Hermanus and the South

 Wednesday, October 26.

This morning we took our time packing up, as we were in no hurry to leave our beautiful hotel. The six-bottle wine carriers worked perfectly, except the slot was too tight to hold one of the sparkling wine bottles. I solved that problem by cutting a slit in the center part of the Styrofoam cylinder, and now the bottle slid in nicely. It will be interesting to see if I can get it out without ruining the packing material, but even so, it’s cheaper than shipping a case home!

We also tried to finalize our itinerary for today. We expect to end up in Hermanus tonight, which is a seaside town on the south coast which is famous for whale watching. We had the name of a winery suggested by Glen for their restaurant, which was on the way to Hermanus. We also wanted to try to get to Cape Agulhas, which is the true southernmost point of the continent of Africa. Everyone thinks that it’s Cape Point, but that’s not the southern tip of the continent. However, Cape Aghulas is a three-hour drive. What to do?

We hadn’t spent any time in the town of Stellenbosch last time, nor had we really been there this time either. The other couple who was still with us had spent the day in town yesterday and loved it; they also gave us the name of a store that sold upscale leather products and showed us their purchases…very tempting!

The problem? South Africa is huge! This map is only a tiny portion. You can see Cape Point on the far left. Stellenbosch is the red marker on the upper left, Hermanus the middle, and Cape Aghulas the lower right. It's a long way from Stellenbosch to Aghulas and back to Hermanus.

Our preliminary itinerary was to go to Stellenbosch, walk around a bit, shop a little, then try to find the University Botanical Gardens. If we could accomplish all that in good time, we’d make a beeline to Cape Aghulas and see how that went before circling back to Hermanus. Ambitious, but we should be able to do it if all goes well.

So we piled our luggage into the rental car, signed the guest book, and checked out. One last tidbit of information about the Wild Mushroom: yesterday, during breakfast, we'd chatted with a gentleman at the next table who as it turns out was the US Ambassador to South Africa! He had recognized by our "accent" that we were from the States, and he told us that he missed hearing that familiar accent! 

This was turning into quite the trip; we'd stayed in the Monaco embassy back in Antananarivo, and now we're meeting the US ambassador to South Africa! Our names are in the Wild Mushroom's guest book together. 

We finally hit the road a little before 9:00. We found some on-street parking in Stellenbosch right near the Old Dutch Reformed Church, and paid the official parking folks a few Rand for an hour of parking. Even though R7.50 was more than we thought the proper rate was, it was still not worth arguing over a total parking cost of 50 cents. Off we went!

The church looked dramatic with the strong backlighting.

The town was cute and we walked along Church Street, doing some window shopping until we got to Karoo Classics. This store has all sorts of ostrich leather products, and we decided that we should get a purse for Chris and a new wallet for me. The selection of wallets was quite simple; I just had to choose a color. Chris’s job was much harder, but she eventually settled on a colorful bag that we both liked. Success! Chris has never owned a purse for as long as I’ve known her, so maybe now I won’t have to lug everything around when we’re out together.

The next stop was Oom Samie Se Winkel, a touristy department store that sells everything you can imagine. Even though it is decidedly touristy and a bit crowded, it’s worth the stop. Among the treasures there are vinyl records, vintage South African wines from the 1960s and 1970s, and all sorts of unusual food items. We took it all in without buying anything, then headed back to the car for the short drive to the botanical gardens.

These were small, but worth a quick visit. Parking was R40, crazy expensive (just under $3), but the gardens were free so that worked out well enough. 

There was a really nice bonsai tree collection, including some impressive specimens dating back to the 1940s and 1950s. 

The rest of the garden was modest, but the grounds were pleasant and we enjoyed the stop. There was a nice-looking café on the grounds for lunch, but it was still only 11:00, so too early for that. 

So we hopped in the car and set course for the Cape Agulhas lighthouse, 3 hours away.

Traffic was slow around Somerset West, a beachside region to the south of Stellenbosch, but we made it through and soon we were climbing and twisting our way through Sir Lowry’s Pass. Beautiful scenery, but I had to keep one eye on the traffic, including large trucks, and the other eye on my speedometer. Not only were there speed cameras in place, but there were pairs of cameras that calculated the average speed of cars, and would ticket you if your average speed exceeded the limit! Serious business here!

Once through the pass, the area turned to farmland and the fields stretched out as far as we could see. After some more scrub hills, the area turned drier and more desolate as we continued eastward. However, we started getting hungry and decided that we’d try to find the winery that Glen had mentioned, so we could make a lunch stop.

 So we turned off the highway in the town of Caledon, and headed southward. The terrain was still dry and the mountains looked rugged.

We had serious doubts that anyone could grow grapes here, but as we approached the area where we thought the winery was located, we started seeing rows of vineyards and sure enough, we arrived at Creation Winery just after 12:30. 

