South Africa.
Three weeks. Staying in accommodation in Simonstown and Hermanos after our 5 week visit exploring Namibia. Whale watching, flowers, Kirstenbosch gardens, Capes and coastlines and walking up Table Mountain are all unmissable. Words, pictures and costs.
Onwards and downwards. Passports checked and documents stamped we crossed from Namibia that had been our home for 5 weeks into South Africa. This was Namaqua and for some 130km of the N7 the scenery revealed itself as a uniform undulating brownness covered with short evergreen shrubs, most of them prickly. At the unassuming little town of Springbok we stocked up on supplies fended off people trying to sell us things and services we didn't want, checked out the information office and then had some well deserved lunch at the Springbok Restaurant.
Click on images to enter the Gallery.
But where to now? We needed somewhere to stay but I think we were all getting a bit hot and tired, we checked out the local campsite but were uninspired so in quiet desperation we drove a little way out of the town to nearby Goegap Nature Reserve, see 1. A breath of fresh air. It turned out to be a small collection of sympathetically designed buildings and succulent gardens set amongst pleasant hilly terrain and had lots of natural interest, recording 581 plant species , 45 mammal, 25 reptile and 3 amphibian species. More importantly at that instant it also sported an excellent guest house at a very reasonable rate which we were able to book into for a couple of nights. This was an idyllic spot, breakfast on the balcony, no crowds, well, no people and a friendly face behind the office desk. Left, a view from just behind our accommodation. Next to our accommodation. there were well marked trails of various lengths (best early or late as it gets quite warm) and loads of flowers and wild life to check on a tick list booklet supplied by the park.
Back to Springbok and then it was south again down the N7, a long leg of 258km to Vanrhynsdorp where we spent the night at a pleasant campsite just outside the town. Next day we planned to visit the hilly Cederberg Wilderness Area to do some walking but the weather had other ideas and we we were joined by the first clouds that we had seen for six weeks. In gathering gloom and drizzle we opted to stay in a chalet, tempted by a special offer of stay 2 nights get the third free. However, it drizzled and the cloud eventually lowered to the chalet and after the second day we left for the coast having only completed a short waterfall walk in the rain and mist.
The coastline of St Helena Bay seemed singularly unattractive. This wide, flat swathe of sandy coastline was being heavily developed for holiday home accommodation., amongst which were various smelly bits of industry adding to the general seediness. Fishing and surfing were probably the only occupations along here, even the promised migratory birds seemed to be boycotting it. Around the corner however at the little village of Paternoster things were looking up with a clutch whitewashed cottages with green roofs contrasting with the sparkling sea. Unmissable was the idiosyncratic Die Winkel op Paternoster - cafe, nik-nak shop, store and lots else. Just south was the Columbine Nature reserve at Tietiesbaai, pronounced? Yes. This was a lovely spot in the coastal fynbos, a terrain of small bushes that we were to see a lot more of as we traveled towards the Cape. Picture 2, breakfast at Tietiebaai camping. There were some superb granite boulders here, and where were my rock shoes? Right first time, back in England. Damn!
Getting close to Cape town and picture 3 was our first view of Table Mountain and the one that everyone sees across the long sandy sweep Table Bay. Not tempted for a dip, there were some big cold waves crashing in when we were there and quite a pollution haze across the city; nice flowers though.
Rather than look for accommodation. in Cape Town we wove our way through the city to Simonstown, a pleasant resort on the shore of False Bay and backing against the Table Mountain National Park which extended right down to the Cape of Good Hope. See the map. The Information office in the town found us some accommodation. seemingly perched on a cliff top just outside the town with superb views over False Bay.
Next day we visited the Cape of Good Hope which is often mistaken for southernmost tip of the continent. Other than the fact that it's an essential tick it was far too busy to be pleasant, with all the roads and parking areas blocked with huge tour buses. It was solid shoulder-to-shoulder tourism at times and we were too dismayed to brave the throngs and visit the lighthouse. Four, a view from the Cape towards Diaz point with its new lighthouse built in 1919 to replace the old one built in 1860. However, world famous as it is I suppose it's bound to be a honey pot area. One didn't need to travel far though to get away from it all, and if you're into old wrecks the coasts round here are littered with them, try Olifantsbos point. Here, the beautiful sandy coastline was strewn with rusty wrecks battered by huge surf.
One can't visit Cape town without visiting Table Mountain. We visited the beautiful Kirstenbosh gardens - that's a full day, then revisited them in order to ascend Skeleton gully, a steep little number with the odd ladder and cable that takes one up onto the plateau. An hour or so's walk on well surfaced tracks allows the highest point to be reached at Maclears Beacon 1087m. Five is a shot of us returning to the head of the gully, Cape Town spread out below. On a following take we took the cable car (queues!), explored some more of the summit then descended the nearby Platteklip Gorge, some 750m - my knees have almost recovered! The summit of Table Mountain consists of a pleasant network of well maintained paths with various gullies, peaks and reservoirs to explore. There are many ways off the summit, some tougher than others. We used Peter Slingsby's Table Mountain National Park Map 1 1:20000 which is widely available.
Next day we checked out the city which, apart from the waterfront is more business than tourist orientated. The waterfront is where everyone goes, there are lots of shops and restaurants, twee bridges over the marinas and an unmissable aquarium. It poured with rain when we were there so we were quite glad that there were things to do and shops to visit. Six, the waterfront, Table Mountain behind.
Time to move on. We decided to move down the coast a little way to the town of Hermanos, whale watching centre of South Africa, this was also close to the N2 giving easy access to the airport. We packed the camper and headed round the edges of False Bay. Flat at first, one is soon passing underneath the interesting and sometimes rocky flanks of the Koeelberg and Buffelstalberg mountains as one heads round the tip of the headland towards Betty's Bay.
Hermanus turned out to be a pleasant little town, orientated towards holidaymakers and whale watchers. The Tourist Information office sorted us out with an excellent flat close to the middle of town, we did some shopping, pottered around the town and we were all set up. Next day we walked down the coast watching Southern Right whales, some with calves leaping out of the water and slapping there tails down such that it could be clearly heard. Eventually I dug out my telephoto lens, which was a signal for them all to submerge. Eventually we ran out of navigable coastline and we headed into the adjacent Fernkloof Nature Reserve. This extensive fynbos contained some wonderful flowers, many of them helichrysums - everlasting flowers. See below.
Left to right, possibly Phaenocoima prolifera, Helichrysum vestitum and ??? but there were lots of them. There was also a wide variety of Protea, pictures 8 and 11.
The last objective, the southernmost point of Africa, Cape Agulhas, needle cape. OK, it may be flat but it does have a lighthouse that one can ascend and a monument indicating that it's the most southerly point and that this is where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. I checked the temperature of the water on the Indian side - freezing. There's something about peninsulas that I find irresistible, particularly when there's a big sea running. Out there the next stop was Antarctica.
Twelve Agulhas Lighthouse, thirteen, that's us..
chris.jackson@zen.co.uk
South Africa, October 14 - 31st, 2005 Party, Chris and Sue Jackson, Mal and Bob Roe.
Costs/person including Namibia
| Flight Manchester - Windhoek, Cape Town - Manchester | £773 |
| Vehicle Hire, insurance, pick-up fee (£5288) | £1322 |
| Food + camping + parks + fuel, each | £306 |
| Exchange rate - approx Rand/£ | 11 |
Petrol 5.5 - 6.5 Rand/L
Camping/person 30 - 60 Rand