been in a fairly low-key but continuous state of research and planning.
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Countryside between Warrnambool and MelbourneFinished my drive today. Beautiful weather (wouldn’t you know!). Left Warrnabool about 10:00 and meandered around the countryside for a few hours sinceI didn’t have to be in Melbourne until 4:30 to drop off the car. Wonderful country, rolling hills in the distance and miles of fields with, surprisingly, most of the farms given over to dairy and not to sheep. That has been true pretty much for my whole journey; certainly sheep farms to been seen but for the most part, cattle and dairy. Picked up a pound of Warrnambool aged cheddar to bring home so will be interested to try.Took the fast track to Melbourne but poked along as slowly as I could to make it last and just enjoyed the sun and the day. Not much in the way of pictures but took a couple of shots just to keep my hand in.
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