Coffee Bay to Cape Town

Posted by admin on Feb 3, 2010 in Africa | 2 comments

**Tim and I have shared the keyboard for this post so some bits are from each of us – you can guess which!**

After travelling via Durban and St Lucia (not much to say about either), we arrived in Coffee Bay.  Ironic only in as much as we’ve only been able to get our hands on instant coffee (no real bean stuff) for the past 50 odd days and could murder a good cappuccino!

We stayed in a room potentially previously inhabited by a wayward crack whore but other than that, have enjoyed a beautiful beach, sunshine and relaxing with a braii and as many as 8 of the camps stray dogs lounging around us!  The local site is the ‘Hole in the Wall’ – not an ATM, but an imaginatively named…hole in the sea wall.  It’s in a huge slab of rock about 50 feet out to sea and the waves crash through it, which is absolutely beautiful.  Tim thought it hilarious that I compared it favourably with Borth y Gest in Wales (one for the Smith’s!)

After that we arrived in Hogsback which would have been beautiful had it not been the torrential rain which lasted a full 36 hours. Luckily the campsite had a Lapa ( a wooden cabin with a log fire, bar, tables etc. and a xmas tree!) so we spent alot of time in there trying to dry off as the tent was flooded and we even slept in the Lapa on the 2nd night.  However we did manage to get out for a few hours and went on a beautiful walk down the valley to see some of the waterfalls which despite the mist were beautiful.  Tolkien apparently came here as a kid and a mountain nearby is called Hobbiton and most of the places in the village now have Tolkien-esque names such as Rivendell Camping, The One Ring Craft etc.

Tsitsikamma National Park is by the storms river and its highest bungy jump in the world, don’t worry we didn’t do it!  It was an area we hadnt been looking forward to compared to Kruger or Okavango but it turned out to be spectacular.  It’s a large park but we went to its most stunning part on the coast line where you can do part of the famous Otter Trail.  We walked along the coast scrambling over rocks until we came to a waterfall which forms a natural pool a few metres above and across from the waves breaking on the rocks.

Stellenbosch a few days later was great fun as we stopped at the Spier wine estate for a tasting, Bekki had been looking forward to this for some time! The wines were lovely – Tim didn’t think so and so gave me most of his after screwing up his nose as if he’d been ask to swill vinegar around his mouth!  We learned to smell and taste them properly – the real difference between a chardonnay and a chenin blanc, how to use a wine thief and what difference barrels make – I loved it!  After our tasting we went to the deli, where you can fill up a wicker picnic basket with fresh bread, cheeses, nuts, preserves, meats etc etc and go to sit out by the lake and enjoy (obviously with a bottle of wine) and bought a huge piece of carrot cake and one of cheesecake and sat in the sun with the ducks and darters and indulged!

Sorry for condensing the last 2 weeks into one post but we didn’t manage to get access to the internet at the time, we are now in Cape Town and absolutely loving it and we will give you a full update on our weeks adventure and Cape Town itself when we get back in a few days!

Love you all!!

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