After a good night’s sleep in the Hlangana lodge, luxury accommodation with Belgian management, we were going to make a tour of 170 Km. Just outside Oudshoorn we stopped at a crocodile farm. Besides crocodiles there’s a whole range of animals on display. Most of the park can only be visited with a guide and by the end of the tour (after paying a nominal fee) it’s possible to enter the habitat of the cheetah and have a real ‘close encounter’ with this exception animal.

We continued our tour and a little later stopped at one of the many ostrich farms.

The Cango Caves have different tours that take you to several ‘rooms’ of the underground maze.

After the visit to Cango caves we drove the Zwartbergpas, a 20 Km unpaved winding road took us from 700m to 1600 m above sea level. After enjoying the view we drove down to Prins Alfred and then through Meiringspoort, a narrow gorge.

We left the next morning at 9.00 and drove to Mosselbaai where we boarded the Romonza for a trip to one of the seal islands. Once outside the harbor the sea was ‘choppy’ which made taking photographs or filming a bit harder than usual. There were a lot of seals though.. When we were back on terra firma we continued to drive to Worcester where our next B&B was.
Worcester is a great place to start tours of the area where the old Dutch settlers once moved to. Here we stayed in ‘the ‘Prime Spot’. The guest rooms were in a separate building and because we were the only visitors we had the whole place to ourselves. We drove to Paarl, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. These are typical little towns for this area with houses in the old Dutch style of the 1700’s. These are also the ‘wine lands’, many of the South African wineries are found here. Stellenbosch is the oldest town in South Africa.

Oom Samie se winkel (Uncle Samie’s shop, founded in 1904 has an immense collection of ‘stuff’.

Because we made good time during this tour we decided that we had enough time to drive south to Hermanus. August is the beginning of the whale watching season and Hermanus is one of the best places for viewing. We were lucky to see a whale blowing air a few times and on occasion they were showing their tales when they dived.

Thursday August 10th we had to leave the Prime Spot and move on to our final accommodation Constantia Stables in Constantia, a suburb of Cape Town. This old farm (hence the name Stables) has a big garden and again we had a separate house to ourselves.

From Constancia all the major attractions were in easy reach. We decided to take it easy for a change and drive to the V&A waterfront where the two oceans aquarium is located. The aquarium has an interesting display of sharks and a walkway that runs through one of the displays.

On Friday we wanted to see ‘the cape’ so we headed south, first to Simonstown, a navy town. About 150 of the houses in Victorian style are restored to their original state. We visited the Warrior Toy Museum with it’s large collection of Dinky Toys and Meccano models. Just outside Simonstown, on Boulders Beach there’s a colony of about 700 penguins.

Cape Point is the main viewing point on the peninsula. There are a restaurant, shops and a tramway to take visitors up to the old lighthouse.

Cape Good Hope is the Southernmost point of Africa. (Cape Aguilas is the REAL southernmost point).

This guy is watching all those tourists with their backpacks and lunch boxes. If you’ll give him half a chance he WILL steal your lunch.... we’ve seen him do it... !
Saturday July 12th was to be our last full day. We still had a lot to see so as early as possible we left for Houtbaai. Houtbaai is home of ‘the world of Birds’. The complex has 104 aviaries with 330 species of birds. Instead of just walking by and watching from the outside, you enter each aviary and get a real close view of the birds. It’s a special experience to walk in and suddenly find an owl less than 2 feet away from your head.....

The clouds were clearing as it was warming up that morning so this was the time to go to Table Mountain. As the locals will testify, ‘if you see the weather is good.. go to the mountain immediately as the conditions can change in minutes’.

 

 

A view over Cape Town as seen from the rotating cable car to the top.

We booked a trip to Robben island on the catamaran ferry. During the 50 Km/hour trip a movie about the infamous Robben island is shown.

Prisoners entered the prison through this gate. While a lot of them were criminals, many were imprisoned for political reasons.

The guides are ex-prisoners, this gives the tours a personal touch and a lasting impression on the life ‘inside’.

The highlight of a visit to Robben island is the cell were Nelson Mandela was held.

Ex-prisoners leave the island after Robben Island prison is shut down. There is now a project that will restore many of the buildings on the island so it can be used as a university campus.

All along the route we followed we found craftsman making beautiful artwork.

After 24 days and 6300 Km (3915 Miles) driving through South Africa and Swaziland we were very impressed with what we saw. The diversity of this part of the world is immense. While the eastern part of the country looked like the Africa we were expecting, the western part could just as well have been in Europe. A lot of the (mainly older) white people still seem to have a problem with the changing situation.

We hope to go back one day for a more ‘in-depth’ visit. 3.5 weeks to see a country this big is not enough but at least we got a taste of what it has to offer.

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