Day 28 of Lock-down - My Travelogue!

The Topic: My travelogue covering our first family outing to Cape Town post-relocation!

The Time: April, Circa 2004

The Places: Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and Return

The Season: Ebbing of summer in these parts of the world

The Mood: Excellent!

The background was set.

On the appointed day, we packed enough stuff to last us a week (as planned) and off we flew to Cape Town marking the first leg of our sojourn. On landing in Cape Town, I hired a pre-booked car, which was our means of transport throughout the next week or so. Couldn’t have asked for a better one as it was a Ford Focus hatchback, quite spacious for all three of us and our baggage.

The first stop was the Cape Town Bed and Breakfast (where we stayed for three nights), on Camps Bay Drive. As we drove past the famous Table Mountain, we were in awe! Honestly, I had not seen this earlier in my life and the experience of seeing this mighty mountain, was an exhilarating one! As we reached our home for the next 3 nights, the owner, David Meyers, came out to greet us and took us around the room and a half with kitchenette. Hmm… impressive! More impressive was the sight of the ocean from the room and the patio as we relaxed post-lunch and had our tea enjoying this beautiful sight of the Atlantic. We did a bit of city tour and lazed around that afternoon and evening before retiring for the night nap.

The next day, relaxed with enough sleep overnight, we left for the city tour and our first stop was, you guessed it right! Table Mountain! Up we went in the cable car that took us to the top of the mountain. The view from here, of the city of Cape Town, was amazingly beautiful as we were lucky to have a clear day for the best all-round views. Spent a couple of hours just letting the sights sink into us (which, I can still remember very vividly). You can never have enough of such sights but compelled to move on as we were, we reluctantly climbed down in the cable car again catching the last of the glimpses of the Mother City (as Cape Town is known in South Africa).

Any tour of Cape Town would be incomplete without visiting a winery. So we made our way to Spier Winery on the route to the famous Stellenbosch wine region. We had our first taste of wine, at the wine tasting. I was amazed at my wife’s flavour discerning abilities! Believe me, this was her first venture to taste alcoholic drinks and she could handle different wine varieties with aplomb, explaining their nuances and no sooner, this was confirmed by our tasting guide for the session. We thoroughly enjoyed the tasting session as my daughter got to chomp of all the cracker biscuits that we were given, to eat between two different wines, to clear our palate. This was an experience for all of us and we spent quite some time around the winery before returning to Cape Town.

Next in our itinerary was a visit to Robben Island (just northwest from V&A Waterfront), the infamous prison of Nelson Mandela – Father of new South Africa. It is a 3.5 to 4 hours tour including the time we spend on ferrying to this island on the Atlantic waters. We could see the gruesome prison in all its infamous glory. One visit to this prison of an Island and your respect for the freedom fighters of South Africa, escalates even without any effort from you. We were taken around the places where Mandela was imprisoned and his cell where he underwent solitary confinement as well. A lot of history has been written about South Africa’s freedom struggle and Robben Island is an integral part of all such.

This done and dusted, we took the ferry back to Cape Town, had our supper in V&A Waterfront before retiring for the night.

The next morning, post breakfast, we went down to Hout Bay and a quick ferry took us to the seal island where we could see a lot of seals basking in the sun. The ferry was navigating through choppy waters and some in the ferry was a bit sea-sick. As it was summer, the southern whales had no interest to infest the warm waters, else we would have seen a lot of them.

Next in our list of to-do visits was the Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (CGH) and off we went from Hout Bay passing Chapman’s Peak on the way, which is one of the most scenic routes in Africa. Construction workers were busy placing steel meshes on the sides of the hilly surfaces to prevent landslides (which, this place is known for). Historically, CGH has a lot of significance as Vasco-da-Gama and before him, Bartholomew Dias sailed around CGH on their voyage to find a new sea-route to India, which Vasco-da-Gama did by landing on the West Coast of India circa 1498. These places are unimaginably beautiful what with the ocean on one side and hilly terrain on the other side. CGH is the South-western most tip of the African Continent.

