Cape Town - The Mother City #8

Cape Town is most definitely the mother city of South Africa due to the diversity of people and dramatic landscape, reflecting the real South Africa . The mountains watch over you wherever you are in this city, and as many of you know the most famous is ‘ Table Mountain ’, and it’s easy to see how it got its name. We are staying in an area called Fish Hoek where Kim’s dad and step-mum, Dave and Marlene live. Fish Hoek is right on the coast line, with a beautiful sandy bay. It is known as a ‘dry town’ due to alcohol not being sold in any store, other than in restaurants. Due to its warm waters at this time of year pods of southern right whales swim in to this area to breed. We were very lucky to spot two swimming close to the coast line, along with many other keen whale watchers. Along with whales being a tourist attraction when taking a drive to Cape Point we saw penguins on Boulders beach, where they were sunning themselves on the large rocks and boulders.

We have been taking in the culture and learning about the vast history of this area through visiting museums and the Dutch Castle . We visited a museum which told of the story of District 6. During the Apartheid era an area called District 6 (which is reflected in the current South African movie, ‘District 9), home to Cape Malays and ‘Coloured’ people was declared a ‘white area’ and the residents were evicted and re-settled out of the city centre. This was an interesting insight in to some of the history at this awful time in South Africa .
With Cape Town having some of the best beaches around Kim took the opportunity to go surfing with his brother-in-law Marq. After one early morning, watching the sun coming up whilst trying to catch a wave, Kim is now hooked and is managing to stand on the board. I’m ashamed to say that I stay on dry land with his sister, Heidi her baby son Quinn having a coffee but I am starting to pluck up the courage to give it a go.

On Saturday we had a family outing with Kim’s parents, and sisters family to Stellenbosch to visit a couple of wine farms. We were able to do some wine tasting at Muratie where they’ve preserved the authenticity of the wine cellars by refraining from sweeping away the old cobwebs, which gives a slightly eerie but cosy feel.

During the rest of our time in Cape Town we will be making our way through our list of places to visit and also catching up with Kim’s family and friends having bbq’s (braai’s).

We hope your all keeping well and not missing us too much.

Love Nat and Kim xxx

Exploring the Garden route #7

We said our farewells in East London and set off with our backpacks west along the coast towards Cape Town . Due to the long drive we decided to take our time, taking in the beautiful landscape and stopping in Knysna along the garden route and spending a few days there to see the sights. For those of you who have been to this part of South Africa , I’m sure you would agree it is one of the most stunning places, with the contrast between the dense green forests and the rugged coast line. Knysna is set right on the coast next to a lagoon that reaches out to the Indian Ocean , so wherever you are in Knysna you are sure to having an amazing view. If you love wildlife then Kynsna and Plettenberg Bay are the places to visit. We visited Monkey Land which is home to monkeys from lemur to vervet and gibbons who roam freely in the forested area. A guide took us around the forest, and he taught us about the lives of the monkeys whilst they came up very close to us to explore and suss out what we were. The vervet monkeys are the extremely cheeky and like to take sunglasses and camera’s from you so we were constantly watching our backs. We were very privileged to see a family of lemur’s interacting with their two new 5 day old babies. The lemur group had recently adopted a black lemur called ‘Brad’ whose partner ‘Angelina’ had recently died.

Opposite MonkeyLand was ‘Birds of Eden’, a free flight netted area in the forest, home to over 1500 birds. We freely wondered in the area looking at the birds and they were also very interested in us – I was soon advised to take off my earings because they had a particular fancy to them. Some of the birds liked to come up and sit on your shoulder pecking any shiny object they saw from buttons to glasses!

After a fun 2 days in Knysa interacting with the wildlife we embarked on the final leg of our journey to Cape Town .

Coffee in paradise #6

Our next venture away from East London was a 4 hour journey along the wild coast to a place called Coffee Bay. The journey to Coffee Bay was an interesting one – the wild coast has its name for that very reason, the terrain is extremely mountainous and ‘wild’. The roads would wind around the steep mountain, with very little room for two way traffic, but somehow there are no accidents, which is extremely surprising considering the crazy South African driving! The final part of the journey consisted of dodging large pot holes, sheep, goat and cows which roamed aimlessly every where without a care in the world! And not surprisingly we saw some road kill!! But the crazy journey made our first glimpse of Coffee Bay even more spectacular – it is a touch of paradise.
Coffee Bay is a small village set on a hill, which looks over the sea view. We were recommended a place to stay by a lady who does mosaics at Kim’s mum’s house and she put in a good word for us so we were given a beautiful place to stay, with a sea view! Life couldn’t get much better! Coffee Bay has two backpacker joints so it’s a popular place for young travellers to visit where people head to the beach and surf and play volley ball. Once again, in this very chilled out hippy place the local people come up to you, trying to chill you out even more by selling weed and magic mushrooms! The natural beauty gave us enough of a high.
Close by to Coffee Bay is a place called ‘hole in the wall’ which we visited. Erm how do I describe it – it really is a hole in a large rock/wall, but what makes it amazing is the stunning back drop and coastal walk to it. Although we wanted to make our own way there, two persistent young Xhorsa boys wanted to show us there (for a small fee), and we soon gave in. Along the journey we noticed a stray dog was coming with us, and 3 hours later the dog was still with us, after walking to the top of a hill and on the rocks where waves crashed over and people were fishing. If we could have had our way we would have taken this very friendly dog with us, but our paths parted. The lady who we rented our room from, ran an orphanage and allowed us the visit the children. We were greeted with smiles and we were shown around the place, including the pre-school they run there and a vegetable garden where they grow all their food. Although the deprivation is far and wide in South Africa, it is great to see places like this that make a huge difference to children in need. The rest of time was spent hanging out with a group of South African guys we met at the backpackers bar and walking along with beach – and watching the most breathtaking sunrises. On the last day we got up early to catch the sun rise and were very lucky to see a school of dolphins. Our time in Coffee Bay was far too short – but we will definitely try and visit this place again.
On Saturday we went to a local Lion Park with Kim’s mum, Aunt and Uncle. It’s a lovely little reserve which allowed you to feed all the animals. Our favourite was Jenny the giraffe who would come up to you and stick out her long black tongue and grab the food, leaving a slim ball on our hand : ) The most pushy animal was the goat, which even stood on a large tortoise to reach for the food! Lots of rabbits jumped around the park, and all the animals mingled together. Well except for the Lions, cheetahs and wild dogs, who chilled out happily in the sun.
Sunday was our last time helping out at the Sunday school and the children sang and danced for us, with far more rhythm than we’ll ever have! We blew bubbles around the room, much to their amusement and they each got a lolly pop, which inevitably made their tongue change colour – which got a lot of laughs. Although our time here has been short it’s been very rewarding seeing the smiles light up on all the children’s faces when we sing songs and hand out food.
We have very little time left in East London, and we head off on Wednesday along the Garden route, where our next destination is Cape Town to see Kim’s dad and step-mum, Dave and Marlene.