It was a very nice building, beautiful grounds, and a gorgeous view of mountains and vines in all directions. 

Unfortunately, it was also mobbed with people – on a weekday, no less! Since we didn’t have a reservation, there was no table to be had. They gave us a few other suggestions and we headed further south.

As we passed winery after winery, we got discouraged (and hungrier) because many of the wineries’ restaurants were closed for the season. I guess that explains why Creation was mobbed. 

We kept on, looking for something promising, then realized that we had pretty much made it all the way to Hermanus. So we turned onto the coastal highway, and decided to see if we could check in early, drop off our luggage, and find lunch in Hermanus.

Our hotel was marked on my map, but when I drove by, we didn’t see any sign indicating that it was there. After the second loop around, I decided to pull into a shopping center nearby so that I could find our confirmation e-mail and re-read the instructions…and lo and behold, the hotel was actually in the shopping center! And yes, that’s what my e-mail had said, if I had bothered to read it…

We checked in and our room was ready, so we unloaded our bags, parked the car, and walked a few blocks to the Oceanside cliffs to see what looked good for lunch. We started out thinking that we’d try The Burgundy, which looked good in Chris’ book, but we ended up walking by the Marine Hermanus, a very fancy hotel with a nice restaurant that was also on Chris’ list of places to stay. However it was really expensive, and all-inclusive, and we had decided to stay elsewhere for less.

But we went in and got a lunch table on the back patio, with nice shade and a beautiful sea view.

Service was relaxed, so we had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (named “Southern Right,” after the whales we hoped to see tomorrow), and enjoyed our main dishes. 

I had fish and chips. Chris had a nicely seared piece of Kingklip, served over broccolini and lentils. Both were delicious and the wine went down very easily as well.

So, between the bottle of wine and the late lunch, we decided that we’d abandon the plan to go to Cape Agulhas today. Instead, we’d stay in town and see what we could find. 

We wandered the cliff walk, enjoying the surf crashing below. 

No whale sightings from the shore, yet. We looked for a while.

We headed to the other side of town to see what dinner offerings were possible. Here was a memorial to WWII soldiers.

And a Southern Right Whale. There was an opening on the side, but the door was securely closed. I guess you used to be able to go inside?

We have a boat tour booked tomorrow afternoon, hopefully to see whales up close, but rumor has it that this year has been a poor year for whale sightings. So we will have to keep our fingers and fins crossed for some good luck. We didn't see any from the shore, which you supposedly can do in good years. Let's hope!

The Burgundy was fully booked for dinner tonight, but they told us that if we came by early they might be able to seat us outside. Chris found a Tsonga store (they make sandals, and she has a pair that she loves) but their current offerings weren’t anything she liked so no purchases there.

Back to the hotel to pick up the car, but once I got within range of the hotel’s WiFi connection, I got a message from the boat tour company. Tomorrow’s afternoon boat ride had been changed to a morning ride! Good thing that text messages work over WiFi. This was actually a good change for us, because we could get back on the road to Cape Town earlier. The bad part is that we’d have to leave Hermanus at about 7:00 AM to ensure that we’re not late to the meeting point. So, no late night reveling for us!

Once we got that squared away, we drove over to a scenic viewpoint overlooking the town called Rotay Way (or Rotary; I saw both spellings). 

In the late afternoon golden sunshine, the view of the coast was really nice, and I’m really glad we didn’t miss it trying to drive to Cape Agulhas and back. This was much more relaxing!

The little hill on the left-hand picture above, is called Hoy's Koppie and it's just behind our hotel. Supposedly it's a nice lookout to watch the sun set, and to see whales. But our vantage point here is pretty spectacular as well.

From here, we backtracked to the other side of town and stopped off at Grotto Beach. We haven't been to Namibia, but a macro shot of the sand, with the low angle of the sun, made me think of sand dunes.

It was a beautiful setting, as the wet sand reflected the low sun and the wind kept it from being too hot. 

No swimming, but I did dip my feet in the water so I could say that I touched the southern part of the Indian Ocean.

We dropped the car off again and got ready for dinner. Unfortunately when we got to The Burgundy, they had already filled up so we went next door to a Tapas restaurant, where we had a nice outdoor meal. The view was more parking lot and less Oceanside, but it was still nice. 

As the sun set, a dense cloud poured down over the mountains, much like the “tablecloth” that’s seen at Table Mountain in the evening. 

It got cool with the breeze after the sun went down, but the food and wine kept us warm enough. 

We had a bottle of rosé, and shared three small plates: eggplant cooked with tomatoes and cheese, jumbo prawns...

And chorizo. We saved enough room for some chocolate brownie with ice cream, then paid our expensive bill of $29 – including the tip!