By the time we reached the Cape Point, it was mid-afternoon and we had to hurry as they close this site by 5:30 pm. This place is something out of the world in the sense that you have to traverse through the Cape Natural reserve with majestic mountains and mighty ocean subsisting together. We got into funicular (a train-like vehicle on tracks) that took us closest to the point where we could see the old lighthouse. As we made our way to this lighthouse, the sight was simply awesome! The wind was blowing heavily as we could catch the glimpse of the ocean and enjoyed the sight thoroughly. We couldn’t see much of fauna here but could see lots of mountain rats (beavers like animals) all around. 

Reluctantly, we dragged our feet down to where we had parked our car and bid adieu to Kaap Punt (as it is referred to in Afrikaans) and drove back to Kaap Staad (Cape Town in Afrikaans), had good pizzas for dinner and hit the bed.

The next day, we took it easy as we started to pack stuff to move out to our next base, Knysna. This route N2 between Cape Town to Port Elizabeth is aptly called as Garden Route for a reason. The flora along this route is, really, out of this world. We had to take a bit of detour to see Cape Agulhas and it was worth the trouble. This is the southern-most tip of the African continent where both Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. Spent an hour here lazing around and marveling at the beautiful sight of the oceans and off we went back to the garden route, heading east thereon.

By the time it was dark, we reached Knysna and since I had pre-booked in Azure House, we eased into our rooms and had some fruits and bakery items for supper. We could see the faint outlines of the lagoon’s heads dimly illuminated by the lights of the city reflected on the lagoon, savoured it a bit and lost ourselves in deep sleep.

The next morning, we could appreciate the sight from the room’s patio. We fell in love with this place at the first sight of dawn here! The view of the ocean through the heads of the landmasses on both sides of the lagoon was unrestricted and I am sure we couldn’t have asked for a better location than this. That morning we lazed around in the small town and could see some beautiful sights of the lagoon during the day. A holiday is not just about traveling but also relaxing and hence we dozed off post-lunch. The second half, we drove to the nearby elephant park where there were a lot of orphaned elephant calves that were being taken care of till such time they could be left in the nearby Addo Elephant Park, near Grahamstown. My daughter had her fill of fun by feeding these elephants and enjoyed to the hilt.

The next day, we drove to Tsitsikamma National Park, located just outside of Plettenberg Bay, where we took a short break to stroll on the sands for a while. We could see a pod of dolphins swim quite close to the shoreline which, again, was a first for us. As we saw them disappear over the horizon to our left, we proceeded towards the nature reserve.

Tsitsikamma; the flora was out of the world here. I could have easily spent over a day getting lost in this wilderness. However, we had our fill and started off at the rope bridges connecting two landmasses with the river Tsitsikamma below, running into the Indian Ocean. We also had a chance for a boat ride that took us deep between the two hills that were separated by this river. As we went upstream, the opening started getting narrower and the water was deep brown in colour. The oarsman, who had the knowledge of the flora there, said the deep colour was due to the tannins from the leaves and the foliage from the nature reserve. After an hour, we returned and disembarked at the base camp. 

The weather was perfect for such an outing and though it was scorching outside, the canopy of greenery made it hard for the sunlight to penetrate let alone radiate heat. We walked all over the reserve till our legs gave away.

After what seemed an eternity, we slowly limped our way to the car for our return journey. On the way, we stopped over (which we had seen on our onward journey) at a place on N2 highway called Bloukraans Bridge, which is a famous site for bungee jumping. At the time of our visit, this was the highest/deepest bungee jumping site in the Southern Hemisphere. None of us had the kind of adrenaline push to risk the jump but having gone there we witnessed a couple of jumps from junkies. Amazing sight! Had I then been a decade or so younger, I would have ventured the jump.

We had just enough strength to book for an evening cruise on Knysna River at the Knysna Quay and grab something to eat and hit the bed for a snooze.

