We returned to
Marienburg on March 11 and had a week to re-organize. The knowledge we gained on the Namibia trip
about our gear helped us streamline our equipment and change out the things
that we thought were neat but not particularly useful or functional.
ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK
On St. Paddy’s Day Clem
and Janet Lam arrived from Hawaii to spend two weeks with us. We picked them up at the airport in Port
Elizabeth and headed straight to the Addo Elephant National Park. Addo is about 72km northwest of Port
Elizabeth and was organized in 1931 when a concerned farmer was worried that
all of the elephant in the area were being exterminated to accommodate the
local farms. At first, there were only
16 elephants left in the park’s enclosed area, today there are approximately
500 elephants in the park’s 180,000 hectares.
Within the first two
hours of being in the park we saw zebra, red hartebeest, elephant and
kudu. You would have to be very unlucky
not to see elephant. We saw many – up
close and personal.
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| Zebras like to rest their chins on each other's backs |
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| The first elephant we saw in Addo |
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| Raising her trunk in greeting! |
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| Red Hartebeest |
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| Yet another beautiful Zebra |
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| Kudu Female |
We were also VERY lucky
on Day Two when we experienced an early morning siting of two lion
brothers. These lions were brought to
Addo from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
You can see their black manes and their typically large size in the
photo. One of the brothers had hurt his
back right leg and was walking slowly with a heavy limp. We sure hope he recovers.
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| Kalahari Lion Brothers at Ado |
Day Three we saw
buffalo, wart hogs, ostrich, went back to Hapoor, for a second lunchtime visit
with the elephants, and took a more extensive drive through the park. That
evening back at the main camp Clem, JP and I went for nature walk and rescued a
stranded dung beetle which had lost its round ball of elephant dung. We put it back on track but within a few
minutes it rolled it’s dung ball into a hopeless situation – a deep hole from
which it could not escape. We decided to
let nature take its course because our help had only made matters worse. Yet another reminder that human intervention,
even when you feel compelled to assist, is not always the best option.
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| Checking the view from the highest point at Addo |
We had a lovely dinner
at the new Cattle Baron Restaurant at Addo.
It was the grand opening of the new concession and the food was
delicious. We highly recommend it hope
they prosper and do well in their newest location.
We said a fond farewell
to the inhabitants at Addo and headed to Tsitsikamma via way of Jeffrey’s Bay –
the famous surf spot.
JEFFREY'S BAY
The waves were
beautiful that day and made Clem wish for youth when nothing would have stopped
him from getting in the water!!
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| Sundowners |
We spent a couple of
days at Marienburg with Willie and Katie.
Enjoyed sundowners on the 14th green of the golf course with
a gorgeous view of the farm, walked and relaxed while Clem painted and
entertained us with his wonderful music making.
On the way to Cape Town
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| Outeniqua Pass |
We set out for Cape Town
on a Saturday morning with a picnic in Outeniqua Pass above George. Our first night’s accommodation was at the
Reitfontein Ostrich Palace between Oudtshoorn (the ostrich capital of the
world) and Calitzdorp (the Port wine capital of the world). My travel plan included staying at historic
guest houses and out of the way places where Clem and JP could experience the
culture and people of South Africa. The
Ostrich Palace is situated on a former ostrich farm which has been in the
family of Kobus Potgieter for a few generations. Established in 1897, it is the oldest working
ostrich farm in the Cape Colony. Kobus
and his wife Elmare have made a beautiful B&B out of the farm with lovely
gardens and an amazing swimming pool. We
stayed in the original farmhouse which they had beautifully refurbished. The evening meal of course included delicious
ostrich fillets prepared by Kobus and Elmare.
The food and the wine were fantastic! www.rop.co.za
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| Original Farmhouse at Reitfontein Ostrich Palace |
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| Drinks on the veranda |
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| A flower pot built for two. |
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| Late Bloomers |
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| Red Mountain in the Morning |
In Calitzdorp we visited
the BoPlaas Winery and stocked up for the journey. We also stopped in Barrydale to tour the
Barrydale Hand Weavers shop where local women are taught to weave cloth from
cotton for tea and dish towels, beach towels, rugs, place mats, and other
useful household items. www.barrydaleweavers.co.za
We stayed in Paarl the
second night of our journey at the De Leeuwenhof Estate another historic site
where the owners Daan and Yvonne van Leeuwen Boomkamp were our hosts. Daan was very forthcoming with his
experiences involving the renovation and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing about
how he accomplished such a massive undertaking.
It is a working farm with fruit trees and vinyards. Their signature wines are delicious! www.leeuwenhof.co.za
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| Daan sharing some funny stories. |
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| De Leeuwenhof Estate |
One of the highlights of
the trip was a visit to a place called the Spice Route where entrepreneurs set
up a variety of small businesses from glass blowing to chocolate manufacturing
with a microbrewery in between. Needless
to say, with JP and my love of dark chocolate, we made a bee-line to DV Artisan
Chocolate where Peter De Villiers gave up corporate life and started making his
own, most divine dark chocolates I have ever tasted.
