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Hiking the Cape of Good Hope
Last weekend was one of those STUNNING Cape Town weekends where you just want to be outside and spend as much time in nature as possible. Luckily we had organised to go hiking in the Cape of Good Hope area, about an hours drive from Cape Town city centre. Boy, how blessed are we to live in this amazing city with beautiful nature reserves right on our door step?? I just keep telling myself how fortunate I am to be living here.
The hiking trail takes you all around the Peninsula. The first day we choose to do the long stretch, which is about 20 km. It begins with a bit of up and down but most of the trail is quite flat and long stretches of soft sand do give you a good work out for you calves…For the first 3 hours we didn’t see a single soul. To me, to spend the day hiking like that is the absolute best. At ‘Hoek van Bobbejaan’ (= Baboon’s Corner), we sat down on the rocks and had our lunch break. We even did a little power snooze. There were a few fishermen as well but that was all. We arrived at the beautifully situated Erica cottage at around 16h15 so we hiked for about 7 hours, including 1 hour of breaks. The last bit up to the Cottage was the steepest part of the trail!! So much for that!! Our fellow hikers, who started with the 10 km stretch had already arrived and soon we were opening up bottles of wine, the braai was lit and we had a ‘lekker kuier aand’, topped of with serious amounts of chocolate. I always prefer to sleep outside when possible and my friend thought the same so we put our matresses outside and slept under the beautiful stars. However, the wind picked up terribly and we didn’t have a great sleep at all. The next day we started hiking again at 7am and thought we could ‘easily’ be finished by 11. Jeez, we were SO wrong! We struggled hey! WoW! One mountain after the other. The first 5 km were quite easily but then we had to conquer: Kanonkop, Paulsberg, Die Boer & Judas Peak. I was so exhausted I even fell once, luckily soft. We hardly took any breaks and were back at the main gate by noon, completely exhausted and looking forward to a cold Coke!!
Bit of history…
The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Bartholomew Dias and his crew in 1488. However, artifacts from middens found in the area show that the region was known to and utilised by man intermittently since the Early Stone Age period some 600.000 years ago.
Bit of Flora & Fauna..
The flora is typical of the southwestern Cape Floral Region, Fynbos (= fine bush), an area that has the highest level of species richness amongst the world’s temperate regions and which rivals even tropical rainforests in diversity. Just so you know this is paradise for botanists. Over 1080 species of plants have been recorded. Fynbos is nutrient poor and cannot support large numbers of game animals. Nevertheless we ran into some Eland, Bontebok, Ostriches and obviously Baboons. There are about 250 bird species in the 7750 hectare area.
For bookings: www.tmnp.co.za
Duchess of Wisbeach, new place to eat!
Only opened a few months ago so it was time to go and have a bite to eat to check it out. Reading on the web I found different reviews, from fantastic to horrible so let’s see what we have to say.
I like going to places that are not so obvious. So to go to a restaurant in a little back street in Sea point DOES somehow appeal to me. My friend Fiona went here already many times and she loves it.
The entrance & decor I really liked although there were a bit too many tables to my liking. The place was also quite noisy and dogs just DON’T belong in a restaurant. Sorry! It’s just not cute at all. Dogs & cats MUST stay out! (at the end of dinner we had another unwanted visitor: a massive cockroach, so happy we had finished already..).
The waitress was lovely, the food was outstanding (seared tuna with a salade Nicoise) and my friend had the Beef Fillet. We were happy with the food and enjoyed. I would def. come back here but probably not on a weekly basis. It’s kind of fun. Appreciated the service of the door man who walked us to our car.
The Promenade in Cape Town
A blog doesn’t always need to be about something hip, hot and happening, right? In my blog I just like to share all these special places in South Africa and mostly in Cape Town, where I like to spend time and that are special for me.
One of my favorite spots to go to is the promenade in Green point / Sea point. When I used to live in Vredehoek I would come here often for a walk, a fresh sea breeze and just enjoy the beauty. There are always people running, walking their dog, having a picnic or reading a book on one of the wooden benches. It’s a favorite Capetonian spot to relax, unwind and get fit! Let me see if I can find a picture in my files to add so you can see it for yourself.
oh yes, I did find quite a few. They’re all made quite early in the morning so they might be a bit dark. The promenade boasts a few landmarks as well. The public pool must be one of the most stunningly situated pools in the world. The Winchester Mansion is a hotel in typical Cape Dutch style, famous for the Sunday brunch jazz.
Meet the Capetonians – Coffeebean Routes
Yesterday evening I was invited to take part in an experience, organised by Coffeebean Routes in Cape Town. Coffeebean Routes proudly organises unique experiences, such as a Reggae tour or Story-telling tour in order for tourists to meet and interact with interesting characters in Cape Town and the suburbs.