The walk back to the hotel was quick, though we stopped by a drugstore for some motion sickness tablets for tomorrow’s boat ride, since Chris had forgotten to bring hers along. 

It was supposed to be cloudy and there may be a few showers in the forecast, so it might be rough. Chris can be prone to motion sickness, and I didn’t want to chance it either. Even though I am not prone to motion sickness myself, if I’m around someone who feels queasy I will start to get uncomfortable out of sympathy! 

We didn’t see any motion sickness remedies on the shelves, so we talked to the druggist, who immediately sized up the situation. It was a funny conversation!

Me: “Good evening. Do you have any tablets for motion sickness?”

Her: “What time is your whale watching tour tomorrow?”

“Um…9AM…you must see a lot of us here!”

“Of course! And it was smart of you to come in now, the day before your tour. This will work much better if you take one dose tonight at bedtime, then another dose one hour before the boat launches. Have a great trip!”

With that accomplished, we went back to our hotel and sat out on the patio, sipping some more of our extra wine and planning our route tomorrow. The tour leaves out of Gansbaai, about an hour to the east of Hermanus. We need to end up back in Cape Town tomorrow night, which is about two hours to the west. Cape Agulhas is another hour east of Gansbaai, but we also want to make a stop at Stony Point Nature Reserve to see the African Penguins, and that is halfway back to Cape Town. Penguins, or the Southernmost point of Africa? 

So, we’ll try to leave here by 7:00, and see how long the boat ride lasts. Hopefully it will be done around 11:00, and we can get to Stony Point by early afternoon for lunch and penguins. That will put us back in Cape Town at a reasonable hour, to meet our companions for one last dinner together at Belthezar, a great restaurant on the Waterfront.

Try as we might, it looks like Cape Agulhas will not happen, but it will still be there for the next trip. With our plans all in place, we popped our seasickness pills and headed to bed.

Paarl and beyond

 Tuesday, October 25.

This morning we didn't have to be up early, because our rental car wouldn't be ready for pickup until 9:00. But of course, we were up early because I was excited (or nervous) about driving on the left side of the road. Though I've done it plenty of times, it's always a bit disconcerting. I'd been visualizing it for the past few days, and yesterday I sat in the passenger seat of Glen's van so that I could get the feel for being on the left side of the road. But until I actually sit in the driver's seat and do it, I'll worry.

It looked like another beautiful day shaping up, so we decided that we'd head out of town early and go to the Karoo National Botanical Gardens first, past Paarl..

Then we figured we'd make our way back, stopping along the way as we liked. In typical fashion, we had about a week's worth of possible stops mapped out, so we had plenty to choose from.

Breakfast was delicious as usual, and we chatted with the innkeeper to ask how we should get into town to pick up our rental car. He called Hertz and asked if they could pick us up at the Hotel, and they agreed. It helped that one of the other couples traveling with us were also renting, so with that, we finished breakfast and waited for our pickup.

The Hertz associate arrived a little after 9:00, driving our rental car. We drove back to town, filled out the paperwork, and off we went! Of course, my cell phone decided to act up when we tried to use it as a GPS, so we headed out of town, rebooted, and eventually got on the right track to the Botanical Gardens. 

The drive along the N1 highway was pleasant enough, as the road passed through the mountains by Paarl, then we went through the Huguenot Tunnel and out the other side of Dutoitskloof Pass. The road stayed in a valley of farmland, with mountains on either side. 

We arrived at our destination, the Karoo National Botanical Gardens, just in time for the most intense sun. No clouds, and quite warm today! So we paid the ridiculously cheap R22 entry fee (that's about $1.50 each) and headed in.

After driving partway through, we stopped at a trail, slathered on the sunblock, and headed out.

The trail wound up a slope, through shale outcroppings, and the view was quite nice. 

The plants were pretty cool as well, and there were signs along the way explaining the geology and biology of what we were seeing here.

Of course, they waited until we were halfway through the loop to mention the snakes and scorpions that could be found in the park! We kept a close eye out after that… Luckily, none of them were to be found!

Just this tree, which looks dead, but is just conserving water. Or so they said. We have some houseplants which look like that.

Back to our car, then another walking loop through the more manicured gardens, before heading out. The plants were not as lush as other gardens in South Africa, because this is a desert exhibit, but we overall enjoyed the stop, and it was very cheap. It was an interesting stop but not one that I'd recommend if your time is limited. Luckily, there were other places to visit nearby in Paarl, so this wasn't a big drive for limited results.

We headed back to the N1, and this time we figured that we'd skip the tunnel in favor of the scenic route, old R101, which is the original road through (over) Dutoitskloof Pass. What a fun drive that was! Hills, lots of curves, some hairpin turns, tractor trailer trucks to pass...all while driving on the left side of the road! 

