Part 2

The second part of our stay started off very crappy with the death of my auntie Doreen, who recently moved form the Isle of Wight to be nearer my nana and mum, it was very difficult decision not to fly home to be nearer the family but my nana is the decision maker and she gave me a definite telling not to fly home for the funeral as we can pay our respects when we get home.

After 2 weeks in Pretoria we decided to go down to Cape Town, again my mum was said we could take her car. We drove down from Pretoria to the Northern Drakensberg to see the Golden Gate National Park that we missed on our Natal trip, on the way we saw a little sausage dog running along the highway in the middle of nowhere, so obviously Christina made me pullover risking our own lives to rescue the flipping dog. As soon as we stopped she jumped out calling him over and he went straight to the car and under it, we thought he was going to make a run for it but he had made himself very comfy on the passenger seat! We debated what to do as there was nothing near us no towns for at least an hour and only 1 farm in sight, there where a couple of weirdo's selling stuff so we asked them if they recognised the dog, they didn't, so we made our way down the longest road to the farm. It was basically a working garage and a house, I spoke with a guy there and he did not know who it belonged to either but said he would look after it and hope the owner would look there. (fingers crossed they did not eat him)
We drove through the park again finding lots of bucks and antelope, we had some lunch on a hill overlooking a small dam. From the park we drove down south to try and get to my uncle and aunts house in Plettenberg Bay as they kindly said we can stay there for a week.
On the way down after about 6 hours driving we found loads of roadworks and that made our trip very slow. It was already about 9pm and luckily we were next to one of South Africa's biggest fresh water lakes and there are camp grounds there, so we took a chance and had a look if the national park there was still open. Unfortunately for us they close around 6pm but luckily there was a private camp site at the lake with very nice camp grounds. We managed to book in and get camp set up with a Braai of course. The next morning we set out on our way to Plet. About half way there ie another 4 hours or so we got a call from my mum saying that if its ok with us that we start our trip in Cape Town as there was a death of a friend of my uncle and aunt and some of there friends might need to stay there for a couple of days. We said no problem and drove straight on to Cape Town via some scenic routes.
I have 3 cousins in the Cape and they all said we can stay with them. As we were going to meet my cousin Reder in Plet we just drove to his house and we were able to sleep on his pullout couch in the living room. My other cousin Jaco and his wife Marietjie recently had a little baby girl and we did not want to bother them and my other cousin Lizelle and her partner Ray have his children over at the weekends. But when we all met up they all insisted we stay with them. So the first 4 days we stayed with Reder then 2 days with Lizelle and then back to Reders for 2 days and then to Jaco's for 2 days. It was really great to see all the family and spend time with them. While in Cape Town we visited the waterfront with all its restaurants, shops and boat cruises with a beautiful view of Table mountain.
One night we all went to a German beer festival. Very nice. The other days we drove around Cape Point to go see where the oceans meet at. We went to go see the Jackass penguins twice during the week. Christina really really likes them. We went to go wine tasting in Franshoek, Stellenbosh and Paarl. Some times we had to pay for the wine and sometimes not. We were also told to spit the wine out but that did not happen. Normally you get 5 glasses of wine to taste from and sometimes even Brandy or whisky. At the end of the that day we stopped of at a very nice Italian restaurant in Franshoek. It's a really beautiful area, next time we visit we'll have to spend more time here.
We wanted to go up table mountain again but as it was a tourist season the queue's were way to long so we decided to go to another part of the mountain called Lions head, its just to the side of Table Mountain and Camps bay. You could really get a great view of Cape Town.
Most morning we went to get a very cheap but filling breakfast at a place Reder recommended called Sofias on Camps bay practically on the beach. Cape Town is an amazing place and very European. It is a must city to visit for anyone.
The last 2 days we stayed at my cousin Jako and Marjietjies place. The have a house very close to Cape Point with an amazing view on the ocean. (and prone to baboon ransacking!) It was nice to go for a morning walk on the beach and Christina asked if we can take there dog Clueso a basset hound for a walk. It was a beautiful day and afterwards we all went for some breakfast on a little farm.
The 3rd day early in the morning we packed up and set out for Plettenberg bay. If you have a good drive you can do it in 6 hours. By the end of the day we were half way and when I told my cousins we where only in Hermanus about 200km from Cape Town they could not believe it has taken us the whole day to drive there. Well, we are on holiday and did spend the whole afternoon at Hermanus looking at the whales and having some lunch. (Funny when Christina got stuck on a cliff path trapped between 2 dassies who she thought wanted to bite her) We were almost half way so we decided to camp at the most southern point in Africa, Cape Agules. It was a very nice quite camp site on the beach. We had a great Braai and then went for a walk on the beach.
The next morning we set out for our last destination of our cape trip, the house in Plettenburg bay on the East Cape. We got there about 5pmish and finally found the house after a call to my cousin. When we opened the door a alarm will go of in 20 seconds if you don't put a code in or if you put the wrong code in. I tried to deactivate the alarm about 5 times with the code my cousin gave me and by this time a very big armed security guard showed up as I was phoning my cousin to get the correct code. I explained to the guard what had happened and he asked some questions and luckily that was that. I also had the correct pin by then! Hooray!
Plettenberg Bay is a really nice quiet chilled out area, we spent most of our time walking on the lagoon in front of the house, sitting in the garden with a glass of red (and braai) and catching up with movies on tv. But we also went out a little, we visited, knysna which is more of a rich area with a private island full of houses covered in cctv! But it is nice with a beautiful lake and countryside.
We drove to the cango caves, but didn't go in cos we're a bit tight now and also cos it looked very busy! But again the scenic route is just amazing. We also saw the worlds highest bungee jump site – crazy people!
After being so very careful with my mums car, we noticed a crack in the car front windscreen the one morning and the crack was bigger the next morning. Don't really know were the crack came from. Not happy. After our week in Plet we made the trip back to Pretoria for the final family visit and the flight back to London and then on to new York.