South Africa

South Africa

At the beginning of November, six of us spent some time exploring the Cape Town area…

Where can I begin! South Africa must be one of the most beautiful countries in the world with Mediterranean climate and stunning coasts, breathtaking mountains and wonderful seafood and wine!

Highlights for me included climbing Table mountain to be rewarded by amazing views of the coast in almost all directions, visiting Robben Island for a moving tour by an ex-prisoner, tucking into a mammoth platter of tender seafood that would put Iceland out of a job! Also sharing a birthday with Alison in the Southern most point in Africa and my best ever cake and candles from Helen! and being sea rescued from a canoe with Waldy!! Not forgetting my visit to a gardening project in a squatter settlement, chilling out at hot springs and star gazing on Galina's farm, wow! .........

Awards go to Helen for being an excellent tour guide and source of chocolate! To Alison for taking even more photos than myself, to Dave for excellent accounting and food tasting and to Waldy for helping me to slow down.

Book your holiday with Leech travel early to avoid disappointment!

Roz

Table Mountain

At 1086m (3563ft) Table Mountain is the same height as Snowdon (within a few inches), but there the comparison ends. Imagine a mountain the size of Snowdon on the Cornish coast, surrounded by a city larger than Birmingham. Sheer cliffs rise out of the city to a flat table-top, flanked by the pinnacles of Lion's Head and Devil's Peak. A flat ridge runs almost two miles from the cable car station in the west to Maclear's Beacon, the highest point, at the eastern end. This gives the table-top appearance from the north, but to the south the mountain is much more complex, with ravines, rivers, waterfalls, rocky crags, reservoirs, forests and the unique fynbos vegetation. The views are amazing in all directions. To the north over the centre of Cape Town, the Waterfront and docks, over Table Bay to the former prison on Robben Island and the white strip of Bloubergstrand beach beyond. A mountain ridge leads south along the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point in the distance. To the east, the far-away Hottentots-Holland mountains can be seen across the huge blue expanse of False Bay.

First of all Helen and I climbed above Kirstenbosh Botanic Gardens up Skeleton Gorge. Known as Smut's Path, apparently General Smuts used to climb that route every day to have his breakfast at the top, even when he was in his eighties. All I can say is he must have been fitter than us! It was rather cloudy at the top and a bit spooky - like the Land that Time Forgot. After some confusion in the mist, we got to Maclear's Beacon and got tantalising views between the passing clouds. Due to our slow progress it was late in the day, so we headed for the cable car to get a ride down. We saw no one as we marched through the fog, and began to doubt that the cable car was running. But eventually a party of Japanese tourists loomed out of the mist, listening intently to their guide describing the invisible view. So we knew the cable car (and restaurant!) was not far.

We went back up there with the others by cable car a few days later in clear weather, and the views were amazing. We stayed to watch the sun set behind a blanket of cloud that was rolling in over the sea way beneath us, with the lights of the city twinkling all around. Unforgettable.

Dave

Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe

In the 1980s when South Africa was replacing the last of its steam trains, one line was kept as a heritage steam railway. The line is from George to Knysna, through some of the finest scenery of the Garden Route of the Western Cape, and the most expensive line built in South Africa. The Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe runs along the coast, over the spectacular Kaaiman's River Bridge (claimed to be the most-photographed railway bridge in the world). It passes a series of lakes, climbs steeply through the Outeniqua hills and descends to cross a mile-long causeway over the lagoon to Knysna. A wonderful way to see some stunning scenery.

Dave

Whales!

One of the reasons I wanted to go to South Africa in the spring was to see the whales. In September and October they move in to the sheltered bays to calve, before carrying on to the feeding grounds of the Antarctic. But we were going in November, and I thought maybe we’d be a bit too late.

On our first day in Fish Hoek, in a house on the bay, our landlady told us that the whales had been there only the previous week. "They kept us awake," said her husband. "They were blowing under our windows all night." That was quite encouraging.

But where were they? We spent the first few days with our binoculars trained on the bay. We got a bit blasé about the seals somersaulting just off the rocks, and the full moon at night meant that we could see plenty of activity in the water – but it was always shoals of fish (or kayakers, or the old-age pensioners who flocked into the water in droves, swimming athletically out to the buoys marking the deeper water).

I gave up looking. Then we were out one sunny day near Simonstown, and saw the tell-tale signs of whale activity: a row of cars and buses parked along the edge of the road. We stopped, and there the whales were.

There was a pod of three about ¼ mile away: probably two females and a calf. We couldn’t see much without binoculars. But when we looked out there was a whale breaching in the centre of the bay: launching itself almost completely out of the water and falling back in with an enormous splash. By the time we’d parked, he’d moved much closer in, until he was about a hundred yards off the rocks. He was so close that we could see every detail.

He seemed to be rolling around on the sand, perhaps rubbing himself against the rocks to get rid of parasites. He’d lift his head out, and we’d get a glimpse of his enormous mouth. If he was human, his mouth would wrap halfway round right at the top of his head, so that there’d be a thin strip of scalp with his mouth directly underneath, with his eyes at the corner of his mouth. His "chin" is huge, a pleated bag which expands a hundred fold when he takes in his food – a few tons of water laden with plankton and small fish. He had the typical markings of the Southern Right whale: unsightly white encrustations round his head. He was about sixty feet long, and every so often he’d raise his fluke out of the water to give us a look.

He moved slowly back to the centre of the bay, and we moved a hundred yards up the road to a Dutch–Indonesian restaurant with a splendid view where we ate seafood and nasi goreng and watched the pod lazing around in the water.

We last saw them a couple of days later, slowly moving south down the Cape Peninsula. In a couple of months they’ll be browsing under icebergs and gorging on plankton soup. But they’ll be back next spring.

Helen

See more pictures of our trip