South Africa - the Coast.

After a lovely couple of days in Joburg, seeing family, and catching up on everything we headed off for the next leg of our travels. The South African coastline!!

An early start on the 9th (April) took us to Kimberley, with a tour of the "Big Hole" historic diamond mine. In the middle of nowhere this was a very interesting pit stop. Luckily for Sean I already have my big sparkly otherwise the pressure would have been on! This place has a fascinating history, just perfect for an hour's stop en route, not to mention the biltong factory where we revelled in the cheap prices of great biltong in SA. We travelled on spending the night at Beaufort West in the Karoo, in a lovely old farmhouse style hotel. The following day we took a leisurely drive to Cape Town, interrupted pleasantly with a stop at one of the wonderful farm stalls and a wee wine tour, sampling and then buying at 3 wine farms in Stellenbosch (Backsberg, Uitkyk & Kanonkop). Somewhat heavier and with big smiles, we carried on to Camps Bay (same area where we spent our honeymoon).

Our stay in Cape Town was a social couple of days, spending time catching up with Mike Dabrowski (& housemates) on the day we arrived; an extravagant romantic dinner at Haute Cabriere the following day (chocolate spring rolls for pudding - who would have thought it?) creating a love for their pinot noir!; catching up with Kat Humphrey (spending a year in SA working for Jubilee church); meeting Dave Warren and his girlfriend Julia over calamari at Chapman's Peak Hotel in Hout Bay, and more braais with Mike! Sadly time flew bye and our few days in our wonderful apartment in Camps Bay were over! Seriously, if anyone is going to stay in Camps Bay or Clifton think of using Nox Rentals for accommodation - awesome!

A short drive up the coast took us to Rooi Els where we stayed at the Davis' holiday house. One can't ask for more from a view with the sea stretched out in front and the mountains looming behind - it is a little oasis. The day we arrived we made the most of the wine we had bought and chilled out - playing a little trivial pursuit. I now understand how tricky it is to play this in your non-home country when the questions are country specific! The following day while taking a drive to the next bay to go to the shop we stumbled on a great detour - a penguin sanctuary! The Stony Point sanctuary has masses of penguins, and contrary to my prior opinion they are not just stinky fish, they are actually quite lovely little creatures. An afternoon in the sun found us splashing & swimming in the waves of the Atlantic (brrr), having huge fun trying to take on the big waves. More trivial pursuit and wine and all to soon it was the next day and time to leave.

The 16th of April was a long driving day. We initially drove down to Cape Agulhas, the Southernmost point of Africa, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet with the crashing waves and wonderful rocks producing spectacular sprays. We carried on through the fynbos covered landscape to verdant forest on the way to Knysna, where we stopped and Sean marvelled at the change since he was last there. We carried on to our destination which was the Beacon Isle Hotel in Plettenberg Bay, where we based ourselves for the next couple of days. Arriving here we were again marveling, but this time at how the floods had just washed away the beach and half of the adjacent car park into the sea at Lookout beach. The Beacon Isle Hotel is just stunning, perched on a rocky outcrop you feel as if you are in the sea - in fact the bar lounge is perched out to sea in some ways and the waves crash right up against it which is fantastic! It also provides amazing views up and down the coast line and the wonderful beaches. The highlights of our time here were spending time on the beach, fighting the waves in the sea, Sean fine-tuning his bodysurfing and exploring Plett a little more. We took in a sunset at Hakerville (brings back memories for Sean of years gone by watching the sun set with mates) and a visit to the Oyster company in Knysna for a seafood platter of note! The next day saw us walking Robberg point, a nature reserve based on a massive outcrop that you can walk around. It took us 4hrs or so with lots of stops to look at the seals, of which there were hundreds (more smelly than penguins by far and they don't stop jabbering), the desert like dunes, the sea crashing against the rocks and mainly for me to catch up thanks to the hectic rocks where I got a bit scared of heights! We (to my relief) finished Robberg, had lunch at the Lookout restaurant in the bay and set off for St Francis.

We arrived in St Francis, to the Smuts family holiday house, arriving to the task of cleaning up after a bird that had got into the beautiful apartment and left its mark everywhere as it struggled to get out of the flat. We spent a lovely couple of days in St Francis, including going to Port Elizabeth to do some shopping for the flat (under the guise of buying games and dvd's for us to play and watch while there), spending time on the beach, swimming in the sea and taking on the waves (only a 100m walk over the dunes from the flat which is really great) and braais virtually every night to take advantage of the wonderful meat in South Africa. We also visited the nearby harbour and watched the fish being offloaded and packaged. South Africa's load shedding means at times electricity is cut off in regions across the country - so some of the board games and dinners were done by candlelight, such a romantic country…….

The 22nd was a drive through the road works (every major road has had road works during our trip, preparation for 2010 Soccer World Cup perhaps) to Sean's Uncle's farm near Graff Reinett in the middle of the Small Karoo. Arriving in time for a lovely lunch of roast lamb fresh from the farm we then headed off for an afternoon drive though the farm looking at the animals (springbok, sheep, angora goats (produce mohair) and cattle beasts) and the imported animals on the adjacent farm (Wildebeest, Zebra, Gemsbok, Hartebeest etc). It was great fun, standing in the back of the bakkie, sun on our backs, wind in our faces and taking in the stunning surroundings as the bouncy springbokkies ran and "pronked" around. The 23rd gave us a true insight as to the amount of roadwork, taking over 10hrs to get from Graff Reinett back to Joburg. Let's hope these roads are pretty special once they are done!!

Overall, we had a great fortnight with the weather for the most part being beautifully warm for autumn (certainly no comparison with a UK autumn). I am starting to feel the pinch of cold now we are back in Joburg, although Sean thinks it is still balmy. It was a great way to see the country - we have travelled well over 4000 kilometres so far through so many different terrains that South Africa has - all beautiful in their own unique way. Getting to see many different places and faces in the country, and getting slightly jealous at the way of life for those on the Karoo farms!

We head off now to Kruger, looking to cover it from north to south in 7 days, and hopefully seeing some animals along the way too!! Lots of love. Team smuts xx