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| Tasting chocolate from around the world put a smile on our faces! |
We participated in a chocolate tasting where
we learned a lot about where cacao trees grow throughout the world, the
different types and flavors of beans and how they are prepared. We also learned that the best dark chocolates
have only authentic ingredients – nothing artificial only cocao butter, beans
and raw sugar. However, the most
important bit of knowledge obtained, is that you should NOT chew dark chocolate
but let it melt slowly between the tongue and the roof of the mouth to fully experience
the flavors which range from an ash taste to a more fruity or nutty taste. www.dvchocolate.com
Cape Town
By the time we arrived
in Cape Town the weather prediction for rain was fully upon us. We visited the Victoria and Albert Waterfront
and had mussels at the Den Anker Belgian restaurant after JP and I had spent a couple of hours in the African Trading Port - with a very eclectic assortment of goods from refrigerator magnets to the most bizarre artifacts and collectables. Unfortunately, due to rain, we were unable to visit the top of Table
Mountain by cable car (this was my third attempt) and our boat cruise to Robben
Island was also cancelled.
So we hopped
on the “Hop On Hop Off” city bus tour and took a guided, narrated tour around
the Cape. We had hoped to visit the
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden but the rain was falling in buckets so we stayed
on the bus and that afternoon, as the skies cleared, visited the Castle of Good
Hope now in the heart of downtown Cape Town.
The Castle is an imposing fortress commissioned in 1665 by the Dutch East India
Company. The ramparts together with the
exterior walls, warehouses, residences, church hall, slave quarters and shops
on the inside were completed in 1679.
Approximately 1691 a traverse wall was built across the inner courtyard
and formed a base for several more buildings and a balcony from which edicts,
declarations and government announcements were made. From 1674 until the middle of the 19th
century, the Castle was the administrative and military seat of successive
governments and the official residence of the Governor. Thereafter it served as the British military
headquarters until it was handed over to the South African government by the
imperials in 1917. It is reasonably well
maintained and a very important part of South African history. What struck me is that the Castle was
originally built right on the beach in the 1660’s. Cape Town has been built on land fill and now
the coast line is more than a quarter mile away!
We stayed at the Three
Boutique Hotel, another very historic building in the Oranjezicht section of
Cape Town. In the 1770’s it was one of
the ten most conspicuous large manors of Cape Town. It was owned and occupied
by the Commandant of the Castle (above), General Robert J. Gordon, who
discovered and mapped a good part of South Africa. He discovered and also named
South Africa’s great river, the Orange (after the Prince of Orange), Plettenberg
Bay (after Governor Von Plettenberg). Gordon’s Bay was named after him. Check
out the hotel and more on the history at www.thethree.co.za
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| With Alun and Julie who manage the Three Boutique |
We had a lovely authentic
Cape Malay meal at the BoKaap Kombuis Malay Restaurant in an area of the city
referred to as the BoKaap, the original Malay Quarter on Signal Hill, where on
Upper Wale Street the houses are painted lovely, bright colors and the streets
are cobblestone. www.bokaapkombuis.co.za
Back to Marienburg via Cape Agulhas
We made our return trip
to Marienburg along the rugged coastline.
Marius and I liked Cape Agulhas so much that we decided to take Clem and
JP to Struisbaai where we stayed at the Anglers Rest – a gorgeous home on a
cliff overlooking the ocean where artist and fisherman Neil Bezuidenhout and
his lovely wife Jacqueline were our hosts.
www.anglersrest.co.za
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| Anglers Rest |
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| Clem, JP and I at the Southern Most Tip of Africa |
We had a picnic along the
way near Knysna and returned to the farm as “happy as a hotel in springtime
when the flowers bloom again”.
There is a song written
by South African songwriter, David Kramer, called Matchbox Full Of Diamonds
which became our travel theme song. The
lyrics above refer to the hotels in Namaqualand that fill with guests who come
to see the endless fields of flowers bloom in the spring.
Lazy Days in Tsitsikamma
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| The Otter Trail |
The last few days with
Clem and JP were spent hiking the first section of the Otter Trail to the
Waterfall and included a day trip to Nature’s Valley so Marius could fish, Clem
could paint and JP and I could hike and hunt for amazing rocks.
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| The Pool at the Waterfall |
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| Rugged Tsitsikamma Coastline |
So we hopped
on the “Hop On Hop Off” city bus tour and took a guided, narrated tour around
the Cape. We had hoped to visit the
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden but the rain was falling in buckets so we stayed
on the bus and that afternoon, as the skies cleared, visited the Castle of Good
Hope now in the heart of downtown Cape Town. 
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