Headed to South Africa for a couple of weeks we set off from Otjiwarongo bright and early. It was still cold and the car windows were steamed so Julia put on the heater. After a few seconds we saw a line spread horizontally from the windscreen crack we suffered in Damaraland like liquid. It didn’t obscure the driver’s vision so, not wanting to delay our trip, we continued with the heater off. A solid day of driving took us to the town of Springbok in South Africa. The difference between Namibia and it’s southern neighbour was quite dramatic. The flat, dry landscape and heat of southern Namibia changed to rolling green mountains and cold in the Northern Cape. As we only made an overnight stop in Springbok we can’t say much more about it other than it was freezing.
 |
| Southern Namibia |
A further half day of driving and we reached Cape Town. Table Mountain looked awesome, a mountain in the middle of a city. We met our friend Owen at our backpackers and spent our first evening in Cape Town exploring it’s bars. Owen had flown out from the UK to celebrate his 30th birthday with us.
The next day we visited Robben Island, which as well as being a psychiatric hospital and leper colony in it’s time, was the home to Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years in prison. We had both recently read Mandela’s ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ which added context and power to our visit to this world heritage site. The highlight of the day was being guided through the cells by a former political prisoner who was imprisoned on Robben Island for more than 10 years. That evening we met up with a friend from the Namib Desert Challenge for a few drinks, which was followed by more drinks at an Irish bar.
 |
| Our Robben Island guide - a former political prisoner who spent 10 years on the island |
Before we left Cape Town we drove to Boulder’s Bay via Chapman’s Peak Drive to see a penguin colony. I never knew there were penguins in Africa but this was one of half a dozen colonies on the Western Cape and Namibian coasts. Chapman’s Peak Drive was extremely scenic and the kind of road that would feature in Top Gear. Owen was due to paraglide today, a birthday present from his girlfriend Hayley, but unfortunately the thermals weren’t doing what they needed to be doing. It was time to find alternative adrenaline activities.
 |
| Boulders Bay |
 |
| Chapman's Peak Drive |
Off the coast of the Western Cape you can see dolphins, seals and at the right time of year whales coming in to breed. It is also home to Great White Sharks. We boarded our boat at Gansbaai, listened to our briefing and got into our wetsuits. A man spilled chum into the sea to entice the sharks and when a couple arrived we got into the water. A cage attached to the side of the boat was semi-submerged and we were lined up with heads above the water. On a man’s shout of ‘down’ we held a deep breath and ducked under to see the sharks swim past, feed on a tuna which was being thrown out by our guide, or attack the cage bars right in front of Julia. It was an amazing experience.
For Owen’s birthday we opted for a refined day’s wine tasting. We visited 4 very plush wineries in Stellenbosch, Franshoek and Paarl and in all sampled more than 25 wines. We also finished with some cheese tasting. Solme Delta and Fairview were favourites and we took away some bottles to enjoy during the rest of our trip. It was a very, very good day. Over a glass of South African sparkling wine I asked Owen to be my Best Man. By the evening we were already discussing stag weekend plans.
 |
| Stellenbosch |
From Stellenbosch we went back to the coast and to Cape Agulas, the southern most tip of the African continent, and from there towards Mossel Bay and the start of the garden route. Our first stop on the route was Wilderness National Park. We camped by the river and cooked Owen his first braai of game meat, roasted pumpkin with cinnamon and sugar and braai bread. We had already introduced him to other South African traditions including biltong, bobotie and Springboks (an amarula and mint liquor shooter… tastes like an after eight mint!). The following morning we went for a forest hike up to some waterfalls and then headed to Knysna. We had another braai and I made some more braai bread to enjoy with a very good sparkling Shiraz and some cheese that we picked up in Stellenbosch. In July we are coming back to Knysna for the champagne and oyster festival where I am doing the Knysna forest marathon so I took the opportunity to get in a long training run while we were there. Julia took Owen on a township tour and we met for lunch overlooking the Knysna Heads before continuing along the coast to Plettenberg Bay. Our stay in Plett was short as we had Addo Elephant National Park in our sights. However we still managed to enjoy a pint of the locally brewed Mitchells, a great meal, and a game of cards by a log fire. We also visited Monkeyland, a 12 000 hectare sanctuary for previously caged pet and zoo primates.
 |
| Cape Agulas - Africa's southern most point |
 |
| Ring tailed lemur at Monkeyland |
Into the Eastern Cape we stopped at Jefferies Bay for lunch and picked up a huge Cape Salmon for that evenings braai. Jefferies Bay is a renowned surfing hot spot but unfortunately the swell was poor that day so we stayed to the beach. We arrived at Addo at sunset and immediately found our first elephant at the camp waterhole. The following day we were up before sunrise for a days game drive. We were very lucky and as well as lots of elephants we saw a rhino, Burchills zebra and Cape buffalo. The buffalo is the most dangerous of the African big five, more so than the rhino or lion. This is because when it senses threat it circles behind it’s perceived attacker to counter-attack. Driving was a test not only because of the elephants crossing the road but because driving over elephant dung is not allowed. The dung provides the habitat for the flightless dung beetle which is protected by the park.
 |
| A charging Cape Buffalo! |
 |
| Dumbo and his family |
We decided to return to Cape Town via route 62, the longest wine route in the world. The eastern half of the route was lined with orange groves and it wasn’t until we passed Oudtshoorn that we began driving past vineyards. Oudtshoorn is ostrich farming country. Unfortunately ostrich riding was not possible due to the rain. I didn’t know ostrich riding was a fair weather activity. We did enjoy excellent ostrich steak though. Here we visited the Cango Caves which were formed millions of years ago. The stalagmites, stalactites and other column structures were amazing.
Further along route 62 we stopped at Robertson for more wine tasting and purchases at Roodevandt and Robertson wineries. Robertson is a lovely, quaint town surrounded by vineyards.
As we reached Cape Town the weather was clear with blue sky over Table Mountain and no sign of the famous table cloth cloud so we headed to the cable car station. The views of Cape Town and Robben Island were awesome. After lunch on the V&A Waterfront we took Owen to the airport for a sad farewell. See you in a year… and let me know if you have anymore stag weekend thoughts!
 |
| Cape Town and Robben Island from the top of Table Mountain |
That afternoon Julia and I headed to Century City, the biggest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere, for some retail therapy and a new tent. Our tent had become a casualty of the trip. Driving through Cape Town we noticed advertising for the Good Food and Wine Show. The next day we went to the show, tasted lots of good food, more wine (our total must now have been over 50 different wines in 2 weeks) and Julia got to see celebrity chef James Martin - very exciting apparently.
 |
| James Martin at the Good Food and Wine Show |
On a recommendation we spent a couple of nights at Beaverlac camp in Namaqualand on our return to Namibia. To get there we had to take very wet gravel roads before going over a steep mountain pass and down a rocky track, all more difficult in the dark. The camp was very rustic and secluded with great nearby walks past orange groves to pools and the Olifants River. No wonder Lonely Planet describe it as one of the best camps in South Africa. On our second night we were the only ones there.
 |
| Orange grove in Beaverlac, Citrudal |
We returned to a much drier Namibia than the one we left. There had obviously been no rain and we were surprised how fast the landscape had changed from green to yellow.