Refreshed after the snooze, we made our way to the Quay for our cruise in the evening. The vessel was in mint condition and had adopted an old steam engine with a huge wheel paddling through the waters, by the side powering the launch. Drinks and dinner were available on-board and we shared some good wine just for the heck of it. Nibbled something which I don’t even remember now. The lazy cruise took us to the end of the lagoon where the river merges with the Ocean and we could see both the East and West sides of Featherbed Sanctuary. Gorgeous sights and truly blissful experiences!

Dog tired, we returned to our home-sweet-home and slept the night off.

The next day, we drove past George towards Oudtshoorn. This place is well known for the Ostrich farming industry. We visited High Gate Ostrich Show Farm where we were taken around the farm by enthusiastic guides. They showed us the different uses they made from the ostrich that were slaughtered for meat. I was given to understand this meat is pretty lean meat compared to red meat and very healthy. Not that I tried. The feathers were put to multiple uses including feather duster (they showed how to make one and my daughter eagerly made one that was gifted to her by the guide), fillings for pillows and different uses of ostrich skins and eggshells as well.

As we went out into the open, we were shown ostrich eggs and I was insisted to stand on it to test its strength. Hesitant and reluctantly I stepped on it, first on one leg but I was forced by the guide to stand on the egg with both my legs. To my utter surprise, it could hold all of my 80+ kilos of weight. 

I had no words to express the beauty of Nature. The egg easily could have weighed around 2 kilos, to my knowledge.

Post this, we were given a lesson on the digestive system of ostriches. Did you know that ostrich pecks and eats pebbles which in-turn acts as a grinding stone in its stomach to digest its food? Amazing, isn’t it!

Then, we came to the adventure part of the tour. Yes, an ostrich ride! First it was my daughter’s turn to sit on an ostrich and one of the handlers ran along with the ostrich in tow. A good distance of 100m and boy, did the ostrich ran! She enjoyed the ride thoroughly and was overjoyed. Next was my chance to ride on this creature of a bird. My word, this is quite a powerful bird at that and could easily take my weight and run at a considerable speed. They say you can never outrun an ostrich and I then, knew exactly why they say it. It was a different experience for me and I can’t say that I enjoyed it.

We returned to Knysna by dusk and had dinner, lazed out in the patio watching the lights yonder, squinting our eyes to see the outlines of the heads that separated the lagoon and the starlight sky above long before we hit the bed for the fourth night in a row.

We had a good breakfast, packed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. We came to George from where we were supposed to take our return flight to Johannesburg, late that afternoon. Before that, we had plans to visit a nature reserve at the Outeniqua Mountains outside this town. There is a power van that takes us through the scenic passes as we reach a picnic spot in the mountains. We had a picnic basket that got empty in no time as we were hungry by then.

On our return, we could see the debris of the fateful flight of Hanse Cronje, a famous cricketer and captain of the South African cricket team, who died tragically at a very young age. He was implicated in match-fixing scandal and had to unceremoniously resign and retire from active cricket.

We reached the base and saw the Outeniqua Museum where the Choe Tjoe Train originated from and so many other vehicles. Post this, we drove off to the airport, dropped off the hired car and embarked on our return trip to Johannesburg.

On the whole, though we missed many more spots and sights, it was quite a satisfactory trip and by the time we reached home later that evening, we were quite charged up and totally relaxed.

Trips like these don’t drain you and despite getting totally exhausted by the end of every day, we were totally stimulated to go on for more as we woke up the next morning. Such is the power of this elixir and added to this, if you have your loved ones as a company, what more can one ask for?

To conclude:

Those were the days we had no smartphones and the only maps were in our heads other than the physical map books we had taken with us. It makes a hell of a lot of difference if you have a membership with Automobile Association of SA. Their offices provide free maps to everyone irrespective.

Those were the days where, your cell-phones could only make phone calls unlike the modern ones, which can also be used for making phone calls. Else this article would have been filled with some of the photos we clicked along on our tour.

Be that as it may, that we enjoyed the vacation and even today that I could write most of this travelogue without taxing my grey cells much, is stark evidence of how much the sights have ingrained in my system.