Our guide Jacques first brought us to Alan and Jason, 2 rasta farians with a difference, if I may say so. Alan showed us his 6 level city garden with more than 200 indigenous plants and flowers. He told us how they have great parties in this garden with life music and delicious food prepared by Jason who is a very experienced chef. You can’t tell because he’s way too skinny, but once we had tasted his Madeira Cake we were convinced he makes all kinds of delicacies. According to Alan he never prepares the same dish so enjoy it because you might never get to taste it again. We could just imagine the garden full of candle light, people relaxing and looking over the beautiful city of Cape Town. Really an experience for tourists that would love to do something completely different and local. During the house parties, there will always be Capetonians joining from all walks of life and all areas of Cape Town.
After Alan and Jason in Higgovale we moved to Bridgetown were we met Mac McKenzie, a jazz musician. We were welcomed into his house and enjoyed a lovely Snoek (typical SA fish meal) dinner. Mac has strong bonds with Switzerland and Nici (who was with us) is Swiss so the 2 of them exchanged all kinds of stories in Swiss-German. Mac was almost estathic to meet someone from Switzerland. He also explained how concerts will more and more move into the suburbs of Cape Town because these areas become more and more vibrant. He wants to turn his garden into a concert area every couple of months. He also played us a couple of songs on his guitar after which we unfortunately had to leave again to go and visit our next artist in Guguletu, her name was Mzipho although I’m not sure if i spell her name correctly…WHAT an inspiration!! This 21 year old teacher lives 6 lives simultaneously. WoW!! I remember myself being 21 and just worrying about myself while this lady, yes a lady, cares for and looks after the entire community. She makes a huge difference in the lives of the youth in Gugulethu. She is involved in many different project to uplift this community, such as the Gugulethu Lifestyle Festival and a Youth Empowerment Program. Really a super cool lady who then also treated us to some drumming and a beautiful song. WoW! We all left very much inspired. Thanks Coffebean Routes for a very special experience. I hope to send you many guests!
is attending 3 day w
is attending 3 day workshop to be a better small business advisor.
is preparing trainin
is preparing training about Tourism Channel for tomorrow. Tempting to go to beach though….
Whale Trail, De Hoop Nature Reserve
The Whale Trail is one of the slackpacking trails in South Africa, running through a World Heritage Site, The Cape Floral Protected Region. It is one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done. Whales, Dolphins, precious fynbos, great bunch of hikers, fantastic accommodation and even 2 days of sunshine! What more to ask for?
I was so lucky because I was on the waitinglist for this hike. Sean had already made a booking about a year ago and 12 people signed up within a day. And I REALLY wanted to do this hike. 2 weeks before the start, Sean phoned me: I was in, if I still wanted. Of course! What a question! I was so excited and happy. Also nice distraction from whatever else was going on in my life. No cell phone for 5 days, I was looking forward to it.
Packed with enough food, wine and clothes for at least a month, we all arrived late afternoon at the first overnight accommodation at Potberg. Beautiful! The next 2 days we each hiked about 15 km and these were the toughest days of the trail. These days were fillend with sites of beautiful fynbos and flowers.
Beautiful flower of which I forgot the name...
From day 3 you start walking along the coastline and then obviously you spot the wonderful whales and we also saw many schools of dolpins. See here my favourite spot.
Braai area at Noetzie Beach
Lovely place to stay at Noetzie Beach
It’s really not a difficult trail as all your luggage is transported and you only need a day pack. We soon learned though that it was quite a good idea to keep some ‘essentials’ in your day pack because the boxes would often arrive much later than us. Especially the day when we were soaking wet from the rain and we all had to warm up by the fire, no clean clothes, no sleeping bag…Day 3 and 4 we had to suffer quite a bit from the rain and wind. Best was just to keep walking not to get cold. We didn’t even sit down for lunch.
See the whales...
During Whale Season (june – november) this trail is booked out about a year in advance. It’s about ZAR 1700 per person including transportation of your luggage. You can either make a booking for 6 or 12 but I would recommend to make a booking for 12 otherwise you’ll need to share rooms, kitchen etc. with another group which is not very convenient.
The last 2 days you’ll walk along beautiful rock pools. I brought my snorkling gear but unfortunately the weather was not so great that we could snorkle. We might come back in Feb and just come to relax and chill and enjoy the warm water.
What a beautiful day
What a beautiful day in Cape Town! Walked from Camps Bay to Waterfront and then over Kloofnek, down The Glenn back to Camps Bay. GREAT!
just back from 5 day
just back from 5 days hiking in De Hoop Nature Reserve, wonderful whales, beautiful dolphins, great company, feeling ALIVE!!