Scenic View over Paarl, from R101 over Dutoitskloof Pass

There are scenic lookouts with gorgeous views as you get to the Paarl side of the pass, but if you linger too long, the tractor trailer will catch up with you, and you have to pass them again. 

Here I am checking to make sure my heart is still beating. The views were incredible, but the driving was quite the feat!

After the lookouts, there were some steep downhill stretches until we met back up with the N1 just east of Paarl.

Only a mile or two on the highway, and we exited to head to Laborie Wine Farm for (hopefully) some lunch! Just another beautiful spot in South African Wine Country.

On second thought, let's go wine tasting instead! 

I made a beeline for the wine tasting room. Chris didn't appreciate the photobomb. But I deserved it, after driving on those roads!

We settled in for wine tasting first, and had a beautiful view from their back patio of vineyards going on seemingly forever, with mountains as a backdrop. 

They were a little bit slow but we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. 

Nice wine, some water for rehydrating, and a gorgeous view of vines and mountains. I could get used to this! But eventually we got hungry so it was time to wrap up.

We didn't buy any wine because we were already at a dozen bottles, but when we went in to pay the tasting fee, we saw that they were selling the 6-bottle carriers for an outright steal, at R110 each ($8)! We purchased two, and that made us feel much better about the dozen bottles that we had back in our hotel room. We can check three bags each on the trip home, if need be, so it will only cost $16 to ship a case of wine home from South Africa. Can't beat that price!

We walked over to their restaurant, which was so empty that we were worried that it was closed, but they were happy to see us and we settled in for some very nice food. 

Entrées (appetizers, here) were grilled asparagus with Hollandaise sauce AND an egg on top, and tempura battered shrimp which was a huge portion. 

We both had fish for the main course; I had a piece of crusted tuna loin seared perfectly rare over a salad, and Chris had a piece of Kingclip pan-seared with a creamy sauce over gratinated potatoes. 

We had some of their sparkling wines with our meal, which were quite nice. Unfortunately, we were too full for dessert and had to move on before we got too heavy to move!

Our next stop was nearby at the Afrikaans Language monument, up on a hillside at the edge of the Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve. This was way cooler and more complex than I had imagined. 

The monument is made up of pillars of varying heights, arranged in a curved fashion so it's very aesthetically pleasing.

The local flora and fauna are cool too. The lizard on the right was chasing the female on the left. We didn't stick around to see if he succeeded.

You can walk around and under parts of the monument, where there is a fountain and flowing water. It was refreshing under the stone, with the mist, on such a hot day.

The views (of course) from the area are beautiful, and it's also very cheap at R25 per person (less than $2). An interesting stop.

We liked the "Silver Tree" that was planted there.

We started back for home and stopped by Hillcrest Berry Farm, which we'd visited last time and enjoyed. Our plan tonight was to buy some bread and cheese, and stay at the hotel for a light dinner with our group. We'd all been eating like crazy for the past 2 plus weeks and needed to take a break! So we picked up some baguettes, a few pieces of cheese, and some assorted items to take home. Interestingly, there were no vanilla beans to be found here either; last time, we'd stocked up for less than a dollar per pod. Guess the Madagascar crop failure had long-distance ramifications!

We finished at the berry farm by 4:30, and decided that it was just too early to head home. So we turned back towards Franschhoek and stopped by the Huguenot Memorial. 

We'd just missed it, as it closed at 5:00, but we got some nice views from the edge of the park and saved a few Rand. 

We decided that we still had time and energy for one last stop, so we drove a few miles out of town to the Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve, which is set at a mountain pass on the east side of town. We decided to take a quick hike for the views.

It was a short hike, only about 3/4 of a mile to the viewpoint, but a 600 foot climb. We were hurrying to finish, so that we wouldn't get home too late. The views were incredible, like so many other beautiful vistas here.

Looking eastward, through the mountain pass, the vista was gorgeous and the lighting was good. 

The Franschhoek valley was backlit from the sun setting in the west, right where we wanted to take pictures, but the view was still pretty nice.

We eventually decided to get a move on back to the car, before it got too dark. It's tricky to judge light/dark times when you're in the mountains.

Back to the car, we set out for home, and arrived around 6:45. We added our contributions to the group's snack offerings, and popped the cork on the first of many bottles of wine that were opened that night. We had a nice table out on the patio of the Wild Mushroom, and we spent a few hours reminiscing about the incredible adventures we'd shared over the past weeks.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and it was time to say goodbye to two of our group tonight. They couldn't stay any longer, because they had to get back to work by the end of this week. So we said our goodbyes, and thought to ourselves that it was almost time for us to leave as well. Luckily, we have three more days and two more nights, before it's our turn to leave for home!