South Africa
30sep-12 Oct

South Africa represented a departure from our normal travel style through Africa. We stayed in fab accommodation, ate at fancy restaurants, drank our body weight in red wine and we spent time alone and not in a group.
We arrived in Stellenbosch staying at the Stumble Inn and ate at Ernie Els restaurant in the private dining room. The food, service and decor were fab. The next day we headed out on a wine tour with Brad, Michal, Alicia and Ed and got rather drunk, starting quaffing the stuff at 11am and not stopping until 10pm after finishing the tour, drinking more red back at the hostel and then heading to the pub.
The next morning with a slight hangover we left our truck mates and caught the train to Cape Town. The train was covered in rather interesting stickers, advertising that Dr Steve, Dr Pete or Dr Tim could help find lost lovers, could supply love sticks, could help you win the lotto, you name it; for a small fee and a telephone call, these Drs could do everything for you.
We arrived at our apartment in Camps Bay and immediately a smile hit our faces. A gorgeous apartment with private garden and sea views in that affluent area of Camps Bay was ours for five nights. Tony was even happier when we found out the TV had all the sports channels so he could watch the rugby. It also had several movie channels and we enjoying relaxing as though we were at home in an evening, cooking nice food and relaxing on the couch with a bottle of wine and movie.
We visited Robben Island, spent time at the V&A waterfront, climbed Lions Head for fab views of Table Mountain, toured the shops on Long St, explored Bo Kaap, visited the District 6 museum, walked along the beach, enjoyed sundowners and ate amazing sea food at Camps Bay, drove along the coast to see the Penguins at Boulders Beach and generally had an amazing few days.
We hired a car and drove to Hermanus, stopping at Stony Point in Betty's Bay to see another colony of African penguins. I loved them. I'm not sure Tony understood why I wanted to see more given he wasn't that impressed when he'd seen them a few years ago and still wasn't overly enamoured revisiting them at Boulders Beach.
The reason we'd visited Hermanus- whale watching. Between July and October the Southern Right whales migrate here to have their calves due to the sandy shallow waters. We weren't disappointed, spotting them out at sea almost as soon as we looked. Not only that but they frequently breached, jumping clear out of the water before splashing back down.
We decided to also take a boat trip out to sea to see if we could get closer to them. The sea was rough, the swell more than 3m high, making it difficult to stand up and take photos. We did however get close to several whales, one of them repeatedly lifting its tail out of the water and banging it down on the water. It is thought they do this to get parasites from their skin.
We also saw a pod of about 30 dolphins jumping at the side of the boat and we were able to sail along next to them for a minute or so. This was amazing as I've never seen Dolphins before even though I've been in several locations where they are often sighted.
We also ate amazing seafood here and one night at the restaurant got talking to a couple who lived in Horsforth. Small world.
After two nights we drove back to the winelands, this time staying in Franschhoek. We arrived at 10am and headed straight out on our private wine tour, as we wanted to visit Camberley, the vineyard where the gorgeous wine we had drunk the night before the wedding came from, purchased by Tony on a previous trip. By the end of the day we were feeling rather tipsy, well, actually we were feeling quite tipsy after leaving Camberley, the first vineyard! We headed to an Italian restaurant and en route bumped into Abi and Matt, the couple from Horsforth so they too joined us for dinner.
Feeling quite drunk we headed back to our hotel.... And found we couldn't get in. We tried every door of the hotel, phoned the contact number, no answer. Phoned the out of hours number written on the gate, no answer. We could hear it ringing in the house. After half an hour we had to knock on one of the other guests external door. He very kindly let us through his bedroom, his wife hiding in the bathroom. Embarrassing for us and them. I actually wondered whether we were so drunk we couldn't work the key properly. It turns out they'd given us a faulty key. Unfortunately though we didn't get any discount.
The next day we couldn't face too much alcohol but did decide to walk a couple of miles out of town to a vineyard which had a fabulous restaurant which we had visited on our wine tour from Stellenbosch. We trekked up hill, arriving to find it was closed for a wedding. Maybe we should have checked the website before heading out.
We spent the afternoon strolling thestreets, eating lunch and having a juice to try some element of detox! After an evening watching the rugby we went to a beautiful restaurant- Le French Connection, highly recommended by the locals we'd met in the pub.
Feeling far more sprightly the next morning we headed out for our lunch reservation at Petit Ferme, up the hill on the Franschhoek pass. It's recognised by many magazines such as Conde Nast, Wine Magazine and the Guardian as one of the best places for lunch, with its amazing views over the vineyards and out to the hills. We were not disappointed. For £50 we had 2 starters, 2 mains, dessert, cheeseboard and one and a half bottles of wine in an absolutely beautiful setting. Bargain. The strong pound definitely helped us in South Africa.

We were sad to leave Africa. It's been an absolutely amazing and diverse continent to travel and traveling overland really allowed us to see the scenery and meet the people. I don't think it will be the last time we visit.
Next stop. Nepal and our Everest base camp trek.